Compuserve space game

In the aftermath of the war, barons from Earth-originated colonies on distant planets fought for the spoils of the former empire. In order to end the bloodshed, the remains of the original Earth empire set up a political system in which points were awarded to the barons for combat skill and economic prowess.

Alliances between barons were encouraged, and the leader of the most powerful alliance was crowned Emperor. MegaWars III is effectively two games in one, a realtime space combat game played in the first-person, and an economic game played in god view.

In both cases time flow was sped up, 8 hours of real time represents about a month of game time, and games lasted about 4 to 5 weeks of realtime. For most players MegaWars used the cursor commands of smart terminals quite a few were supported to draw maps and menus. For people with simpler terminals the game also included a stream-based UI, and to help with the gameplay a number of people developed GUI based front ends to this interface.

The game took place in a universe consisting of about systems, each of which contained multiple planets. This meant that you could map out the stars and they would be in the same place for the next game, but you still had to explore them to find out details about the planets.

Design of the solar systems appeared to be quite well done, with the planets changing from rocky balls near the stars, to some habitable planets, to gas giants, and finally to rocky balls again. You begin in your ship, a Scout, located at one of the four remaining Imperial bases. Your ship has two modes of transport, sublight and warp which allowed you to travel in systems or between then respectively. To set out and explore the universe using your warp drives, you look at a map and pick a nearby star they were numbered and ask the computer to fly to it.

Off you go! While in hyperspace a character-generated map of nearby space was drawn which showed the relative locations of other stars and ships. To learn about the planets at a particular star you would fly to it, once leaving hyperspace all information about the planets would become known. In sublight a similar display was drawn, this time with the planets lettered.

Since time was rather sped up, updating the display often showed that the planets did indeed move in their orbits. Exploring could be a time consuming process, but spending that time in the early game was important as you wanted to map out all the high quality planets for later settlement. To speed up the process the ships also carried a single probe which could be sent to nearby stars, leaving you free to explore other ones.

Meeting other ships often led to combat. Your ship was armed with weapons for use in both warp space and sublight, and missiles that could operate in either. Your ship also carried shields fore and aft which could absorb a specific amount of power and then recharged slowly. In sublight your main weapons were two laser cannon, fore and aft. Scouts started with 3 tubes two forward, one aft , but you could upgrade your ship to carry up to 8.

For some unexplained reason the interface for these weapons was completely different than for lasers. Did you have to lead the targets? Did you simply fire at the enemies bearing? The manual was almost useless for this. Finally there were the missiles.

Yet another new interface to use, you simply supplied the number of the opposing ship and off it went. Again the manual talked in glowing terms about the fact that they flew fast, over long distances, and delivered a huge punch. Sadly the manual also failed to mention exactly how fast, how far, or how much of a punch they delivered. Later the game was upgraded and added the ability to load portions of your fuel into the missile to increase its explosive power, but again it was not stated how much you could load, nor what effect this had.

Were they more powerful than torps? Could they attack a ship that entered a dock or logged off? Could you shoot at incoming missiles to defend yourself, and if so, with what? The problems with the manual all stemmed from it being a weird combination of half manual, half sci-fi story format.

It was difficult to tell what was an instruction and what was simply part of the story. Missiles did slightly less damage than torps, they fly at warp 10 and gave up if the ship was ly away or left the game. They could also be shot at by either lasers or torps to defend yourself.

In the new version, Stellar Emperor, combat is a point and click afair which makes the whole process much more approachable and combat is easier for people of all experience levels. As a Senator and want to be Emperor, take command of your very own scout ship, provided by the Imperial Senate. Test your mettle in real time combat against other pilots. Establish colonies and protect them by establishing alliances with other Senators. Manage your colonial economies to grow your empire and provide resources for expansion.

Build ship yards and upgrade your ship to a Dreadnought to become one of the most feared pilots in the galaxy. In an interview with Kelton Flinn conducted by Marty Markowitz we are given some insights into the history. The history of MegaWars III is best told with some quotes from its author, who looked over an early version of this document.

Take it away Kelton! S was written the summer of [at the] University of Virginia, building on ideas from previous games. S was the first time John Taylor and I actively collaborated on a game: I did all the programming but John chipped in with quite a few ideas for the game design. S was the first version designed to be played on a CRT rather than a teletype. The ship-to-ship combat in S was very similar to MegaWars III, and the galaxy and planet generation were the same, but there were far fewer stars for the small computers we had then, and the planetary economics were very much simpler.

When we wrote MegaWars III called that because CompuServe wanted to link it with the earlier successful games we expanded greatly on the economic aspects, and scaled the game up for simultaneous from the original 8 players. The political aspects of the game were also added then. Well, originally S was played largely by me and my roommates in college 4th year , and there were only star systems, so competition was pretty fierce for the good planets.

We were usually all in the computer room at the same time. In planetary space, if you could close to within like 0. But the delay until Tuesday gives Washington a better chance of getting Allen, Sweat and others back.

Washington is currently in the final NFC wild-card spot going into Week 15 at the Eagles, who are also and coming off their bye week. Third-string quarterback Nick Mullens is slated to start. He made 16 starts over three seasons for the San Francisco 49ers. Clowney tested positive along with linebackers Mack Wilson Sr. It also activated offensive lineman Elijah Wilkinson, giving the Bears 13 players on the list.

The team sequestered backup P. Walker to remote meetings earlier this week when Barkley became ill. They are monitoring the status of Cam Newton and Walker. If both of them wind up testing positive, Sam Darnold could be elevated from injured reserve — but only if his shoulder is cleared medically first.

They play the Jets on Sunday. All rights reserved. The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.