As is my nature, I'm always on the hunt for games created pre-1992 and typically (but not always) those aimed at the North American Amiga market as it guarantees a seamless NTSC experience. In the past few weeks many of the games that have intrigued me are oddly of a war-themed nature. I'm not a huge war gamer in general, but these games all sounded really good.
The first one was Silent Service by Sid Meier, which I'm still in the middle of learning and playing. So far I like it very much.
But my latest acquisition is called Empire. It was originally created as a computer game in 1977 in FORTRAN for Caltech's computers (originally conceived as a game as early as 1971!) by the very talented and renowned programmer named Walter Bright.
Empire was the grandaddy of turn-based war games and its game play is considered to have inspired later games like Civilization.
Originally the game was a text-based experience. By the time it was ported to the Amiga in 1987 it was given a fully realized mouse-driven graphical user experience with pull-down menus and huge maps. It makes me wonder if Empire was the first game to implement a "fog of war" concept.
In any case I've only just barely touched the surface of this very innovative and oft-imitated game and plan to give it the time it deserves later this year.
My copy is in pristine condition, has everything it came with back in 1987, and works! I've installed it to the hard drive (no copy protection). I've contacted Mr. Bright via email to see if he'll grant me permission to host an ADF of the original game here on Amiga Love.