| Banyon Wars Soleau Software, 1990 | |||||||||||||
| User rating: No rating | DOS Shareware (full version) | Screenshot | |||||||||||
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Banyon Wars is a game of global domination, like Risk. Instead of a world map, battle takes place among 35 cities divided between 8 islands of varying size. Occupying an entire island gives you bonus armies based on the size of the island. Random flooding, seismic activity and revolution can destroy armies, and distribution centers, which are randomly distributed across the map, occasionally double the number of troops residing in them. The game features CGA graphics and pits you against 2 computer opponents. There are 7 difficulty levels and a random difficulty level, and you can set the maximum number of armies that each city can have at the beginning of the game. The shareware version isn't limited in any way compared to the full version. Banyon Wars v2.0 Shareware (99k) I have found no ordering information for this game, and it is not listed on Soleau Software's website.
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| Battle for Atlantis Soleau Software, 1990 | |||||||||||||
| User rating: No rating | DOS Shareware (partial game) | Screenshot | |||||||||||
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Battle for Atlantis is a game of global domination, like Risk. Based on Banyon Wars, this game adds EGA graphics and has four factions. Battle takes place among 43 cities divided between 8 islands of varying size, which collectively make up the atoll of Atlantis. Occupying an entire island gives you bonus armies based on the size of the island. Random flooding, seismic activity and revolution can destroy armies, and distribution centers, which are randomly distributed across the map, occasionally double the number of troops residing in them. The game pits you against 3 computer opponents, and has 7 difficulty levels and a random difficulty level, and you can set the maximum number of armies that each city can have at the beginning of the game. The registered version loads and exits faster. Battle for Atlantis v2.2 Shareware (138k) I have found no ordering information for this game, and it is not listed on Soleau Software's website.
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| Blind Wars Soleau Software, 1992 | |||||||||||||
| User rating: No rating | DOS Shareware (partial game) | Screenshot | |||||||||||
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Blind Wars is a game of global domination, like Risk. Based on Isle Wars, Blind Wars takes away the bonus cards and doesn't let you see your opponent's armies. It works quite well, and adds a new element to a familiar game: bluffing. You can leave a critical area undefended and your opponents may assume that enough armies are present to make victory impossible. Instead of a world map, battle takes place on a land mass with 77 cities divided between 10 countries. Occupying an entire country gives you 5 additional armies per turn. Random flooding, volcanic activity and revolution can destroy armies, and unexpected plenty, such as record crop yields, can add armies to a region. Distribution centers are randomly distributed across the map, which occasionally double the number of troops residing in them, making them strategically desirable, and making the strategy somewhat different each game. The shareware version pits you against 3 computer opponents, and allows customization of difficulty level and the maximum number of armies that each city can have at the beginning of the game. The registered version allows up to four humans to play. Complete version history:
Soleau Software still sells the registered version of this game for $12 by download only.
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| Isle Wars Soleau Software, 1991 | |||||||||||||
| User rating: No rating | DOS Shareware (partial game) | Screenshot | |||||||||||
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Isle Wars is a game of global domination, like Risk. Based on Battle for Atlantis, Isle Wars is played with a mouse, reduces the number of difficulty levels to four, and uses cards to add a new element to the gameplay. Battle takes place among 46 countries divided between 9 continents of varying size. Occupying an entire continent gives you bonus armies based on the size of the continent. Random flooding, seismic activity and revolution can destroy armies, and distribution centers, which are randomly distributed across the map, occasionally double the number of troops residing in them. After every turn in which at least one country has been conquered, the invading army receives a card. Unlike Risk, there are a great variety of different bonuses awarded by the cards, and there is no guarantee of having a set of three after receiving 5 cards. If cards can't be played, or if the player elects not to use them, he must discard a card of his choosing before collecting another card once he has 5. Cards can be used to add 5, 8, 15, or double the number of armies that can be assigned at the beginning of the turn, bomb a city, protect the player from being bombed, or airlift armies to a non-adjacent country. The shareware version pits you against 3 computer opponents, and allows customization of difficulty level and the number of armies at the beginning of the game. The registered version allows up to four humans to play.
Soleau Software still sells the registered version of this game for $12 by download only.
