Strategic Conquest

Last updated
Strategic Conquest
Strategic conquest.jpg
Publisher(s) PBI Software, Delta Tao Software
Programmer(s) Peter Merrill
Platform(s) Apple Macintosh and Apple II
Release1984
Genre(s) strategy

Strategic Conquest is a turn-based strategy game based on the wargame Empire . It was written by Peter Merrill for the Apple Macintosh and released in 1984 by PBI Software, and later ported to the Apple II in 1986. Delta Tao Software took over distribution for later Classic Mac OS releases. It is sometimes shortened to Stratcon. [1]

Contents

Like Empire, the player's objective in Strategic Conquest is to defeat the enemy and conquer the world. The world is divided into islands that contain cities that can be captured to produce military units. Victory is achieved when all enemy cities have been conquered or when either player surrenders. It differed from Empire in a number of details, most notably its system for creating the game map. It can be played against the computer, or by two human players taking turns on one machine or two machines connected over an AppleTalk network.

Though the game has not been updated since 1998, it is fully compatible with Macintosh System Software from 6 to 9, and is also playable under the Classic environment included with PowerPC versions of Mac OS X up to Mac OS X v10.4.

History

Strategic Conquest was first developed in 1984 and 1985 by Peter Merrill on an Apple Lisa for the Apple Macintosh. [2] The first published version appears to have been in 1984, sometimes attributed incorrectly to John L. Jamison. [3]

Strategic Conquest Plus was released in 1986. In later documents this is generally referred to Strategic Conquest 2.0. The Apple II version of 1.0 shipped the same year, [4] and the Plus version the next year. [5]

The game was later acquired by Delta Tao Software, who continued development. Version 3.0 added 16-color graphics and optional MacinTalk prompts, while 4.0 was a major upgrade with new units (the helicopter and artillery), and a new map-building system based on fractals and allows the user to select maps with more or less land.

The latest version, 4.0.1, was released on February 2, 1998. [6]

Description

Setup

There are three types of games available: one-player games against the computer, two-player games on a single Mac, or two-player games over AppleTalk with one machine as the master and the other the slave.

When playing a one-player game (created by selecting "Single Player Game" in the setup window), the opponent player is the computer. From version 3, the player can select a skill level from one to fifteen to make the computer more or less challenging. In harder games, above level 10, the human player starts with fewer neutral cities nearby to conquer and takes twice as long to produce any particular unit than the computer.

The map is a horizontally oriented rectangle divided into a grid of unit-sized rectangles. Measured by playable grid units, the player(s) can choose a map that is small (48 x 32), medium (96 x 64), or large (124 x 96). The top and sides of the map do not 'wrap around', i.e., units cannot transit the edges to go from the right to the left side of the map, the top to the bottom of the map, or vice versa.

The 4.x versions include a re-written map generation system with three terrain settings: "wet" (mostly islands), "dry" (land including some bodies of water), and "normal" (mostly larger islands).

Game play

Near the end of a game in Stratcon 3.0. The player's armies, in white, are about to take one of the computer's remaining cites, in red. Player ships and fighters patrol around the island. Strategic Conquest endgame.png
Near the end of a game in Stratcon 3.0. The player's armies, in white, are about to take one of the computer's remaining cites, in red. Player ships and fighters patrol around the island.

Each player starts out in control of one city. All other cities are hidden and are neutral. The entire map - besides the player's city and the adjacent eight grid units - is black and must be discovered by sending units into it. The goal of the game is to capture cities and use them to produce additional military units to capture more cities. The game is won when one player controls all of the opponent's cities. Cities also offer the ability to refuel aircraft and repair ships.

The game is turn-based. A turn is completed when all of the player's units have an order given in a previous turn or have been given orders in the current turn. During the turn, players may also change what units their cities are producing.

A fog of war system is used, in that enemy units that are not adjacent to an enemy unit are invisible to the player. Enemy units become visible if they are discovered by the player in the course of his or her turn, until contact is lost and the enemy unit is no longer visible.

Units

All units may attack up to two times per turn. If you are playing against the computer you can extend this to however many moves would be left to the unit if you had not attacked by clicking the "W" (wake) key. Tanks and ships (including submarines) with a strength greater than one suffer a reduction in their number of moves per turn if they suffer sufficient damage in battle but are not destroyed. For instance, a tank with a strength of one has only one move per turn. This is not true of aircraft.

