Introduction

Empire is one of the original computerized exploration and world conquest games first written at the evergreen state college in the early 70s. The current version was rewritten for the HP3000 minicomputer in 1978 and is available today at http://hp3000.empireclassic.com. The game is played using Telnet (or HP's VT-MGR) over the Internet.

The general game progression is you start as a small nation in a sanctuary on a island in a watery world of many islands. You can expand your nation on your home island and slowly build an economy with industries capable of building ships. Using these ships, your citizens can travel to neighboring islands and set up colonies there. Eventually, you will build an empire which stretches across the planet. During your growth and expansion, you may encounter other nations - which like you are attempting to discover new islands and expand their land holdings. You may communicate with these other players through mail or radio (a primitive chat) to negotiate peaceful coexistence, or you may choose to engage the other nations through combat.

The game continues for many days or months depending upon the game setting which are defined by the game administrator when the world is first generated. Each time you connect to the server, and sign on to your nation, the same world and your national resources are there, much as you last left them. Activity is limited by time units, which accumulate at a defined rate. Thus if you wait a day between game sessions, all islands and ships will have accumulated additional time units which you can then use to move, attack or operate your industries.

Based on game parameters, there is a defined "end date" when all action stops, and every nation's assets are totaled to determine which nation ended the game with the most power. It is rare for one nation to completely eliminate all the assets of all the other nations.

The computer takes great care to conceal information about the location of other islands and players until you "discover" the islands and encounter the players. Thus at first, it may seem that you are playing the game by yourself, because you have not seen other players. It is this aspect of discovery and expansion which provides one of the most satisfying aspects of Empire Classic. Once the game has ended, all information is revealed during a "post play" period, so you can review the total game situation as it appeared at the end of the game.