Category: Strategy and War Games

As the name suggests, the objective is to construct and manage a towering skyscraper and keep its occupants happy. Offices, hotels, and condominiums give tenants places to live and work, while shops and restaurants provide commercial balance. Utilities such as hospitals and recycling centers become necessary as the tower grows in size. The player’s progress…

Released in 1994 for DOS this first game of the series tasks the player with freeing the island of Metavira from the greedy Santino. The player must recruit mercenaries as they explore, capture, and hold new territory. The natives harvest the valuable trees from which a revolutionary medicine can be extracted; a result of the…

Pirates! is Sid Meier’s firt foray into Strategy Gaming. Before Pirates! he was mainly involved in simulation games such as F-15 Strike Eagle and Silent Service. Just for that, this game deserves it’s place in history being the first attempt at strategy games of arguably THE GREATEST STRATEGY GAME DESIGNER OF ALL TIME. If not…

    Master of Magic falls among the games which pioneered the 4X game genre. A new game world is randomly generated with every new game. The player can customize some aspects of generation (land mass size, strength of magic, etc.). The player can also customize the skills, spell choices, and appearance of the player’s…

Master of Orion (MoO) is a turn-based science fiction computer strategy game designed by Steve Barcia, developed by Barcia’s company Simtex and published by Microprose in 1993. Although Alan Emrich coined the term “4X game” (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) in his review of the game, Master of Orion was not the first in this genre…

The Syndicate puts the player in charge of a player-named corporation in a gritty near-future cyberpunk-style world. Gameplay involves ordering a four-person team of cyborg agents around cities displayed in a fixed-view isometric style, in pursuit of mission goals such as assassinating executives of a rival syndicate, rescuing captured allies, “persuading” civilians and scientists to…

