Category: Strategy and War Games

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Hardesty GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, David Hardesty Farkle is a small but fun PC version of a medieval dice game of the same name. The objective is to score points by rolling combinations of dice, until one player scores over the ‘game’ score.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Detlev Schaefer GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Detlev Schaefer Mini-Avalanche is a nice little PC version of Avalanche, a 1966 reflexes-oriented game from Parker Brothers. In this 2-player game, the players take turns dropping balls from the top of the board. On their way to…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Nick Wallace & Tim Wallace GAME DEVELOPER:Vortex Software Design GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1999, Vortex Software Design FireFighter is a fun and unique action/strategy game s a fire commander to coordinate the activities of firefighters in controlling outbreaks of fires, extinguishing the flames as quickly as possible…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Empire Interactive GAME PUBLISHER:Empire Interactive Copyright 1997, Empire Interactive Fields of Fire (released as War Along the Mohawk in the US) is an interesting tactical-level real-time war/strategy hybrid with a dash of RPG elements. The game takes place in the early 1700’s, casting you…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Arcanium Productions GAME PUBLISHER:Arcanium Productions Copyright 1997, Arcanium Productions The Isle of Four Winds – Rune War is a unique Mahjong game that wraps the traditional Oriental board/gambling game with a Western-style fantasy mythos, with a plot and “Rune War,” an average conquer-the-map game.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Metropolis GAME PUBLISHER:Interactive Magic Copyright 1997, Metropolis Robo Rumble is a decent real-time strategy game (in fact, one of the first 3D releases) that features some new concepts to the tried-and-true genre dominated by Westwood’s Command & Conquer series. The game is set on…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Cliff Edwards GAME DEVELOPER:EBro Software GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Cliff Edwards Viking Siege is a great DOS version of hnefa-tafl (literally Kings table), a great Scandinavian board game that was immensely popular across northern Europe in the dark ages. The game is similar to chess in…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Christian Mauduit & U-Foot GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Christian Mauduit & U-Foot Liquid War is a very unique and addictive wargame designed for multiplayer. The games real-time nature and complete lack of conventional units may make it look more like a psychedelic action game…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Digital Labs GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Digital Labs Taipan for Windows is a great fanmade remake of Taipan!, a classic historical trading game for Apple II based on James Clavell’s best-selling novel of the same name. This version is extremely faithful to the original…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Smozzie GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Smozzie Fracas is an excellent freeware wargame that looks and plays like Risk the board game, but with many enhancements. Your goal is to conquer the world map by annihilating other players up to six, any of which can…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Zeppelin Games GAME PUBLISHER:Zeppelin Games Copyright 1993, Zeppelin Games Arcade Fruit Machinefrom Zeppelin Games is a nice computer conversion of a fruit machine ? known as ?slot machine? in the US. Although it?s not a full-fledged casino game, Arcade Slot Machine is still very…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Kingsoft GAME PUBLISHER:Kingsoft Copyright 1990, Kingsoft Turn It is a simple solitaire Mahjongg game that is set up a bit differently from normal: instead of a mountain of tiles, you just see a whole screenful of tiles at the beginning of the game, all…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Paul Canniff & Russell Williams GAME DEVELOPER:Flying Lab GAME PUBLISHER:Strategy First Copyright 2001, Flying Lab Rails Across America is an excellent strategy game debut from Flying Lab Software, published by Strategy First. Although it seems at first glance to be another hands-on railroad building/management game in…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Joachim Fraeder GAME DEVELOPER:X-ample Architectures, The GAME PUBLISHER:X-ample Architectures, The Copyright 1993, CP-Verlag Magnetic is a decent Reversi variant from The X-ample Architectures, a German developer. The game is basically Reversi, except that you can only change the color of one tile to your color, not…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Lyu Shuzhi GAME DEVELOPER:SZ Soft GAME PUBLISHER:SZ Soft Copyright 2001, SZ Soft One of the best Go programs ever made, DieOrLive is to Go like chess problems are to chess: a fantastic collection of puzzles any Go student would have fun solving — and improving their…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Klaus Teuber GAME DEVELOPER:Kosmos GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Kosmos The First Colonists (formerly Settlers of Catan – the name was changed probably to avoid lawsuit possibilities by the boardgame manufacturer) is yet another fanmade PC clone of classic German board game Settlers of Catan, originally published…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Gerry Quinn GAME DEVELOPER:Bindweed GAME PUBLISHER:Bindweed Copyright 1999, Gerry Quinn Detective Chess is an original and amazingly