There have been a number of computer games named Empire; please see for links to information on the games not relevant to this article. Empire (or Classic Empire) is a military game with simple rules, conceived by based on war movies and various board games. In the game, each player starts with one city in an unexplored world, and uses the city to build armies, aircraft, and various types of ships.

• Empire Deluxe Internet Edition

Cities take a particular number of turns to produce the various units. As players expand from the first city, they use their units to find and capture additional cities and become able to produce a greater number of unit types.

Players explore the world, capturing cities as they are found and using them to build more military units. Early versions were text-based, while later versions of the game added graphics. This game inspired a great deal of the strategic gaming genre, most notably including, Empire Master,.

Advertisements The DECUS fork At some point, someone broke through the security systems at Caltech, and took a copy of the for the FORTRAN/PDP-10 version of the game. This code was continually modified, being passed around from person to person. Eventually, it was found on a computer in by Herb Jacobs and Dave Mitton. They ported the code to the operating system and, under the alias of 'Mario DeNobili and Paulson' submitted the program to, a large user's group. DECUS programs were often installed on new computers at the time of delivery, and so Empire propagated further.

Eventually, Bright heard of this, and in 1983 contacted DECUS, who subsequently credited Bright in the catalog description of the program and re-added his name to the source code. Public domain version In 1984, Bob Norby, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, ported the DECUS version from the VAX, producing Empire 5.0, and Empire 5.1 (Color Supported), which required the ANSI.SYS driver. Mr Norby wrote: 'This program is a war game simulation for video terminals. It is distributed by DECUS on DEC computers.

While working for a company with a VAX, I became addicted to the game. When I left that company, it was necessary to find another way to continue playing.

So I implemented the game on the PC.' It was released as shareware, and found its way into many shareware collections, and was propagated into BBSs in the late 80s and early 90s.

Empire: Wargame of the Century After this, Bright recoded the game in the on an. With low commercial expectations, he submitted an announcement to 's 'New Programs' section, and received a flood of orders. He then licensed the game to a small software company named Interstel, who hired to add a. Starting around 1987, Empire: Wargame of the Century on the, and was produced. In its review of the game, noted the improved UI, saying 'the playability of an already successful system has been significantly enhanced.'

The game would later receive the magazine's 'Game of the Year' award for 1988. The version of the game was reviewed in 1988 in #131 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in 'The Role of Computers' column.

The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars. The Lessers reviewed the MS-DOS version of the game in 1989 in Dragon #142, and gave the game 4 out of 5 stars. Empire Deluxe In the early 1990s, Mark Baldwin and Bob Rakowsky rewrote the game, calling it Empire Deluxe for, and, released in 1993 with New World Computing as the publisher. Empire Deluxe sustained the old game play of Interstel's version in a standard game, while adding a basic version for beginners, and advanced game with new units such as the Bomber and Armor and maps sizes up to 200x200. Empire Deluxe enjoyed great success, and was noted as one of Gamespy's Greatest Games of All Time. But New World Computing eventually stopped publishing the game.

Baldwin and Rakowsky retained the copyrights, but in the latter half of the 1990s it was found on abandonware sites, though it still enjoyed a strong community following on the Internet. Empire Deluxe was reviewed in 1993 in #195 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in 'The Role of Computers' column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars. Empire Deluxe Enhanced Edition In Winter 2004, Empire Deluxe Enhanced Edition, a.k.a.

EDEE was produced for by Killer Bee Software. Based on Empire Deluxe's advanced game mode, this game added several new units, such as artillery, satellites, missiles, a helicopter, and mines. User options to increase map size to over 1000x1000, and to design new units and graphics, have made significant creative modification and extension of the game possible. Gameplay (based on Empire Deluxe) Units have very different capabilities, as well as different strengths and weaknesses. Destroyers move fast and are great for exploring, while battleships are very resilient and can also attack land units. The central unit of conquest is transports, which can carry two troop types.

Only Infantry and Armor can capture a city, and these two units must cross water in transports. The central unit of conquest has weak defences, so Empire strategy involves exploration in the context of providing safe passage for transports. Eventually, players expand their known worlds until the players find each other and fight until only one is left. This moment of discovery can happen quickly or not, especially when one allows the game to generate a randomly-populated world made of islands with cities, surrounded by a connected body of water. Units in Empire are aware of enemy who occupy grid squares around them only to a particular distance, and cities also are aware of enemy units adjacent to them. Otherwise, enemy units are not visible unless one moves close enough with one unit to see an enemy. Units battle by trying to take the grid location occupied by the enemy unit.

In most cases, this is a fight to the death, and the winner moves in to occupy the grid square after the combat. This combat is based on percentages rating one unit type against the others, so this is calculated, and an animated battle sequence is seen before the losing unit is removed. The combat animation is minimal, and allows one to focus on the strategic consequences of the combat. Many interesting starts get interrupted when one discovers enemy units next to cities which lack defenses. A city loses a percentage of its production capacity when it is captured, and it also loses any units it contains, as well losing the unit under construction. Cities are sometimes fought over repeatedly, until the city itself has little production capacity, and is used simply as a base for aircraft and as a point to fight over.

