MOO 1 was and is incredible. There are several major game changing concepts that I have never seen implemented so well in any game using more than 640kb of memory. 1. Spies can frame and therefore push competing empires into wars against each other. 2. A diplomatic system that is amazingly deep. 3. A wonderful and balanced variety of races with deep affinities or distrust for other races which affects diplomacy, and definite racial advantages and disadvantages. None of them feels over powered 4. No Techs are ever guaranteed. At the start of a game there is a random tech tree assigned to you. This means you must spy or trade for unknown Techs or NEVER have them. 5. An amazing but not overwhelming set of tech trees rarely seen in other games. Make Stargates to rapidly respond to threats. Deep space scanners can warn you of invasions well in advance. Biological weapons to annihilate populations (BIG political hit). Different terraforming tech to enable you to make colonies on, and change planets you discover 6. Built in shrinking of, and obsolescence of, older tech. Just like the real world. 7. Stars of different ages yield different chances of mineral rich or hospitable planets just like the real universe 8. The random events like pirates, weird alien life forms, and the Global News service adds a lot of unexpected challenges. 9. You can REJECT the diplomatic victor and end up being the pariah state of the universe, and then go on to defend against, and finally conquer the rest of the galaxy by force. It is well worth playing. Read the manual. It is fantastic and deep.
