SUBSIM is an online publication founded by Neal Stevens in Jan. 1997 that focuses on naval and submarine

computer game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...

reviews, articles, and news. Subsim is short for

Submarine simulator A submarine simulator is usually a computer game in which the player commands a submarine. The usual form of the game is to go on a series of missions, each of which features a number of encounters where the goal is to sink surface ships and t ...

. Subsim's forums have been online since 1999, with archives back to 2001. Membership totals were 117,023 at August 2016, with approximately 7700 active members daily. International meets have been held in London, Houston, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Groton, Germany, and Tokyo. Subsim is the media outlet for game publishers that feature naval content, a resource for military strategists, as well as a source of editorial comment on the state of PC computer simulations and games. Subsim members have been consultants and testers for game such as Enigma: Rising Tide, Silent Hunter II, Silent Hunter III, Dangerous Waters, Sub Command, Fleet Command, Destroyer Command, among others. Shortly after the release of the ill-fated Silent Hunter II,

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include ''Assassin's Creed'', '' Far Cry'', ...

agreed to provide Subsim with the game

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comment (computer programming), comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a Computer program, p ...

to replace the rTime multiplayer engine with

DirectPlay DirectPlay is part of Microsoft's DirectX API. It is a network communication library intended for computer game development, although it can be used for other purposes. DirectPlay is a high-level software interface between applications and commu ...

. Subsim members raised $10,000 to pay a programmer to make the improvements.

Significant events

1998 - Subsim gets their first industry interview: Mike Jones of

Aces of the Deep ''Aces of the Deep'' is a World War II submarine simulator game developed by Dynamix for MS-DOS in 1994. The game was re-released by Sierra On-Line for Windows in 1995 as ''Command: Aces of the Deep''. ''Aces of the Deep'' was the last install ...

answers a series of questions about his groundbreaking U-boat sim. Also, the Subsim ''Fix My 688(I) Campaign'' begins, designed to urge EA/Sonalysts into producing a no-cheat

patch Patch or Patches may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Patch Johnson, a fictional character from ''Days of Our Lives'' * Patch (''My Little Pony''), a toy * "Patches" (Dickey Lee song), 1962 * "Patches" (Chairmen of the Board song ...

for Jane's 688(I). 2002 - Subsim works with

producer Carl Norman to initiate a broad reaching mod that will convert Silent Hunter II and Destroyer Command from the original MP engine (rTime) to Microsoft DirectPlay. The mod is deemed Projekt Messerwetzer (messerwetzer (ms-r-vt-zr-) n. erman- A

craft A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pr ...

sman who sharpens old knives.) To avoid legal constraints, ''Projekt Messerwetzer'' is funded purely by donations and will be

free Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to procur ...

to all. Subsim donates $1000 and Subsim players eventually raise $10,000 for the project. Multiplayer was significantly improved with this

unofficial patch An unofficial patch is a patch for a piece of software, created by a third party such as a user community without the involvement of the original developer. Similar to an ordinary patch, it alleviates bugs or shortcomings. Unofficial patches do ...

. 2003 - Subsim and Sub Club members meeting in London for the first Intercontinental Meeting. 2004 - Subsim Editor Neal Stevens attends the 2004 E3 convention in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

. First looks at Sid Meier's Pirates,

Akella Akella (russian: Акелла) was a Russian software company specializing in the development, publishing and distribution of video games and multimedia products. The founders of Akella met in 1993 and decided to start a company together, an ...

PT Boats A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the war ...

, and Ubisoft's Silent Hunter III reveal that 2005 will be a very good year for subsim players. 2006 - Neal Stevens of Subsim is invited aboard the new nuclear submarine USS Texas for a media tour. The Sept. 9 commissioning ceremony drew than 10,000 guests and visitors to

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Gal ...

, including ship sponsor First Lady

Laura Bush Laura Lane Welch Bush (''née'' Welch; born November 4, 1946) is an American teacher, librarian, memoirist and author who was First Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009. Bush previously served as First Lady of Texas from 1995 to 2000. ...

, Sens.

Kay Bailey Hutchison Kay Bailey Hutchison (born Kathryn Ann Bailey; July 22, 1943) is an American attorney, television correspondent, politician, diplomat, and was the 22nd United States Permanent Representative to NATO from 2017 until 2021. A member of the Republi ...

and

John Cornyn John Cornyn III ( ; born February 2, 1952) is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Texas, a seat he has held since 2002. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the Senate majority whip fo ...

. 2007 - Subsim publishes the 2007 Submarine Almanac, celebrating 10 years on the web with a flotilla of stories, articles, and art from naval historians, subsim players, game developers, and Navy men. Foreword by Bestselling Author Joe Buff. Abraham Zeegers of

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, moderator and host of the 2005 Subsim meet, is found dead in his Amsterdam apartment, less than one week after he had testified at the

Willem Holleeder Willem Frederik Holleeder (born 29 May 1958) is a Dutch criminal. He is nicknamed ''De Neus'' (''The Nose'') because of the size of his nose. In 1983, Holleeder was sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment for his involvement in the kidnapping of ...

trial. Dutch media discovered that although Abraham was a state witness in protective custody, he had a secret identity and was prominent in the Subsim forums. 2008 - Subsim's server is knocked offline by a

transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...

explosion and fire at

The Planet Internet Services The Planet was a privately held dedicated server company based in Texas. In May 2006, the company merged with Everyone's Internet, which used the EV1 Servers brand. In 2010, they merged with SoftLayer. All services provided by both companies ...

(ex. EV1 & Rackshack) Houston datacenter. At first, the Planet was able to restore power after two days but the datacenter's

backup generator An emergency power system is an independent source of electrical power that supports important electrical systems on loss of normal power supply. A standby power system may include a standby generator, batteries and other apparatus. Emergency p ...

failed, and the website was down two more days. 2009 - Subsim hosts their fifth international meeting in

Copenhagen, Denmark Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ...

. Members shuttle to

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland pe ...

, Germany to tour , the only remaining Type VII

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...

and conduct dives onboard Peter Madsen's 18.2m (approx.) homebuilt submarine, UC3 Nautilus. 2010 - Subsim breaks the 50,000 member mark. The annual April Fools' Day prank causes a furor. 2016 - Swedish submarine game HMS Marulken is picked up as Subsim's first game production: Wolfpack. 2019 - Subsim and Usurpator release Wolfpack on Steam. 2022 - Subsim celebrates 25 years on the web.

Notes

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Significant events

Notes

External links