Silent Service
Silent Service came out for the NES in the late 80s. It’s a
submarine simulation that – admittedly – never ranked among
the best games of the era, but it’s good for wasting an hour or
two of your time and, for those interested in the genre, it’s
wasn’t too bad.
There are three scenarios that can be played: Torpedo/Gun Practice,
Convoy Practice, and War Patrols. In Torpedo/Gun Practice, you
sink four stationary, unarmed ships. In Convoy Practice, you
choose from six historical convoy actions. In War Patrol, you
choose from five historical submarines and sink as many ships
as possible.
There are seven difficulty options; by toggling more options on,
the tonnage you sink gets multiplied by a greater number when
calculating your final rank.
VIEWS:
Press Select to choose from among the five views:
1. Quartermaster’s Log – Tells you what you’ve sunk.
2. View Gauges – Mostly useless, but it tells you how much of
your arsenal is left.
3. Check Damage – Less useless, it will tell you if you have a
leakage problem, or if any of your equipment is damaged.
4. Check maps – Tells you where you are, as well as the enemy.
It’s also good for telling you exactly how many ships are
in the immediate area, which can be difficult in periscope
view if there’s a big mass. The attack plot is most useful
when positioning for attack with an aft torpedo.
5. Use Periscope – the bread and butter view. It won’t be
available when you’re at a depth greater than 42, or when
you’re submerged at night (though there’s a trick with
this one). To turn the periscope (or binoculars) around,
press and hold A on the handles of the periscope (or the
“straps” of the binoculars), either right or left.
This will allow you to use your aft torpedos.
When you have a ship lined up in your sights, click on
the Target ID space; it will tell you what kind of ship it
is as well as its tonnage. To select a view, move the
cursor arrow over the corresponding area and press A. To
resign (in convoy actions), or get back to the war patrol
map, move the cursor to the down and left.
CONTROLS:
In all but the Quartermaster’s log, you can control the sub:
1. Speed – On the surface, the four speeds will get you
4,10,15, 20 [ft] per second. Under water, you get half.
Going in reverse will cut it in half again.
2. Rudder and Dive planes – Up, Down, Left, Right. Going in
reverse flips the L/R controls (like a normal sub).
Interestingly, you can turn the sub even if you’re
completely still.
3. Deck gun and torpedo – Move the cursor arrow over the
armament you want to fire and press A.
4. Periscope up or down – Keep it up all the time. I can’t
think of any advantage to having it down (except that
you might look like a dork when you’re on the surface).
In fact, the only thing I thing this control is really
seful for is after an aft torpedo attack; when in the
view-choosing screen, toggle it down, then back up. When
you go to periscope view it’ll reset to the direction
you’re heading in.
5. Time control – Clicking on F will speed up time by 2, 4,
or 8 times. Clicking N will set it back to normal.
DIFFICULTY SETTINGS
The difficulty settings are a little different than in other games.
By toggling any of the seven difficulty options, the overall
difficulty rating goes up. They are:
1. [Un]Limited Visibility – With limited visibility, ships will
appear as periodically flashing blips on your tactical
display map. With unlimited, you’ll see the ships on
your radar continuously.
2. [No] Convoy Zig-Zags – When on, ships will try to avoid you.
3. [No] Dud Torpedos – When on, some (maybe 10%?) of your
torpedos will fail to detonate on impact.
4. Repairs Under Fire/Port Repairs Only – More relevant in the
War Patrol scenario, it allows your engineers to fix damage.
With Port Repairs Only, any equipment damage (sonar, deck
gun, etc.) affects you for the rest of the tour.
5. Expert/Standard Destroyers – I’m not sure exactly what this
is. Supposedly, expert destroyers are tougher, but I don’t
see how.
6. Close convoys/Convoy search – with close convoys, you’ll
start battles within sight of a convoy. With convoy
search, things are ever so slightly more difficult – you’ll
have to continue on the heading you’re given to find the enemy.
7. Rank – either Midshipman, Lieutenant, Commander, or Captain.
The higher the rank, the greater the multiplier, but things
don’t really seem all that much more difficult.
So if you turn them all on and select Captain, that’s difficulty
level nine. If you turn them all off and select Midshipman, that’s
level one. Personally, I say crank them up. The various settings
don’t really change things much. Plus, the real limiting factor
to how much tonnage you can sink is your armament, and in every case
you get 14 forward torpedos, 10 aft torpedos, and 80 deck gun shells.
