Classic Empire (computer game)
Encyclopedia
Empire is a turn-based wargame
with simple rules, conceived by Walter Bright
in 1971 (released as a computer game in 1977) based on various war movies and board games, notably Battle of Britain
and Risk
. In the game, each player starts with one city in an unexplored world, and uses the city to build armies, aircraft, and various types of ships. Cities take a particular number of turns to produce the various units. As players expand from the first city, they use their units to find and capture additional cities and become able to produce a greater number of unit types. Players explore the world, capturing cities as they are found and using them to build more military units. Early versions were text-based, while later versions of the game added graphics.
This game inspired a great deal of the strategic gaming genre, most notably including Civilization, Empire Master, Global Conquest
, Nintendo Wars, Strategic Conquest
and Xconq
.
programming language for the PDP-10
computer at Caltech. This version was spread virally to other PDP-10
s, which were common timesharing systems at the time. Later, Bright recoded this in assembly language
on a Heathkit H-11
and made it available commercially. He sold two copies.
for the FORTRAN/PDP-10 version of the game. This code was continually modified, being passed around from person to person. Eventually, it was found on a computer in Massachusetts
by Herb Jacobs and Dave Mitton. They ported the code to the VAX/VMS
operating system and, under the alias of "Mario DeNobili and Paulson" submitted the program to DECUS
, a large user's group. DECUS programs were often installed on new DEC
computers at the time of delivery, and so Empire propagated further. Eventually, Bright heard of this, and in 1983 contacted DECUS, who subsequently credited Bright in the catalog description of the program and re-added his name to the source code.
driver. Mr Norby wrote:
, and found its way into many shareware collections, and was propagated into BBS
s in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
on an IBM PC
. With low commercial expectations, he submitted an announcement to BYTE Magazine' s "New Programs" section, and received a flood of orders. He then licensed the game to a small software company named Interstel, who hired Mark Baldwin to add a graphic user interface
. Starting around 1987, Empire: Wargame of the Century on the Atari ST
, Amiga
, Commodore 64
, Apple II
, Macintosh
and DOS
was produced.
In its review of the game, Computer Gaming World
noted the improved UI
, saying "the playability of an already successful system has been significantly enhanced." The game would later receive the magazine's "Game of the Year" award for 1988.
The Atari ST
version of the game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon
#131 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars. The Lessers reviewed the MS-DOS version of the game in 1989 in Dragon #142, and gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.
In 1987, Chuck Simmons re-implemented the game in C using the UNIX curses library
for its supports of many character-cell terminals. Eric S. Raymond
maintains a copy of this version and shared some version with open-source projects. This version is compatible with Cygwin
on Windows.
, Mac OS
, and Windows, released in 1993 with New World Computing
as the publisher. Empire Deluxe sustained the old game play of Interstel's version in a standard game, while adding a basic version for beginners, and advanced game with new units such as the Bomber and Armor and maps sizes up to 200x200.
Empire Deluxe enjoyed great success, and was noted as one of Gamespy's Greatest Games of All Time. But New World Computing eventually stopped publishing the game. Baldwin and Rakowsky retained the copyrights, but in the latter half of the 1990s it was found on abandonware sites, though it still enjoyed a strong community following on the Internet.
Empire Deluxe was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon
#195 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.
A Scenario
Disk
was produced for Empire Deluxe later in 1993, including a map and scenario statistics tool, a map randomiser tool (as random maps were present in the Interstel version, but lacking from Empire Deluxe), upgrade patches for both DOS and Windows versions and a collection of 38 scenarios (with accompanying maps) from a selection of designers, many of them famous in the games industry including: Will Wright, Jerry Pournelle
, Jim Dunnigan
, Johnny Wilson (Computer Gaming World
editor), Noah Falstein
, Gordon Walton
, Don Gilman (Harpoon series architect), Dave Menconi (co-founder of the Game Developers Conference
) and Trevor Sorensen (Star Fleet series designer) as well as the game's authors Mark Baldwin and Bob Rakosky among others.
Eventually, players expand their known worlds until the players find each other and fight until only one is left. This moment of discovery can happen quickly or not, especially when one allows the game to generate a randomly-populated world made of islands with cities, surrounded by a connected body of water. Units in Empire are aware of enemy who occupy grid squares around them only to a particular distance, and cities also are aware of enemy units adjacent to them. Otherwise, enemy units are not visible unless one moves close enough with one unit to see an enemy.
