Dinosaur sightings: Empire Deluxe

By Mark W. Kaelin September 29, 2006, 3:45 AM PDT

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Just about everyone who claims to be a video gamer keeps a special place in their heart for certain specific games. These are the games that invoke the fondest memories and never fail to make you smile. Even the march of time cannot diminish the allure of these old games. While several games have achieved this status for me, the one I keep coming back to is Empire: World at World and the sequels Empire Deluxe and Empire II: The Art of War.

Empire was the computer game that ignited my turn-based strategy game addiction. It was my first just one more move game.

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For games that really hit my sweet spot I like to keep the box and all the stuff that came in it. However, for Empire keeping everything is very important for another reason. During installation the game asks for the first word of the third paragraph on page 155 of the manual (or something similar). Ah copy protection, what a quaint concept. Note the manual is 175 pages long – don’t see that anymore do you.

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There is a lot more here then just a jewel case with liner notes. This what a strategy game is all about.

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Complicated charts that explain each units capabilities. A perfect quick reference.

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But wait an appendix with actual quick reference charts.

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Empire II was released two years or so after Empire Deluxe, but it was strictly a DOS game. It was one of the last of its kind considering Windows 95 was on the way.

Empire II added the concepts of reinforcements and historical reenactments.

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Empire II maintained the standard for a thick all-encompassing manual of documentation.

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The page of credits for Empire II. Mark Baldwin is likely the most famous name here, at least for turn-based strategy game geeks like me.

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You can’t have too many charts in a strategy game.

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Just think, at one time these requirements were tough to meet. The MIDI music produced by my modern computers sounds terrible. Perhaps time has warped my auditory memories, but I thought for sure it sounded better than that.

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The opening screen playing some Russian classical symphony in all its MIDI synthesized glory.

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The key is to generate a huge random world with lots of adversaries. It may not look like it, but a huge map could take weeks to conquer.

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For a real challenge, you could make your opponents stronger and more agressive. Be prepared to fight off waves of enemy infrantry.

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Similiar to the Civilization games that would come a few years later, you start out with one city. From there the world is only about 5000 moves ahead of you.

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Here I am making progress. I have just made contact with the enemy. Mister light green doesn’t have a chance. The world is mine.

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The beauty of this old strategy game is the simplicity of movement and commands. There is no gold to farm, no resources to horde, and not diplomacy. Total world domination is all that we care about — a beautiful simple concept.

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This is the entire world revealed. It’s going to be a race to take the larger continent in the middle.

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By Mark W. Kaelin

Mark W. Kaelin has been writing and editing stories about the information technology industry, software, hardware, gaming, finance, accounting, and technology geekdom for more than 30 years.

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