Unit:TankArtillery
(version 4)		FighterHelicopter
(version 4)		BomberTransportDestroyerSubmarineCarrierBattleship
Days to Produce:446825+8881020
Strength:211113331218
Attack Range:14111+11114
Captures City?:YesYesNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
Moves On:LandLandAnyAnyAnyWaterWaterWaterWaterWater
Moves/Turn:2120101034333
Fuel:N/AN/A201030N/AN/AN/AN/AN/A

Reception

An eight-page review in MacUser covered the 2.0 version in depth, including strategies for dealing with various units. It concludes that "With this wonderfully playable yet intricate program, PBI has superseded the tired genres of shoot-'em-up arcade spiels and rigidly structured text adventures" and awards it 4.5 out of 5. [7]

William H. Harrington reviewed the 1986 release of the game for Computer Gaming World , and stated that "Strategic Conquest Plus is one of those rare games that the author seems committed to improving. With a host of innovative new features and the ability to withstand a billion or so replays, SC+ is certainly worth taking a look at. Just keep the sound down if the boss is around." [8]

A reviewer for Next Generation scored the 1996 4.0 update four out of five stars, commenting that "Like all Delta Tao software, all of these features are executed impeccably - by gamers, for gamers. So, if you want a strategy game with a low learning curve and plenty of replay value, get this one; we enjoyed it." [9]

Inside Mac Games nominated Strategic Conquest as its pick for 1996's best strategy game, but ultimately gave the award to Command & Conquer and Warcraft II (tie). [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Freeciv</i> Open-source turn-based strategy game

Freeciv is a single- and multiplayer turn-based strategy game for workstations and personal computers inspired by the proprietary Sid Meier's Civilization series. It is available for most desktop computer operating systems and available in an online browser version. Released under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later, Freeciv is free and open-source software. The game's default settings are closest to Civilization II, in both gameplay and graphics, including the units and the isometric grid. However, with a lot of multiplayer games being played in longturn communities, rulesets and additional variants have evolved away from the original ruleset. Freeciv is playable online at Longturn.net, fciv.net, freecivweb.org and some temporary private servers.

<i>Civilization II</i> 1996 turn-based strategy video game

Sid Meier's Civilization II is a turn-based strategy video game in the Civilization series, developed and published by MicroProse. It was released in 1996 for PCs, and later ported to the PlayStation by Activision.

<i>Master of Orion</i> 1993 video game

Master of Orion is a turn-based, 4X science fiction strategy game in which the player leads one of ten races to dominate the galaxy through a combination of diplomacy and conquest while developing technology, exploring and colonizing star systems.

<i>Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots</i> 2004 American strategy video game expansion

Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots is the official expansion pack to the real-time strategy video game Rise of Nations. The game is the second in a series of Rise of Nations games by Big Huge Games. Thrones and Patriots had its premiere release for Microsoft Windows on April 27, 2004 in North America, and was later bundled up with Rise of Nations as the Gold Edition, which was released for Windows on October 28, 2004, and for Mac OS X in November 2004. Rise of Nations: Extended Edition was released on Steam on June 12, 2014 and includes both the original game and Thrones and Patriots with updated graphics and Steamworks integration for multiplayer.

<i>Star Wars: Empire at War</i> 2006 real-time strategy video game

Star Wars: Empire at War is a 2006 real-time strategy video game developed by Petroglyph Games and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Set between Episode III and Episode IV, it focuses on the fledgling struggle between the Empire and the Rebels. It uses Petroglyph's game engine Alamo. In October 2006, an expansion titled Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption was released. On May 31, 2014, online functionality, including network multiplayer and wireless chat, was discontinued after Glu Mobile's purchase of GameSpy and the subsequent shutdown of all game servers. As of September 1, 2017, the multiplayer has been re-enabled on the Steam version with Workshop support added.

<i>Heroes of Might and Magic III</i> 1999 video game

Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia is a turn-based strategy game developed by Jon Van Caneghem through New World Computing originally released for Microsoft Windows by The 3DO Company in 1999. Its ports to several computer and console systems followed in 1999–2000. It is the third installment of the Heroes of Might and Magic series.

<i>Theatre Europe</i> 1986 video game

Theatre Europe is a turn-based strategy video game developed and published by Personal Software Services (PSS). It was first released in the United Kingdom for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and Atari 8-bit computers in 1985. It was later released in France by ERE Informatique in 1986, and was released in the United States by Datasoft later that year. A port for the Tatung Einstein was released in 1989, in the UK. It is the fifth installment of the Strategic Wargames series.

<i>Reach for the Stars</i> (video game) 1983 video game

Reach for the Stars is a science fiction strategy video game. It is the earliest known commercially published example of the 4X genre. It was written by Roger Keating and Ian Trout of SSG of Australia and published in 1983 for the Commodore 64 and then the Apple II in 1985. Versions for Mac OS, Amiga, Apple IIGS, and DOS were released in 1988.

<i>Command & Conquer: Generals</i> 2003 video game

Command & Conquer: Generals is a real-time strategy video game and the seventh installment in the Command & Conquer series. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X in 2003 and 2004. The Windows version of Generals was developed by EA Pacific and published by EA Games, the Mac OS X version was developed by i5works and published by Aspyr Media. The Mac OS X version was released by Aspyr on April 12, 2004. In the game, the player can choose from three different factions: the United States, China and the Global Liberation Army (GLA).

