Category: Strategy and War Games

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Roger Keating & Ian Trout GAME DEVELOPER:Strategic Studies Group (SSG) GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Studies Group (SSG) Copyright 1988, Strategic Studies Group (SSG) Last in the celebrated series of wargames based Battlefront, SSG? revolutionary game engine which was released on Apple II and Commodore 64 only. Like other…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Roger Keating & Ian Trout GAME DEVELOPER:Strategic Studies Group (SSG) GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Studies Group (SSG) Copyright 1989, Strategic Studies Group (SSG) Decisive Battles in American Civil War games were an early attempt by SSG to offer an accurate portral of the war that became a hit…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Dreamforge Intertainment GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Copyright 1996, Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) War Wind is SSI’s outstanding entry into the crowded RTS arena that sadly received a lot less accolades that it deserves. While some may dismiss it immediately as ?just another WarCraft…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Ascaron GAME PUBLISHER:Ascaron Copyright 1996, Ascaron Gloriana is another excellent underdog from Ascaron, one of the most underrated strategy game companies today. Originally released in Germany as Elisabeth I, Gloriana is a historical trading simulation similar to Holistic Designs classic Machiavelli The Prince. The…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Anton Dresden & Buzz Siler GAME DEVELOPER:Siler/Siler Ventures GAME PUBLISHER:Siler/Siler Ventures Copyright 1994, Siler/Siler Ventures Terrace is a unique board game that rocketed to fame when it was selected to feature as a permanent prop onboard the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Billed as…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Scott Kim GAME DEVELOPER:MetaCreations GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1996, MetaCreations One of the most unique and intriguing board games ever made, MetaSquares was created for America On-Lines games room by Scott Kim, renowned puzzle designer who created Heaven & Earth for Buena Vista and Obsidian CD-ROM game…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Mission Studios GAME PUBLISHER:Interplay Copyright 1994, Mission Studios / BOOKUP Possibly the best instructional chess game ever made, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess is based on the excellent book of the same name (no relation to the film Searching for Bobby Fischer). For those who…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jason Templeman & Arthur DiBianca GAME DEVELOPER:Logic Factory, The GAME PUBLISHER:Virgin Interactive Copyright 1998, Logic Factory, The The Tone Rebellion is a great sequel to Ascendancy, an innovative space strategy game that was unfortunately too riddled with bugs in the first release to attract many gamers.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Russ Brown GAME DEVELOPER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Copyright 1997, Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Billed as “the sequel of the century!,” Panzer General II did live up to that claim– the game boast a stronger AI, more varied scenarios, and gameplay enhancements…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:TopWare Interactive GAME PUBLISHER:WizardWorks Copyright 1998, TopWare Interactive Emergency: Fighters for Life is a unique and fun “light” strategy game from TopWare that got far too little shelf life than it deserved. It is a real-time strategy game (RTS) that is very different from…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Bill Spieth & Ted Spieth GAME DEVELOPER:Frog City GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Copyright 1999, Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Imperialism II: Age of Exploration is an outstanding turn-based strategy game that expands on the premise set in its predecessor, Frog City/SSI’s underrated Imperialism. The game is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Bill Spieth & Ted Spieth GAME DEVELOPER:Frog City GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Copyright 1998, Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) One of the best strategy games ever made, Imperialism is the rare turn-based game that strikes a near-perfect balance between economics, diplomacy, and military action set in…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Phame GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Phame Yet another innovative but not very well known freeware puzzler from Japan. Gravity Sports 3 is a cool puzzle game where you control a cute anime girl named Jiima, who wants to collect all the candies in each…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Bernd Ludewig & Thomas Schl?tel GAME DEVELOPER:Ascaron GAME PUBLISHER:Ascaron Copyright 1993, Ascaron One of the best historical business games ever made, The Patrician enjoyed tremendous success on the Amiga but unfortunately very little attention from PC gamers (the same fate suffered by most other Amiga hits).…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:GAMOS GAME PUBLISHER:Arsenal Copyright 2001, GAMOS Patience is a great collection of 21 solitaire games that introduces a novel concept: animated cards (called Living Cards in the game). All 52 playing cards is animated similar to chess pieces in Interplays Battle Chess, each with…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Stephen Jones GAME DEVELOPER:SDJ Enterprises GAME PUBLISHER:SDJ Enterprises Copyright 1991, SDJ Enterprises Shareware simulation of Napoleonic era, set during the period of the First Empire. Similar to SDJ’s other wargames, La Grande Armee was designed to be played with friends only– no computer opponent is available.