Empire (computer game)
| Empire: Wargame of the Century | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Deluxe version logo | |
| Studio | Northwest Games (Original) White Wolf Productions (Deluxe) |
| Publisher |
Interstel (Original) New World Computing (Deluxe) Killerbeesoftware (Internet Ed.) |
| Senior Developer |
Walter Bright (Original) Mark Baldwin & Bob Rakosky (Deluxe) Mark Kinkead (Internet Ed.) |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1977 (Original) 1984 (Home Computer) 1993 (Deluxe) 2003 (Internet Ed.) 2004 (Enhanced Ed.) 2013 (Mobile Ed.) |
| platform | Android , Amiga , Atari ST , Apple II , Apple iOS , Blackberry , C 64 , DOS , Linux , PDP-10 , VAX , Windows , Windows Phone |
| genre | Computer strategy game |
| Subject | Conventional conflict |
| Game mode | Single player , multiplayer ( Hot seat , Pbem , Internet , LAN ) |
| control | Mouse , keyboard , touchscreen |
| medium | Cassette , floppy disk , CD-ROM , download |
| language | English |
Empire (English for world empire ; also called Classic Empire due to duplication of names ) is a turn-based strategy game for several players that was programmed by Walter Bright in 1977 on a PDP-10 . There are numerous further developments and ports of the game, including: a. for Amiga , Atari ST , Apple II , C 64 , Macintosh , PC and various mobile devices . Its content is set around the time of World War II and is loosely based on the board game Risk and the film Battle of Britain . The game is considered to be one of the forefathers of the genre of computer strategy games and is one of very few computer games that have been sold commercially for more than 30 years.
Game description
In Empire, several players try to militarily defeat other players on a fictional world map. The game can either be played against computer opponents, human teammates or a mixture of both.
Each player starts with a randomly determined city in which he can produce military units. In the cities, armies, aircraft or various types of ships (transport ships, destroyers, cruisers, aircraft carriers, battleships and submarines) can be produced. The nature of the world map is initially unknown to the players except for the immediate vicinity of their starting city. It is therefore necessary to research the map with produced units in order to find, clear up and attack other cities and ultimately the other players.
Each unit has special abilities that have to be combined in a tactically sensible way to win the game. So foreign cities can only be taken with armies. These, in turn, can only be brought across the sea to other islands with the help of transport ships. Airplanes can move both over land and over the sea, but have limited fuel and therefore have to return regularly to their own cities or to an aircraft carrier. The various ships are particularly suitable either for transport, quick reconnaissance, land fire or sinking enemy ships.
It is played in turn. In each round, each player may move all of his units up to their maximum movement range. If a unit is moved to an opposing unit or a foreign city, a fight ensues. Depending on the opponent, the units have certain probabilities of winning a battle. The outcome of a fight is therefore influenced by chance, with very weak units almost always being defeated by strong ones. Only the amount of damage suffered by the stronger unit can be quite different.
If all of a player's units and cities are destroyed or captured, that player is eliminated. The last surviving player wins. There is the possibility to surrender, whereby the affected units are deleted and the associated cities become neutral again. The remaining players can then continue the game.
Development history
Walter Bright had already invented the game in 1971, but it was not until 1977 that it programmed it on a PDP-10 at the Caltech University of California in FORTRAN . He later ported the game in assembly language to a Heathkit H11 and tried to sell it commercially, although he said he was only able to sell two copies.
After several unauthorized ports to various scientific mainframes , which made the game more and more popular, Bright made a new implementation in 1984 with an improved graphical user interface under the name Empire: Wargame of the Century in C for the IBM PC . This version was so successful that from 1987 it was also ported to the Amiga, Atari ST, Apple II, C 64 and Macintosh computers.
Also in 1984 an unauthorized port of the original Fortran code was published as an open source version under the condition that Walter Bright was mentioned by name with his consent under the title Empire 5.0 . This version has been further developed in several branches and is now included in some Linux distributions or can be installed from the standard package sources of the major distributions.
