Here are the instructions I know about:
KNOWN BUGS -- Jim Atkins
Bug: SH has locked up on me several times if I go to the chart screen while at the periscope screen with the ship ID book pulled up. I've never locked it up any other way. This bug cost me a shot at the Yamato and a number of other ships. It's hard sometimes to remember to change back to the gauges before leaving the periscope screen when you're closing a ship and every second counts...
Bug: If you select a torpedo on the torpedo screen and then go to another screen, when you come back to the torpedo screen, the torpedo you selected will have disappeared. (First noted by Bram Otto on the Silent Hunter message board.)
Bug: If you move a torpedo out of the tubes with "Auto-Load Torpedoes" selected, the tube will reload properly, but the torpedo you took out will never properly unload. It will remained grayed out for the remainder of the patrol and you won't be able to use it. To prevent this, make sure you de-select "Auto-Load Torpedoes" in the options screen.
Possible bug: If you save a game in career mode when there is fog, when you load that saved game, the fog will be gone. This has happened to me several times. If you are on the surface near a convoy depending on the fog to keep you hidden, this bug can get you detected and killed.
TIPS
Read all the way down the page
WIN XP TIPS
CD-ROM:
You might experience problems if you own a multiple CD-ROM changer. If you do own a multiple CD-ROM drive and you are experiencing problems, try disabling all of the drives but one, or fill all the drive slots with CDs.
Video:
If you have run the UVCONFIG program and are running the game with the /V (SH /V), you might not get some of the cinematic sequences in the game, including the intro. If you run the game with this /V switch and only get a blank, black screen, you'll need to hit the <esc> key a few times until you're brought into the main menu of the game.
SIS GRAPHICS CARD ISSUES -- Silent Hunter is only displayed on part of the screen
If you have a computer with the SIS 530/5595 or the SiS620/5595 graphics card (or possibly other SIS cards), you may see Silent Hunter on half or less of the screen. The solution is to go to SiS website on their Drivers Page and look for SiSVBE 0.83. The Sis 530 only supports VGA. One of SH's game requirements is 1 meg of SVGA. The SiSVBE will change the VGA graphics to SVGA. This is how you do it. Download the sisvbe to a folder on your C-drive. Run the setup for the SISVBE. Then you have to put a line in your autoexex.bat calling the location of the sisvbe and write install at the end so every time you boot your computer up, the sisvbe driver is up and running. The line in my autoexec.bat looks like this "C:\SISVESA\SISVBE.EXE /INSTALL" Ever since I've done this I've had no problems running SH on my computer. I hope this is of help
Special thanks to Jeff for this detailed tip.
DOWNLOAD SiS VBE 0.83 DRIVER (7KB)
Make sure the CD-ROM drive letter in the SHpath.ini file is correct for your system. Look in the Silent folder for the Silent Hunter SHpath.ini file.
Find the line
BUD =d:\SH\BUD\
the drive letter of your CD-ROM goes here. In this case it is d:
Win 98: What worked for me by Neal Stevens
I have a Gateway 500 MHz with a SoundBlaster Audio 64PCID and Win 98. I installed the v1.31 Commander's Edition and it works normally. Let me give you the steps that worked for me.
1. Install the game using the full or maximum install option.
2. Go through the digital audio setup. The install was successful on my system.
3. When the install is complete, turn the Num Lock off. This is the key just above the 7 on the keypad.
4. When you're ready to play, click Start -- Programs -- MS Dos Prompt
5. You should see a MS Dos window with a black background. The text should read C:\Windows>
6. Type cd..
that is cd and two periods, no spaces. Hit ENTER
7.Now you should see C:\>
8.Type cd silent
that is cd silent with a space between cd and silent Hit ENTER
9. Now you should see C:\SILENT>
10. Type sh /v
that is sh /v with a space between the sh and /v. Make sure you use the slash / next to the shift key.
Hit ENTER
The game starts. I see the cinematic scenes, complete with sound. I have tried skipping the /v and it still works. The only thing that seems off is sometimes the voices have a slight warble to them. Maybe it's rough seas.
Important! Turn off the number lock key before starting Silent Hunter.
You may find this key command useful: ALT O brings up the game menu.
You can play SH without the CD with the Commander's Edition. The file you want is in the BUD folder(10.smk). First you must do a maximum install and then copy either the 10.smk or the BUD folder to the Silent folder on your C drive. Depending on your hard drive space you can copy the entire BUD folder to your Silent folder (the BUD folder contains the "Bud Gruner" interviews) in the game. All you really have to do is copy the 10.smk file to your Silent folder, then go to the SHpath.ini file:
DATA =DATA\
ART =ART\
SFX =SFX\
SPEECH =SPEECH\
CINES =CINES\
SCEN =SCEN\
BUD =d:\SH\BUD\
SAVE =SAVE\
change the line the reads BUD=D:\SH\BUD\
to BUD=C:\SILENT\BUD
DATA =DATA\
ART =ART\
SFX =SFX\
SPEECH =SPEECH\
CINES =CINES\
SCEN =SCEN\
BUD=C:\SILENT\BUD
SAVE =SAVE\
and that should do the trick. Just as you see it, no spaces like the other lines. If that doesn't work, try changing it to
BUD=C:\SILENT\
You may try the line without the \ after SILENT if the first try doesn't produce results.
