
Master of Orion - doppp
https://www.filfre.net/2020/01/master-of-orion/
======
WhompingWindows
I used to love Masters of Orion II; I would play as the Psilons, get a
ridiculous technological advantage, and produce massive death-star like
Dreadnought ships that could vaporize any target or planet in one mega-beam.

The game had a flaw, though. The AI opponents would mass up hundreds of
zergling-like very weak ships, and they would EACH get a turn in combat. So my
4 dreadnoughts would wipe 4 of their ships, then 296 enemies would fire
individually and miss onto my mega-shields...then they'd be down to 292 after
my turn...then 292 misses...and I'd leave the game for 3 hours until the
battle finished.

~~~
uep
I also enjoyed playing as the Psilons. It's probably nostalgia, but there is
still stuff I miss from more modern games like Stellaris, that I think MOO2
did right. It was really only the late game that became tedious.

There were tons of way to get cheap wins in the game. I vaguely recall there
being tech (possibly from the Orions), that allowed you to cloak your ship.
Enemies could not even target you while cloaked. There was another tech that
allowed you to get two turns (for each the enemy had). With a single ship, you
could attack, then cloak, and avoid all damage.

~~~
shoo
another cheap trick: in late game after unlocking terraforming & Gaia
transformation tech, you could turn any colony into a Gaia world apart from a
colony on a toxic planet. But if you had a second colony in the system, you
could gift your toxic colony to an opponent, then attack it with a stellar
converter equipped fleet, fire the stellar converter to destroy the planet and
convert it into an asteroid belt, then get your second colony in the system to
start an artificial planet construction project to turn the fresh belt into a
terraformable barren world.

It's a bit more Douglas Adams than George Lucas: apologies former citizens,
you and your corrosive world needs to be vaporised to work around zoning
regulations as part of the empire's galactic terraforming project.

Another fun way to play the early/mid game was to try to advance up the tech
tree by scrapping captured higher tech ships. You needed large fleets of
disposable ships with lots of room for boarding parties, tractor beams to pin
enemies, and if possible weapons with radiation damage to kill the enemy crew
before boarding. It was particularly fun and frustrating trying to capture
ancient-tech antaran ships in the early/mid game (the game designers were wise
enough to equip antaran ships with the quantum detonator tech giving them a
very high chance to self destruct nuke their ship's drive when you tried to
board them)

~~~
LorenPechtel
I used to do a variation of that in Armada 2525. Neutron stars always had very
bad planets. I would put a colony there, drop enough work units to build a
self destruct, then blow the planet. Artificial planet, now I had a good
planet around the neutron star--and every ship built around a neutron star had
double defenses. Once I had one such world I used it for as much of my
shipbuilding as possible as the ships would almost never be destroyed. I would
then go for the other neutron stars, both to increase my building ability and
to keep the AI from building such ships. Once I had them all the game was won.

~~~
chrchang523
Hmm, I'd only consider that if the planet at the neutron star was either Tiny
or mineral-poor; with full tech, even an IRR Small is better than the TER Tiny
created by an artificial planet...

~~~
LorenPechtel
But you could increase the size (admittedly, only one point per turn) of the
TER up to maximum, you couldn't an IRR.

~~~
chrchang523
IRR Small planets could be extended the same two points per turn as other
Small planets.

~~~
LorenPechtel
But the max you could extend them to was much less. So long as you were doing
it for the long term blowing it and replacing it was your better approach.

------
zaroth
Maybe someone here can help with this. Back in the late 80s in the days of
BBSing games of Trade Wars and Tele-Arena... I have a faint recollection of
playing an entirely text-based space adventure game with my brother.

The first computer my brother and I ever had access to was a Wang, I have no
idea what operating system it ran. I was 6 or 7 at the time. I'm pretty sure
that's the machine we used to play this game, as well as our own instance of
Trade Wars, when we weren't logged into Argus BBS over the 1200 baud.

OK, so this game we played. It was like a explore and conquer game, there was
a list of worlds I think they were named Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc. You could
choose to send different types of ships to try to capture and control the
various worlds, in which case it would contribute to your overall production.
I recall there was a way to send spies as well, that would relay information
about what kind of units were present on an enemy territory. I recall it being
similar in some ways to Galactic Empire, except it was purely turn based,
there was no real time component.

I can't for the life of me remember the name of the game. I'm half convinced I
dreamed the whole thing up. Any chance this rings a bell for anyone?

