Archimedean Dynasty

In Archimedean Dynasty, the cockpit takes up a good part of the screen. Outside lies a dark sea; inside, the sonar, weapons, speed, and hull status compete for your attention. Massive Development created this submarine simulator for DOS, published in 1996 and known in Germany as Schleichfahrt.

You play the mercenary Emerald “Dead Eye” Flint in a post-apocalyptic world set beneath the ocean. Assignments, conversations, and equipment upgrades go alongside the combat. Before reaching the AquaNox series, the studio was already blending navigation, weapon choices, and a story of clashing interests in the depths.

Navigating by the instruments

Limited visibility forces you to read the cockpit. A sonar contact, a change of heading, or the submarine's speed can prove more useful than firing at a silhouette. The cannon and the torpedoes have separate controls, and the help screen brings together target selection, turrets, and navigation.

The menu lets you start the adventure with New Game or pick a mission in Instant Action. This second option is a way to get to know the cockpit without first going through the campaign's conversations. In Free Vespucci, the briefing explains that pirates have taken over a mining station and deployed vehicles to carry off the manganese. The map and the mission hints appear before you enter the water.

From the cockpit you can accelerate with A, turn with the arrow keys, and fire the cannon with Space. C brings the speed to zero. H opens a paged help screen: press it again to turn the page and exit with Esc. It's worth reading its controls before trying to handle all the systems at once.

The available copy

The download keeps the RetroBat folder, whose menus and text are in English. The main screen identifies this installation as Augmented Mod; it may therefore include adjustments compared with the unmodified commercial edition. The specific version of the mod has not been determined from the available files.

The player offers a copy prepared for the browser, and the download keeps the files of the collection. The screenshots show that same installation. The cover art comes from a French DOS edition and is kept as a reference for the game; the language of the box does not change the language of the playable copy.