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| World Empire Viable Software Alternatives, 1991 | |||||||||||||
| User rating: No rating | DOS Shareware (partial game) | Screenshot | |||||||||||
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World Empire is a game of global domination, like Risk, except that there are no cards to award bonus armies. The key difference is the introduction of "ideologies". Each player chooses an ideology to support: Populist, Militarist, Socialist or Realist. The world is divided into 71 nations, each of which supports one of the players' ideologies. When you conquer a nation that supports your ideology, they greet you as liberators and require only 1 army to hold them, whereas nations that support rival ideologies need additional armies to remain in order to prevent a revolution. When a nation revolts, the player whose ideology they support receives 5 armies in that country. Otherwise combat is similar to other games in the genre, with invisible dice being thrown to determine the outcome of each battle. Ties go to the defender but, starting in v1.50, ties go to the attacker if the defending nation supports the attacker's ideology. Armies are awarded at the beginning of each turn based on the number of nations held, plus bonus armies for holding an entire continent. The overall progress can be viewed on the world map, while combat takes place on detailed continent maps that also show each nation's ideology. The shareware version can be played by one to four players, with the computer serving as the opponent in a one player game. The registered version can be played against up to six computer opponents.
Viable Software Alternatives still sells World Empire V Deluxe, a Win32 version of the game, for $18 by download or CD-ROM.
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| World Empire II Deluxe Viable Software Alternatives, 1992 | |||||||||||||
| User rating: No rating | Win16 Shareware (partial game) | Screenshot | |||||||||||
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The World Empire series moved to Windows in the second game of the series. It's a game of global domination, like Risk, except that there are no cards to award bonus armies. Each player represents an ideology — Populist, Militarist, Socialist or Realist. The world is divided into 139 nations, each of which supports one of the players' ideologies. When you conquer a nation that supports your ideology, they greet you as liberators and require only 1 army to hold them, whereas nations that support rival ideologies need additional armies to remain in order to prevent a revolution. Armies are awarded at the beginning of each turn based on the number of nations held, plus bonus armies for holding an entire continent. World Empire II adds an "all nations conquered" option, in addition to the "all nations neutral" starting position of the original. Populations and national capitals are now listed for each country. Starting with v1.5, the game became "Deluxe" because it adds a real world simulation mode to the registered version, in which population and development are taken into account. Version 1.5 also adds an option to have all sides start with 30 armies instead of 56, and to check the status of all countries on the continent. The shareware version can be played by one to four players, with up to two computer players (one in v1.0). The registered version can be played against up to seven computer opponents, and adds three new ideologies.
Viable Software Alternatives still sells World Empire V Deluxe, a Win32 version of the game, for $18 by download or CD-ROM.
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| World Empire III Viable Software Alternatives, 1994 | |||||||||||||
| User rating: No rating | Win16 Shareware (partial game) | Screenshot | |||||||||||
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The third game in the popular world domination series, World Empire III improves on World Empire II by adding a lot of new images and graphics, more attractive maps, and MIDI music, some of which is pretty catchy. It's also possible to see how many armies are in each nation on the map screen during gameplay, instead of having to check the Status screen. Otherwise the game is the same, except that you can no longer play against two computer opponents in the shareware version, and the "expert" option that starts players with 30 armies instead of 56 is now reserved for the registered version. The world is still divided into 139 nations, each of which supports one of the players' ideologies. Version numbers continue from where they left off in World Empire II, starting with v2.0 in World Empire III. The shareware version can be played by one to four players, with the computer serving as the opponent in a one player game. The registered version can be played against up to seven computer opponents, and adds four new ideologies.
Viable Software Alternatives still sells World Empire V Deluxe, a Win32 version of the game, for $18 by download or CD-ROM.
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| World Empire IV Viable Software Alternatives, 1996 | |||||||||||||
| User rating: No rating | Win16 Shareware (partial game) | Screenshot | |||||||||||
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The fourth game in the popular world domination series, World Empire IV improves on World Empire III by adding online play. It's also possible to see how many armies are in each nation by hovering the mouse pointer over a nation, and there are buttons for both regular and blitz (continuous) attacks instead of having to toggle between attack modes. Player images have been replaced with photographs. The world is still divided into 139 nations, each of which supports one of the players' ideologies. Version numbers continue from where they left off in World Empire III, starting with v3.01 in World Empire IV. The shareware version can be played by one to four players, with the computer serving as the opponent in a one player game. The registered version can be played against up to seven computer opponents, and adds four new ideologies.
Viable Software Alternatives still sells World Empire V Deluxe, a Win32 version of the game, for $18 by download or CD-ROM.
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