~~~
Erwin
Solar Realms Elite sounds similar, but Amit Patel wrote it in 1990. It was
inspired by Space Empire Elite in 1987 (the programmer was 13 years old at the
time).

This article has some screenshots:
[https://breakintochat.com/blog/2016/02/02/jon-radoff-
creator...](https://breakintochat.com/blog/2016/02/02/jon-radoff-creator-of-
space-empire-elite-and-final-frontier/)

~~~
zaroth
Thank you! I think it was Space Empire Elite! Or possibly one of the later
derivatives.

Man.... now I just have to track down a binary!

------
ppeetteerr
This game, along with Master of Magic, Civ 1, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Dune 2,
were the beginnings of strategy gaming for me. It's amazing to see that most
of these games have been remade or copied (Stellaris, Age of Wonder, Civ 6,
XCOM 2, Star Craft, respectively), and that the genre lives on.

~~~
the_af
Agreed.

XCOM (the original) to this day remains one of my favorite turn-based games.
How you grew attached to your troopers! The remake is pretty good, too.

How do you find Stellaris, by the way? I'm tempted by it but at the same time
these days I simply don't have time for time-consuming, micro-managed 4X games
that feel more like work than fun.

~~~
ppeetteerr
I didn't enjoy Stellaris as much as I remember enjoying MOO. However, the
latest version of MOO is just okay. MOO 2 and Ascendancy were by far my
favorite. I say this, but that was decades ago. How about yourself?

~~~
the_af
Haven't tried the new MOO. I remember enjoying MOO and MOO2 back in the day.
And of course, Ascendancy! But would I have the patience to play them
nowadays? I don't know...

------
hyperpl
I've been playing this since 1993 and can't think of any 4X game that is as
tight as this in terms of structure and playability. For those that don't
know, there is an SDL re-creation that reimplements the underlying engine (you
still need the original assets to play of course).
[https://gitlab.com/KilgoreTroutMaskReplicant/1oom](https://gitlab.com/KilgoreTroutMaskReplicant/1oom)

I've beaten it on impossible with nearly all races although I generally prefer
to play with 4 races, medium galaxy on the hard setting.

~~~
antisthenes
This is the more active fork of Kilgore's work:

[https://gitlab.com/Tapani_/1oom](https://gitlab.com/Tapani_/1oom)

~~~
Brave-Steak
Hmmm, maybe I'm being dense, but I don't see any exe to run and there are no
instructions for compiling it. Am I missing something?

edit: Okay, it's in
[https://gitlab.com/KilgoreTroutMaskReplicant/1oom/blob/maste...](https://gitlab.com/KilgoreTroutMaskReplicant/1oom/blob/master/INSTALL)
Don't know why that'd be in a separate file, but okay. And they're Linux-only.

At least it seems that the original Kilgore version provides Windows binaries.

[https://gitlab.com/KilgoreTroutMaskReplicant/1oom/-/releases](https://gitlab.com/KilgoreTroutMaskReplicant/1oom/-/releases)

~~~
intrepidhero
Section 3 of your linked file has instructions for Windows.

~~~
Brave-Steak
Which is cross-compiling from Linux.

------
mundo
Playable free at
[https://archive.org/details/msdos_Master_of_Orion_1993](https://archive.org/details/msdos_Master_of_Orion_1993)
if, like me, you got halfway through the article before the urge presented
itself.

~~~
Shivetya
you can also get all of them through Steam if you need an easy means to deal
with this, they are around two dollars each. Sadly 1 & 2 are not listed
compatible with Catalina (Mac OS)

~~~
JohnFen
GOG has them, too -- with Linux packaging for us Linux people.

~~~
DerekL
I bought MoO Classic and MoO 2 on GOG.com a while ago. I just tried installing
and playing them on macOS Catalina, and I can verify that they work. But the
stand-alone installers aren't notarized, so you'll have to approve them
manually, or use the GOG Galaxy app.

------
lacker
I loved playing Civ 1. I hear a lot of times people say, oh kids should be
taught money management in school. To me, playing a strategy game where you
have to manage your own money supply was the best education in this sort of
concept. If you save up your resources, you'll be able to do more powerful
things in the future, which requires the tough emotional work of foregoing
something you want now. But, sometimes that thing you want right now really is
important, and you need to think hard about the difference.

~~~
thaumasiotes
But... money doesn't mean much in Civ 1. The first thing you do is cut the tax
rate to the bare minimum, often zero, so that you can route all your trade
into science instead.

