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User:Yodin/Empire

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Empire: wargame of the 20th century.

Civilisations

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Empire games

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There have been a number of games called Empire or Empires, and I hope to improve the quality of their articles on Wikipedia. The titles of these articles are currently often quite ambiguous, and many other games don't have articles at all. To help co-ordinate myself on this, I'm going to use this space on these games. If you have any ideas on this, please let me know.

Classic Empire

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The current article (Classic Empire (computer game)) is on the family of games (not really a series, it branches out and people add their own rules without any idea of it being a sequel) started by Walter Bright's Empire (the versions he wrote often have the subtitle "Wargame of the Century"), and including the Empire Deluxe series (here series is more appropriate) not one specific game, or even versions of one set of rules. The group is rarely called Classic Empire outside of Wikipedia (other than on Walter Bright's own recent website... though Usenet may also use the phrase, I don't know), and to make things more confusing, the Interstel version was sold by New World Computing (the publishers of Empire Deluxe) as Empire Classic, and used that name for copyright. The title shouldn't use "(computer game)" as it currently does ("(video game)" is preferred), but as it refers to more than one game a specific year or company to disambiguate is unhelpful. "(Walter Bright)" could be used, as they all spring from him, but as Wikipedia may have led to the series being commonly known (as commonly as the series is known at all) by this name, and there is no article under the title at the moment, Classic Empire could be used. An individual article could be reasonably started on many of the games, due to their popularity at the time of their release (at least the early ones then...) and afterwords. The known games and versions in this family are:

  • 1971 prototype board game (Never completed. Worth noting in the main article, but doesn't merit its own article.)
  • Early BASIC PDP-10 prototypes (As above: never completed.)
  • PDP-10 FORTRAN versions (Caltech version, from which many are hacked. Originally printer based, didn't work until screen based. A working version, but not enough (or enough information left) to merit an entire article on.)
    • Hacked branch to DECUS and beyond (Widespread, but many different versions, impossible to track them all down. Includes "Version 5" the PD version for DOS noted in the current article, and the versions on Debian, managed by Eric S. Raymond)
  • PDP-11 Assembly version (sold 2 copies by announcement in BYTE magazine, but again not enough information.)
  • IBM C / C++ versions (Version 1, Wargame of the Century, includes Interstel's version, but the other versions aren't notable enough on their own or together, despite being sold more successfully under BYTE. All up to and including this one should probably only merit a section each on the main article.)
    • Interstel's Empire: Wargame of the Century (Popular and notable enough for its own article. Should really only include a single sentence on pre-C versions, but probably more on the other "Version 1"s in a Development section.)
  • Empire Deluxe (Again, deserves its own article)
  • Empire II: The Art of War (Though less popular than the previous two, still deserves its own article.)
  • Empire Deluxe Internet Edition (Minor changes from original Empire Deluxe, not really critically reviewed, and small time publication: deserves a reasonable section in the Empire Deluxe article (it's Empire Deluxe too after all), but not its own article.)
  • Empire Deluxe Enhanced Edition (A lot more to write about for its own article, but again very little's written about it.)
  • D version (Walter Bright's latest version. Not enough for a full article.)
  • Empire Deluxe Graffiti Entertainment version (Rights for development aquired, to be made for DS and Windows. Un-released so far, maybe a section in any specific Empire Deluxe article, but isn't anticipated enough for its own article until release.)

Empire Classic

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Another article on a family more than a series: definitely not a single game. Again the current article uses "(computer game)" instead of "(video game)", and the games are called Empire not Empire Classic, but again due to convention (I think mainly by Wikipedia), Empire Classic could be used, as long as it had a hatnote to both Classic Empire (as Walter Bright's version was sometimes called this) and the Empire disambiguation page (probably also to Empire Classic Handicap!), otherwise "(Civilisation)" could be used as all versions stem from this game. Even more divided, diverse and less traceable tree: starting at the same point though: the Reed College Empire board game (see later section), made into a computer game as Civilisation, which was lost and remade by two different people separately: Peter Langston and Ben Norton, with the branches diverging there. No commercial releases, and really no one version or branch merits its own article separate from the main article, but the main article deserves far more detail.

PLATO's Empire

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Doing fine: the title Empire (PLATO) is unambiguous and the article's ok, but could be improved. Could do with an infobox for one.

Shards Software's Empire

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No article, only a mention in a list of Acorn Electron games. The same version probably plays on both Acorn Electron and BBC Micro B. Should really have its own article (maybe Empire (Shards Sofware)), and maybe one for the publisher Shards Software too.

Outland Quest Sotware's Empire

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A 2 player Atari 8-bit strategy game by Outland Software. No article currently.

Empire!

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Doing ok, again good title (Empire!), and article.

Empire: Total War

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Great article, title's perfect.

David Mullich's Empire trilogy

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No article currently on any of them: could have a single article with redirects from each individual game title, called Empire (video game trilogy). The games were called:

  • Empire I: World Builders
  • Empire II: Interstellar Sharks
  • Empire III: Armageddon

And were all RPGs for the Apple II. The terms Empire I, Empire II and Empire III currently have no article, and are ambiguous, but with the subtitles are unambiguous.

Empires Half Life Mod

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Article's good, but the title Empires (video game) is ambiguous, though it doesn't need to be renamed until an article on another game called Empires without any subtitles is made. Probably Empires (2006 video game) since references to Half Life aren't appropriate.

Empires Play-By-Mail game

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No article currently. The website contains information, but it may not merit a full article. The company or inventor may or again may not, with this game included under that.

Empires: Dawn of the Modern World

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Excellent article, another perfect title.

Reed College Empire board game

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Not much information, much more to add or many sources: could be merged with Empire Classic which it went on to inspire. The title Empire (strategy game) is ambiguous as many of the games are strategic; "(board game)" could be better, but again there are many board games, though none yet really on Wikipedia. As it wasn't published and no names of a single inventor are passed down, the only other terms I can think to use are "(Reed College)" or "(1960)", either on their own or in conjunction with "(game)" or "(board game)".

Empire Napoleonic Miniature Wargame

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Current title Empire (miniatures game) is possibly not perfect, but isn't ambiguous. The article is very poor for an award winning game.

Shadow Complex

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Working titles were Empire and Empire: Alpha Complex: these should be included in the main article, and the links from Empire (working title) should be either included (possibly to back this up) or removed, and the article used to redirect to Shadow Complex.

Summary

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Game lists

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  • C64: Firebird, Shards, Interstel, but also a couple of strange German games
  • TRS-80: Wargame of the Century 5.3 (rewrite of FORTRAN v5 in Z80 ASM) & Peter Trefonas CLOAD Hamurabi-type game
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