Andromeda Conquest

Andromeda Conquest casts the player as the commander of a star empire that, in a turn-based strategy game, tries to control the galaxy by colonizing planets, building fleets, and militarily seizing rival systems. The game works with a map of star systems arranged in a network, along which the player moves ships, founds colonies, and manages the resources needed for the further growth of the empire. The goal is to gradually push out opponents, whether computer-controlled factions or other players, and gain control of as much of the galaxy as possible, with every decision about the direction of expansion affecting how much strength remains for defending the home worlds.

On the Atari 8-bit, the space map is shown as a grid of planetary systems with numeric data on garrison strength, production, and ownership, supplemented by text messages about battle results and diplomatic moves. The graphics are deliberately simple and informative, because the key decision-making happens in the player's head over numbers and strategic options, not on the screen. The sound is minimal, typical for strategy titles of its segment, and the game is carried above all by the tension of planning the next turn of galactic expansion. The clarity of keyboard-shortcut controls meanwhile allowed even fairly complex matches to be managed without needless fumbling through menus.

In its time, Andromeda Conquest was among the first home strategy games set in a space environment with an emphasis on colonization and empire expansion, a concept that became famous many years later thanks to far more elaborate and graphically rich genre giants. For players of the time it was one of the few ways to try building a galactic empire on an eight-bit computer, albeit with far more modest means than the graphical space strategies of the nineties later offered. Today the game is interesting above all as an early demonstration of mechanics that later, more famous 4X strategy titles built upon.

Why play it: For anyone interested in the roots of 4X strategy games, Andromeda Conquest is an early demonstration of colonization and empire-expansion mechanics, even if with far more modest means than the genre's later giants.