addictive puzzle game based on the rules of Chess. As the official description says, … the idea comes from some puzzles invented by Jaime Poniachik, and published in one…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Michael Mefford GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1996, Michael Mefford Quod is great Windows version of a creative board game invented by G. Keith in 1979. Similar to chess, the game has simple rules requires sophisticated strategy to win consistently. The goal of the game is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Yvon Rozijn GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Yvon Rozijn Rummi is an excellent freeware computer version of Rummikub, one of my most favorite multiplayer board/parlor games and currently the third best-selling board game in the world according to Lemada, the official publisher (the game is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Kou Shibusawa GAME DEVELOPER:KOEI GAME PUBLISHER:KOEI Copyright 1996, KOEI Romance of the Three Kingdoms VI: Awakening of the Dragon is the last game in KOEIs acclaimed historical strategy series that was translated into English. The game was also never released for the PC, but thanks to…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:SoftDisk Publishing GAME PUBLISHER:SoftDisk Publishing Copyright 1993, SoftDisk Publishing Cyber Chess is a decent clone of Interplays Battle Chess, although with far inferior graphics and animations, even if it was released a few years later. The pieces are cast as sci-fi kings, queens, and…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Stephen Walton GAME DEVELOPER:Baen Software GAME PUBLISHER:Simon & Schuster Copyright 1983, Stephen Walton Starclash II is an excellent game of galactic conquest that unfortunately doesn’t stand up as well with time as Reach for the Stars. It is a greatly enhanced sequel to Baen Software’s earlier…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:John Grosch & Dave Grosch GAME DEVELOPER:Magicode GAME PUBLISHER:Micro League Copyright 1992, Magicode Ultimate Cards is a decent card game from Magicode/Micro League that offers the usual array of multiplayer card games, including Spades, Hearts, Gin Rummy, Oh Hell!, Whilst, and Crazy 8’s. The game offers…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ray Zimmerman GAME DEVELOPER:Computer Specialties GAME PUBLISHER:Computer Specialties Copyright 1993, Computer Specialties Incredible and Fascination from ComSpec are fun and quite original solitaire games, although they don’t have much replay value beyond the first few games. The object of the games are similar: in Incredible, you…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ray Zimmerman GAME DEVELOPER:Computer Specialties GAME PUBLISHER:Computer Specialties Copyright 1993, Computer Specialties Incredible and Fascination from ComSpec are fun and quite original solitaire games, although they don’t have much replay value beyond the first few games. The object of the games are similar: in Incredible, you…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Eduardo Martins GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1992, Eduardo Martins Poker Solitaire is a great PC version of the fun solitaire game of the same name, sometimes called Poker Squares, which rewards both lucky guessing and accurate calculation of odds. Unlike most solitaires, where you’re working…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:George Leritte GAME DEVELOPER:SoftDisk Publishing GAME PUBLISHER:SoftDisk Publishing Copyright 1989, SoftDisk Publishing Accordion is a fun multi-level solitaire card game on one of SoftDisk’s “Big Blue Disk” installment. The game is uniquely challenging yet easy to learn. More description from the game: “In each level, varying…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jim Chambers & Deborah Chambers GAME DEVELOPER:SoftDisk Publishing GAME PUBLISHER:SoftDisk Publishing Copyright 1988, SoftDisk Publishing Knight Exchange is a fun and quite unique board game based on concepts similar to chess. In this game, the board is a four by four grid. Twelve markers, each representing…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Anonymous MahJong is a nice little Mahjong game included for free with DOS/V, a Japan magazine. The game offers a no-frills, no-nonsense Mahjong experience. If you don?t know how to play the game, this one isn?t for you as…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Ripton GAME DEVELOPER:Avalon Hill GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, David Ripton Colossus is an excellent Java clone of Avalon Hill’s classic Titan boardgame that has long been out of print. The concept of Titan is similar to the likes of Fantasy General and Archon: it’s a…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:IBM GAME PUBLISHER:IBM Copyright 1982, IBM Casino Games is a very early casino game from IBM, coded entirely in BASIC. Albeit primitive graphics and gameplay (you can’t expect much more from a 1982 title ;)), the game offers decent options and underlying (mostly random)…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Tom Cleaver & Jay Wilt GAME DEVELOPER:Avalon Hill GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1993, Jay Wilt Galaxy is a superb fan-made remake of a classic Avalon Hill game of the same name, designed by Tom Cleaver and released for the Commodore Business Machine (CBM) 8000 in 1981. In…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:TopWare Interactive GAME PUBLISHER:Interplay Copyright 1997, TopWare Interactive Earth 2140 is a decent real-time strategy game set in the far future. Although it tries to be different from Command & Conquer, Earth 2140 is not different enough to warrant much interest from C&C fans.