Classic (really old) computer strategy games

[civvver]

I found it! Can't get images from it, it's all php popups or something.

http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=1871

 

[Kyriakos]

I did own that game too (Cohort). I never really liked it though :/

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

One of the greatest games thematically similar to Civilization:

Imperialism



It has remarkable economic/trading mechanics, deep and simple, highly playable and realistic at the same time. You get this nice feeling of progress and change while playing through.

It had hex tiles 13 years before Civ5!

The following part of the game, set in the colonization era, was not that good at all.

 

[Kyriakos]

Although Imperialism I is better than Imperialism II, the grand scenario in Imperialism I is broken, given that Britain will always attack France very early in the game and destroy it. So it was no use playing in that scenario, unless you chose to be Britain. I tried many times as France, it just is in vain given that Britain will declare war again even if you do everything right and get a risk fleet soon enough...

I even tried Prussia in the grand scenario and helped France by declaring war on Britain. Nothing can be done to salvage this though

Btw at some point there was a mod for Imperialism I with a world map

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

the grand scenario in Imperialism I is broken, given that Britain will always attack France very early in the game and destroy it.

Yes, you're right, Britain is overpowered. Not always it attacks France though (at least successfully, especially if you do something about it), I had many games when it doesn't happen. Random map had a similar problem when everyone declares war to somebody, often you. Regardless, I've managed to have much fun with both Europe and random maps.

Playing it recently, pitied much about the absence of modern diplomacy features of Civ games (like trading provinces).

Btw at some point there was a mod for Imperialism I with a world map

When I accidently encountered a screen shot of it years ago, I've even registered to barely alive fan Yahoo Groups or whatever they were to get it, which was somehow troublesome to do, and somehow I failed either to install or download it at the time. On the second thought, the game was not intended for a planet scale, so I hope the map was not that fun anyway...

 

[Kyriakos]

Well this game is not that old (14 years old) but it is a lot better than the original of the series in my view (the original was groundbreaking as well though).

It is called Seven Kingdoms II.



I always am of the view that it had the best graphical artist of any strategy game i have seen. Very atmospheric and characterictic creations

There is a Seven Kingdoms III out, but it is in 3d, and i never played it.

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

This one may be considered not classic. It has no real graphics. It is not developed by a real studio (at the time). It is known mostly to Russians and unknown anywhere else. But as a game of deep and most intense strategy, marvelous AI and multiplayer ladders, I feel it belongs here:

The General



More shots to get the idea of it (with Cyrillic text though):

Spoiler :

Fan base is international, people still play multiplayer games using the reincarnated official site (even the studio which was formed based on this game is disbanded now!).

English version of the game (4.5h is latest) and ladder statistics can be found here: http://akasoft.genliga.ru/index_e.php

 

[civvver]

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!



This one too, 90s must have be the golden age of rts. Total annhiliation remains to this day my favorite rts ever, though supreme commander comes really close (pretty much a sequel anyway).

 

[coanda]

This one too, 90s must have be the golden age of rts. Total annhiliation remains to this day my favorite rts ever, though supreme commander comes really close (pretty much a sequel anyway).

I feel like a lot of developers saw the increased capability of newer hardware in the early 2000s, and decided that meant the time had come to add more stuff. Wider varieties of units. Larger numbers of units. Larger scope of the game. Flashier, more eye-grabbing graphics. Fancy, processor-intensive game mechanics that made the combat more like a realistic simulation and less like a straightforward application of easy-to-understand rules.

All of that made for games that sounded impressive. In fact, they actually were impressive... for the first few minutes playing them.

After you'd played for an hour or two, the "innovations" stopped being impressive and started being frustrating - controlling 1000 units is actually not more fun than controlling 100 units; either way you're just personally managing a half-dozen groups, and a higher number just increases the odds of having straggler units lost or overlooked, plus shrinking the size of unit models and making mis-identification errors more likely. Having 20 different types of soldier in your army is impossible to micro as effectively as just 3-5 types. Smoke, fog, shadow, non-transparent 3D models, debris flying around, and other graphical features that look good may also interfere with the ability to size up the situation at a glance, which breaks the flow of the game.

