GOG Has Imperialism

[tgb]

Can Imperialism II be far behind?

[ArizonaTank]

Wow!!  Good news indeed!!

[Martok]

Can Imperialism II be far behind?

I live in hope... 

[Queeg]

My favorite games of all time.

Perfect candidates for iPad resurrection. 

[Nefaro]

Can Imperialism II be far behind?

I live in hope...

I expect someone here will notify us when that happens?

I'd also expect that to be the case.. if it was also published & owned by Ubisoft (as was this one).

I never played either Imperialism game for some odd reason.  Probably because I never saw it for sale at the brick & mortars back then and didn't hear much about it until a long time later.

[steve58]

This thread caught my eye and forced me to dig out my old Imperialism II CD just to see if it'd load/play on Windows 7 (Pro, 64-bit, SP1)...and it does!  :)   ...or at least seems to so far, haven't messed with it more than loading and firing up a game, but no crashes.  Something to mess with over the long weekend...

[son_of_montfort]

My favorite games of all time.

Perfect candidates for iPad resurrection.

Totally true!

[ArizonaTank]

I never played either Imperialism game for some odd reason.  Probably because I never saw it for sale at the brick & mortars back then and didn't hear much about it until a long time later.

Highly recommend Imperialism I at GOG for $6.  Graphics are dated of course, but the game really shines.  Kind of like a lite version of Vicky II with some elements of transportation tycoon mixed in, but turn based.  The manual is about 100 pages...so there is quite a bit of depth.  You develop your empire through conquest or development.  Pick your takeover targets based on their natural resources.  Establish trading relations.  Send in developers to buy up the resources.  Bribe them.   Then, if they still don't want to be "civilized" send in your armies. 

[Queeg]

This thread caught my eye and forced me to dig out my old Imperialism II CD just to see if it'd load/play on Windows 7 (Pro, 64-bit, SP1)...and it does!  :)   ...or at least seems to so far, haven't messed with it more than loading and firing up a game, but no crashes.  Something to mess with over the long weekend...

While confined to my laptop during the hurricane, I revisited Imperialism II for a couple of days.  What a great game!

Every time I play it, I wish we could pass legislation requiring all game designers to study it. 

1.  The interface is clean and everything is interconnected.

2.  You research something, you get to build it.  You build it, it produces tangible product.  If you build a lumber mill, it's so much more satisfying to get wood instead of a 0.000375% increase in some hidden production value.  (I wish the Paradox guys had been awake during Imperialism class.)     

2.  The game elements are simple but challenging:  six or so commodities, two of this makes one of that, and Worker A needs this food and Work B that food.  Simple.  But really hard to fulfill over the course of game - just when you're ready to take off, some critical shortage always creeps up on you.  (Compare to Paradox games.  In EUIII, for example, is there a single commodity that you really NEED?  Apart from tiny, largely invisible increases in income, why trade at all?)   

3.  Same with the transport system.  Developed a nice gold mine overseas?  Great, now all you have to do is transport the gold back home.  But, wait, you need those same ships for trade.  Or that grand invasion you've been planning.  You suddenly need more ships, which means you suddenly need more cloth, which means you suddenly need more cotton....which is also overseas, which means you need more ships....  (Again, I'm talking to you, Paradox.  A game mechanic, if well conceived, can be very simple and still very challenging.)

4.  I even like the combat (though I may be in the minority on this).  Each unit plays a specific role.  Tactics actually matter.  And I get to do it myself.  (Instead of just watching sprites stand on the map stabbing each other (for weeks!).  Another Paradox staple.)

5.  Finally, turned-based beats RTS for strategy games.  (RTS, with its emphasis on speed over thought, is too often just camouflage for a weak AI.)

My own view is that Paradox has taken us about as far as we can go in the spreadsheet as game genre.  Here's hoping we can press the reset button a bit and revisit the elements that made games great in the beginning, before mega-computers spawned game bloat, when game designers had to search for elegant abstractions.  That may be the best impact of the mobile platform.  (I actually think CK2 is an improvement on the typical Paradox model, though they seem intent on adding yet more layers of questionable complexity with each DLC.)

Thanks.  I needed to say this.  I feel better now.   ;)           

[Nefaro]

I never played either Imperialism game for some odd reason.  Probably because I never saw it for sale at the brick & mortars back then and didn't hear much about it until a long time later.

Highly recommend Imperialism I at GOG for $6.  Graphics are dated of course, but the game really shines.  Kind of like a lite version of Vicky II with some elements of transportation tycoon mixed in, but turn based.  The manual is about 100 pages...so there is quite a bit of depth.  You develop your empire through conquest or development.  Pick your takeover targets based on their natural resources.  Establish trading relations.  Send in developers to buy up the resources.  Bribe them.   Then, if they still don't want to be "civilized" send in your armies.

I'll definitely check it out sometime.  :)

[FarAway Sooner]

That's an awesome game.  About 10 years ago, I played on an Ultimate Frisbee team with 2 of the 3 lead folks from Frog City (who designed both I and II).  The guy who helped plot out the game system (w/his brother, whom I didn't know) had a great head for gaming, and his wife was a kick-ass project manager.  They eventually sold out to a larger company, but they had a good run for a while.

And Imperialism II was certainly their crown jewel.  If only there had been a way to get the AI to be more responsible with money, it would've been perfect!!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I was always put off by the fact that the game used a randomly generated fictional world instead of a simulation of the real one.

[OJsDad]

This thread caught my eye and forced me to dig out my old Imperialism II CD just to see if it'd load/play on Windows 7 (Pro, 64-bit, SP1)...and it does!  :)   ...or at least seems to so far, haven't messed with it more than loading and firing up a game, but no crashes.  Something to mess with over the long weekend...