Cities that are not producing anything help a player's production value, and allow other, more efficient cities to produce units. Cities that are not producing will see their production efficiency increase as turns go. The ability to remain unseen, even in adjacent grid squares, for example, submarines are not visible to battleships aircraft and transports, allows players to scout enemy areas. Mottled, computer-generated island-worlds are typical, but Empire also has a world-generator, and comes with pre-designed worlds such as Europe and North America. When one plays on the random worlds, the players are placed randomly in one city.

There can be very different outcomes when one discovers an enemy city or unit very early compared with later. One is creating an empire, and the existing units in an army cost the player a percentage of overall production capacity.

This means large armies (including ships, planes, and land units) can prevent a player from efficiently creating further troops types. Since the game is turn based, players experience this production capacity as a percentage.

Units take a given number of turns depending on this percentage, and a low percentage can make certain units practically impossible to order. This is most important in the first part of the game, when one only has a small number of cities. Sequel In 1995, New World Computing published a sequel named Empire II: The Art of War. While the original had been a turn-based strategy, Empire II was shifted towards: there was no more empire-building and production of units, but the complexity and realism of battles were enhanced with features such as morale rules and various degrees of damage. The playable campaigns consisted of a collection of diverse historical or fictional battles.

The game editor feature was enhanced by allowing the user to design not only new maps and campaigns, but also new units with new graphics and sounds. See also.

References. (1987-11-03). Kritzen, William (Apr-May 1988), 'Empire: The Rise and Fall of Random Empires',: 40–42. 'Computer Gaming World's 1988 Game of the Year Awards',: 54, October 1988. Lesser, Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk (March 1988). 'The Role of Computers'.

Dragon (131): 78-86. Lesser, Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk (February 1989). 'The Role of Computers'. Dragon (142): 42-51. Retrieved 2009-04-04.

Lesser, Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk (July 1993). 'The Role of Computers'. Dragon (195): 57-64.

External links.

A Basic WW2 Mod version will be released within the month. It will be significantly different than the vanilla game.

The Basic mod will include new terrain and re-textured roads. I will try to include a few missions to help round out the mod. I will be creating a few more different world war 2 mods, that will introduce new units, missions, etc.

The idea is to incrementally add new units so people can choose which mod set they prefer. I did not want to put out one massive mod; It can be intimidating to make unit choices during the production phase. Basic mission scenario's may be backwards compatible to Intermediate and Advanced Mods but not the other way around.

Yes, thanks gryphin; the more detail on the unit the better the overall game experience. Also for now the WW2 Basic set is meant for player vs. Player as AI scripts have not been created for the different units.

At this time, I plan to get to that later. Secondly, I have a few questions for all, if you don't mind answering a survey so I know how to focus my energies. Would you like a WW2 kill team Mod setup. Meaning every unit would represent 1 man, tank, airplane, etc. So a truck would carry 10 infantry, etc.

The idea behind this, you would play on a 50X50 map with delineated objectives. This way you would get limited buy points giving yourself approximately 20 or so units. A few cities or maybe cities with very low production to ensure only the buypoints get you through the game. A few set-piece scenario's and playing time could be a 1/2 hour per play session. This would help those folks who have very little window of time to get some fun games in with a friend.

Empire Deluxe Internet Edition

I have setup a 'Friends then Foes' scenario. This would be a 3 player mission.

2 human players with an AI player 'roadblock' in between them. This mission meant as a competitive tournament style of mission. Perhaps if enough people are interested a prize could be given to the winner. Any feedback, good or bad welcomed. WW2 Basic Mod Unit data base is completed. Here is the link for download:.New update Updated the config files on 3 10 18 and also included 3 missing scenarios. If you have the Basic mod already then these are the files that have been added modified:.

Didn't get to spend as much time on this project as I would have liked as real life got in the way at times. Take it as an: it is what it is Mod. I will be moving onto an Intermediate Mod. A lot of preparation required before release, so no time frame for release. If you like the WW2 Basic Mod then try the Intermediate Mod. Eventually 3 Advanced Mods and an all inclusive grognard Mod is planned. But nothing is promised.

Below is the copy of the readme file: - Uploaded What's in the zip file: 4 main folders: 1. 3425WW2WBasicWW2EnhancedSetassets 2. Scns 2 files: 1.

3425WW2WBasicWW2EnhancedSet 2. WW2WBasicWW2 readme.txt Read the below for an understanding where everything needs to be placed. Once the 7zip file is extracted, please be sure to back up the WW2 Basic Mod folder.

Please be sure to have an existing backup of your EDCE files before you begin any Mod implementation. 'By the way as of 03-03-18 The current build mod of EDCE is build 10. Please do make sure you're up to date.'

- I can only use Windows as an example on where to place/implement the mod folders. I don't have the other operating systems on hand to check out where you would put the mod folder. If you have created your own load point, it's up to you to figure out where the udb loadpoint, etc.

Is. Notes from the Developer: For placement: The 'technical' term is, followed by the sub directory, so like /udb.