| Developer: | Walter Bright Mark Baldwin |
| Publisher: | Interstel Corporation |
| Platforms: | Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Mac |
| Released: | 1987 |
Empire: Wargame of the Century is a video game based on Empire developed by Walter Bright and published by Interstel Corporation in 1987.
Walter Bright in the 1970s wrote Empire, a strategy wargame, for the PDP-10 mainframe at Caltech. In the early 1980s he ported the game to PDP-11 assembly language but sold only two copies. After learning the C programming language ("it might as well have been called EIL, for 'Empire Implementation Language'"), Bright ported Empire to the IBM PC.[1] With low commercial expectations, he submitted an announcement to January 1984 BYTE magazine's "Software Received" section, and received a flood of orders. After writing to many software companies (including Broderbund, Sirius Software, Simon & Schuster, Sublogic, Epyx, and MicroProse), he licensed the game to a small software company named Interstel. Mark Baldwin was brought in to coauthor the game redesigning it for the commercial market. Starting around 1987, Empire: Wargame of the Century on the Atari ST,[2] Amiga, Commodore 64, Apple II, Macintosh, and DOS was produced.
Empire is part of Interstel's Star Fleet franchise, in which the Krellans are the enemies; the company warned customers "Don't buy Empire! It is a Krellan plot to reduce productivity".[3] The mainframe Empire had caused video game addiction at Caltech, as students failed classes while playing the game.
Computer Gaming World stated that Empire was "a fascinating grand strategic wargame, more sophisticated than Risk, but easier to play than Third Reich".[3] The magazine's full review noted the improved UI, saying "the playability of an already successful system has been significantly enhanced".[4] The game received the magazine's "Game of the Year" award for 1988;[5] in 1989 the magazine named Empire to its Hall of Fame for games readers rated highly over time, with a final score of 9.71 out of 12;[6] in 1990 readers voted for the game as their "All-Time Favorite";[7] a 1991 magazine survey of strategy and war games gave it four and a half stars out of five;[8] and a 1993 survey in the magazine gave the game three stars out of five.[9]
"I never played Empire" on mainframe, said Neil Randall of Compute!, "and I'm glad I didn't know it existed", agreeing with the warning on the game box of its addictiveness ("I had enough trouble just writing this review"). Praising the Atari ST version's UI, he said that the "superb" game combined aspects of exploration and strategy.[10] While wishing for improved pathfinding, Antics Steve Panak said that the ST version was "so good and so addictive that I find myself starting a game in the late afternoon, and the next time I look at my watch it's 2 a.m."[11] Rating the Amiga version with 4+ stars, Infos reviewer stated that "Empire is the most entertaining 'world conquest' game I've ever played", concluding "But beware — Empire is extremely addictive!".[12] The magazine also rated the Commodore 64 version 4+ stars citing "the game's [historical] significance and absorbing playability", but wished for clearer graphics. Info concluded that "Empire is showing its age, but it's still a must-have for wargamers everywhere".[13] While stating that the UI could be better, Jerry Pournelle of BYTE noted that Empire avoided the need to micromanage units that made games like tedious. Pournelle concluded that Empire was addictive because its combination of ease of play, fast and simple combat, and UI "tempts you to play just a little longer and find out what's going to happen next".[14]
ACE rated the Amiga and ST versions 618 and 606 out of 1000, respectively, citing the non-sophisticated graphics and sound. The magazine stated that "the gameplay's good and it's fun to play" but quickly repetitive, concluding that "you'll soon find that one war's much like another".[15] Noting that games require many hours, Ahoy!'s AmigaUser concluded that "for those who relish total immersion in a stimulating strategic environment ... this fascinating wargame is a perfect choice".[16] The ST version of the game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #131 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.[17] The Lessers reviewed the MS-DOS version of the game in 1989 in Dragon #142, and gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.[18]