Computer Harpoon would have to wait for technology to catch up to its complexity.Īlong with Clancy, another early fan of Bond’s Harpoon was Don Gilman. In 1982, he talked with Muse Software, but they decided the game would be too demanding for the current Apple II or Commodore 64 computers. Soon after, Bond became an author too, producing around two dozen military thrillers and non-fiction books between 19.īond was eager to turn Harpoon into a computer-based simulation. Clancy was so thankful for Bond’s contribution he referred to him as the book’s co-author. Tom Clancy and Larry Bond became friends, and Bond’s iteration of a macro-wargame concept became the basis for the naval action in Clancy’s second book Red Storm Rising, published in 1986. Insurance agent turned author, Tom Clancy, used Harpoon as a primary source for his first book, The Hunt for Red October, published in 1984. Despite its complexity, Harpoon made modern naval warfare approachable. The game comes with a rule book and reference tables with data on naval vessels, aircraft, submarines, and associated sensors and weapons. The players use specialized booklets to keep up with the action.
Harpoon was updated again when Class of Arms Games published Harpoon 4 in 1996, then Bond and co-designer Chris Carlson formed Admiralty Trilogy Group and released Harpoon V in 2020.īond’s tabletop game is played with miniature ships or cardboard counters and ten-sided and six-sided dice. Game Designer’s Workshop (GDW) published the Harpoon Third Edition in 1987. Bond updated the ruleset for Harpoon II in 1983. Once a private citizen, Bond contacted Adventure Games, Inc., and they printed 2,000 copies of Harpoon in April 1981. Bond drafted the initial game in a week, and he and his crewmates tested the game over the final two years of his duty aboard the McKean. Using two unclassified sources, Combat Fleets of the World and Jane’s All the World’s Ships, Bond developed his own rules and calculations for Harpoon. Bond decided he could make a better all-purpose air, surface, and submarine simulation accessible to the general public. He contacted NAVTAG’s designer, Neil Byrne, and learned the unclear rules were purposeful, so players could improvise.
But Bond was frustrated by NAVTAG’s vague rules.
Bond, a navy veteran, was exposed to the classified Naval Tactical Game (NAVTAG) while serving aboard the destroyer, U.S.S. Harpoon is a naval strategy software simulation adapted from Larry Bond’s paper-based tactical miniatures game.
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