Units battle by trying to take the grid location occupied by the enemy unit. In most cases, this is a fight to the death, and the winner moves in to occupy the grid square after the combat. This combat is based on percentages rating one unit type against the others, so this is calculated, and an animated battle sequence is seen before the losing unit is removed. The combat animation is minimal, and allows one to focus on the strategic consequences of the combat.
Many interesting starts get interrupted when one discovers enemy units next to cities which lack defenses. A city loses a percentage of its production capacity when it is captured, and it also loses any units it contains, as well losing the unit under construction. Cities are sometimes fought over repeatedly, until the city itself has little production capacity, and is used simply as a base for aircraft and as a point to fight over. Cities that are not producing anything help a player's production value, and allow other, more efficient cities to produce units. Cities that are not producing will see their production efficiency increase as turns go by. The ability to remain unseen, even in adjacent grid squares, for example, submarines are not visible to battleships aircraft and transports, allows players to scout enemy areas.
Mottled, computer-generated island-worlds are typical, but Empire also has a world-generator, and comes with pre-designed worlds such as Europe and North America. When one plays on the random worlds, the players are placed randomly in one city. There can be very different outcomes when one discovers an enemy city or unit very early compared with later. One is creating an empire, and the existing units in an army cost the player a percentage of overall production capacity. This means large armies (including ships, planes, and land units) can prevent a player from efficiently creating further troops types. Since the game is turn based, players experience this production capacity as a percentage. Units take a given number of turns depending on this percentage, and a low percentage can make certain units practically impossible to order. This is most important in the first part of the game, when one only has a small number of cities.
: there was no more empire-building and production of units, but the complexity and realism of battles were enhanced with features such as morale rules and various degrees of damage. The playable campaigns consisted of a collection of diverse historical or fictional battles. The game editor feature was enhanced by allowing the user to design not only new maps and campaigns, but also new units with new graphics and sounds.
Wargame (video games)
Wargames are a subgenre of strategy video games that emphasize strategic or tactical warfare on a map, as well as historical accuracy.-History:The genre of wargame video games is derived from earlier forms of wargames...
with simple rules, conceived by Walter Bright
Walter Bright
Walter Bright is a computer programmer known for being the designer of the D programming language. He was also the main developer of the first C++ compiler that translated directly to object without going via C, Zortech C++ . Before the C++ compiler, he developed the Datalight C compiler, also...
in 1971 (released as a computer game in 1977) based on various war movies and board games, notably Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain (film)
Battle of Britain is a 1969 Technicolor film directed by Guy Hamilton, and produced by Harry Saltzman and S. Benjamin Fisz. The film broadly relates the events of the Battle of Britain...
and Risk
Risk (game)
Risk is a strategic board game, produced by Parker Brothers . It was invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse and originally released in 1957 as La Conquête du Monde in France. Risk is a turn-based game for two to six players...
. In the game, each player starts with one city in an unexplored world, and uses the city to build armies, aircraft, and various types of ships. Cities take a particular number of turns to produce the various units. As players expand from the first city, they use their units to find and capture additional cities and become able to produce a greater number of unit types. Players explore the world, capturing cities as they are found and using them to build more military units. Early versions were text-based, while later versions of the game added graphics.
This game inspired a great deal of the strategic gaming genre, most notably including Civilization, Empire Master, Global Conquest
Global Conquest
Global Conquest is a computer game developed by Microplay Software in 1992 for the PC/MS-DOS.-Plot:Global Conquest is a strategy game where the object is to discover territories and conquer the world through strategy and management of military and economic resources.The game always involves four...
, Nintendo Wars, Strategic Conquest
Strategic Conquest
Strategic Conquest is a two-player turn-based strategy game for the Apple II and Apple Macintosh, similar to Empire. It was published by PBI Software and the Macintosh version was continued by Delta Tao Software....
and Xconq
Xconq
Xconq is an open source computer strategy game and game engine. First posted to comp.sources.games in 1987, it is notable as one of the first multi-player games to be released for the X Window System...
.
