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The Gal Civ series is part of a long-existing genre of space-based 4x games. We even had them back in the day when we used ASCII characters for the graphics (stars of course represented by asterisks), and the games were typed in by hand from BASIC source code in books.

The same goes for Civilization of course. At its heart, that series is just a re-imaging of classic Empire. The trick is what new things can be done with the genre, and can it be made more fun. Sid's got a good track record with that, so it will be interesting to see what he does here.

I remember interactive porn stories on the local BBS, and how much faster they loaded when I went to 14,400 (from 2400, I think I had 300 for a bit before that). I remember the first porn picture I ever DLed, "Bed post" was it's title, hot blond, big boobs and a properly sized bedpost....

I remember my friend playing "Empire" on the Evergreen State Colleges mainframe, apparently created at TESC. He would log in with 300 baud modem. Really the first MMOG (or MOG anyway). He was known as "Jen the blood thirsty maniac" (Yes his name is Jen, short for Jenison) Amazingly fun game to watch.

The civilization of yesteryear. Oh nukes, how do I love thee ;-)

playing across the Internet between colleges of London University ... I lost so much time to that game...

Simon

Wake me up when a real computer game like Wolfpack Empire or Nethack shows up on the console. Note both games have text graphics. You can play them on equipment that people would pay you to take off their hands. The point I'm making here is that there's more to games than graphics. Sweeny is focused on the wrong thing as I see it. For example, while the WoW graphics grab people, it's the multiplayer environment that keeps bringing people back to pay that monthly fee.

http://www.wolfpackempire.com/default.htm

This is a more old school version. http://www.wolfpackempire.com

• Empire is a simulation game of unique proportions. While it concentrates mostly on the war simulation aspects, it also has economic, political, and other more subtle real-world parallels.
• 
  
  Empire is a game that is played against human opponents over a computer network, usually the internet. It is possible for a game to last from a few hours to many months. While the common goal of an Empire player is to "win", there is no clear cut definition of what winning is. Players may seak to achieve whatever goals they want to achieve.
  
  Typically, a game is "won" by a player or group of players who make a "win declaration" and defy the world to oppose their declaration. Such declarations usually must stand unopposed either for 24 hours or by all players still playing in the game. If they are opposed, they typically wipe out the opposition and re-declare. However, it should be noted that even finishing a game with a viable country can be considered a victory (especially for a new player).
  
  Short games, called blitzes, require an intense and concentrated amount of effort on the part of players participating. They are a tremendous amount of fun if played against a full set of active players. Such games can heavily task your physical stamina. After many hours, your hands are dying to be unattached from the keyboard, your stomach is screaming for some form of sustenance, your family (if you have one) will wonder what deamon has possesed you and your brain will turn to putty, to say nothing of your digestive system and its need to purge itself once in a while. Ahh, Empire at its best!
  
  "Regular" games usually have some sort of sign up period lasting a week or three, and will have a well announced start date. Games typically last around two months, give or take a month though some games have been known to go for the better part of a year. "Updates", which you may learn about in other parts of this guide, typically occur once a day. It is usually a good idea to be on the game around updates, though not absolutely necessary.
  
  Empire is complex. There is no denying that. There are hundreds of thousands of 'pieces' in the game ranging from civilians to satellites to single units of food. The computer removes most of the complexity of the game, and allows you to manage things more easily. However, if you want to be the best of the best players, it will require you to micro-manage your country, paying attention to every detail. Small advantages in the beginning of the game can pay big dividends later. It is hard to catch up.
  
  The learning curve for the game is, as a result, rather steep. But it is far from impossible to become a good player in just a few games. Once in a while there are players who become great in a few games. It's a matter of how good you really are at such games combined with your knack for managing the environment of the game.
  
  Empire is not for the light of heart, nor the weak of mind. But for those who tread in the tortured landscapes of Empire battlegrounds, you will no doubt enjoy yourself on some level, perhaps satisfying inner neo-lithic desires in the process.
  
  Quite simply, in this writer's mind Empire is the best game ever. Bar none.
  
  Geoff Cashman (Mithrilien)

Yeah I'm old. But before there was all of these fancy windowing systems, there was the original UNIX multiplayer shoot-em up game hunt and the original UNIX multiplayer explore-build-techup-destroy game empire.

Hours of entertainment, barely a blip on your network, and hardly a cough on nearly any UNIX box built in the last ten years.

Maybe a nice blitz empire game....

Some points:

• A dozen or hundred psycho countries try to take over the world. No holds barred. Tech race sorta like Civilization since tanks beat spearmen any day of the week, and nukes are fun if you get them first.
• Serious strategy involved. Mostly as an observer, I've seen all sorts of wild strategies performed (not always successfully). A classic was capturing an entire underdefended island with paratroops. Though a decent player can beat a great player who stays offline too long. And for large countries it turns into micromanagement hell.
• Variety of ways in which to communicate (with words or weapons) with your friends and enemies. Private messages, public messages, news stories (khallow bombs Anonymous Coward 239 times), and even the occasional anonymous nuke from unidentified subs (called affectionately "peekaboo nukes").
• The game is easy to modify, and usually is. This means games aren't all alike (unlike say some Freeciv games I played a while ago).
• The Internet presence was well-synched with the games. Ie, games advertised on the rec.games.empire newsgroup. After play, bunch of people would post their results/war stories to the newsgroup as well.
• The game had a long, long history of open source development. The only other game category I can think of with this sort of rich development history are the Muds.