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:IBM GAME PUBLISHER:IBM Copyright 1984, IBM One of the first backgammon games for the computer, Backgammon from IBM is a solid rendition of the popular board game. Despite its age, Backgammon stands the test of time fairly well, with crisp graphics, decent computer opponent,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Tobias Schilgen GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Tobias Schilgen Yucata’ by independent developer Tobias Schilgen is an excellent Windows version of the German board game of the same name published by Hans im Gluck in Germany, which is in turn based on the ancient Mayan…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Charles Moylan GAME DEVELOPER:Big Time Software GAME PUBLISHER:Battlefront.com Copyright 2000, Big Time Software Combat Mission is arguably the very best squad-level first-person wargame ever made, lack of hype and limited distribution notwithstanding. Ciril Rozic’s excellent review says it all about what makes the game an instant…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Lifestyle Software GAME PUBLISHER:Lifestyle Software Copyright 1994, Lifestyle Software Endorsed by one of the world’s most famous players, Ed Kantar’s Bridge Companion is one of the few bridge games that focus on teaching the basic rules, similar to Maurice Ashley Teaches Chess for chess.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Capstone GAME PUBLISHER:Capstone Copyright 1994, Capstone One of the best games from Capstone (and given their miserable track record, that is saying a lot), Grandmaster Chess is an innovative chess game that sadly received far too little recognition in its time. To compete with…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Steve Clark & Ian Mathias GAME DEVELOPER:Mastertronic GAME PUBLISHER:Virgin Interactive Copyright 1989, Mastertronic This Mastertronic/Virgin version of Risk is an official conversion of the classic Parker Brothers board game. In contrast to many other “official” conversions that are poor replica of the board game originals, Risk…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Gary Grigsby GAME DEVELOPER:Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) GAME PUBLISHER:Mindscape Copyright 1995, Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI) One of the best wargames ever made, period. Since Darren Ingram’s review of this masterpiece for CDMag is much more well-informed than mine could ever be, I would like to quote…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Harvey Stroud GAME DEVELOPER:Rainbird GAME PUBLISHER:MicroProse Copyright 1990, Rainbird One of the more mediocre games from Rainbird/MicroProse, Betrayal is a typical medieval strategy game, released only in Europe, that plays like it aspires to be another Defender of The Crown, but couldn’t quite pull it off.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Micro Forte GAME PUBLISHER:Ripcord Games Copyright 1998, Micro Forte Enemy Infestation is an interesting and enjoyable squad-based RTS. The action takes place on a human colony of Redavi, where an alien spaceship has crash-landed. The ship is actually one of many colonizing pods sent…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Brad Fregger GAME DEVELOPER:Publishing International GAME PUBLISHER:Spectrum Holobyte Copyright 1987, Publishing International Excellent solitaire game with high historical value. In the designer?s own words at MobyGames: Solitaire Royale is ?…the first commercial instance of Card Solitaire on the PC and Macintosh. There are 8 different solitaire…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Clayton Kauzlaric GAME DEVELOPER:Cavedog Entertainment GAME PUBLISHER:GT Interactive Copyright 1999, Cavedog Entertainment After the surprise success of Total Annihilation, it was hard to see how Cavedog would manage a successful follow-up. Sadly, they didn’t. TA: Kingdoms was a massive commercial flop, most people see it as…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Chris Beatrice GAME DEVELOPER:Impressions GAME PUBLISHER:Sierra On-Line Copyright 1998, Impressions One of the best strategy games ever made, Lords of Magic: Special Edition is an excellent fantasy strategy game that, much more so than G.O.D.’s overhyped Age of Wonder, deserves to be considered the true spiritual…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Trevor Chan GAME DEVELOPER:Enlight Software GAME PUBLISHER:UBI Soft Copyright 1999, Enlight Software When Trevor Chan?s Seven Kingdoms came out in 1997, it took a lot of people by surprise, and was touted by many as the ?thinking man?s Warcraft.? The game features a great mix of…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Software Sorcery GAME PUBLISHER:Sierra On-Line Copyright 1996, Software Sorcery Yet another game that proves beyond all doubt how great graphics does not automatically make a good game. Ostentatiously a spiritual successor to Cinemaware’s Defender of The Crown, Conqueror AD 1086 offers little more than…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Steve Green GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1992, PCT Captured by Pirates! is a fun turn-based board game of ship-to-ship combat among pirates on the high seas for 1-4 players, any of which can be computer-controlled. Each player begins the game with a fleet of 20…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Steve Moraff GAME DEVELOPER:MoraffWare GAME PUBLISHER:MoraffWare Copyright 1992, MoraffWare Shareware buffs will no doubt have heard of Steve Moraff, author of a series of cult classic RPGs that bear his name. Moraff’s Stones is the more obscure entry, not least because it is not an RPG.