History and development
Bright's first version was written around 1977 in the FORTRANFortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
programming language for the PDP-10
PDP-10
The PDP-10 was a mainframe computer family manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation from the late 1960s on; the name stands for "Programmed Data Processor model 10". The first model was delivered in 1966...
computer at Caltech. This version was spread virally to other PDP-10
PDP-10
The PDP-10 was a mainframe computer family manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation from the late 1960s on; the name stands for "Programmed Data Processor model 10". The first model was delivered in 1966...
s, which were common timesharing systems at the time. Later, Bright recoded this in assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
on a Heathkit H-11
Programmed Data Processor
Programmed Data Processor was the name of a series of minicomputers made by Digital Equipment Corporation. The name 'PDP' intentionally avoided the use of the term 'computer' because, at the time of the first PDPs, computers had a reputation of being large, complicated, and expensive machines, and...
and made it available commercially. He sold two copies.
The DECUS fork
At some point, someone broke through the security systems at Caltech, and took a copy of the source codeSource code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
for the FORTRAN/PDP-10 version of the game. This code was continually modified, being passed around from person to person. Eventually, it was found on a computer in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
by Herb Jacobs and Dave Mitton. They ported the code to the VAX/VMS
OpenVMS
OpenVMS , previously known as VAX-11/VMS, VAX/VMS or VMS, is a computer server operating system that runs on VAX, Alpha and Itanium-based families of computers. Contrary to what its name suggests, OpenVMS is not open source software; however, the source listings are available for purchase...
operating system and, under the alias of "Mario DeNobili and Paulson" submitted the program to DECUS
DECUS
The Digital Equipment Computer Users' Society was an independent computer user group related to Digital Equipment Corporation.The Connect User Group Community, formed from the consolidation in May, 2008 of DECUS, Encompass, HP-Interex, and ITUG is Hewlett-Packard’s largest user community...
, a large user's group. DECUS programs were often installed on new DEC
Digital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
computers at the time of delivery, and so Empire propagated further. Eventually, Bright heard of this, and in 1983 contacted DECUS, who subsequently credited Bright in the catalog description of the program and re-added his name to the source code.
Public domain version
In 1984, Bob Norby, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, ported the DECUS version from the VAX to the PC, producing Empire 5.0, and Empire 5.1 (Color Supported), which required the ANSI.SYSANSI.SYS
ANSI.SYS is a device driver in the DOS operating system that provides extra console functions through ANSI escape sequences. It is partially based upon a subset of the text terminal control standard proposed by the ANSI X3L2 Technical Committee on Codes and Character Sets .-Usage:To use ANSI.SYS...
driver. Mr Norby wrote:
"This program is a war game simulation for video terminals. It is distributed by DECUS on DEC computers. While working for a company with a VAX, I became addicted to the game. When I left that company, it was necessary to find another way to continue playing. So I implemented the game on the PC."It was released as shareware
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
, and found its way into many shareware collections, and was propagated into BBS
BBS
-Technologies:* Bulletin Board System, a computer that allows users to dial into the system over a phone line or telnet connection* BIOS Boot Specification, a system firmware specification related initial program load...
s in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Empire: Wargame of the Century
After this, Bright recoded the game in CC (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
on an IBM PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
. With low commercial expectations, he submitted an announcement to BYTE Magazine
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
. Starting around 1987, Empire: Wargame of the Century on the Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
, Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
and DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
was produced.
In its review of the game, Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
noted the improved UI
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
, saying "the playability of an already successful system has been significantly enhanced." The game would later receive the magazine's "Game of the Year" award for 1988.
The Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
version of the game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#131 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars. The Lessers reviewed the MS-DOS version of the game in 1989 in Dragon #142, and gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.
In 1987, Chuck Simmons re-implemented the game in C using the UNIX curses library
Curses (programming library)
curses is a terminal control library for Unix-like systems, enabling the construction of text user interface applications.The name is a pun on the term “cursor optimization”. It is a library of functions that manage an application's display on character-cell terminals .- Overview :The curses API...
for its supports of many character-cell terminals. Eric S. Raymond
Eric S. Raymond
Eric Steven Raymond , often referred to as ESR, is an American computer programmer, author and open source software advocate. After the 1997 publication of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Raymond was for a number of years frequently quoted as an unofficial spokesman for the open source movement...
maintains a copy of this version and shared some version with open-source projects. This version is compatible with Cygwin
Cygwin
Cygwin is a Unix-like environment and command-line interface for Microsoft Windows. Cygwin provides native integration of Windows-based applications, data, and other system resources with applications, software tools, and data of the Unix-like environment...
on Windows.
