The Ancient Art of War (1984)
Genres:Strategy, Real Time Strategy (RTS)
Themes:Historical, Warfare
Game modes:Single player
Story:The Ancient Art of War is a computer game developed by Evryware and published by Broderbund in 1984. In retrospect, it is generally recognized as one of the first real-time strategy or real-time tactics games.
A battlefield simulation, the game's title comes from the classic strategy text The Art of War written by Sun Tzu around 400 B.C.
The objective of the game is to win a series of battles using four types of troops: Knights, Archers, Barbarians, and Spies. All four types are unmounted. It uses the simple "Rock-Paper-Scissors" type of unit balance typical of the genre. Knights beat Barbarians in melee; Barbarians have the advantage over Archers; and Archers have the advantage over Knights, in addition to being effective at defending against attempts to storm a fort. Spies did not fight, but had twice the range of any other unit type in terms of lifting the fog of war.
At the start of the game, the player is able to select from a list of campaigns to play. The campaigns include both skirmishes and "capture the flag(s)" type missions, while the terrain layout and initial starting units provided a variety of strategic options for game play. Advanced rule sets such as Training New Units and Supply Line Lengths allow for more customization. The player can also select from among several Artificial Intelligence opponents represented by various historical figures such as Geronimo and Napoleon. Sun Tzu represents the most difficult level. These settings affected both AI behavior, as well as certain properties such as the speed at which enemy units moved through difficult terrain.
There is no element of the economic management (mining, gathering or construction) which is a common feature of later real-time strategy games.Show more
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I played this as wee thing on a Tandy in the late 1980s. When my dad looks for games from the classic DOS era, it's Civ I, Sword of the Samurai, and the Art of War. It was, sort of, a pioneer of the RTS genre, in that you created your plan and both forces charged at one another in real time. Great fun! The moment I saw this on the Dreamlist, I had to vote for it. I'd love to get it for my father as a present.
One of the first games I played on my first PC (286/16MHz processor and 1MB of RAM). I still launch the game today emulated in a browser. Its simplicity, with basic rules, is similar to the game of Go: just a few rules, but still challenging!
This is one of my earliest PC gaming memories. I remember being horrible at it as a little kid lol. But I was fascinated by the rock-paper-scissor style combat system, the various enemy leaders, and the wisdom of Sun Tzu peppered throughout the game. Really quite a bit ahead of its time, and probably the first true RTS, predating Dune by nearly a decade.
I can't believe this is not number one on the list! Such a classic, spent years trying to beat each scenario against different generals. I also can't believe I need 160 chars.
Ah, to attack archers in a castle with nothing but foot soldiers... oops.
I loved playing this on a friend's computer in 1985...
If GOG takes this on, I will buy it!
It was the first game that I played. My Dad bought it for me and it allowed anyone to set a strategy and watch tactical combat. Honestly, it is the only RTS that I enjoyed and nothing else quite measures up to it.
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Note: GameSpy ended all hosted game services in 2014, which affects the online multiplayer aspect of one or more games in the collection. Learn more about this in our FAQ.
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