688 Attack Sub

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs

GAME DESIGNER:John W. Ratcliff
GAME DEVELOPER:Electronic Arts
GAME PUBLISHER:Electronic Arts
Copyright 1989, John Ratcliff

688 Attack Sub is a classic modern submarine simulation which puts you in command of either the American Los Angeles or the Soviet Alfa class nuclear-powered submarines. Most of the systems you would expect such as sonar and periscope are featured and nicely presented in VGA. The game offers ten missions for both the Soviet and American side in a Cold War scenario, that grows progressively hotter. Nice to see that the two sides’ submarines have their own graphic sets in the game, even with some pseudo-cyrillic labels on the Russian side.

Overall, 688 Attack Sub is an interesting early subsim and certainly a classic in the genre– arguably the best subsim for PC until Dynamix’ Aces of The Deep years later. Especially the modem-play option was outstanding for its time. Be sure to download the manual, although the game is well laid-out and can be controlled completly with the mouse.

Note: This is the full game and not the cut-down “Maxell” version found on some abandonware sites.