Older Versions of Steel Panthers

[lukerduker123]

Howdy! Recently I've found myself with a bug where I like to go through older versions of Steel Panthers and compare the changes made over the years. The only problem is I only have V16, V10, and V6. Anyone have V5 or older sitting on their desk somewhere? I'd love to see the Chinese MBT3000 before it was removed / changed, along with other changes and speculation from the pre-2010 days.

[Wdll]

I have the 2005 version I bought from here, full version/CD, which I don't remember which version it is, but for obvious reasons I can't share.
As for patches, I have 6, 7, 8, 11, 11.01, 10b, 10 to 14.

[lukerduker123]

Real interesting! Maybe instead of throwing the full patch up you can throw me the OOBs and graphics files? It's a very 'ghetto' solution but one that wouldn't be breaking the rules, I reckon.

[lukerduker123]

I hate to bump this old post but I found something REAL interesting. In the folder there's a text document detailing the new (at the time) LZ X-ray campaign. Cracking it open gives you, wait for it, a link to patch for version 2. This is a great find, double-so since these are version I never got to enjoy since I hopped in around version 4 or so.

Looking over it, it's impressive to see what we thought would be cutting edge from the distant year 2006 onward. Of note, the F-35 is around 2016 in 2.0, which is good guessing. The future helicopter program and the XM-8 for the marines are dead as a door-nail, which I find funny, while the Leopard 2A6 is considered a prototype. Also, for the first time in a long time, no Altay!

Thanks for the work over all these years, and here's to a good 2023.

[mkr8683]

https://www.alternatewars.com/Games/SP/SPanthers.htm

[DRG]

A correction

Around early to mid 1998, the SPCAMO Workshop was born almost by accident.

Close..... but not quite.

The very first steps that became SP2WW2 started in early January 1998. The discussions with Piero occurred as the result of PBEM games we played in late 1997 but for sure the first steps toward SP2WW2 began very, very close to exactly a quarter century ago today

Those steps were the investigation of how the unit icon numbers corresponded to their location in the SHP files and if anyone has ever looked at how those SP2 SHP files looked like will understand how much "fun" that was.

It was that work that led to the SP2 Icons being camo'd. As I figured out the correlation between the Icon number and their locations in the SHP files using Fred Chalands SHPEDIT the existing modern SSI icons were redone and their locations recorded so that they could be replaced with WW2 icons for what would become SP2WW2. The icon locations had to be mapped first otherwise the entire project would not have happened.

A side benefit of the SP2 Icon project was learning how the 256 colour game palette interacted to get the effects I wanted on the icons for the main project that was SP2WW2 though over time MUCH has changed from the early days and some of that comes from modifying the main game palette

Without SHPEDIT there would have been NO SP mods by anyone. It was the KEY program that allowed all of what has transpired in the last 25 years to happen.

By Mid 1998 the mapping had been done and Andy was convinced to contribute his knowledge of OOB's and how the OOB's were put together using the program he developed to edit OOB's..... MOBHACK. Which is the second key component that allowed SP modding

And strange as it may sound it was the first "original" Icon I built that got him interested and that was a lowly Horse and wagon that another member of the early team had sent to him as an example. That Icon still exists (#304) and was the only wagon icon for about the first 5 years and has largely been replaced but is still used unchanged in 10 of the SPww2 OOBs. There is a slightly modified version of that icon is in MBT as 859 which just had some cargo added.

[DRG]

There is an error in the link to a question on these forums that I made when I wrote it and I have just corrected it

The original quote was....

in the Fall of 1998 I started PBEMing SP2 with a guy in Italy named Piero Angeli .......

That should have read ...."in the Fall of 1997"

There is NO WAY SP2WW2 could have been created between the "the Fall of 1998" and Dec 1998

Also.......Dec 7 1998 is when SP2WW2 was released ( not 3 December 1998 as reported in the link above )

[MarkSheppard]

Thanks for the corrections, Don and Andy. When I have time, I'll update that page.

Regarding this:

Originally Posted by DRG

Without SHPEDIT there would have been NO SP mods by anyone. It was the KEY program that allowed all of what has transpired in the last 25 years to happen.

Recently in the Facebook Group "Historical Computer Wargaming", someone posted a link to my Age of Rifles section and the scenario pack for Age of Rifles that I saved from Yahoo Groups; with the following comment about the Spartan v Persian Ancients scenarios in it:

My main problem is that they have ancient wars and medieval battles but everyone looks like they’re from the Victorian time period

My reply:

You have to remember that Age of Rifles was early in the "mod" era. The editor for the AOR sprites didn't come about until steel panthers and fred chlanda. There was a really good napoleonic graphics mod, but ancients..... nope