Turn-based strategy
Everyone who played Empire wanted to rule the world
Hardware: Mainframe computers with ANSI terminals, later ported to the IBM PC and many other platforms.
Empire is widely considered to be the grandfather of strategy games. Released in 1978, it proliferated among university mainframe terminals worldwide. The game consists of a battle between a human player and one or two computer players. The game involved conquering the opposing player's cities with land, air and naval units.
The game was rendered with ASCII characters on a black and white screen. When you started out, the world was "blank", requiring you to send scouting units to reveal the randomly generated geography. The map consists of sea '.', land '+', uncontrolled cities '*', computer-controlled cities='X', and your dominated cities='O'. All sorts of details of combined arms combat were simulated, including ferrying troops over in transports and putting aircraft on carriers.
Utopia (1981)
Utopia was fast-paced world-conquering action for two players
Hardware: Intellivision
- General Instruments CP1610 @ 0.9 MHz
- 1 KB RAM
- 8 KB VRAM
- 16 colors,
- 196x160 resolution
Utopia was a bit of a hybrid game, as it ran in real-time but events happened on a regular turn-based cycle. The game matched two players against each other: there was no artificial intelligence or computer opponents. However, you could still play the game in single player mode with no opponent.
Players began their civilization with a single city on a randomly-generated continent. The goal was to increase the population on your continent faster than the other player, by building farms, fishing fleets and other infrastructure. Natural disasters like hurricanes would randomly wreak great swaths of havoc across the virtual landscape.
While there was no combat in the game, there was a lot of strategy required to be successful. Famines and other disasters were frequent threats. Carefully balancing population growth against infrastructure building was necessary for success.
Civilization (1991)
Quite possibly the most addictive game of all time
Hardware: IBM PC (8086 @ 8 MHz)
Civilization was originally modeled after a board game of the same name, but went far beyond that game's scope. It became a legend, balancing exploration, city-building, technology research, trade, government, diplomacy and warfare. The player started the game on a black map with a single settler in 4000 BC. Setting your tax and science rates and building the first city, the game became a race against up to seven computer-controlled opponents who would try to outresearch, outbuild and outfight you in a struggle to the death.
The game was turn-based, with each turn representing a certain number of years that steadily dropped as the game approached the year 1900, after which each turn represented a single year. Players could find random huts that could turn into scrolls of lost wisdom (scientific advancements), advanced tribes (free cities), or a horde of barbarians. Combat was based on unit strength, veteran bonuses, terrain, and whether or not units were in forts or behind city walls. Players also directed what scientific and technological improvements their civilization would research next, and were rewarded for good play with the improvement of their palace.
The game had many different ways to win. You could try the "Mongol Hordes" strategy and flood the world with horsemen and chariots in an attempt to conquer the world as quickly as possible. Or you could sit back, build up your defenses, pay off any would-be aggressors and try to out-research everyone else. You could build Wonders of the World that gave certain advances to your civilization, as well as bonus points at the end of the game. Finally, you could win by constructing a spaceship and successfully flying it to Alpha Centauri.
Warlords II (1994)
Warlords II leaped into high resolution
Hardware: IBM PC (386 @ 16 MHz)
Warlords II was the sequel to the popular turn-based strategy title that had been released for many computing platforms, including the Amiga and the PC. The player fought against up to seven other computer opponents to capture strategic castles and gain total domination over the land. Castles could train new armies, and special units called heroes could find bonus items hidden in ancient ruins across the landscape. Heroes cost money, however, so there was an economic element to the game as well.
The original game used a higher resolution than most strategy games of its era (640x200) and the sequel upped the ante even more by running at 640 x 480. Unlike the original, Warlords II came with an extensive campaign editor and many different historical scenarios, such as conquering Great Britain.
Heroes of Might and Magic III (1999)
Heroes of Might and Magic added lots of options
Hardware: IBM PC (Pentium @ 133 MHz)
Heroes of Might and Magic was a popular series of turn-based strategy games that was based on the role-playing games of the same name. They had a medieval fantasy setting, where heroes in shining armor could also cast powerful spells and wield potent magic.
In the Heroes series, the player battled several computer opponents for control of the land. Like in Warlords, heroes could wander about searching for relics that gave additional powers to their armies. In addition, they could find valuable gems that contributed to the economy. Players could build mines that would provide them with cash and valuable resources.
A new addition to Heroes III was the idea of heroes performing certain quests, usually searching for a specific artifact. The player could decide whether to keep the artifact for its specific powers or return it for its owner's reward.
Multiplayer games were available, both against other human players and co-operatively versus the computer.
Civilization IV (2005)
Conquering the world never looked so good
Hardware: IBM PC
- Pentium 4 1 GHz
- 256 MB RAM
- 32 MB VRAM
- CD-ROM
- 3D card
- 16.7 million colors
- 640x480 resolution
The Civilization franchise will get its biggest facelift with the release of Civilization IV. A move from a 2D isometric view to a full 3D display will allow the player to zoom into the map at any level. Cities are displayed on the main map with all their improvements (such as Wonders of the World) fully visible at all times.
The standard attributes of exploring, researching, building, trading and fighting are still intact, but subtle changes and enhancements are everywhere. The user interface has been tweaked to make all the options more visible for the player. There are more civilizations to choose from (18 in all) and more ways to win (a new "Alliance" victory allows you to win by partnering with another civilization). The leaders of each computer-controlled civilization are fully animated in 3D and can express different emotions depending on how they feel about the player.
You must login or create an account to comment.