This page is about my total audio/visual modification of the classic submarine game «Aces of the Deep», from Dynamix. Since the autumn of 2021 I have tried my best to enhance the game and instill a new and more authentic experience, while still keeping the spirit of the original game alive. Along the way I have uncovered much about how the game functions, created a lot of new content using this knowledge, and improved upon it step by step.

I first bought the "Command" version of Aces of the Deep back in 1998, as part of the Sierra Originals series. I was long since bitten by the history bug and had watched movies and documentaries on the War in the Atlantic. So it quickly became my favorite sim at the time. It also launched a lifelong fondness of the genre and led to purchases of other subsims such as "Silent Hunter" and its sequels. The game would also lead me to revisit it over 20 years later. You see, Command: Aces of the Deep (the Windows 95 version) was not a perfect game by any means. Even back then a lot of issues were grinding on me. Such as the totally empty control room that in itself looked very wrong, an empty bridge view with a weird viewpoint and underwhelming 3D model, a boat that rocked more than a rubber duck in a bathtub, poor sound choices, missing sky texture in clear weather, dull command screens, plus bugs and crashes. Keep in mind that this was the Windows re-release and should logically have been a lot more improved and polished. It seems to me they spent as little time possible on the Windows port, because aside from the speech recognition voice command system (Fun for 2 minutes) and higher resolution, there was almost no improvement whatsoever over the older DOS version. In fact with the Mediterranean Expansion / Type XXI add-on installed, Aces of the Deep for DOS is to me the definitive edition regardless of its lower resolution, because it is incredible stable. Though both DOS and Windows versions share the shortcomings listed above. I stopped playing Command: AOD in 2000 or thereabout, sold the game and moved on to the others. But all the time these issues lurked in the back of my mind, because in my view AOD was close to my dream WW2 subsim if something could be done about them.

Two decades later, I found myself back with AOD. But this time the DOS version. During all this time, a lot of progress had been done by others modding old games of the era, but to my disappointment there was still nothing to be found on AOD. So, I just started looking into it more and more. The word around the forums was that the game was basically not modifiable and nothing could really be done. I hate when people say that something cannot be done. Anyway, I found out quite quickly that indeed, improvements were possible. Some tools had been around all along but no one had made the connection with the formats, as they were primarily designed for other "Aces" games in the series. Other tools had come around later in time, software that to my great surprise was able to work with some of the formats encountered in AOD. (I owe format wizard Nyerguds a case of beer). It started with a humble new control room screen, then it just snowballed for 3 years. Onto all aspects of the sim.

I am now at a point where I have successfully managed to address ALL my old complaints. You can read more about it all in the this thread over at subsim.com. 65 000 views on the forum thread, great feedback, and two "Modder of the Year" awards (Classic Category) have followed since I started - this of course has given me a lot of inspiration to continue. It's telling me I must have done something good for this old warhorse of a sim. For this 2.0 release I have included two options, a complete standalone version of the game with the mod installed, as well as the independent mod files for manual installation. The pre-modded version is essentially the floppy disk release of «Aces of the Deep» with the expansion disk and latest patch installed, as well as my mod applied. For some assets I have also included alternative files. The mod is almost completely modular, and you can apply what you want to your existing AOD installation. You need the CD version of "Aces of the Deep" (DOS), or the latest patched disk version. The "Expansion Pack" is fully optional. This mod does NOT currently work for the Windows 95 based "Command Aces of the Deep". See included PDF readme for all details. (Rumors around the PixelWings office is that a new version 2.1 is in the works ;)


Version 2.0 features the following:

- Realistic ocean simulation / wave motion speed.
- Updated control room graphics for the Type VII and IX series.
- Gauge needles removed and clickable areas changed to match new layouts.
- Clickable areas enhanced for the Type XXI control room.
- Changed intro text and added new digital sample intro music.
- Lower horizon on sea texture adding better sea/sky contrast and silhouetting.
- Enhanced palette files again for more realistic ocean and sky colors.
- Torpedo room graphics enhanced for better foreground contrast.
- Additional speech and action sounds added, older mod sounds updated.
- Minor cleaning of the previously recovered clear sky texture.
- Lightly enhanced Type II control room graphics, for color consistency.
- Bridge view for the Type II, VII and IX series, with or without lookouts.
- Crew faces / reaction popup images, more fitting to the game.
- 360 degree external view for the older U-Boats. (Alternative to bridge)
- Improved «Damage», «Captain's Log», «Map», «Radio», and «Torpedo» screens.
- Dedicated set of «Map», «Damage» and «Torpedo» screens for the Type XXI.
- Realistic control room graphics for the Type XXI, based on the real U-2540.
- Recovered and repaired broken clear sky texture from within original game assets.
- Background images for all menu screens. (Alternative included for main menu)
- Port screens for France, Norway and Germany, inspired by historic locations.
- Periscope art in the control room recovered from the demo's scope animation.
- Almost complete set of new custom speech and FX sound samples.
- Menu music track for both Roland MT-32 and Sound Blaster.

Graphic & Sound Mod 2.0 for Aces of the Deep

Aces of the Deep - Manual
Aces of the Deep - Map
Aces of the Deep - Quick Reference Card
Aces of the Deep - Keyboard Commands

Click below for GIF animations:

Custom clickable areas!
Realistic wave travel!
New realistic bridge model!
Improved newspaper screen!