I spent a good part of this weekend playing one of my all time favorite games.
Nope, not killing zombies. I was arming my cruisers with phasors and trying to keep Bothans from stealing the plans to my Doomstars.
What game was I playing?
Master of Orion II, aka MOOII
This game is one of my all-time favorites for primarily these reasons:
1. Turn-based combat with granular control of my ships.
2. Turn-based management of the colony.
3. The ability to design ships with the weapons and special gadgets I want.
4. Phasors (that when enough you have done enough research can be shield piercing)
5. Stellar Converter
I would have been playing Dead Rising or maybe some Gears of War, but Gina was watching movies on the big screen so I locked myself in the office and duked it out with the Psilons and Bulrathi.
I think another reason that I like MOOII so much is that it ties in the sci-fi elements of many different stories. You have your Star Wars elements, like the Ion Cannon (which was badass before they nerfed it in one of the patches), and the Doomstar (think Deathstar).
You get your Babylon 5 elements (in my opinion) with the elements of an ancient race that pops in and blow the place up their ultra advanced ships and weapons.
You get your Star Trek feel with Anti-Matter drives, Phasors, Anti-Matter Torpedoes, shields, disrupters, cloaking and phase cloaking, transporters and tractor beams.
Then there is the "Stellar Converter". This was a weapon featured in a movie that most sci-fi junkies know about but never really made it to the mainstream (again my opinion, since I was only two years of age when it was released) ,
Battle Beyond the Stars.
I would attribute the interceptors, bombers, and heavy fighters that Battlestar Galactica, though I am sure they can be equally attributed to Star Wars (x-wings, a-wings, y-wings, etc).
Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares was released in 1996. I think I bought it shortly after it came out. I think it was at the Tower Records (now gone) on Michigan Ave, across from the MSU campus.
I would like to think it is all Microprose's fault for developing such an addictive game that cost me many an hour that I should have been studying, sleeping, or going to class while I was at MSU. However, ultimately that is my fault, poor judgement, etc.
I can say honestly that I can play and beat a game of MOOII on Hard without a problem. I used to be able to beat it without much issue on Impossible, but lately I guess I am a little rusty.
I think I will probably play MOOII from time-to-time until the disc breaks and I cannot find a replacement.
They made a MOO3 and I waited with the anticipation of a kid waiting for x-mas morning. However, it sucked. They took away most of what I loved about the game. Namely, the turned based combat. MOO3 focused on the politics and empire building and not didn't provide as satisfying graphics or play control for the battles. The battles were all more or less automated and you just watch the outcome.
MOO3 was a huge disappointment for me. I would like to think that they will make a MOO4, but it too will probably suck. There was once a game that was being developed called Alien Intelligence from the specs I read about online at the time (like 8 years ago) it was going to be the contender to replace MOOII. It was turned based, it has great graphics, and the standard space based strategy empire building game.
It however, never got released. Not much on the 'net about the game anymore since it was bough by Interplay and now Interplay is no more. And in a six degrees of separation type of thing, I know one of the former higher-ups of Flatline Studios, the company developing the game, his name is
Eric Smith. He is one of the founders of
Unwired Buyer, an Austin based start-up that does some cool stuff with eBay, enabling you to bid via your cellphone right before the auction ends.
I tagged along with the UnWired Buyer guys at the eBay Developer Conference last year and he and I chatted about the whole Alien Intelligence thing. Now that I have a 360, I will have to see if he has Gears of War.
Back to the grind, Laterz.