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Paul Murray GAME DEVELOPER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Copyright 1998, Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) People’s General is an extension of SSI’s famous ?Five Star General’ series that include some of the best selling computer wargames in history, and it shows in this…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Silas S. Warner GAME DEVELOPER:MUSE Software GAME PUBLISHER:MUSE Software Copyright 1981, MUSE Software One of the best games ever made in any genre, RobotWar is a strategy/puzzle/simulation hybrid masterpiece by Silas Warner, creator of Castle Wolfenstein for MUSE Software. The game is best described as a…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:J. W. Connelley & Jon Freeman GAME DEVELOPER:Epyx GAME PUBLISHER:Epyx Copyright 1983, Epyx One of the most original and influential games ever made, Epyx Crush, Crumble & Chomp!. The description in the manual is enough to tell you why this game is special: [the game] gives…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Bruce Williams Zaccagnino GAME DEVELOPER:Fogstone Enterprises GAME PUBLISHER:Quantum Quality Productions (QQP) Copyright 1995, Quantum Quality Productions (QQP) The Grandest Fleet 2 is the never-released sequel to The Grandest Fleet, QQPs underrated naval wargame that updated the classic Lost Admiral with SVGA graphics and more emphasis on…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Avalon Hill GAME PUBLISHER:Avalon Hill Copyright 1981, Avalon Hill One of Avalon Hills earliest games for the PC, B-1 Nuclear Bomber is a simplistic wargame that lets you fly a B-1 bomber on a mission over the Soviet Union. You must fly through stiff…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Jones & Nicholas Snape GAME DEVELOPER:Splinter Vision GAME PUBLISHER:Electronic Zoo Copyright 1990, Electronic Zoo One of the most obscure strategy/action hybrids of all time, Eco Phantoms is an ambitious mix of action and strategy that does neither well. Detailed description and review from MobyGames: “After…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Dave O’Connor & Tony Oliver GAME DEVELOPER:Panther Games GAME PUBLISHER:Panther Games Copyright 1989, Panther Games ne of the most overlooked wargames of all time, Fire Brigade is an exceptional game by Panther Games that simulates the 1943 battles around Kiev on the Eastern Front. Released only…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Kostas Symeonidis & John Tsoukalidis GAME DEVELOPER:CyLog Software GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, CyLog Software N-Knights and N-Queens are two excellent computer version of classic chess problems. N-Knights contains two problems, Max Knights and Min Knights. In the Max Knights puzzle, your goal is to move the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Franz Felsl GAME DEVELOPER:PopTop GAME PUBLISHER:Gathering of Developers Copyright 2001, PopTop Tropico is the newest effort from PopTop Softwere, who enjoyed considerable success with Railroad Tycoon II. Using the same game engine as RT2, just modified to fit their new game, PopTop was able to once…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Holistic Design GAME PUBLISHER:Talonsoft Copyright 2001, Holistic Design Merchant Prince II is an excellent sequel to Holistic Design’s classic underdog Merchant Prince (which was later updated and published as Machiavelli The Prince by MicroProse). Don’t expect anything radicaly different or changed from the original…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) GAME PUBLISHER:Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Copyright 1997, Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) Dark Colony is an underrated real-time strategy game in the same vein as StarCraft or Warcraft 2. Its commercial failure is perhaps unsurprising, given the deluge of RTS games…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Vince DeNardo GAME DEVELOPER:Interplay GAME PUBLISHER:Interplay Copyright 1995, Interplay Conquest of the New World: Deluxe Edition is a much-improved update to Interplay’s highly underrated game of colonizing the American continent. GameSpot’s T. Liam McDonald posted an excellent review that should convince everyone of how great the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Peter Turcan GAME DEVELOPER:PSS GAME PUBLISHER:PSS Copyright 1990, PSS Armada is the first naval wargame in an unrelated series of real-time wargames with isometric perspective by Peter Turcan. Unfortunately, it is also the most obscure due to much more limited distribution than his previous games. As…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Peterson GAME DEVELOPER:Avalon Hill GAME PUBLISHER:Avalon Hill Copyright 1982, Avalon Hill Andromeda Conquest is one of the first galactic conquest games ever made for the PC. Not surprisingly for a game this old, the gameplay is quite simplistic the entire game was coded in BASIC,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Tom Hall GAME DEVELOPER:SoftDisk Publishing GAME PUBLISHER:SoftDisk Publishing Copyright 1993, SoftDisk Publishing Tiles of The Dragon is a fun, no-frills Mah Jongg game from id legend Tom Hall’s early days at SoftDisk. For those who are unfamiliar with the game, the goal is to remove as…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Phil Steinmeyer GAME DEVELOPER:PopTop GAME PUBLISHER:Gathering of Developers Copyright 1998, PopTop Railroad Tycoon II is an incredibly addictive railroad management simulation that occupied my time for much of 2000. The game is the true heir to Sid Meier?s masterpiece Railroad Tycoon, although it was designed by…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Brian Reynolds GAME DEVELOPER:Firaxis GAME PUBLISHER:Firaxis Copyright 1999, Firaxis On SMAC‘s official website, we learn of an unexpected reactor malfunction aboard the colony ship (christened U.N. Unity) that wakes everyone from cryo-sleep and damaged the communications equipment and contact with mother Earth is lost. The travelers…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Green GAME DEVELOPER:Interactive Magic GAME PUBLISHER:Interactive Magic Copyright 1998, Interactive Magic The Great Battles Collector’s Edition is 4 games in one- The Great Battles of Alexander (the Great), The Great Battles of Hannibal, The Great Battles of Caesar, and a Scenario Designer/Player Utility. This collection…