You need to cover the maintenance costs of your buildings, but any surplus
that goes into your treasury becomes nearly worthless -- the things you can
spend gold on are garbage compared to science / happiness.

------
gavanwoolery
Master of Orion was notable in that it was the first game I remember with
"meaningful" NPC interactions. Even though interactions were quite limited
(make/break alliances, espionage, trade, etc), early alliances could determine
the final outcome of the game. But more importantly, it felt emotionally
compelling. I found myself getting angry at certain factions when they
spied/voted/etc against me. They also took the time to illustrate dispositions
IIRC, so you could see when a race was happy or angry with you.

~~~
hikarudo
Some twenty years ago, while playing Master of Orion, I asked the Humans to
ally with me and go to war against the most powerful race. They replied
something like: "Yes, we will be your allies. We fondly remember when you gave
us +10 Terraforming."... which had happened scores of turns earlier, when in
desperation I bribed them with tech so they wouldn't attack me!

------
Sohcahtoa82
MoO was a masterpiece.

MoO II was even better, IMO, with more depth. The ability to create your own
race alone is huge.

We don't talk about MoO III.

Then the MoO reboot happened...terrible at release, but it got overhauled at
some point and it actually made the game enjoyable.

~~~
hyperpl
I appreciate that you acknowledge both as being masterpieces. I've found that
the community is bifurcated w.r.t MOO1 vs MOO2 and it's great to see more
people that appreciate both.

I haven't managed to get into MOO2 yet but it's on my bucket list for 202x. If
it can yield any semblance of the awe I've had for MOO1 then I'm in for a real
treat!

~~~
binarycrusader
I think the best thing about MOO2 by far was the rather memorable audio/music.
Especially the unique music they had each time you interacted with another
race.

------
compiler-guy
This is just an amazing game.

I still play it quite regularly. I have an old Mac mini in a back room that I
keep explicitly for that purpose. When the original machine gave up the ghost,
I shelled out a couple of hundred bucks for a "new" obsolete mac mini just to
be able to keep playing.

And I will do it again when this one dies. Such a great game. I also play Civ
II on this machine occasionally.

Part of the magic is how simple the game play is relative to more modern
games.

~~~
cik
Don't know if it helps - but it's on Steam, and even behaves on Linux. Hell
the emulation is painful enough that even the real waits are part of the game.

------
Andrew_nenakhov
This game is extremely great, still influencing game design and space strategy
games. Strangely, despite so many years and advances in technology, no other
game could quite capture the charm of the great original Master of the Orion.

Ironically, the closest was Master of the Orion 2, which had nice features - I
most liked that I could capture enemy population instead of extermination,
converting them to be my citizens and creating a diverse empire (long before
it was cool!!) - but it kinda lacked the sense of surrounding mystery, great
black dread, where the snarks lurk to prey on my tiny empire of three sols....

~~~
WhompingWindows
I totally forgot you'd have the conquered people as citizens...you could also
replace your people with robots. I don't think it made sense with every
playable race, but certain races that were bad on food or the planet had bad
food, you could use robots to improve your bottom line. Eerily familiar...

~~~
Andrew_nenakhov
We once had a three-player hotseat game. I made an industrial-focused race
based on humans, second player made a psylon-based race of super scientists...
And the third player wiped the floor with us on first contact. He made a race
of silicoids who could eat rocks and breeded like crazy. He took all the
maluses for strength gravity etc and easily destroyed us through sheer
numbers.

So I guess rocks as food and breeding is THE strategy in moo2

------
invalidOrTaken
Glad the blog goes into the board game antecedents.

Having played a lot of board and computer games, what I'm hoping for these
days might be called "Dynamicland, but for games." At present we have to
choose between real-world sociality and the power of computing for simulation;
why not both? If I can play multiplayer MOO with my grandkids while looking at
_each other_ , rather than screens, I'll be happy.

~~~
aidenn0
I have seen tabletop gamers do various things with projectors and/or tokens
with QR codes to keep track of things on a computer while interacting with
things physically. I haven't seen anything that wasn't a one-off to scratch a
single-person's itch though.

------
jtolmar
I played MOO1 for the first time a few years ago, and it's by far my favorite
4x game. The sliders cut down on a lot of busywork present in MOO2 and Civ,
the random tech tree is spicy, and the AI is much more interesting than the
usual friend-foe modifiers system (major differences are ignoring friend-foe
if someone is an easy target, dogpiling the leader, and undeclared early game
border disputes).

Highly recommend if you like strategy games and haven't played it. I like it
so much that I've tried writing a clone a few times (but the latest attempt
got sidetracked and turned into a game about interplanetary rail networks.)