Transport Tycoon (TT) and Transport Tycoon Deluxe (TTD) are computer games developed by Chris Sawyer and published by MicroProse in 1994 (TT), and 1995 (TTD). The games are economic simulations, presented in an isometric view in 2D with 8-bit graphic by Simon Foster, in which the player is in control of a transport company, and…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Richard Evans GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, Richard Evans Zugzwang is an excellent chess tutorial/puzzle game coded in Adventure Game Studio, once more demonstrating versatility of this engine. If you don’t know what the name means, “zugzwang” is a situation in chess in which one…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Andreas Seyfarth & Andr Wichmann GAME DEVELOPER:Rio Grande Games GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, Andr Wichmann San Juan is a great fanmade PC conversion of the card game of the same name, which is in turn based on Puerto Rico board game. The description at Boardgamegeek.com explains…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, Battle for Wesnoth Turn-based war games with fantasy themes are among the rarest breeds of computer games: after SSI’s superb Fantasy General, armchair commanders have to settle for 4X strategy games like Age of Wonder or Heroes of Might…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Eric Miller GAME DEVELOPER:Norland Software GAME PUBLISHER:Norland Software Copyright 1983, Norland Software Sleuth is a simple, but fun and memory-challenging ASCII-based murder mystery written by Eric N. Miller, the man behind the well-made Norland Hangman series. In the author’s own words: “Sleuth is an interactive murder…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:RAM-SOFT GAME PUBLISHER:RAM-SOFT Copyright 1987, RAM-SOFT This is one of the older Yatzee games made for the computer as far as I know, developed and published by Danish RAM-SOFT. The interface is simple and the gameplay is flawless, and you can play with up…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Don Gibson GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1985, Don Gibson Although an inferior version of the game Monopoly Deluxe already included on The Underdogs, this old gem is nevertheless a fun PC version of the classic board game. The final version of the game, v5.5 done…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:John Thayer GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1984, John Thayer Computer Dots is a fun little would-be coffee-break game. Basically a PC version of the game “Dots”, the game was written in 1984, and is somewhat of a jewel for that fact alone. For those as…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Don Berg GAME DEVELOPER:Anonymous GAME PUBLISHER:Anonymous Copyright 1988, Don Berg A very simple black and white (pardon the pun) chess game with 6 difficulty levels. The computer opponent is decent enough, and you can choose whether to play white or black. It’s nothing spectacular, however, and…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Red Storm Entertainment GAME PUBLISHER:Red Storm Entertainment Copyright 2000, Red Storm Entertainment Shadow Watch is a fun, albeit short sci-fi tactical strategy game in the same vein as X-COM that offers some original ideas that make up for the short length, slow gameplay, and…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Andreas Seyfarth & Mark Blanco GAME DEVELOPER:Rio Grande Games GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, Mark Blanco Puerto Rico is a great fanmade PC game based on a great tabletop strategy game of the same name which is published in the USA by Rio Grande Games. In this…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Klaus-Jurgen Wrede GAME DEVELOPER:Rio Grande Games GAME PUBLISHER:KOCH Media Copyright 2004, KOCH Media El Grande is a decent PC version of the excellent board game of the same name, coded by the same company (Germany’s KOCH Media) who released the PC version of Carcassonne. The original…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Richard Hamblen & Robin Warren GAME DEVELOPER:Avalon Hill GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, Robin Warren RealmSpeak is a solid freeware Java version of Magic Realm, Avalon Hill’s classic and long out-of-print tabletop strategy game featuring fantasy elements. An ambitious game that is much broader in scope and…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Franz-Benno Delonge & Harald Gruber GAME DEVELOPER:Rio Grande Games GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, Harald Gruber Transsib is a great Java version of TransAmerica, a fun “beer & pretzel” tile-laying tabletop strategy game from Rio Grande. A game for 2-6 players, the goal in this game is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Richard Bartle & Dennis Taylor GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, Dennis Taylor wxSpellcast is a good Windows version of Spellcast, a fun multiplayer-only strategy game for UNIX that is in turn based on Richard Bartle’s Spellbinder paper-and-pencil game first published in his magazine. This two-player…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ben Mazur GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Ben Mazur Copyright 2004, Ben Mazur & Helge Richter MegaMek is a superb Java-based wargame based on FASA’s celebrated giant robot tabletop wargame called Battletech. As of July 2005, the game includes all level-1 (3025) tech and most level-2 (2750, 3050+)…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:New World Computing GAME PUBLISHER:Studio 3DO Copyright 1999, New World Computing Arcomage is a fun single or two-player fantasy card game, first appearing as a mini-game in Might & Magic VII that you can only play inns. Best described as a simplified rip-off of…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Friedemann Friese GAME DEVELOPER:Rio Grande Games GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, Friedemann Friese Fearsome Floors is an accurate Macromedia Flash conversion of a neat German board game of the same name (called Finster Flure in German). The goal is to get the yellow smilies (i.e. your opponents’…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Kris Burn & Matthias Bodenstein GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, Matthias Bodenstein Dvonner is a great Windows game that features tough AI opponent for the game of Dvonn, a fun and unique tile-stacking abstract board game invented by Kris Burn in 2001. From the official…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Edward Bono & PK Winter GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, PK Winter LeGame is a solid PC implementation of L Game, a neat little board game designed by Edward Bono that allows for an impressive range of possible moves (over 18,000), especially given a very…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Juha Holopainen GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, Juha Holopainen Spice Trade is a very interesting historical business game that is based on a unique perspective as far as computer games go: an Arab merchant living in the 14th century, when Europeans were starting their “great…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Brad Schick GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Brad Schick Robot Battle is a great programming game in the footsteps of Apple II classic Robot War. From the official website: “Your goal is to create robots or teams of robots to compete in tournaments against friends…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ian Bird GAME DEVELOPER:Activision GAME PUBLISHER:Activision Copyright 1991, Ian Bird One of the best games ever made for the Amiga and Atari ST, Deuteros is the superior sequel to Millennium, Ian Bird’s 4X masterpiece that was converted to PC by Paragon Software. Dixiak Narco’s review explains…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Istvn Kiss GAME DEVELOPER:Digital Reality GAME PUBLISHER:GT Interactive Copyright 1997, Digital Reality Imperium Galactica is a unique and commendable effort from Digital Reality that tries to blend 4X strategy genre with a real sci-fi story and adventure-genre-style plot development. The result is a hodgepodge of features…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:4Head Studios GAME PUBLISHER:JoWood Productions Copyright 2002, 4Head Studios One of the most underrated turn-based strategy games ever made, Europa 1400 from 4Head Studios/JoWood is a superb “medieval life simulation” that rewards the patience required to negotiate the complicated user interface and steep learning…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Thurston Searfoss GAME DEVELOPER:Fogstone Enterprises GAME PUBLISHER:Fogstone Enterprises Copyright 2005, Fogstone Enterprises The Lost Admiral Returns is Fogstone’s long-overdue sequel to The Lost Admiral, a 1991 underdog published by QQP, which is no longer in business. Peterb, owner of Tea Leaves gaming blog, posted an excellent…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Cameron Browne GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2003, Cameron Browne Akron is a decent PC implementation of the abstract board game of the same name which was invented by Cameron Browne. In the author’s own words: “Akron is a new connection game played with marbles on…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jeremy Craner GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, Jeremy Craner Qianhong is a good and free Chinese chess game for Windows. The author calls the game “Chinese chess for the casual and curious,” and this description fits Qianhong quite well. The well-written and concise on-line rules…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:NZP GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, NZP Beehive Solitaire is a solid PC implementation of an original solitaire game by NZP. From the official blurb: “This good and little-known solitaire is easy to play, and can be won reasonably often. But it’s not unusual for…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Victor Reijkersz GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Victor Reijkersz Definitely one of the best freeware wargames ever made, People’s Tactics is a great hex-based, turn-based war game that rivals many commercial games in terms of quality and AI strength. The quality of the game is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:EAI Interactive GAME PUBLISHER:Hasbro Interactive Copyright 1998, Parker Brothers Clue: Murder at Boddy Mansion is a very competent translation of Parker Brothers’ popular board game to the computer screen. Although I found the mouse-driven movements hard to do, and the game lacks the charm…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Alain Couchot & Bernard Klein GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Unknown Diam is a cool Flash version of a neat abstract board game for 2-4 players that makes an ingenious use of the third dimension (i.e. height). The goal of the game is to place…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jonathan Mak GAME DEVELOPER:Queasy Games GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, Queasy Games One of the best freeware multiplayer games I have ever come across, Gate 88 is a cool “action-RTS” game that features abstract graphics inspired by ABA Games’ Japanese shooters (Parsec47, rRootage, et. al.), combined with…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Sid Sackson & Dave Bernazzani GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1999, Dave Bernazzani Solitude for Windows is a superb freeware collection of 91 solitaire card games for Windows 95/98/NT. The games include many familiar favorites like Klondike, Yukon, and Poker Solitaire. But the highlights are modern…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Darwin Bromley & Bret Mulvey GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Bret Mulvey Rails is a faithful PC adaptation of the Eurorails board game from Mayfair Games, designed by Darwin Bromley. Description from Boardgamegeek.com: “Eurorails is another entry in the Mayfair crayon rail games, like Empire…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Reiner Knizia & Gabriel Rocklin GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2005, Gabriel Rocklin Modern Art is an excellent PC implementation of the board game of the same name designed by award-winning designer Reiner Knizia. Your goal: buy and sell paintings by five different artists to make…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Rob Bontenbal & Jurgen Muns GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Jurgen Muns Homas Tour is the original edition of the cycle racing game later known as Um Reifenbreite. The concise description from Boardgamegeek.com goes as follows: “Translating as “By the Width of a Tire,” this…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Thomas Mosbo & Robin Warren GAME DEVELOPER:Avalon Hill GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Robin Warren Wizards is a great PC conversion of the Avalon Hill fantasy board game of the same name. In this fantasy game, hexagonal map tiles are placed on a blank mapboard to make…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Doris and Frank & Franois Neville GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Franois Neville Ursuppe (German for “Primordial Soup”) is a good PC version of a fun board game of the same name. One of the most intriguing games based on “life theory” ever made, Ursuppe…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Dirk Henn & Sieuwert van Otterloo GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Sieuwert van Otterloo Metro is a cool Java implementation of an abstract board game of the same name, designed by Dirk Henn. The game starts with an empty square board. Basic rules, from the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Andreas Seyfarth & Mark Haberman GAME DEVELOPER:Rio Grande Games GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2004, Mark Haberman San Juan is a competently coded PC conversion of the card game of the same name, which is in turn based on Puerto Rico board game. The description at Boardgamegeek.com explains…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Young Chung GAME DEVELOPER:Ninano Software GAME PUBLISHER:Ninano Software Copyright 1995, Ninano Software 1995card is a cool PC version of Minhato, one of the two Korean card games that use cards from Hanafuda, the popular Japanese “flower card” game. The game is easy to learn, offers tough…