CONVOY ACTIONS
Here you can try out your combat tactics:
1. Plunder in the Inland Sea. Day submerged attack. You go up
against a Kai Bokan (1kt) and a Cargo Ship (4kt). My advice:
stay submerged, and play chicken with the Kai Bokan. As it
gets within 1000 [feet?], hit it with two torpedos. After
it sinks, surface and sink the Cargo ship.
2. Wahoo v. Convoy. Day surface attack. You start within
striking range of a cargo ship (~4kt), a troop ship (10+kt),
and two tankers (7 & 6 kt). A short while later, a destroyer
will pop up out of the north. My advice: submerge and wait
for the destoyer. Fire on it as it comes within 1000 [feet]
with your aft torpedos. Then surface and take out the four
ships.
3. Hammerhead at Borneo. Night raider attack. You start within
striking range of a kai bokan (750t), a tanker (4kt), and
three cargo ships (2,4+, and 5+kt). Put the scope up, then
submerge. Like in Patrol #1, sink the kai bokan first, then
go after the others. Note: because it’s night, and
therefore “too dark” to use the periscope, the game won’t
let you move to that view if you’re submerged. However, if
you submerge after you put the scope up in the Periscope
View, the game won’t kick you out of the “bridge” view until
you’re more than 42 [ft] below.
4. Sea Raven at Toagel Mlingui. End around attack. Two kai
bokans (1250t & 1500t) come toward you from the northwest.
Take out the one on the port side first, then the other.
Then chase down the three cargo ships (~3kt each) to the north.
5. Tautog in the Sea of Japan. Night visual attack. It’s not
the Sea of Japan – it’s the Pacific coast of Japan. Take a
heading east and speed up to overtake the attack ships. A
kai bokan (750t) will come after you. Sink it, then go the
10,000 [ft] north and take care of the troop ship (7+kt) and
three tankers (6+ kt each).
6. Grayback in the China Sea. Submerged radar attack. This
one’s pretty tricky because you have two destroyers and a kai
bokan coming after you immediately after you start. As soon
as the battle starts, throw the engine into reverse, full
power. Surface from 42 to 20. Rudder right so you spin
around to the left (because you’re going in reverse). Fire
two or three two torpedos at the destoyer the furthest to
your left when it pulls within 1000 [ft]. If it doesn’t
sink, that’s OK – as long as you’re able to back away from it.
Rudder left (so you wheel to the right). Fire two more at
the second destroyer. Save one last torpedo for the kai
bokan. Surface and take out the warships, then the troop
ship (7.5+kt) and the tanker (4.5+kt).
WAR PATROLS:
There are five War Patrols, but among them the only difference is
the starting location. In all cases, the trick with war patrols is
to make the most out of your weaponry. I recommend saving your bow
torpedos for destroyers (two for each) and kai bokan (one + a few
deck gun shots). Use your aft torpedos and deck gun shells on the
merchant ships.
You start off with nearly 60 days of fuel. Venture out into the
unknown, and when the screen flashes red with the”Enemy Sighted”
warning, press A to enter the tactical map. Proceed with
caution, as you won’t know how many ships there will be or their
make-up. In any case, it won’t be any more difficult than the
above-described tactical actions.
Using the aft torpedos is kind of tricky. Surface and move at
flank speed to approach the vessel. Using the map on “Attack Plot”
level, try to get into this position (assuming both are heading due
north):
You> /\
/ \
\ /
\/
/\ < Enemy ship
/ \
\ /
\/
Ships will try to turn away from you, but you can go more than
twice as fast, so with patience it’s possible. When you’re in
position, kill the engines and turn left. Spin the binoculars
all the way behind you. Once the enemy ship is perpendicular
to yours, fire a torpedo, and then finish off the ship with the
deck gun.
Once your out of ammo, head back to one of the bases. You can’t
refuel or reload, so just press A and finish the game.
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I don’t care about copyrighting this. Geez, the games almost twenty
years old, so who even plays it any more? Use this any way you want.
Just be nice and give me credit as your source if you happen to use
it somewhere else.
That about does it for the walkthrough. Happy hunting!
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