Silent Service

Silent Service is a World War II American submarine simulator from MicroProse that brings the tense atmosphere of underwater combat in the Pacific to the Atari 8-bit. The player commands a Gato- or Balao-class submarine, tasked with hunting Japan's merchant and warships, planning torpedo attacks, monitoring fuel and torpedo stocks, and evading patrol boats and depth charges from enemy escorts. The game offers both training missions for practicing individual skills and long open-sea campaigns where success hinges on correctly judging a target's speed, course, and distance through the periscope. There is also an optional station-by-station crew management mode, letting players switch between command, sonar, torpedo room, and engine room depending on how detailed an experience they want.

On the eight-bit Atari, the game uses simple vector and raster graphics that simulate the periscope view, the operational area map, and an external view of the sea with enemy ships. Controls cover setting dive depth, engine speed, and torpedo firing angle, which combined with limited supplies creates the tension typical of MicroProse's war simulators. The audio is sparse, but the sonar pings and depth-charge explosions reinforce the sense of danger lurking above the waterline. The game also lets the submarine be sunk or destroyed if the player attacks recklessly, so caution matters just as much as aggression.

At release, Silent Service was among the most acclaimed simulators of its kind and cemented MicroProse's reputation as a specialist in credible military simulations. Unlike arcade war games, it emphasized tactics and patience, setting it apart from the competition and foreshadowing the even more elaborate submarine simulators that would follow on more powerful platforms. It remains an interesting example of how a simulator with a genuine sense of submarine command could be built even on modest hardware, though today's player will likely appreciate its historical value more than its pace.

Why play it: For fans of tactical war simulations who value patient submarine command over arcade action — at the cost of a slower pace than today's games.