1985 — Silent Service
Sid Meier's classic put you on a US Pacific fleet boat with stylised periscope, sonar bearing display and a CRT-green map. Multiple stations, real torpedo runs, and the famous mid-mission save bug players still talk about.
1996 — Silent Hunter / 1998 — 688(I) Hunter/Killer
SSI's Silent Hunter brought 3D periscope visuals and crew commands; Jane's 688(I) modelled a real Los Angeles-class nuclear sub down to the towed array. Both demanded paper notes and a quiet room.
2005 — Silent Hunter III, then IV and V
The U-boat one. SH3 with the GWX mega-mod is still considered the gold standard 20 years later — career mode, dynamic campaign, no GPS, paper charts, and patrols that last real-time hours.
Modern era — Cold Waters, UBOAT, Wolfpack
Cold Waters (2017) is essentially Red Storm Rising as a game. UBOAT (2019) layers Sims-style crew management onto a U-boat campaign. Wolfpack is multiplayer co-op where four players run one boat — and you'll yell across voice chat about depth charges.