Assignment
(Munoz-Avilla)Turn based strategy
is the early strategy of game where players takes turn to play; examples are
the chess, the battle for Normandy (1982), Nato Division Commander (1985), etc.
Turn based strategy is now known as the real time strategy which requires no
turn between players but often refer to as harvest, build, destroy during game
play in real time. The real time strategy genre has become so large and diverse;
first began to run on computers with the use of the mouse and the keyboard
during game play. The real time strategy in the 1989 began to run on the Sega
Genesis and computers with the introduction of Apple and Microsoft computers but
nowadays this genre can be run on most consoles. The Real Time Strategy genre
initially evolved separately in the United Kingdom, Japan and North America,
afterward generally merging into the worldwide tradition.
Stonker,
Mega-Lo-Mania and Hersog Zwerei were fuel for the imagination of the early real
time strategy developer. Dune 2 was the spark that ignited them; developers of
the real time strategy took the idea of Dune 2 blueprint and greatly expanded
it by adding much new concepts to the real time strategy genre. The real time
strategy genre underwent a series of rapid innovators and improvements to the
original formula that really took the simplistic of Dune 2 template and
redevelop to accommodate more advance and more realistic games; example War
craft with the beginning of the real time strategy genre emphasis on making combat.
Command and conquer treated fans with a taste of modern war craft to a style of
cinematic and engrossing game play. Age of Empire took players on a journey
through time and allowed them to wage war throughout human and many more are
some greatest real time strategy genre released and some of the old ones real
time strategy games are still played today.
The
gameplay for all the games mentioned above generally consist of a player being
positioned somewhere on or off the map with a few units, buildings and also the
capability of building other units or buildings often but specific structures to
unlock or request the player to build army to eliminate enemies who posses the
building or unit. The task of a player must perform to succeed at a real time
strategy can be very demanding and complex, user interfaces have evolved to
cope with the challenges. Some features have been borrowed from desktop
environments for example the technique of clicking and dragging to select all
units under a given area.
(Crash, 1984) Stonker was one on
the first real time strategy games developed by Imagine Software, published by
Imagine Software and released in 1993. Stonker is a very old game, which was
released for a platform known as 48K ZX spectrum, 48K, which simply means 48
kilobytes the amount of memory in the version of the ZX spectrum. Spectrum is a
small keyword unit that can be hooked to a television. The game uses tapes,
which become the most dominant storage medium for games until Nintendo
Entertainment system. The game incorporate real time strategy element and the
most important was the introduction of a very basic counter system. The game
play of stonker is that Armor beats Artillery, which beat infantry, which in
turn beat Armor and then forms a combat system. The game doesn’t require a
player to position unit on a map or spend time purchasing unit or assets, in
stonker all the unit are set up at the beginning of the game an also contains
one map to play. First, each play begins with a delivery of port and secondly,
there is a river with a bridge spanning it the divides the map into two. During
game play the ship docks at the port at regular intervals to deposit resources.
Player are given four supply trucks each to transport these supplies to their
twelve combat units, if supplies is not received the player dies. The goal of
his game is to capture enemy port. This is very simple but in reality during
game play it is made difficult. Stonker game is highly flawed game and would
not entertain many today’s real time strategy fans but it nonetheless set the
precedent of a strategy game-taking place in real time.
(Moony, 2008) Age of Empire was one
of the first real time strategy games developed by Ensemble studios, published
by Microsoft, released on the October 26, 1997 and used the 2D game engine. The
same engine was later used for Age of Empire 2 with the help of Big Hugh Games
and Robot Entertainment developers. Age of Empire was the first game to
introduce the idea of Age: in that players must advance in Age to further the
military and economy. The game contains four Ages
1.
The stone age which only villagers and basic infantry are
available
2.
The tool age, which unit such as arches and club men
3.
The Bronze Age, which chariots and basic siege unit are
found.
4.
The Iron Age, where everything from war elephants to
juggernaut warship and phalanxes can be found.
Age
advancement cost more for resources to research, but also unlocks more powerful
upgrades and units. The basic gather
unit in Age of Empire is the villager. The villager is a unit that can primarily
gather resources but also build structure, resources namely food, wood, stones
and gold.
Age
of Empires was one of the first real time strategy games to use the concept of
the Town Center. At the beginning of each game, player’s start with a handful
of villagers and a Town Center, this produces more villagers and researches
upgrades in Ages. The Town Center supports four populations, and in order to
create more units, villagers must construct houses. Villagers can also
construct military buildings, including the Barracks, Archery Range, Stable,
and the Siege Workshop. Walls and Towers
can be constructed to fortify a player's base or create a defensive outpost.
Economy buildings, such as farms, are also available to enhance economic
production. Certain buildings, such as the government center allows for
researching technologies.
Age
of Empires was truly a pioneer in unit development, technology, and resource
gathering. It brought a new level of complexity to the previously simple and
predictable real time strategy genre. The game is considered one of the
founding titles of real time strategy genre, along with other great games such
as war craft and command and conquers. It simply was and still is one of the
most complete and expansive real time strategy games ever created.
(Nubbe, 1993)Mega-Lo-Mania
developed by Sensible software, published by Virgin Interactive and released in
1991. Mega-Lo-Mania
(MLM) was originally released as a "god simulation". Mega-Lo-Mania
was released on different platforms; the original Amiga version was published
by Image Works in 1991, in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. The Atari ST
version released the same year in the United Kingdom and Australia. A MS-DOS
version was ported by Audio Visual Magic Ltd. and published by Ubisoft in 1992
in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and France. Virgin
Interactive published the Sega Genesis in the United States in 1992. Imagineer published
the Sharp X68000 version in Japan and the SNES version in 1993 in France,
Germany, United Kingdom and Japan. This game was also known for the Sega
Genesis as Tyrants: Fight through time in the United States.
Mega-Lo-Mania has a pretty simple storyline a new
world is formed, and four rival gods fight for power over it. These gods are
Scarlet (Red), Oberon (Yellow), Caesar (Green) and Madcap (Blue). They are not different factions, but
share the same technologies called designs, structures, and units. One unique
feature in Mega-Lo-Mania is that each map called islands and divided into
different sectors. An island can have a maximum of sixteen sectors, but most
only have a few. On each sector a player can build a castle, which is the main
building. It is necessary to build a castle before you can build anything else
or discover designs in that sector. The castle is automatically built by moving
units to an empty sector. The time required to build the castle depends on the
number of units that are working on it. You can move units between sectors, but
you can't micromanage them within a sector.
The Mega –Lo-Mania world consists of 28 islands, and
your goal is to conquer all of them during ten epochs’ three islands in each of
the nine first epochs, and one in the final epoch. The epoch determines the
starting technology level for a castle, and the highest possible tech level.
When a castle discovers a certain number of designs it will reach a new tech
level. This means that all the buildings in the sector get increased armor, designs
get discovered faster and, for certain epochs, more buildings become available.
These buildings are the factory, which is used to build the more complex weapons
and the laboratory.
Bibliography
Crash. (1984). Crash Readers
Awards, 143.
Moony. (2008). Age of Empire.
Munoz-Avilla, H. (n.d.). gamespot.
Retrieved 09 10, 2013, from www.gamepot.com.
Nubbe. (1993). Mega-Lo-Mania.