Empire Deluxe
In the early 1990s, Mark Baldwin and Bob Rakowsky rewrote the game, calling it Empire Deluxe for DOSDOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
, and Windows, released in 1993 with New World Computing
New World Computing
New World Computing, Inc. was an American computer game developer and publisher founded in 1984 by Jon Van Caneghem, his wife, Michaela Van Caneghem, and Mark Caldwell. It was best known for its work on the Might and Magic computer role-playing game series and its spin-offs, especially Heroes of...
as the publisher. Empire Deluxe sustained the old game play of Interstel's version in a standard game, while adding a basic version for beginners, and advanced game with new units such as the Bomber and Armor and maps sizes up to 200x200.
Empire Deluxe enjoyed great success, and was noted as one of Gamespy's Greatest Games of All Time. But New World Computing eventually stopped publishing the game. Baldwin and Rakowsky retained the copyrights, but in the latter half of the 1990s it was found on abandonware sites, though it still enjoyed a strong community following on the Internet.
Empire Deluxe was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#195 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.
A Scenario
Expansion pack
An expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game or video game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, and/or an extended storyline to a complete and already released game...
Disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
was produced for Empire Deluxe later in 1993, including a map and scenario statistics tool, a map randomiser tool (as random maps were present in the Interstel version, but lacking from Empire Deluxe), upgrade patches for both DOS and Windows versions and a collection of 38 scenarios (with accompanying maps) from a selection of designers, many of them famous in the games industry including: Will Wright, Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog....
, Jim Dunnigan
Jim Dunnigan
James F. Dunnigan is an author, military-political analyst, Defense and State Department consultant, and wargame designer currently living in New York City, notable for his matter-of-fact approach to military analysis.-Career:...
, Johnny Wilson (Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
editor), Noah Falstein
Noah Falstein
Noah Falstein is a freelance game designer and producer who has been in the video game industry since 1980. He was one of the first 10 employees at Lucasfilm Games , DreamWorks Interactive , and The 3DO Company...
, Gordon Walton
Gordon Walton
Gordon Walton, Jr. is an American video game developer and executive producer who has worked with many North American online game companies, from Maxis to Electronic Arts to Sony Online to Bioware...
, Don Gilman (Harpoon series architect), Dave Menconi (co-founder of the Game Developers Conference
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking...
) and Trevor Sorensen (Star Fleet series designer) as well as the game's authors Mark Baldwin and Bob Rakosky among others.
Empire Deluxe Internet Edition
In the Winter of 2001, Mark Kinkead of Killer Bee Software purchased the rights for Empire Deluxe from Mark Baldwin and Bob Rakowsky, and in 2002 produced a new version called Empire Deluxe Internet Edition a.k.a. EDIE for Windows. This was essentially a port of the code Baldwin and Rakowsky produced in 1993, with few changes, such as slightly increased the map size (255x255), but did not add any new rules.Empire Deluxe Enhanced Edition
In Winter 2004, Empire Deluxe Enhanced Edition, a.k.a. EDEE was produced for Windows by Killer Bee Software. Based on Empire Deluxe's advanced game mode, this game added several new units, such as artillery, satellites, missiles, a helicopter, and mines. User options to increase map size to over 1000x1000, and to design new units and graphics, have made significant creative modification and extension of the game possible.Gameplay (based on Empire Deluxe)
Units have very different capabilities, as well as different strengths and weaknesses. Destroyers move fast and are great for exploring, while battleships are very resilient and can also attack land units. The central unit of conquest is transports, which can carry two troop types. Only Infantry and Armor can capture a city, and these two units must cross water in transports. The central unit of conquest has weak defences, so Empire strategy involves exploration in the context of providing safe passage for transports.Eventually, players expand their known worlds until the players find each other and fight until only one is left. This moment of discovery can happen quickly or not, especially when one allows the game to generate a randomly-populated world made of islands with cities, surrounded by a connected body of water. Units in Empire are aware of enemy who occupy grid squares around them only to a particular distance, and cities also are aware of enemy units adjacent to them. Otherwise, enemy units are not visible unless one moves close enough with one unit to see an enemy.
