OT - What was your first TBS/War game?

[RabidFan]

I take it the titles are restricted to computer games...?

If so, I'm an Atari ST man...(or my dad was), so I would say

Breach
or
Empire

[Voidhawk]

Ahh! Breach! Wasn't that the Omnitrends game that was part of their "Interlocking Game System" or something? It was like a series of games that worked together (or separately, if you didn't have them all). If it's the same one I remember, Breach worked with the game called Rules of Engagement. You could disable and board enemy ships in Rules, and the game would automatically switch to Breach if you had it installed so you could carry out tactical squad maneuvers inside the enemy ship. WAY cool.

I could almost swear I used to play that on my old 386 PC, though. I might be thinking of one of the sequels...

edit: Yeah, I just looked it up on Underdogs. Rules of Engagement 2 and Breach 3 are the ones I was thinking of. Man, they just don't make 'em like that anymore.

[ January 26, 2004, 18:39: Message edited by: Voidhawk ]

[Puke]

Originally posted by Voidhawk:
Ahh! Breach!

Oh. My. God. I LOVED that game! I played Breach 1 and Breach 3 to DEATH! I had totally forgotten about it, until now. No, they dont make them like that anymore, XCOM came close, but just wasnt the same. I liked the variety of objectives available, such as insert or extract, hold objectives, retrieve items, etc.

I had NO IDEA that it integrated with a larger scale game. I feel robbed that I didnt get to play it that way.

That is one of the earliest and best TB wargames I have played, and probably the best squad based shooter. During the same era, I was playing a 4x space game called Celestial Ceasars on the ST. Prior to that, there was MULE on the Atari 400 (upgraded to 8K!), and that was probably the first. unless you want to count Whumpus Hunter, which loaded off a tape.

So many great old games, that would be so easy to recreate and expand on. So much effort wasted on crap that is expected to have market appeal.

[Puke]

ohmygod!

Did some searching on the web, and found some info on Breach 1, 2, 3 and ROE 1 and 2. Looks like I did play alot of Breach 2, in addition to 1 and 3 - just had forgotten about it!

but thats not the coolest thing. the coolest thing, as that all the above games, and many other very cool games (many of the ones listed in the Posts below) are available as abandonware. www.the-underdogs.com

they have a fully integrated Linked ROE2+Breach 2+Breach 3 with IGS as an 11 meg download. They have STARFLEET and STARFLEET 2, and some differently named STARFLEET 3ish sequel that I had never heard of! SF1 and 2 were some of the best capital ship sims EVER!

[ January 27, 2004, 05:53: Message edited by: Puke ]

[rdouglass]

Originally posted by Taz-in-Space:
First one?

Hmmm, I think it was: Reach for the stars
for the Apple II+ A primitive (by SE4 standards) Space 4X game. Anyone remember this???

(Taz feeling REALLY old now... must rest!)

That was one of my fav's as well, but I remember playing it on a Mac Plus in '86. I didn't know they made it for the II. However I do remember AutoDuel for the II+, now that was one of my all-time greatest games for eating up all my time. Anyone remember AutoDuel? Taz?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

a note, P, technically abandonware's illegal.

[Puke]

no, techically its a large grey area of debate. copyrights do expire, and must be actively defended to cary any weight. some games that are advertised as abandonware are actually not, as they are still available commercially in compilations and collections - and more recently in packages that come with emulators and arcade consoles.

there is no sweeping illegality of abandonware, as it depends on each individual case. do some research into copyright law, or just read the press about it.

Most abandonware sites (including the one referenced) remove links to games that are commercially available, and instead provide information regarding where the game can be purchassed. They are, in fact, good citizens with a healthy respect for the law and intelectual property rights. please refrain from making unfounded acusations of theviery, without knowledge of the facts.

This is not to say that a previously abandoned piece of software can not become commercial again, if someone acquires the publishing rights and decides to sell it. It is then the responsibility of the copyright holder to notify people whom are distributing the software without authorization - in which case abandonware sites will generally cease distribution of that particular piece of software, and instead link to where it can be purchased.

For this reason, it is a truely bothersome hassel to operate an abandonware site, with the constantly shifting availablility of some titles, and the fluctuating interest / disintrest of the current copyright holders. It is truely a commendable effort to put up with all that crap, for seemingly no profit to themselves. We're lucky someone is willing to do it, or these great titles would be lost.