While confined to my laptop during the hurricane, I revisited Imperialism II for a couple of days.  What a great game!

Every time I play it, I wish we could pass legislation requiring all game designers to study it. 

1.  The interface is clean and everything is interconnected.

2.  You research something, you get to build it.  You build it, it produces tangible product.  If you build a lumber mill, it's so much more satisfying to get wood instead of a 0.000375% increase in some hidden production value.  (I wish the Paradox guys had been awake during Imperialism class.)     

2.  The game elements are simple but challenging:  six or so commodities, two of this makes one of that, and Worker A needs this food and Work B that food.  Simple.  But really hard to fulfill over the course of game - just when you're ready to take off, some critical shortage always creeps up on you.  (Compare to Paradox games.  In EUIII, for example, is there a single commodity that you really NEED?  Apart from tiny, largely invisible increases in income, why trade at all?)   

3.  Same with the transport system.  Developed a nice gold mine overseas?  Great, now all you have to do is transport the gold back home.  But, wait, you need those same ships for trade.  Or that grand invasion you've been planning.  You suddenly need more ships, which means you suddenly need more cloth, which means you suddenly need more cotton....which is also overseas, which means you need more ships....  (Again, I'm talking to you, Paradox.  A game mechanic, if well conceived, can be very simple and still very challenging.)

4.  I even like the combat (though I may be in the minority on this).  Each unit plays a specific role.  Tactics actually matter.  And I get to do it myself.  (Instead of just watching sprites stand on the map stabbing each other (for weeks!).  Another Paradox staple.)

5.  Finally, turned-based beats RTS for strategy games.  (RTS, with its emphasis on speed over thought, is too often just camouflage for a weak AI.)

My own view is that Paradox has taken us about as far as we can go in the spreadsheet as game genre.  Here's hoping we can press the reset button a bit and revisit the elements that made games great in the beginning, before mega-computers spawned game bloat, when game designers had to search for elegant abstractions.  That may be the best impact of the mobile platform.  (I actually think CK2 is an improvement on the typical Paradox model, though they seem intent on adding yet more layers of questionable complexity with each DLC.)

Thanks.  I needed to say this.  I feel better now.   ;)         

Have you ever actually played Victoria?  Diffently have to balance resources, goods and needs in that game. 

[Boggit]

This thread caught my eye and forced me to dig out my old Imperialism II CD just to see if it'd load/play on Windows 7 (Pro, 64-bit, SP1)...and it does!  :)   ...or at least seems to so far, haven't messed with it more than loading and firing up a game, but no crashes.  Something to mess with over the long weekend...

While confined to my laptop during the hurricane, I revisited Imperialism II for a couple of days.  What a great game!

Every time I play it, I wish we could pass legislation requiring all game designers to study it. 

1.  The interface is clean and everything is interconnected.

2.  You research something, you get to build it.  You build it, it produces tangible product.  If you build a lumber mill, it's so much more satisfying to get wood instead of a 0.000375% increase in some hidden production value.  (I wish the Paradox guys had been awake during Imperialism class.)     

2.  The game elements are simple but challenging:  six or so commodities, two of this makes one of that, and Worker A needs this food and Work B that food.  Simple.  But really hard to fulfill over the course of game - just when you're ready to take off, some critical shortage always creeps up on you.  (Compare to Paradox games.  In EUIII, for example, is there a single commodity that you really NEED?  Apart from tiny, largely invisible increases in income, why trade at all?)   

3.  Same with the transport system.  Developed a nice gold mine overseas?  Great, now all you have to do is transport the gold back home.  But, wait, you need those same ships for trade.  Or that grand invasion you've been planning.  You suddenly need more ships, which means you suddenly need more cloth, which means you suddenly need more cotton....which is also overseas, which means you need more ships....  (Again, I'm talking to you, Paradox.  A game mechanic, if well conceived, can be very simple and still very challenging.)

4.  I even like the combat (though I may be in the minority on this).  Each unit plays a specific role.  Tactics actually matter.  And I get to do it myself.  (Instead of just watching sprites stand on the map stabbing each other (for weeks!).  Another Paradox staple.)

5.  Finally, turned-based beats RTS for strategy games.  (RTS, with its emphasis on speed over thought, is too often just camouflage for a weak AI.)

My own view is that Paradox has taken us about as far as we can go in the spreadsheet as game genre.  Here's hoping we can press the reset button a bit and revisit the elements that made games great in the beginning, before mega-computers spawned game bloat, when game designers had to search for elegant abstractions.  That may be the best impact of the mobile platform.  (I actually think CK2 is an improvement on the typical Paradox model, though they seem intent on adding yet more layers of questionable complexity with each DLC.)

Thanks.  I needed to say this.  I feel better now.   ;)         

Have you ever actually played Victoria?  Diffently have to balance resources, goods and needs in that game.

@OJsDad :)

Just got the impression - and I apologise if I'm wrong- that you think Imperialism II is Industrial Age - it's not. It covers approx 1492 to about 1800ish. If you want the Victorian/Industrial Age you need Imperialism I. If you get the CD you will need to set the compatibility settings on the setup file, otherwise you might have problems, as I did, when trying to get it to run in Win7. Both are good games, but have a different flavour. Graphics are hugely dated, but the game is fun.

[bbmike]

Great news indeed! I love both Imperialism and Imperialism II (as you can tell from my avatar!). I wish someone would make a good Imperialism III.
If anyone would like more color in Imperialism I have a mod that brightens things up a bit. There are two options but I think the second post is the better one.