Ludography
Empire! cover

1986 · Andrew Glaister · Action · Arcade

Empire!

Empire! is a game with arcade and strategy in equal measure. You begin with a small Cub Scoutship in the Abatlu system, with your ultimate objective to build a great galactic Empire across the stars.

Released
1986
Platforms
Amstrad CPCCommodore 64Commodore C64/128/MAXMS-DOSZX Spectrum
Genres
ActionArcadeScienceShooterSimulationSpace trading and combatStrategy
Developers
Andrew Glaister
Publishers
—
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
First personBird view / Isometric
Themes
Science fiction
Country
United Kingdom

About

Empire! is a space combat and trading video game designed by Andrew Glaister and published by Firebird Software in 1986 for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC.

Keywords

  • modern warfare
  • turn-based
  • military
  • management
  • war
  • online
  • rock paper scissors
  • city builder
  • modern military
  • leveling up
  • world map
  • collectibles

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player is the pilot of a spacecraft, set during a period of early space colonization. There are 64 star systems to explore, presented in a rotating top-down 2D view. Each system has a starbase – which issues missions, receives supplies from the player, and sells various ship add-ons – a sun that presents a navigation hazard due to its high temperature, and one or more orbiting planets.

The player can navigate his ship onto a planet's surface through a warp hole (and a tunnel-maneuvering subgame). Once there, three different supplies can be collected in a first-person flight subgame. The three supplies – people, minerals and radioactives – are then made available for pick-up in the main playing area and can be transferred back to the starbase.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Amstrad CPC31 December 1986Europe
ZX Spectrum31 December 1986Europe
Commodore C64/128/MAX31 December 1986Europe
MS-DOS31 December 1988North America

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Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.