Classic (really old) computer strategy games

SimAnt was a very atmospheric game

"You have been reborn!".

a space oddity said:

In the light of this weeks closure of Maxis, I present SimAnt. Strategy in an unusual form...

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must not forget SimFarm:

Link to video.

SimEarth (a simulation):

Link to video.

SimFarm was awesome and we need another farming sim game that involves managing a farm and doesn't focus on tractors and driving stuff around...

SimEarth was cool too. Just reminds me of how much I was disappointed by Spore but whatever.

Kyriakos said:

...no earth map existed in CivI for the Amiga...

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Not so! I remember playing on one that came with it. The scale so was so tiny, though, that it was impossible to have a vaguely realistic game on it.

^Yes, there likely was, come to think of it, and indeed i likely also ended up not using it cause half of Europe there has space for 3 cities or something

Link to video.
The venerable Balance of Power which I believe has been released into the public domain.

Crackerbox said:

Link to video.
The venerable Balance of Power which I believe has been released into the public domain.

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Just to see if it worked, I tried running the original 1985 version on my Windows XP 32-bit laptop. It actually starts up when run from command.com, preceded by a Windows 1.01 splash screen. Alas, I have no mouse pointer, which appears to be necessary to do almost anything, so it's not really playable. Perhaps I'll have better luck running it from Windows 98. If I try to start it directly from XP, I get a notice about it being designed for a previous version of Windows and recommending obtaining a version compatible with Windows 3.0 or later.

Sounds like an interesting game, though.

I remember it came free on an Amiga magazine coverdisk. (How do people learn about new games these days without them?) I tried to play it but it seemed unbelievably dull. I probably just hadn't managed to get into it.

Around a decade ago, when i was still looking for new games, there were various large sites with all the new demos. I suppose they still exist and so the same thing.
But computer game magazines died..

I was able to get far enough into the game to receive the message that "players who have not read the manual are wasting their time". So perhaps that contributed to it seeming dull.

I learn about games in a variety of ways. Sometimes mentions on CFC, sometimes via links on Steam, Gamersgate, or GOG, sometimes on sites such as Polygon, and sometimes via real-life friends. I definitely reciprocate on the last one; I'm responsible directly (gift) or indirectly for a number of Europa Universalis 3/4 and Civilization 3/4 sales in the past few years to real-life friends, as well as a smaller number of other games.

Crackerbox said:

Link to video.
The venerable Balance of Power which I believe has been released into the public domain.

Click to expand...

Watching this video I had to try it (well the 1990 version).As playing USA I supported some insurgency in the Libya, and things really escalated quickly into a Nuclear war

After reading manual I think the game has great ideas even if it's hard to get into and maybe the gameplay might be bit dated and not so balanced as it could be.

Anyone knows games with similar idea? (Turn based, diplomacy oriented, high level strategy)

Wow, I know most of these, but I think nobody mentioned the original Stronghold, which is not AS old as some of the mentioned titles (it even got its HD remake not so long ago). I could post some screenies but I'm fairly sure everyone's heard of it

Original stronghold is good but holy hell, is it hard! That kill the pig level is impossible. And apparently the newer versions fix some bug with the archers so the "normal" strats don't even work.

I liked the game a lot but it has some major balancing issues.

Harv said:

I remember playing the ASCII version of this!

No screenshots, but has anybody here played Starflight and Starflight 2?

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You might want to check out http://wolfpackempire.com as it is the updated version of this game.

Deadlock:

Link to video.

Master of Magic:

Link to video.

Fragile Allegiance (mine and fight over asteroids! ):

Link to video.

Capitalism (Plus):

Link to video.

SimCity (should have been mentioned, but I did not find it):

Link to video.

civvver said:

Remember this one? Red alert. I couldn't get enough of this game. Hard to think of it as a classic strategy now, but again it's going on 20 years!



]

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So glad at least someone mentioned this game. Red Alert was my first strategy game. I also got the 2 expansions (those single missions and such, there's one where all units are insanely buffed and another where you fight a superfaction as Soviets) and also Command N Conquer + that expansion (more single missions but very difficult). I've beaten both faction missions but the balance was just so off. My brother also played it but he used cheats (altered some game files, namely moving all buildings and units to one faction and maxing out attack speed), and then weird hurricane balls started appearing...

EDIT: Speaking of cheats, that photo you took was from a person who is cheating, because he's playing allied forces (see the radar symbol, that's allied symbol, so the soviet stuff in red isn't the player's) yet he can build Soviet and Allied stuff. The Command center (between iron curtain and powerplants) also indicates that the screenshot is of a mission, because you cannot build it naturally.

I've also wanted to play it again for nostalgia but I need to find a reliable source to download the compatibility thingie.


Also I would add Age of Empires 2, Star Wars Galatic Battlegrounds (in other words: Star wars AoE) and of course SMAC.

In RA you are able to build enemy buildings and units if you take over the required buildings with your engineers.

Samez said:

In RA you are able to build enemy buildings and units if you take over the required buildings with your engineers.

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Ah yes, that too. Not easy to pull off unless you're the Allies, using the APCs. Also depends on how damaged the building is before you can capture it. In CNC, they made it way easier where it just required 1 engineer.

Reminds me of one CNC covert ops expansion mission as GDI where you started with a derelict base and the NOD spams engineers to take over your base, or something like that and you had no units (except one collector), no credits and just 1 missile tower to protect your base.

This isn't exactly a strategy game but did anyone play Crime Fighter? It was some kind of freeware GTA style game before GTA. You played a criminal, ran around town looting banks and electronics stores, then you could buy cars, hire henchmen, bribe cops etc.

This is the world map


This is a fight screen. Turn based, each weapon had a range and did X amount of dmg, modified by your henchman's stats. They even had a stat called brutality which was basically a prerequisite for using certain weapons. You had to be like 80 brutal to use a machine gun lol.

You could break simant/simearth so hard . I actually did a let's play series on GK 2: clan of the grey wolf a few years back, showing how to abuse the trade game, ambush, and surrender mechanics. Low charisma rulers suck .

My favorites that haven't been listed yet are Warlords 2 and especially Warlords 3. Each made by the Strategic Studies Group before it fell to pieces, those are some of the better turn-based strategy games ever made. These games had some nice UI conventions that games made decades later still fail to implement.

Similarly, you wouldn't know it now given the last few entries in the series, but the heroes of might and magic series used to be among the best in strategy. HOMM 2 and 3 were amazing, top tier games of the 90's.