<i>Beyond Dark Castle</i> 1987 computer game

Beyond Dark Castle is a computer game, released for Macintosh in 1987 by Silicon Beach Software. It was designed by Mark Stephen Pierce and programmed by Jonathan Gay. It is the sequel to Dark Castle, with more levels, monsters and items, as well as a larger game map and longer levels. A second sequel, Return to Dark Castle, was released in 2008.

<i>Spaceward Ho!</i> 1990 video game

Spaceward Ho! is a turn-based science fiction computer strategy game that was written by Peter Commons, designed by Joe Williams and published by Delta Tao Software. The first version was released in 1990, and further upgrades followed regularly; the current version, 5.0.5, was released on July 8, 2003. It has received wide recognition in the Macintosh community, for example being inducted into the Macworld Game Hall of Fame.

<i>Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest</i> 1995 video game

Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest is a turn-based strategy game developed and published by New World Computing in 1995 for DOS. A spin-off of New World Computing's Might and Magic series of role-playing video games, the success of Heroes of Might and Magic led to a number of sequels.

Mac gaming refers to the use of video games on Macintosh personal computers. In the 1990s, Apple computers did not attract the same level of video game development as Microsoft Windows computers due to the high popularity of Microsoft Windows and, for 3D gaming, Microsoft's DirectX technology. In recent years, the introduction of Mac OS X and support for Intel processors has eased porting of many games, including 3D games through use of OpenGL and more recently Apple's own Metal API. Virtualization technology and Boot Camp also permit the use of Windows and its games on Macintosh computers. Today, a growing number of popular games run natively on macOS, though as of early 2019, a majority still require the use of Microsoft Windows.

<i>Legionnaire</i> (video game) 1982 video game

Legionnaire is a computer wargame for Atari 8-bit computers created by Chris Crawford released through Avalon Hill in 1982. Recreating Julius Caesar's campaigns in a semi-historical setting, the player takes command of the Roman legions in real-time battles against the barbarians.

<i>North Atlantic 86</i> 1983 video game

North Atlantic '86 is a 1983 computer wargame written by Gary Grigsby and published by Strategic Simulations. The game covers a hypothetical conflict between NATO and the Soviet Union. A Macintosh version was released in 1986.

<i>Sword of Sodan</i> 1988 video game

Sword of Sodan is a hack and slash video game released for the Amiga in 1988 by Discovery Software, which also commissioned a port for the Apple IIGS. A scaled-down version for the Sega Genesis was released in 1990 by Electronic Arts, and in 1993 it was released for the Apple Macintosh System 7 by Bethesda Softworks.

Delta Tao Software is a small software developer and publisher focusing on games for Macintosh, though some of its more popular products have been ported to Windows, Linux, and other platforms.

<i>Star Wars: Battlefront</i> (2004 video game) 2004 action shooter video game

Star Wars: Battlefront is a 2004 first and third-person shooter video game based on the Star Wars film franchise. Developed by Pandemic Studios and published by LucasArts, it is the first installment in the Star Wars: Battlefront series. It was released on September 21, 2004, for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows to coincide the release of the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set. Aspyr released a Mac OS X port in July 2005, and a cellular phone version, Star Wars Battlefront Mobile, was released on November 1, 2005.

<i>Erics Ultimate Solitaire</i> Card game-based video game

Eric's Ultimate Solitaire is a commercial solitaire game developed by Delta Tao Software for the Macintosh. The game was later ported to Linux by Loki Software.

<i>Warlords</i> (1990 video game) 1990 video game

Warlords is a computer wargame released in 1990 for the Amiga and MS-DOS compatible operating systems, then in 1992 for Macintosh. It was designed by Steve Fawkner and developed by Strategic Studies Group. Warlords was followed by three sequels and several spinoffs. The game was based on designer Steve Fawkner's Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

References

  1. ↑ "Delta Tao Software - Strategic Conquest". Delta Tao Software. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
  2. ↑ Joe Williams. "Strategic Conquest 4.0 manual". Delta Tao. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
  3. ↑ "Wargame Reviews & Analysis: The 20th Century". Archived from the original on 2008-10-10.
  4. ↑ James Hague. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers" . Retrieved 2008-05-01.
  5. ↑ Steven Weyhrich (1992-09-21). "Apple II History Software". Steven Weyhrich. Archived from the original on 2001-11-24. Retrieved 2008-05-01.
  6. ↑ "Versiontracker - Strategic Conquest". Archived from the original on 2008-07-09.
  7. ↑ Hornfischer, James (February 1988). "Live Long and Conquer" (PDF). MacUser. pp. 240–254.
  8. ↑ Harrington, William H. (March 1987). "Micro-Reviews". Computer Gaming World. Vol. 1, no. 35. p. 53.
  9. ↑ "Strategic Conquest". Next Generation . No. 16. Imagine Media. April 1996. p. 98.
  10. ↑ IMG Staff (1997). "1996 Games of the Year". Inside Mac Games . 5 (2). Archived from the original on February 18, 1998.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.