~~~
labster
I also like MOO the best because of the lack of busywork. In a way, it feels a
lot like a Euro board game, with sliders instead of meeples working the
planets. Well, like a Euro except for the glassing your opponents' planets
part; genocide is kind of rare in cardboard. But it is possible to play and
win without doing that, in most games anyway. And then you're playing a game
where if you collect enough "points" from your economic engine -- population
from terraforming -- you win the game.

Now can you offer further explanation of this "interplanetary rail" thing? Is
it Galaxy Express 999 style?

~~~
jtolmar
You decide what resource a planet produces, then hook it up to nearby planets
that provide the resources it wants, which expands how far it can send its
resource along the network. The network itself is composed of rail lines
directly between planets.

Screenshots on my twitter:
[https://twitter.com/LiterallyOwls/status/1218418806520979456](https://twitter.com/LiterallyOwls/status/1218418806520979456)

------
ThePhysicist
I always loved Ascendancy
([https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascendancy](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascendancy),
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDeXKf6e46I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDeXKf6e46I)),
which I still play sometimes and still find interesting. It gets a bit boring
towards the middle / end of the game though as the AI is not very advanced and
easy to beat. Still I found it to be more polished than "Master of Orion".

~~~
conanbatt
I loved ascendancy but that game is unfinished. Combat made no sense, the AI
was super dumb. But it had potential!

~~~
ThePhysicist
There's an AI patch that makes it somewhat better though. For me most of the
joy of the games was in building up a galactic network, so I still enjoyed it
very much even with the "dumb" AI.

------
JohnFen
Master of Orion and Master of Orion II (they are very, very different games)
are two of my all-time favorites to this day. I started playing them when they
were first released, and they've never left my game rotation.

As it happens, I've been playing the original MOO again for the last couple of
weeks!

~~~
foobarian
It was difficult to play MOO for a while due to driver/emulation shenanigans
but it got easier again thanks to the emulation community's improvements. Now
you can play it in the browser or get it on Steam. Such an amazing game. For
the past 20 years I have been using this endgame quote [1] as a quip in casual
conversation. My favorite way to play is to build a nuke fleet and wipe out
enemy colonies that cross me.

[1] [https://www.filfre.net/wp-
content/uploads/2020/01/orion_019....](https://www.filfre.net/wp-
content/uploads/2020/01/orion_019.png)

------
littlecranky67
I loved Moo2 as a child and I played a lot of hours with a friend of mine back
in the DOS days - was one of the only hotseat playable games back in the day
(and Worms of course).

Later when I became a programmer I was also fascinated by the fact that there
were several "community patches" \- patches that enhanced gameplay (larger
galaxy sizes etc.), added new artwork and such without the availability of the
source code - people reverse engineered the game and wrote binary patches that
would contribute a lot to overall gameplay. To this day I can't fully
understand how they did it - i get the theory, but not what tools they used,
and how they got the motivation to do machine level changes to the game.
Overall, good memories.

------
AcerbicZero
I love this blog, even if it is a little weird at times. Some of the best and
most well documented history of video games I've come across.

~~~
doersino
Define "a little weird" – I've been following Jimmy's other blog, The Analog
Antiquarian [1] (and also read a few of the non-gaming focused posts on this
blog), and so far nothing "a little weird" has stood out to me. Not refuting
you – just curious to know what you mean.

[1]: [https://analog-antiquarian.net](https://analog-antiquarian.net)

~~~
danko
Not to put words in OP's mouth, but I'd guess the weirdness is in a couple of
things:

1) Jimmy can go deep on some extremely obscure corners of the industry (e.g.
interactive fiction movements that maybe only a few dozen academic acolytes
are even aware of).