The rights to the game were sold in the early 1990s to Mark Baldwin and Bob Rakosky, who released a moderately revised and expanded version of the game under the name Empire Deluxe in 1993 . In 2002, the rights passed to Mark Kinkead, who ported the game to Windows in 2003 under the name Empire Deluxe Internet Edition and made it Internet-enabled and in 2004 published a greatly expanded version under the name Empire Deluxe Enhanced Edition . In 2013 the game was released as an app for various mobile devices .
Version differences
The game has seen several expansions and has had numerous successors and clones. A play-by-mail option was soon built in, which made it possible to play over long distances. There are currently the following official successors to the original Empire :
Empire Deluxe
This version (1993 by White Wolf Productions, not identical to the role-playing game publisher White Wolf Publishing ) extends the original by several aspects. On the one hand, cities get a dynamic productivity that can decrease through bombing and increase through non-production times. The productivity of all cities also decreases steadily with the expansion of their own armed forces, which simulates a consumption of resources for the maintenance of active troops. Cities can also have a specialization that enables them to produce a certain type of unit particularly quickly. In addition, land forces are now differentiated into infantry and tanks, as well as air forces into fighters and bombers, which gives these armed forces a slightly higher significance compared to the rather marine-oriented original version. There are also mountains that tanks cannot cross, and airfields can be built that extend the range of fighters and bombers without taking another city. The game can also be played with six instead of three opponents, and the maximum map size has been expanded to 200 × 200 playing fields.
Empire Deluxe Internet Edition
This version (2003 of Killerbeesoftware ) is largely a port from Empire Deluxe to current Windows PCs and only expands it to include the possibility of playing over the Internet. The maximum map size is 255 × 255 playing fields.
Empire Deluxe Enhanced Edition
This version (2004 of Killerbeesoftware ) is a fundamental reprogramming of the game principle with numerous expansions and the possibility to be able to integrate self-written modifications (like better computer opponents or new units).
Empire Deluxe Mobile Edition
The game's mobile app (2013 by Killerbeesoftware) is largely a port from Empire Deluxe to mobile devices. The maximum map size is now 400 × 400 playing fields. This version does not offer network mode.
Empire 5.0 (open source version)
A version that largely corresponds to the original from 1977 is available as open source software under the name Empire 5.0 (monochrome) or Empire 5.1 (color representation). It was created from a fork of the original version and graphically kept very simple: it only uses the ASCII characters for visual representation. The game mechanics are the same as the original, although not all versions offer a multiplayer mode. The program is available for numerous platforms, in the Linux area e.g. B. under the package name VMS-Empire .
Empire 2 - The Art of War
In 1995, White Wolf Productions released another game by Mark Baldwin and Bob Rakosky under the name Empire II: The Art of War . This game simulates battles from ancient times to modern times on a tactical level. In contrast to the original Empire, there is no discovery and construction process. Apart from the name, the authors and the basic theme of war, the game has no relation to the other versions.
Reception and significance in the history of games
The game was discussed positively in computer game magazines almost without exception, although the response in the German media was significantly lower than abroad because of the war issue. It was only with the deluxe version that extensive and very positive reporting began in Germany. The simple and balanced rules of the game and a multiplayer ability that was unusually good at the time were praised, while the simple graphic design was partly criticized. The game stimulated the entire genre of turn-based computer strategy games through several innovative game mechanisms, such as the playful implementation of a fog of war . Numerous well-known titles such as Sid Meier's Civilization or Strategic Conquest were directly inspired by Empire , and almost all turn-based computer games that have appeared since then, such as B. Battle Isle , Panzer General , Heroes of Might and Magic or Age of Wonders use the basic mechanisms introduced by Empire .
literature
- Christian Wirsig: The great lexicon of computer games . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag , Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89602-525-2 .
- Christopher George Lewin: War Games and Their History . Fonthill Media, Stroud (GB) 2012, ISBN 1-78155-042-5 .
Web links
- Empire versions at MobyGames (English)
