What was your first love TBS game?

from Stardock Forums
Given the "How old are you?" post showed some people of my generation I wondered if anyone else fell in love with "Lords of Midnight" by Mike Singleton on the ZX Spectrum.


It was a brilliant game with a format that has never really been mimiced.
I even got a spectrum emulator to play it years later on the PC.


As TBS goes it was a simple concept of a 1st person perspective strategy game. You'd start completely on the back foot as you had 4 characters to try to get enough force together to withstand a huge invasion. It used to frighten the life out of me at times. When you'd press next turn and the screen would clear see thousands of enemies in front of you. Hold on they might not be enemies after all... better go check. Argh... there are 1000 soldiers of someone who may be your ally (if you had the right character talk to them) and they are surrounded by 10,000 bad guys. Do you try to salvage their army or just run away.


Mike Singleton tried a couple of other titles but he just kept making the game worse rather than better. Anyway, what was the first TBS game you loved?
off-topic
77,013 views 81 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Can't remember the name but it was a text based Atari game where you were a King or something and you had to economically manage a civilisation with food/taxes and some other stuff. Probably boring as hell to todays gamers but damn it had me hooked at the time till the cassette broke
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The "cassette broke" - Wow I have not heard that for " few " years ...
I cut my teeth on "tiddly winks" ...
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
@Tasslehoff Burrfoot
Your description applies matches 27,312 TBS games...
Amazed how the game play hasn't chnaged much in nearly 25 years.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I loved the game Lords of Midnight by Mike Singleton. Have you seen a newer version being done here...
http://www.icemark.com/winlom99/index.html
I am not sure though if I would define that as a TBS game but more of a RPG / Adventure type.


One of the earlier TBS games for the PC that I played had to be the Blue Byte's Battle Isle.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
>Tass> What you are describing was first iterated (afaik) in a BASIC source code listing in BYTE magazine, all those many years ago when things like that were done, and it was called "Hammurabi."

It barely fir the definition of TBS, but it did fit.

As far 4X games, however, the earliest I can remember was "Sid Meier's Civilization", and the best one from that rough time period was "Master of Magic". The original Master of Orion was in there too, between those two, along with Reach for the Stars.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The original Master of Orion was in there too, between those two, along with Reach for the Stars.

Just to be clear, the original RFTS was the good one. The remake was horrible!!!

Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Probably the first game that was something like a TBS that I loved was shining force 2 for the megadrive (i didnt get my first PC till i was older). That was an RPG/TBS combo i guess, the turn based battles were good fun and the characters were great. still play it occasionally!

probably the first real 4X I got into was the original civilizations, i can remeber playing it at a friends house, and three of us played slightly bizarre joint games where each city we created was 'assigned' to one of us who decided what it built! and we jointly plotted wars etc.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
@vimes2004

Interesting that you say it was rpg/adventure rather than TBS. I think Mike Singleton thought like you and that is where he made the mistake. The follow ups were more "RPG like". I stand by my "it was TBS". It was certainly "Turns", you moved all your men/armies, then press next day.

It was certainly "strategic". You had to plan where to retreat and where try to make your stands against the enemy. Which Generals did you use for which tasks. You had to work out the politics of who could enlist who. You had to decide whether to be aggressive with Morkin or just retreat him to somewhere safe. There were no puzzles, no character interaction (other than recruiting).

I think that the follow ups should have been to deepen the strategy rather than anything else, different types of troups, different warring factions etc. Certainly by putting it is the first person (with your limited view of the world) led to suprises... Nothing like asking to see through the eyes of one of your generals (that you thought was safe in the rear) only to see an angry horde on his doorstep. The industry chose instead to have map based or isometric views. These allow you to see what is going on but it makes it much less immediate.

Yes in LoM you did have to switch players and then scan 360% just to see if you could see anyone... but it was fun. I must have played the one scenario 150 times. (I must have been easy to please). I've never associated with my generals as much in any game since (each had a personality). The concept of generals freezing with fear (and therefore unable to follow orders to attack) is great and could be used even in GalCiv type games.

Ah those were the days
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Maybe I am off the beaten path here, and I beg forgiveness ahead of time, but;

Tradewars was the game that got me hooked on computer games. Had to play online at local BBSs one user at a time. If you didn't have a great strategy and maps, you were definitely going to get the provervial thumb screws at some point or another by another trader.

I still have alot of extras over the years for that game and sometimes, just sometimes, I will play someplace now adays on places like Still of the Night.

Nothing more frustrating that dialing up on your 2400 baud modem, connecting, wading through logon, getting access to the game just to find out your cloaking device failed and your "60" turns were gone until the next game day!

Besides the above, the game kept going on, day after day, whether you used your turns or not. To me at the time that was just fantastic and of course, I had a list of BBS's that I had to call at specific times so I could use my turns.

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
@Suralle

You sound like I feel... The games were undoubtly simpler (from a computing perspective) but occassionally the gaming experiance was totally immersing... something which rarely happens these days.

You had to use your imagination rather than get stuck into the eye-candy. A bit like reading a book as opposed to watching a Hollywood block buster. Sometimes it just works better.