2) The occasional deep tangent. For example, I don't think a month-long mini-
biography of Edward Mannock was really necessary to appreciate the Amiga game
_Wings_. But then again, I loved that tangent, so it's the kind of weirdness
that I can personally embrace. I'm guessing the Analog Antiquarian is going to
end up ultimately absorbing that energy anyway.

~~~
AcerbicZero
You've explained it better than I could, although in retrospect I should have
included an explanation originally. Esoteric would have been a better word
than weird, but I guess my coffee hadn't kicked in yet.

------
duncancarroll
There is a really well-done, faithful-to-the-original but still slightly
expanded-upon open source Java clone of MOO1 called Remnants of the
Precursors:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/rotp/comments/eew3hs/guide_to_the_r...](https://www.reddit.com/r/rotp/comments/eew3hs/guide_to_the_remnants_of_the_precursors_alpha_test/)

It compiles in IntelliJ and is very fun to play and mod.

------
homarp
[https://kilgoretroutmaskreplicant.gitlab.io/plain-
html/](https://kilgoretroutmaskreplicant.gitlab.io/plain-html/) is an exact
replica of the original Master of Orion engine, and requires original game
data to be played.

------
SubiculumCode
Space Empires I. II and III should be mentioned, IMO. Great games. Edit: and
especially Space Empires IV

~~~
paulmd
III was the first 4X that I got way way too into. Really great "arcadey"
experience that lets you focus on blowing shit up and not resource management
as much.

IV is probably the apex of the series, much deeper and more complex. That's
when you shift from 1 resource to 3. Ship combat has more depth as well.

I think V got a little too into the graphics and missed the mark on the
mechanics, although the weapon mount system is pretty interesting.

edit: SE4 is currently $2 on GOG

~~~
int_19h
It's too bad that SE3 isn't sold anywhere. It still works fine on Win10,
provided that you can get past installing it (which can be tricky, because the
installer is a 16-bit Windows app!).

~~~
paulmd
Maybe it's on the Internet Archive somewhere?

I'll set up an XP VM and extract it and upload it. It's shareware, so I don't
see the problem with repackaging it and distributing it unaltered. I thought I
might have a copy where I'd done that but I guess not. edit: from
[https://archive.org/details/SpaceEmpire](https://archive.org/details/SpaceEmpire)
to
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/rac1gouedkjqxve/se3.7z?dl=0](https://www.dropbox.com/s/rac1gouedkjqxve/se3.7z?dl=0)

To be honest - I think the shareware game actually has better play than the
full version. Having a fairly shallow tech tree, limited to light cruiser
sized ships and no super OP weapons, without any of the stellar manipulation
or planetbase/battlecruiser tier endgame ships is actually a pretty fun
ruleset for casual play. It's a more arcadey game than SE4 (with just one
"construction point" instead of 3 materials) and cruising around with big
fleets having pew pew battles of massive task groups and crushing each other's
planets really suits it well.

I dunno if the guy who wrote it is still attached to it at all. Apparently
Strategy First bought Malfador in 2006?

Erm, confession time. This was one of the first games I ever ""cracked"", in a
stunning triumph of sysadminery for 8 year old me or whatever. Malfador
originally used the "send me a check in the mail" business model. then it
suddenly popped up on a publisher's site - called Crystal Interactive or
similar. They offered a "30 day free trial" that (in hindsight, surprisingly)
actually worked and installed a legit key, then presumably was going to pull
it when the trial expired. I pinned down where it was writing the key with
registry editor and exported the key, then just used it with the normal game.
I actually found that og .reg file a few months ago, it is probably the single
earliest file that I've got saved.

(I also learned to use the "Executor by ARDI" macos 7 emulator so I could play
escape velocity by Ambrosia Software on my windows PC. Executor had a 30 day
trial... but you could delete the registry key and reinstall and use it
forever. hackerman! )

(Executor is actually a very interesting "hybrid emulator" that attempted to
replace the MacOS rom/mac toolkit with a windows native reimplmentation in
native C and is now open source if you'd like to take a look -
[https://github.com/ctm/executor](https://github.com/ctm/executor) )

To this day I don't know if Crystal Interactive was legit or not - was that a
legit indie publisher providing a framework for licensing and CC services (a
not-trivial burden in the years before Steam) or did they pirate these games
themselves and resell them? The registration had the legitimate username
"REGISTERED USER", and they disappeared into the ether very rapidly, like
within 6 months every trace of them on the internet was gone.

I'd gladly buy a copy, but I don't think there's a way to get it anymore
either. I thiiiink you might be able to track down a copy of the Space Empires
Collection disc? That one was registered out of the box.

Malfador eventually ended up with Strategy First, who was a legit indie
publisher and sold their stuff for a lot of years. Again, it looks like
Strategy First bought them in 2006, but he continued developing more stuff
after that.