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Michael Ammerlaan GAME DEVELOPER:Vivid Software GAME PUBLISHER:Vivid Software Copyright 1994, Vivid Software One of the most unique games ever made, To Serve and To Protect places you in command of a police department in a crime ridden city. Like a real police chief (and subordinate commanding…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jeff Johnson & Jeff McBride GAME DEVELOPER:Mare Crisium GAME PUBLISHER:Empire Interactive Copyright 1996, Mare Crisium Undoubtedly one of the best and most underrated 4X strategy games ever made, Stars! is a massive strategic romp through the universe that plays best in multiplayer mode. Your goal? To…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Beau Langston GAME DEVELOPER:Fallen Angel Industries GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Fallen Angel Industries Siege is an excellent and unique puzzle/strategy game from Fallen Angel Industries. The review at Total Klik says it all about this underrated gem: “Siege blends the strategy and puzzle game genres to…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:IBM GAME PUBLISHER:IBM Copyright 1995, IBM POWER from IBM is an interesting boardgame-style turn-based wargame that challenges your strategic skills against your opponents in an abstract race to rule the world. The objective of the game is to defeat your opponents in a tactical…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Rod Derousseau & Chris Stewart GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1994, Rod Derousseau & Chris Stewart Laserwars is an interesting game of strategy-based battle game. As the game’s descriptions put it: “Luck may be involved depending on the options that are set. The game is played…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Starbyte GAME PUBLISHER:Starbyte Copyright 1992, Starbyte Not to be confused with another game with the same name from reLINE, Black Gold is a great simulation of the oil industry from Starbyte. The game is similar to reLINE title, but focuses more on realism and…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Noah Hearle GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1999, Noah Hearle Arrakis is a laudable effort by fans of Westwood’s revotionary Dune 2 to create another real-time strategy game in the Dune mythos, based largely on game concepts from Westwood’s classic. Dune 2 veterans will be right…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Paradox Entertainment GAME PUBLISHER:Strategy First Copyright 2001, Paradox Entertainment The game Europa Universalis caught the strategy gaming community a good year ago by surprise. Paradox, the Swedish developer, had put together a game that simulated country interactions between 1492 and 1792. It featured immense…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Arto Tenkanen GAME DEVELOPER:Anonymous GAME PUBLISHER:Anonymous Copyright 2001, Arto Tenkanen Four Winds Mah Jong is an excellent Mah Jong game that offers a variety of scoring systems to choose from, although it lacks the personality of Hong Kong Mah Jong. Before I talk about the game,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Nine Dragons GAME PUBLISHER:Nine Dragons Copyright 2001, Nine Dragons Hong Kong Mah Jong is the best commercial Mah Jong title I have ever played, hands down. Before I talk about the game, let’s dispel some myths. Contrary to popular Western belief, the actual Mah…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Paul Grosse GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1998, Paul Grosse The Real Mah Jong is a nice freeware game that offers excellent, no-frills gameplay. The author named the game “real Mah Jong” because contrary to popular Western belief, the actual Mah Jong game that is played…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Hak Jong Lee GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1991, Hak Jong Lee Jang-gi is a competent, no-nonsense computer version of Chinese chess that plays a decent game without the frills of commercial titles. If you enjoy Chinese chess, this freeware game from Korea is well worth…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Firefly Studios GAME PUBLISHER:Gathering of Developers Copyright 2001, Firefly Studios This game didn’t quite sit right with me to start with, I’ll admit. The problem is that, while you use troops and build fortifications and set up resource-gathering chains and so on, making it…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Deep Red Games GAME PUBLISHER:Infogrames Copyright 2001, Infogrames Recently, there’ve been a bunch of different tycoon series of games. This isn’t from any of them. Monopoly Tycoon, like the name suggests, is based on the classic board game “Monopoly”. It has all of the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ezra Sidran GAME DEVELOPER:GameTek GAME PUBLISHER:GameTek Copyright 1995, GameTek The War College is the third and last entry in the revolutionary but never-caught-on Universal Military Simulator (UMS) series, first released in 1988 by Rainbird. Similar to two previous UMS games, The War College is different from…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Software Engineering GAME PUBLISHER:Software Engineering Copyright 1997, Software Engineering Dogs of War is an excellent shareware wargame unofficially based on Axis & Allies, a popular Milton & Bradley boardgame of the same name. The story of how the game came to be abandoned (or…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Empire Interactive GAME PUBLISHER:Empire Interactive Copyright 1997, Empire Interactive Combat Chess by Empire Interactive is a decent clone of Interplays venerable classic Battle Chess that is long on glitz but short on computer intelligence the most important aspect of a computer chess game. The…