Master of Orion 1+2

Still a classic. I recently downloaded a copy of it and it still holds up. From the golden age of Microprose, this title has even more "just one more turn" appeal then it's earthbound companion (prequel?) Civilization. Admittedly, the GUI is a bit on the primitive side, but simplicity has its advantages too; With a very uncluttered layout, all you need to know is on display without digging through a bunch of sub-menus. This is the only game that has ever caused me to destroy a computer peripheral. During my first finals week in college, I was playing a little MO1 to relax. Unfortunately, my ultra-cheap mouse chose to seize up for just a moment (mouse balls, boy I don't miss those) causing me to move an entire fleet of ships to the wrong position where they were promptly destroyed by a black hole projector and I lost the battle. An especially crushing defeat since I hadn't saved in a LONG TIME. Infuriated, I cut the mouse cord in half, swung the mouse around like a bolo and slung it into the cinder block wall of my dorm room, smashing it to bits. I then taped the remaining section of cord to the ceiling, to show it who the boss was. That is how engrossing this game is. Enjoy it, but be warned.

I wish game developers today could take a page from these games. Still two of the best ever made.

... and counting. Still I wanted to add my review as well. Why? For one because it is one of the two games that brought me to sign up at gog.com But why do I fully recommend this game? I'm just talking about the second part and I'm trying really hard to leave all nostalgia out it. Okay, if you like round based play the game is intuitive and fun. It is easy to build up your colonies, conduct espionage, design your own ships, recruit infamous star captains, launch webs of intrigue and strategically fight your battles so that none of these things feel like a tedious chore. This is something even modern games lack. There is always some part of the game (mostly annyoing Minigames) that are chores rather than fun gameplay. So, do you like Science-Fiction? Did you watch Star Trek or Star Wars and thought: "Wait a minute, I can do better than this!" With just a tad of imagination you can forge your own Empire. Build an entire fleet of Death Stars and anihilate all Rebels while your favorite mp3 player plays the "Imperal March" in the background. But maybe you are a Cybernetic Nerd and would liked the Borg Hive Mind and assimilate the population telling them "Resitance is futile!" Maybe you wanted to play as the Arachnids or as Space Marines, or win Starship Trooper style - whatever you fancy this game will cater your need. But the brilliant thing is: It is intuitive enough to play, the graphics have aged rather well, some details are still very nice and the controls are user friendly enough not to be in your way of your ascenion and total domination of all known space.

I love strategy. I love science fiction. And I love getting lost in the creation of my own story. The story in question is my empire. Master of Orion establishes the mold, but I prefer Master of Orion II because I can custom make a 'race' like RPGs let you make a character. Every so often I see a new movie, read a new book, or whatever and get inspired to make a new custom race in MOO's little universe to see how it fares against this shark tank. I don't have the patience any more to sit and try to master any new game systems but I still play this one because it never really is mastered.

I was so happy to find a version of MOO/MOO2 that I can play on my current laptop instead of keeping a 15 year old Dell laptop around just for MOO2. This version includes the setting that keeps your "Last Race" choices so making games is fast. I was wondering, has anyone ever seen or made preset lists for MOO2? My idea is that you could set lists of buildings to construct (which would be based on your preferences). For example, you might have a list for Productivity or Defense or some such. In the "Defense" list, your planets would make sure to build missile bases or ground batteries before research / BC making facilities. That way, you wouldn't have to choose the same basic build order for each individual planet, especially later in the game when you have researched/stolen many technologies. Autobuilding is often not all that bright in my opinion. Still, one of the finest games ever made.