Units battle by trying to take the grid location occupied by the enemy unit. In most cases, this is a fight to the death, and the winner moves in to occupy the grid square after the combat. This combat is based on percentages rating one unit type against the others, so this is calculated, and an animated battle sequence is seen before the losing unit is removed. The combat animation is minimal, and allows one to focus on the strategic consequences of the combat.
Many interesting starts get interrupted when one discovers enemy units next to cities which lack defenses. A city loses a percentage of its production capacity when it is captured, and it also loses any units it contains, as well losing the unit under construction. Cities are sometimes fought over repeatedly, until the city itself has little production capacity, and is used simply as a base for aircraft and as a point to fight over. Cities that are not producing anything help a player's production value, and allow other, more efficient cities to produce units. Cities that are not producing will see their production efficiency increase as turns go by. The ability to remain unseen, even in adjacent grid squares, for example, submarines are not visible to battleships aircraft and transports, allows players to scout enemy areas.
Mottled, computer-generated island-worlds are typical, but Empire also has a world-generator, and comes with pre-designed worlds such as Europe and North America. When one plays on the random worlds, the players are placed randomly in one city. There can be very different outcomes when one discovers an enemy city or unit very early compared with later. One is creating an empire, and the existing units in an army cost the player a percentage of overall production capacity. This means large armies (including ships, planes, and land units) can prevent a player from efficiently creating further troops types. Since the game is turn based, players experience this production capacity as a percentage. Units take a given number of turns depending on this percentage, and a low percentage can make certain units practically impossible to order. This is most important in the first part of the game, when one only has a small number of cities.
Innovation
Empire from its inception and through much of its history, has included groundbreaking original features, and other elements rarely seen before its time. Often setting the trend for games both in the strategy genre and beyond it, its influence can still be distinctly seen in video games today. This includes:- Fog of warFog of warThe fog of war is a term used to describe the uncertainty in situation awareness experienced by participants in military operations. The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign...
- Production by cities of new units
- Ship transportation of land based units
- Play-by-mailPlay-by-mail gamePlay-by-mail games, sometimes known as "Play-by-post", are games, of any type, played through postal mail or e-mail. One example, chess, has been played by mail for centuries . Another example, Diplomacy, has been played by mail since the 1960s, starting with a printed newsletter written by John...
option - A promotion system inherited from the Star Fleet series
- Map and scenario editorsLevel editorA level editor is a software tool used to design levels, maps, campaigns, etc and virtual worlds for a video game. In some cases the creator of a video game releases an official level editor for a game, but other times the community of fans step in to fill the void...
- A Scenario DiskExpansion packAn expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game or video game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, and/or an extended storyline to a complete and already released game...
with maps, scenarios and bug fixes
Sequel
In 1995, New World Computing published a sequel named Empire II: The Art of War. While the original had been a turn-based strategy, Empire II was shifted towards turn-based tacticsTurn-based tactics
Turn-based tactics , or tactical turn-based , is a computer and video game genre of strategy video games that through stop-action simulates the considerations and circumstances of operational warfare and military tactics in generally small-scale confrontations as opposed to more strategic...
: there was no more empire-building and production of units, but the complexity and realism of battles were enhanced with features such as morale rules and various degrees of damage. The playable campaigns consisted of a collection of diverse historical or fictional battles. The game editor feature was enhanced by allowing the user to design not only new maps and campaigns, but also new units with new graphics and sounds.
See also
- Empire ClassicEmpire Classic (computer game)Empire is a 4X wargame created in 1971 by Peter Langston, taking its name from the Reed College board game of the same name. In 1973, Empire resurfaced under the name Civilization on an HP2000 minicomputer at Evergreen State College. The game was written in interpreted BASIC and utilized extensions...
- CivilizationCivilization (computer game)Sid Meier's Civilization is a turn-based strategy "4X"-type strategy video game created by Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley for MicroProse in 1991. The game's objective is to "Build an empire to stand the test of time": it begins in 4000 BC and the players attempt to expand and develop their empires...
- Star Fleet