Nostalgia like most things isn't what it used to be
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Risk. The first version I played didn't go by that name, though. It was called GeoWar, for the GEOS operating system for the Commodore 64. I think I was around 7 or 8 years old, at the time.

The first TBS game I played and loved in the same genre as GalCiv 2 was also for GEOS, about a year later. It was called Cluster Wars. Fairly simple gameplay. You take over planets by destroying their defenses and having a military presense on them. Each planet has a production rating which one uses to build ships (I think there were seven types). It was pretty fun, for quite a while. . .

Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Empire by Interstel.

Though I played the text version earlier.

The newest version (about a year old) is worth checking out:

Empire Deluxe Enhanced Edition (highly moddable--lots of new units)

http://killerbeesoftware.com/

Try the demo

Bryce
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Loved Lords of Midnight and Doomdark's Revenge on zx spectrum, still got them both on pc emulater. Those 2 games ignited my love of TBS games but I think warlords on amiga made it into a passion. There was this funny chinese game as well, can not remember the name, u had to conquer china and become powerful enough to fight back the mongol hoard.

Oh yea, just remembered, my favourite bit of Lords Of Midnight was how your commanders/characters would get, "The lord of dawn, single handed, killed four score and ten of the enemy", also did everyone manage to get the dragon hero? He used to kill entire armies on his own, very hard to get he was. The game was obviously based on Lord of the rings, which is why Mike Singleton probably took it down the roleplaying route.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. It will always hold a special place in my heart, I love the quotes.
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
My personal favorite (I think it was a stategy game, it was turn based anyway) was final fantasy tactics advance, or maybe fire emblem
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In terms of turn-based games that demanded a certain level of tactical/strategic thinking, it'd have to be Desert Commander for the original Nintendo. Under the stricter definition of TBS, I'd have to go with the original Civilization.
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Reach for the Stars and Sword of Arogon I believe it was called.
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The unregistered shareware version of Space Empires II... man, I spent so much time beating back the Dominae, Kzintus, and Zephai Empires with my Barracuda Class Cruisers... I even got some of my brothers to play hotseat, but that quickly got boring as we spent so much time whining about "c'mon, you aren't done moving your ships yet?!?" or "hey, I bet you're cheating by running a tactical combat without me!"
Or maybe it was Merchant Prince (aka Machiavelli: The Prince)... or the demo of Stars!... I really can't recall which came first... We really need a good remake of Merchant Prince though... who can't love a game where you can hire someone to assassinate the pope!
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Bah, you're just showing off your age - "look at me, I'm more veteran than you, I'm as hardcore as I can be!"

The first Civ was great, hooked me on the 4X genre for good. Too bad I didn't like number 3 and 4 at all...


My favorite was Brian Reynold's Alpha Centauri. Yes, it was Brian Reynold's talent that made this excellent game and not that bloated Sid Meier.
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. It will always hold a special place in my heart, I love the quotes.


not my first TBS, but SMAC was probably my favorite overall. agreed, the flavor text in that game was amazing. the movies in that game weren't anything special visually, but the constant quotes from techs and planetary wonders were amazing.

also, i'd say that the "story" was worked into that game more interestingly than in any other TBS i've ever played.

my first TBS was Civ2. i'm a young'un (age 24), and anyway i crossed over to this genre from my first love, RPGs (FF2 baby! and actually, the dragon warrior series on NES was probably the first video games that ever really drew me in until the SNES).

though, thinking back, there was also Oregon Trail and Number Crunchers when i was in grade school
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hhmmm... I can't remember the first TBS game I played, my parents had lots of electronic stuff when I was growing up and let me mash away at the keyboard/joystick before I knew what I was doing. As far as games I actually remember playing, I'd have to say my first TBS was probably Battle Isle 2220: Shadow of the Emperor... At least it's the oldest one that I still have a copy of.
Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I guess in reality Civ 1 was the first. However I didn't consider it as such, never even knew the term TBS back then. So even tho I played it before Jagged Alliance 2, I still consider JA2 the first TBS game I fell in love with. There is a funny story about how it was a random thing how I actually found the game but it is long and pointless so I'll leave it at that. Anyways, sigh....GC2 is a great game and all, but still....no game will ever be as near and dear to me as old Jagged was. "Rock And Roll!" -Igor Dolvich.
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Warlords III: Dark Lords Rising from Redorb (at the time). Ah, good fun... Still a favorite...
-cc
Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I can't even begin to tell you how much of my life I wasted on JA2. It was great!!! The addon sucked. I know there was others but that but that is the first game of its type I can remember playing (that reeled me it so to speak). I had been playing games since the texted based adventures on Tandy Computers. I remember my cassette deck. And that super long white disc reader I got for Christmas one year. You could do heavy arm curls and tricep training with that thing. Plus you could blugeon your friends with it when they played your games to much. Those were the days. Computer games and role playing games (Dungeons & Dragons, Star Frontiers, and some apocalyptic game that I can't remember the name of). As squidward says, "Ahhhh... Good times...Good times."