Win XP: I have used that in conjunction with DOSBOX.
1. Change the SHpath.ini file as stated above
2. Start the DOSBOX app
3. According to DOSBOX, you have to "mount" the C: drive. I know, that sound funky only the way a geek can make it sound. To mount it, type:
MOUNT C C:\SILENT\
That is: MOUNT space C space C:\SILENT\
4. Then type C:
You should see the Z: prompt change to a C: prompt. If you now type DIR, you can see the files, including the game executable, SH
5. Type SH and the game should begin.
If you are playing Silent Hunter on a Win 98 machine with 64 Meg of Ram and you may find a problem with any mission North or South of Japan. These missions cause the game to crash. Try this, go to your Sh Exe and right click on it, then left click on properties, then go to the tab marked Screen. There is a drop down box called Inital size. If it is set to default, reset it to either 25, 43, or 50 lines and hit Apply then Ok. Since I've done this Silent Hunter has played smooth as silk.
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Patching non-English versions of Silent Hunter
by Pascal Mauron, Switzerland
Pascal has found that in order to patch non-English versions of Silent Hunter to 1.3, the file 10.smk must be the same size as the English version. As Pascal explains, "The problem is, sh.exe checks the properties of the SH\BUD\10.SMK file on the CD, and the size of the English version is different (same images, but other voice). Then it complaints about a wrong CD. Don't ask me why this check is made, because the file is not used at this place! To lure the patched sh.exe file, you have to change the size of the 10.SMK file to the size of the English version, which is 17,028,'772 bytes (Thanks to Dealey Harder). You can do it by adding extra lines of code with a hex editor."
In answer to a request by SUBSIM Review, Pascal has whipped up a neat guide which will modify help you tweak the 10.smk file and get patched up to v1.31.
For other languages, french.txt has to be modified, by adding or subtracting characters until you have exactly 1/2 the difference between your original 10.smk file and the English version (17,028,'772 bytes). You need to obtain a file which has EXACTLY 17,028,772 bytes. Then it works! More info in the french readme file.
DOWNLOAD THE FRENCH.BAT FILE
Read the non-English Readme file
SILENT HUNTER BOOT DISK
Don't give up the ship trying to get Silent Hunter to run until you've tried this utility. Also has a Boot Disk for Great Naval Battles: North Atlantic and Great Naval Battles 2-5. It works great in most cases. Instructions included.
DOWNLOAD the Silent Hunter/GNB Boot Disk
Silent Hunter is a DOS game and may require a boot disk to run.
More info about boot disks, what they are, how they work, and steps in creating one:
BOOT DISK TUTORIAL
Running Silent Hunter on newer operating systems
SH and Windows 98:
George Estill's report: Silent Hunter Commander, ver 1.31. To install SH, I selected MS/DOS in programs and loaded SH per instructions. There were no error messages and it has run faultlessly ever since. I have played the equivalent of 30 patrols without one single crash. The opening movie runs and looks good. The interview movies also run with sound. SH will not start automatically if I put the CD in the drive, but it will run in Win98 if I go to the C:\ silent directory in Windows Explorer and double click on sh.exe.
In Win 98 you may not get the opening movie. Actually, if you get the game to run minus the opening cinematics in Win 98, you are okay. Many people running Win 98 report the not seeing the opening movie, just a black screen. Hit the space bar 4 or 5 times and the game menu should come up. You are not missing anything--for as good a sim SH is, the opening movie is short and weak, not worth worrying about at all.
SH and WinMe
Lots of people have reported problems with SH and WinMe (myself included). After several days of trying and researching, I've found the solution (for most problems, anyway). If you have trouble running SH under WinMe as installed by the CD - try this.
You need to find a copy of v1 and the v1.3 and v1.31 patches from SubSim. Install them all in order. Ensure your CD is in the drive (edit the shpath.ini to correctly reflect the location of \sh\bud if necessary) and away you go! For some logic-defying reason, patching to v1.31 will let the game run properly (including in-game sound) but starting off with 1.31 won't. Must be a flaw in the SH.exe on the CD or in it's setup. BTW: If you would like the in-game speech, simply copy the \speech directory to your Silent Hunter directory and the game will use speech. No mods necessary. -- Submitted by Dean Robb
SH and XP -
The point at which SH crashes is at the opening intro cines - if you manage to bypass that, SH will run quite well without any tweaks other than running it in Win95 compatibility mode. And the secret to bypass the intro scenes is simply by deleting the three relevant files in the cines directory - i.e. copyr.smk, logo444.smk and shin.smk. (This of course assumes you have the done a full install with all the cines files on the HD.) Submitted by Sabri Zain, Malaysia
If that procedure does not work for you, check out Don Well's excellent procedure:
Installation and Operation of Silent Hunter I
under Windows XP (SP1)
Ed Howards detailed instrucitons for SP1 XP...
http://www.subsowespac.org/sh_xp/silent_hunterxp.shtml