Changes to game mechanics to enhance the detail in which combat is simulated can enhance the "realism" of combat simulations and make for more immersion, but it also can make it harder to understand and intuitively predict how the set of combat rules will impact any given situation - and thus make it harder to come up with innovative strategies on the fly.

Late-90s games, through a relentless focus on refining the things hardware at the time could do, managed simplicity perfected. Early-2000s games managed complexity half-a**ed. And it absolutely killed the genre - a whole generation of players learned that RTS games were confusing morasses that sucked you in and left you scratching your head wondering what just happened. I'm... just a touch bitter about this.

 

[civvver]

While I agree the majority of post 90s rts titles aren't nearly as good as the golden age, I always thought their drop in popularity was more because of the rise of action and fps titles. Fps started taking gamers by storm in early 2000s as better games came out and every house began to get internet with many getting broadband connections. Counterstrike came out ~2000, call of duty 2003, really popular games kind of forcing rts to take a back seat. Action RPGs also seemed be to coming on strong with new 3d engines like jade empire and knights of the old republic and morrowind. I always kind of thought the shift in gamer demand drove development of rts titles way down, not the other way around (ie poor development reducing demand).

 

[BSPollux]

Did anyone here play Burntime? I love that game!

The goal was to conquer a postnuclear wasteland: (part of the map showing)


You had to hire men and assign them to villages to form your empire:


The main rescource of the game was food and water. Your men gathered them in your villages and you used them to trade for materials (wire, metal parts ...) that your technicians could turn into usefull tools and weapons:


I just loved the mix of rpg and strategy

 

[BSPollux]

Oh and for the same reason I liked Dune 1

 

[Oruc]

I really like the Settlers and Brutal Sports when I was a wee lad.

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

Did anyone here play Burntime? I love that game!

Oh and for the same reason I liked Dune 1

Both games are great. Not canonical strategies, but still great in delivering the respective experience.

Which reminds me of...

The King of the Dragon Pass



Most unique strategy game on PC ever. One of those games from which you learn something new while playing. They've ported it to iOS recently.

 

[Kyriakos]

This was nice too, as far as i know it was the only KOEI game to have an isometric map and rpg-style units. A good game, although a bit tiresome after you have united most of the island:



Of course Battle Isle was another Amiga classic. You could even play against another human, on the same computer



Blue Byte was a cool software company...

 

[Rub'Rum]

King of Dragon Pass is great, but you have to take in a lot of lore about the epic world of Glorantha to really appreciate it. The game provides a lot of the lore but you gotta sit down and read properly I think. The Guide to Glorantha is soon going to be available! I bought into that kickstarter, can't wait for my books.

 

[Tsoate]

Well this game is not that old (14 years old) but it is a lot better than the original of the series in my view (the original was groundbreaking as well though).

It is called Seven Kingdoms II.

I love this game! Still got the CD somewhere.. I hope! I'll have to dig it out. I loved when you were one of the monsters, and you captured a rival monster's lair, you could start blasting them out too!

This one too, 90s must have be the golden age of rts. Total annhiliation remains to this day my favorite rts ever, though supreme commander comes really close (pretty much a sequel anyway).

I still play TA, SC is the spiritual sequal perhaps, but I still love bombing around in a Krogroth!


-----------
Has anyone heard of the game Dracula?
http://www.old-games.com/download/5213/dracula-reign-of-terror-a

 

[Kyriakos]

This was released 13 years ago. It is called Tzar: The Burden of the Crown. By far the best Bulgarian computer game ever. Actually it was pretty good next to any other rts of the time, and had a lot of fantasy elements as well.

There were only three races, europeans, arabs and asians, but they featured a large number of regular and special units You could also hire foreign units at the bazaar.

 

[Quackers]

Just AOE for me. Fascinated me as a kid. Playing through the different campaigns with the history tagged onto each mission really got me into the game. Of course, i also had a detailed compendium of AOE with the game and it was highly pleasurable just to read through the history of each civilsation.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

This one is quite old: the hideous "Battle of the Bulge" spectrum game. My first strategy game.


It looked like Panzer General grandfather but in fact it was pretty complex and had many elements of later war strategy games.

I got it for swapping a boring, repetitive and eyecandy game about a jumping rally car with a fellow schoolmate. I guess the guy thought he just swindled me. He didnt susppect it was the other way around.