Modem Wars
| Modem Wars | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Modem Wars | |
| Studio | Ozark Softscape |
| Publisher | Electronic Arts |
| Senior Developer | Dan Bunten |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1988 |
| platform | C64 , DOS |
| genre | Real-time tactics |
| Subject | Battle of movement |
| Game mode | Single player , two player |
| control | Joystick , mouse |
| medium | diskette |
| language | English |
| information | first commercial online strategy game |
Modem Wars is a real-time tactics game by Dan Bunten for one or two players , based on American football and conflict simulation games . The game was released in 1988 by Electronic Arts for the Commodore 64 and DOS . It is widely considered to be the first commercial online strategy game .
Game description
In Modem Wars , two players compete for victory on points. The playing field, which abstractly represents a battlefield with plains, forest, river and mountains, is divided into two halves. The middle marks a river as a border. Two dotted finish lines divide the upper and lower halves into quarters of the playing field. Each player receives a team made up of different futuristic units: the Grunts (infantry), Riders (light cavalry), Boomers (artillery), Spies (scouts) and the ComCen (mobile headquarters).
The teams are initially set up invisible to the opponent in their own half. Only after the start of the game are the units visible to the opponent. For each unit that is drawn into the opposing half during the game and survives there for a while, the player receives points. For units that are drawn across the second finish line into the most distant quarter of the playing field, there are particularly many points. If the ComCen unit makes it into the most distant opposing quarter, this team automatically wins. If ComCen is destroyed, the team has lost. Otherwise the game ends after a given time and the team with the most points wins.
Units can attack other units within sight and range of effect, which can drive the enemy out of their own area. Plains, rivers, forests, and mountains affect the visibility, movement, and range of effects of units.
Emergence
Modem Wars was developed under the leadership of Dan Bunten from Ozark Softscape , the makers of MULE and Seven Cities of Gold . The game should initially be called Sport of War , which describes the character as a fighting game with rules borrowed from American football . Bunten's aim was to challenge real people to a playful competition and also to enable them to play via modem over long distances. The single player mode was implemented by him only reluctantly at the express request of Electronic Arts.
Reception and significance in the history of games
The game was the first commercial online strategy game and is considered to be one of the forefathers of real-time strategy games. With its implementation of a fog of war , movement through different landscapes and the formation of troop formations, it set new standards that are the basis of almost every real-time strategy game today.
Commercially the game was moderately successful. In the USA it was able to attract a limited group of online gamers due to the already established flat rates for telephone connections. In Germany, however, it received little, albeit positive, attention in the press. Because of the expensive telephone charges in this country, there were hardly any players who used the online function.
literature
- Christian Wirsig: The great lexicon of computer games. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89602-525-2 .
Web links
- Modem Wars at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Biography of Dan Bunten
- ↑ René Meyer, Multiplayer Games: Online, Null Modem , Netzwerk, Mailbox , Pearson Education German, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-82729-004-X
- ↑ Modem Wars game test in Computer Gaming World , Nov 1992, page 99
- ↑ Modem Wars game test in Current Software Market , 12/1988