Sub Battle Simulator

Sub Battle Simulator is a submarine combat simulation produced by Epyx that came out on the Commodore 64 in 1987 and puts the player in the role of the captain of an American submarine in the Pacific during World War II. The goal is to head out on patrols, seek out Japanese convoys and warships, and attack them with torpedoes, all while having to account for limited supplies, hull damage, and the risk of a counterattack by depth charges that can cut a patrol short.

The game combines a tactical map view, where the player plans position and heading, with a periscope view for targeting, and also offers simpler arcade-style combat for players who don't want to deal with the full complexity of real submarine tactics. The execution on the C64 was clear – the depth, speed, and damage indicators are easy to read, and despite the hardware limitations the game manages to convey the tension of waiting for the right moment to fire a torpedo, when the smallest error in judging distance can come back to bite you. The alternation between silence while submerged and the sudden commotion of combat gives the game a pleasant pace, and the player also has to decide when to surface the submarine and risk detection in exchange for faster movement and a better view of the surrounding sea.

Sub Battle Simulator fits into the broader wave of submarine and naval simulations of the 1980s, and on eight-bit computers it ranked among the solidly made representatives of the genre, even though it never achieved the popularity of the later Silent Service. Today it's mainly the clarity and reasonably balanced mix of strategy and action that stand out, making the game playable even without deep knowledge of real World War II submarine tactics and without having to study the extensive manuals that were quite common with more complex computer simulations of the time and that often put off less experienced newcomers to the genre.

Why play: For players craving World War II submarine tactics without having to study a thick manual – a clear, well-balanced mix of strategy and action, playable even without deep knowledge of the genre.