As a former tread head I'm pleased to bring my fellow tread heads an exclusive on a new tank simulation in the works titled "Steel Beasts." Some of you might have already heard about this sim, but I'm betting most haven't since there hasn't been a lot of talk about it. From what I've seen so far I'm psyched to see Steel Beasts completed and on everyone's hard drives.

No longer will we be limited to MPS's M1 Tank Platoon 2, a most excellent tank sim to be sure, but the only solid modern sim out there right now. Steel Beasts looks to change that for us armor fans and it will also add a new twist, not only will you be able to command an M1A1 but a Leopard 2A4 as well!

This should make our German readers quite happy as the simulation market is most often dominated by American vehicles and aircraft only. I welcome this addition to the sim market. It will be nice to be able to hop into another NATO tank and see how you fare in battle.

A Tanker's Sim

Currently in production at eSim, Steel Beasts is a tankers tank sim. In the sim you will command your tank platoon as well as artillery assets, you will mine fields and play with accurate tactical AI. One of the neatest things is the "hull down" command, something we've all been screaming for in a tank sim. In SB your tanks when ordered to find a hull down will do so, if there's one available. No more micromanaging your vehicles one at a time to get them out of sight of an advancing enemy.

The only thing you need to concern yourself with is getting your tanks in the vicinity (within 150 meters) of good hull down spots and the AI should take care of the rest. This is a most welcome addition to a modern tank sim as it has been the cause of many a needless casualty in simulated battles for all of us.

There are a couple of points that may come as a downside to some people: no 3D support and no multiplayer as of yet. The developer eSim, is a small, startup developer and doesn't have the resources to do everything they'd like to the first time around.

Things like 3D support, multiplayer etc are all things that may be incorporated in future versions of the product if the interest from gamers is there. From what I've seen of the demo thus far, I do not miss 3D support. It's far more important to me that the gunnery characteristics, tactical doctrines and overall feel of being in a tank are there, something the sim seems destined to capture.

I spoke with the developer Al Delaney several weeks ago about what brought him into the tank sim arena and how the development of Steel Beasts came about as well as what future plans he may have for it. Al comes from a very well educated background and I found him to be articulate, enthusiastic and above all, dedicated to making this sim as strong as possible. Here's a bit of background on Al Delaney, creator of Steel Beasts.

Q: So Al, tell our readers a bit about yourself and how the whole idea of Steel Beasts came about.

AD: My true profession (by education and training) is Electrical Engineering. I had worked in the industry for about two and a half years as a design engineer when I decided to go back to school for more torture. After finishing up that bit of school, I had an opportunity before starting work again to fool around with some ideas I had in my head (which actually had nothing to do with what I had just learned in school).

I ended up creating a graphics engine that seemed to work reasonably well at rendering terrain, especially rolling hills. After discussions with my wife, we decided, "Hey, let's make a game out of this!" How hard could it be? (Lesson one, It can be VERY hard!) We decided that I would postpone getting a normal job, and work on the sim full time.

Since my background was in Engineering, I was drawn to simulations, rather than shooters, and we decided to do a tank sim, since at that time it had been quite a while since a decent one had been done.. not since the original M1TP, I believe. (Lesson two. If YOU think it's a good idea, chances are a whole lot of other people also think it's a good idea.)

Q: That's very true, tank simmers are a much-neglected group. Nowadays, most people just think of flight sims when they think of a combat simulator, when in reality tanks are as much a part of the modern battlefield as fixed and rotary winged aircraft. Having no personal background in armor how did you gather your intel for the sim? I also love the idea that we're able to be a part of the crew of a German Leopard, how did that come to pass?

AD: In the process of learning all I could about modern tanks, especially the M1, I got to know a few tankers pretty well through the Internet, eventually meeting some of them in person. One of them, SFC Ron Cole, was stationed in Ft. Knox and I made two trips out there to meet him and he also got me a ride in a tank to record some great tank sounds (courtesy of the nice folks at the Public Affairs Office). BTW, most of the voice recordings you hear in Steel Beasts are Ron's voice.

Another tanker I met over the Net was in the German Army at that time. He'd like to be known as Ssnake to conceal his true identity, so I won't give his real name away. Ssnake became very interested in the sim (to the dismay of his girlfriend) and has contributed his technical expertise, ideas and mission-building skills to the sim ever since.

Of course it was a no-brainer to have the Leopard tank featured in Steel Beasts along with the M1, since we now had a real expert on that tank. Ssnake has also managed to recruit some of his army buddies to test out the sim and give their feedback about it.

Q: So what makes Steel Beasts stand out from the crowd? With the popularity of the M1TP2 sim what does Steel Beasts have to offer tank simmers?

AD: It has been over three years since I first decided to work on a tank sim, and since then you might have noticed that a few tank sims have been published in the mean time. Of course, we were not too happy to see these sims come out, but the more we played these sims the more we felt that there was still a lot of room for improvement -- especially in the AI department, and in the accuracy of the gunnery modeling. That's where we have spent a great deal of time in Steel Beasts.

Since we are such a small developer, we don't have the resources to create the ultimate tank sim -- at least not the first time around. In fact, some major features like 3D hardware acceleration and multiplayer support, will be missing from the initial release, which we hope to do in a few months now over the Internet. This may turn off a lot of people, but we hope that the depth and accuracy of the sim make up for its current shortcomings. If we can gain the support of the hardcore armor sim fans, than we'll be able to release a second, improved version of Steel Beasts a year or so down the road.

End of Interview.

After speaking with Al and having gotten my hands dirty with an early demo version I really feel good about this sim. I think it's going to give us tread heads plenty of fun when it's released.

Personally, the lack of 3D and multiplayer support are not a game killer for me as long as the AI, both friendly and enemy, is competitive and challenging. From my initial look at this sim I feel eSim is on the right track, or shall I say tread, to bringing us a worthy tank sim title.

System Requirements:

• 200 MHz Pentium
• 32 MB RAM
• 2MB SVGA card
• 20 MB available hard disk space
• Mouse and CD-ROM
• Windows 95 or Windows 98
• DirectX version 6.0 or better

You can find out more about Steel Beasts at the eSim website.