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Games about sailing ships

All Acting Regiment

00:35 / 10.09.06

Have there ever been any games about sailing ships? By which I mean, any size or class. Men of War! Yachts would do too. Or even Ships of the Line! Are there any games where I could play at being Seaman Staines, or make Rudejoke the cabin boy walk the plank?

The Strobe

08:23 / 10.09.06

Well, not entirely about sailing ships, but...

Pirates!, obviously.

Also: lots of U-boat simulators. Silent Hunter III is reportedly outstanding.

Unfortunately, not really any sailing simulators, mainly because a) it's quite hard to simulate; b) it's more boring than a flight sim when nothing's happening; c) most things you do in sailing depend not upon instrumentation, but feeling things on the back of your neck - especially in the 18th Century.

Which is a shame. But Pirates! is still great, in all its forms over the years.

+am

09:22 / 10.09.06

I came across my father playing this quite recently. He seemed to like it, and he loves that real-life sailing! Its all very modern and flashy, and certainly not pirate-tastic. But if its sailing yr after then sailing you shall get. You can download a demo, anyways.

All Acting Regiment

18:40 / 10.09.06

These all look interessant. Hmm...

pear

10:23 / 11.09.06

There was Age of Sail on the PC 10 years ago, which was quite sparse, but it had the basics - You could vary the amount of sail, set cannons to fire at the rigging or into the ship etc. Set fields of fire - and you worked your way up from 8 gun sloops to ships of the line and what-not.

I recall having a bit of fun with it at the time, but the interface was a bit clunky, and I'd be chasing French frigates for ages and ages before I got anywhere near cannon range.

There was an Age of Sail II which looks far more advanced, but I've never played it, so couldn't say whether it was any good or not

(I must dig the first one out and have another go at it)

Spatula Clarke

17:38 / 11.09.06

Skies of Arcadia - possibly my favourite trad Japanese RPG evah - had sailing ships. And pirates. And hidden treasure, giant whales, desert islands, the bones of castaways, heroic rogues, eye patches, derring do, cannons...

Admittedly, it didn't feature any water, having everything floating around in the sky instead. But if you can ignore that minor detail...

All Acting Regiment

18:47 / 11.09.06

Ooo. I never knew...

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