Space Empires Starfury is actually an interesting Escape Velocity/Starfleet
Command kind of crossover. It is the tactical mode for SE V turned into an
open world game. From what I remember it plays better than the actual SE V.
Again, weapon mounts are cool, the actual gameplay sucks and is way too slow.
Even SE 4 really needs a "move ships faster" mode.
[https://archive.org/details/SpaceEmpiresStarfury](https://archive.org/details/SpaceEmpiresStarfury)

FYI if anyone else ever played Warlords 3: Darklords Rising, that game is now
available on GOG too.

Also while I was looking on Archive I found this Turkish clone (lol) of SE3
from 2003 with an Apple II aesthetic? Crazy.
[https://archive.org/details/MiniSpaceEmpires](https://archive.org/details/MiniSpaceEmpires)

------
pridkett
It took me forever to read this article. Because I got distracted when the
article mentioned VGA Planets still existed and was actively maintained. That
game was incredible back in the BBS days. Delightful to find a memory like
that lives on.

------
pvg
One thing I find odd about the Space 4x genre is that it remains popular and
new games or expansions for existing ones come out fairly regularly but there
hasn't been a genuine hit in it, seemingly since MOO II or so.

~~~
santoriv
I would agree with you that there hasn't been a genuine hit since MOO 2. I
would say, however, that one game, Distant Worlds: Universe, was a huge leap
forward in redefining what's possible in the 4x genre (i.e. deep and immersive
gameplay in a real-time context). Most of the other 4x games since 1996 have
been a variation on the gameplay mechanics of MOO 2.

DW:U is the only 4x game that I would unequivocally say is as good as the
original MOO2.

~~~
RockIslandLine
Real time sucks, but I'll have to at least check it out.

------
kensai
Does everyone agree with me here that the modern remake missed the mark?

[http://masteroforion.com/news/legend-
reborn](http://masteroforion.com/news/legend-reborn)

~~~
santoriv
It was a remake of MOO2, not MOO 1. And yes it was terrible.

Remakes (or games very similar to MOO 1) are Dominus Galaxia and Remnants of
the Precursors.

~~~
Sohcahtoa82
> It was a remake of MOO2, not MOO 1. And yes it was terrible.

Have you played it recently, or just at launch? At some point, they did a
pretty big overhaul and made a lot of improvements.

I still prefer Stellaris because it has more depth, but MOO is certainly
playable.

------
xycodex
+1, played when I was a kid, picked it up again a few months ago for
nostalgia, I must say it holds up really well. It’s feels well-constructed,
put together from simple concepts/components, in a way that makes it quite
replayable. Many decisions have big-ish consequences, and there is not too
much micro managing, unless you play really big galaxy and want to exterminate
everyone. Very tight UI as well for the era. I like it much better than Moo2.
I only wonder what would have to be different if there was multiplayer.

------
entangledqubit
Anyone else later transition to the heavily moddable 4X Space Empire IV?

~~~
SomeHacker44
I played SEIV for years, and it was a wonderful game. I even built a "Play by
Web" system that allowed remote turn based multiplayer for it via e-mail and
web that lived for years, even after I handed it off to others to continue.
What a great game.

------
Waterluvian
Some UIs from back in that era hold up really well, in my opinion. From the
article, check out this UI: [https://www.filfre.net/2020/01/master-of-
orion/orion_013/](https://www.filfre.net/2020/01/master-of-orion/orion_013/)

It also reminds me of the original X-COM UFO Defense UI, which I think also
holds up incredibly well decades later.

------
hikarudo
Ah, Master of Orion!

I had a ritual when I was 13 or so: when I got home on the last day of school
before vacation, I would play Master of Orion nonstop until 3 or 4 am.

I still enjoy this game and play it a few times every couple of years.

------
imtringued
The first MoO is superior compared to the second. You can terraform your
planets from useless 25M population to 200M gaia planets. The fleet limit in
MoO II was so annoying.

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wolco
What is the best semi-modern moo type game for someone who hasn't played the
orginal but would probably enjoy it.

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Andrew_nenakhov
Btw, in the late 1990s, Russian sci-fi writer Sergey Lukianenko had written
two novels ("Line of dreams", "Emperors of illusions" [1]) set in MOO
universe, which are quite entertaining.

Too bad he had turned a fascist and Putin's fanboy who viciously supports
Crimea annexation and war with the Ukraine...

[1]:
[https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%...](https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%B3%D1%80%D1%91%D0%B7)

