Terrence BurrowsTerrence BurrowsCIS587 – Spring 20005/15/00Assignment 1 – Formal Game ReviewThe game that I am reviewing is a “turn-based space strategy” game called Master of Orion (version 1.3 1993). This game is appropriate for ages 12 and up. The game was produced by Microprose (bought by Hasbro in 1998) by the following people:Designer: Stephen BarciaProducer: Jeff JohanninganProgrammers: Stephen Barcia, Maria Barcia, and Ken BurdThe price of this game was $20 when I bought the game in 1996. You can now probably get it in a “bargain bin” for $5 or $10 if you can find it at all. The minimumhardware requirements stated in the instruction manual are:MS-DOS 5.0 or higherIBM PC with a 16 MHz 386 processor14 MB of hard drive space4 MB Ram VGA graphics card and monitorMicrosoft compatible mouseSound Blaster, Ad-Lib, or Roland MT-32 compatible sound cardThe game runs a little slow on the minimum hardware required. The game runs fine on my Pentium 133 with 16 MB of RAM. This is an MS-DOS only game. The game will not run in Windows 95 or in a DOS window in Windows 95. The game can be installed directly from the supplied CD using the installation program. A setup program must be run prior to starting the game to set up the sound card drivers.The game has the following introductory story line:“By the beginning of the 23rd century, ten races had emerged with the technology necessary to colonize deep space. For nearly a century, population growth on all of planets had outstripped planetary resources, and soon all races were forced to expand and discover new worlds to colonize. As history has proven time and timeagain, unrestrained expansion inevitably leads to war.”In Master of Orion your role is to be the ruler of one of the intergalactic races in the game galaxy. Your basic goal is to conquer the entire galaxy. You can conquer the galaxy by eliminating all of the other races in the game or by being voted Emperor of the Galaxy (2/3 vote needed). There are elements of resource management,exploration, diplomacy, trade, espionage, sabotage, ground warfare (limited), space combat, researching new technologies, and designing new space ships.You start the game by picking which race you are going to be, what ship icon style you will have, and the name of your ruler and home planet. You start with one planet arbitrarily located in the galaxy, two scout ships, and a colony ship. You use the scoutships to discover habitable planets in the galaxy. It takes one colony ship per planet to colonize a habitable planet. The main menu on the main display allows you to access game options (save, quit, etc.), design new ships, view your space fleet, view the entire galactic map, view other races and your ranking among them, view your planetary (colony) statistics, view the technologies you are currently researching and have already discovered, and the “Next Turn” button. You manage the total amount of planetary resources allocated to each of the followingresource types on each colony: ship production, defense, industry, economy, and technology. You can adjust how much of the total available technology resources are allocated to researching the following technologies: computers, construction, force fields, planetology, propulsion, and weapons. With each technological discovery yourrace gains certain benefits. Eventually your race will discover other races in the galaxy. You have several diplomatic options available to you including attacking the race encountered, offeringtrade agreements, offering treaties, exchange technologies, bestow gifts, spying, espionage, and sabotage. If you decide to attack an enemy race you encounter then a space combat display will come up with several options. You can win the battle, lose the battle, or attempt to retreat from the battle. You can take an other races colony by first destroying their colony then establishing a new colony using one of your colony ships or you can land ground troops on the colony and take it by force. Of course the other races in the game can also take your colonies in the same manner (and they will!). The game ends when all of your colonies are eliminated (you lose), you eliminate all of the other races colonies (you win), or you are voted Emperor of the Galaxy by a 2/3 majority of all the colonies in the game (you win). If another race is voted in as Emperor of the Galaxy you can accept the ruling (you loose) or not accept the ruling, in which case all other races attack you as one race until you are eliminated or you eliminate them.Master of Orion has the following special game features: Random planetary disasters (earthquake, radiation spill, etc.) Random planetary benefits (resources discovered, etc.) Random powerful enemy life forms entering the galaxy (space amoebae, space crystal) Random discovery of ancient space derelicts containing lost technology Conquering the Guardian of Orion bestows powerful technological advances to your race Extensive technology tree Fully customizable space ships Random galaxy creation for unlimited game playThe user interface is very clean and simple to use. The majority of the user input required is via a mouse. The user can change certain game setting by using the mouseto adjust “slider” bars. Very little keyboard input is required. There are 18 predefined“hotkeys” that the user can activate but they are not required to play a game. A fully illustrated and informative manual accompanies the game CD.There is only one slight bug in this game. The AI of other races in the game is somewhat suspect when a race occasionally goes from a “worship” type of alliance with your race to a “hate/war” relationship with your race instantly and for no apparent reason. This is rare and it seems to occur near the end of a game.Master of Orion can be extremely challenging at the higher difficulty levels and yet the game difficulty levels seem fair. Playing as each of the different races available (ten total) makes for a unique gaming experience each game. There is satisfaction each time your race makes a new technological discovery. The technology tree itself has a lot of variety, creativity, and it is fairly large. The space combat itself is unique and fun each time because of the different weapon and defense technologies each shipcan possibly have. You feel a real since of victory when you take an enemy colony and a real sense of
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