Even though this game shows it age graphically, all games in this genre is this game all prettied up with new graphics and added bells and whistles. If you're looking for a game to start in this genre, then look no further. I remember fondly buying this game for the first time many years ago. I still remember getting my grubby little paws onto the install discs and racing home. I remember anxiously waiting for this game to install and hearing the opening theme for the first time. Great memories all.

It's a testament to the power to this game that 20 years later, I've gone and purchased this game again.

Enjoy

I love strategy games, grand strategy in particular. I came in search of something similar, not exactly a grand strategy, no, this game is not this but boy did I get what I wantyed. It's got a nice charm with pretty good graphics, especially for it's time. I like to carefully plan each move while gaining more power through diplomacy. Such a shame I suck at it lol. For a very low price, either get 2 copies atleast of this game or a Big Mac from McDonalds. Very much worth it, for such a low price and even if you just want to play it during a break. 4.3/5

This is the game that defined the 4x genre. It's the game all other space empire building games were based on (one way or another). I've been playing this game since it first came out in the early 90s and still thoroughly enjoy it to this date. I love it so much that although i have an original packaging from back then, i bought another digital copy so i can download and play it from anywhere. An absolute must-have for any space empire game collector. You may think the graphics look a bit cheesy and the DOSBOX workaround for running it on Windows 7/8 is a bit much, but it's well worth your while. Its gameplay is highly addictive and from an era when supreme gameplay was the order of the day since graphics weren't much to look at yet. If you actually sit down for a while and try it, I guarantee you won't be able to let it go again. Especially if you're an old gamer like me. :-)

It is so great that some of the old DOS games like this we miss are back and capable of playing on windows.

This was the first of the really good turn bases space stragety games. It just makes it feel like it was is the good old days of strategy when it was more about content than flashy graphics. If you never played the Master of Orion series I highly recommend this game.

the original. this is a must have for any fan of the gendra. go make yourself a favor and buy it in the I+II pack tho because that pack is the best deal. thank you GamersGate to allow me to get back this masterpiece digitally after my CD became unreadable.

The defining classic of space conquest strategies. Remains fun to play despite antiquated graphics. Numerous paths to victory, random maps, impossible level which is actually hard for a change, fun space battles, xenocide, popularity, population, technology- how will you win? Unique races with various attributes which can actually affect how you play, though the quest for better technology is a constant every other option is up to you.

You can see the age of this game from the screenshot, but you will not be able to see its greatness without playing it. It is a game defining the 4X game genre, and you will find how small the 4X genre has changed because this original one is so perfect. At this low price, you can't go wrong.

Master of Orion is a space based strategy game where you seek to become the leader of the universe either by force or election (the nonfun way). You start off with few ships and soon grew as you colonize planets. The story is there once was a race call the Orions (no, not Vorlons) which had some very good technology. Everyone in the universe (quite literary) wants this tech. Getting said tech will help you win the game but getting Orion Tech isn't needed oddly. All and all, it's a fun little strategy game, I'm not really a fan of this genre but the price was right. NOTE: This runs in DosBox so it will run on most modern systems.

Master of Orion (MoO or MOO) is a turn-based, 4X science fiction computer strategy game released in 1993 by MicroProse on the MS-DOS and Mac OS operating systems. The purpose of the game is to lead one of ten races to dominate the galaxy through a combination of diplomacy and conquest while developing technology, exploring and colonizing star systems. The game uses a point-and-click interface as well as keyboard shortcuts to control the management of colonies, technology, ship construction, diplomacy and combat. The name is a reference to the Orion system, the game universe's conquerable homeworld of a mythical race that once controlled the galaxy.

Two sequels were created, Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares in 1996 and Master of Orion III in 2003 - as well as the free, open source FreeOrion which is loosely based on the series.[1] A prototype was developed under the name Star Lords though it was only released as freeware in 2001 as part of the promotion for MoO III.

Master of Orion is a significantly expanded and refined version of the prototype/predecessor program Star Lords. Steve Barcia's game development company Simtex demonstrated Star Lords to MicroProse and gaming journalist Alan Emrich who, along with Tom Hughes, assisted Barcia in refining the design to produce Master of Orion; and the game's manual thanks them for their contributions. Emrich and Hughes later wrote the strategy guide for the finished product.MicroProse published the final version of the game in 1994.

Master of Orion is a turn-based game in which players alternate actions and decisions with computer-controlled opponents. A mouse is needed, but hot keys can access many functions.

The main screen is a scrollable map of the galaxy; clicking on a star system makes the rightmost part of the main screen display information about the planet there. If the player has not explored the system, only the word "unexplored" appears; otherwise the panel shows the planet's current and maximum population; if the player has a colony there, it also offers controls to allocate the colony's output.

There is a separate space combat map, and additional screens for managing research, diplomacy and espionage. The diplomacy and espionage screen acts partly as a menu that provides access to screens about specific aspects. There is also a Planets List screen that can be used in managing an empire's economy.

Lockable sliders are used to allocate a colony's output between ship construction, planetary defenses, factory construction, ecology or research. Within each of these industry sectors, there is a fixed sequence of activities to which resources are allocated; for example defense effort will be used to upgrade existing missile bases if improved missile types have been discovered, then to build or upgrade planetary shields, and finally to build additional missile bases. The technology screen uses a similar set of lockable sliders to allocate research spending between the 6 technology areas.

The game begins with a single colonized homeworld, one colony ship and two scout ships that can be used to explore nearby stars. As the game progresses, gamers discover new worlds, encounter other races, colonize worlds, and fight wars. Despite their different backgrounds and homeworlds, all races possess legends of the Orions, a master race that once controlled the galaxy. Their homeworld contains powerful secrets and technology but is defended by a powerful robotic starship, the Guardian.

Victory is gained either by eliminating all opponents or by being elected supreme leader of the galaxy at a meeting of the High Council. Elections are held every 25 turns after two-thirds of the planets in the galaxy have been colonized, and each empire's voting strength depends on its population. To be elected High Master, an empire's leader must gain at least two-thirds of all available votes, with abstentions counting as a vote against both candidates. Some combination of conquest and diplomacy is usually necessary in order to gain such a large majority. Once a High Master is elected the player can accept the result or challenge it; the latter results in a "Final War" that is fought to the death between the High Master's supporters and the dissident. Even if it is the player themselves who has been elected by the High Council, the player may still choose to challenge the results, thus placing them in a "Final War" against all the other empires. This allows the player to choose whether to win the game immediately by diplomatic victory, or to continue until complete conquest is achieved.

Despite the game's name, conquering the Orion star system is neither necessary nor sufficient on its own to win the game. The planet in the Orion system is unusually large and extremely valuable, since artifacts left by its former inhabitants give its conqueror some very advanced military technologies, one of which players cannot research for themselves, and a colony there will be four times more productive in research than on most other planets. Other races are also more likely to support the empire that holds Orion during High Council elections. In order to colonize Orion or capture its technology one must destroy the robotic Guardian warship, a feat that requires a large, advanced fleet.

All of a colony's outputs are based on its industrial production, including research. All citizens are capable of industrial production, but are significantly more productive when assisted by factories. There is a limit on the number of factories a unit of population (notionally 1M individuals) can operate, but players can increase this by researching and building upgrades. The cost of upgrades rises rapidly unless the player first researches technologies that reduce factory costs.

Players can allocate a planet's industrial output to various combinations of: building or upgrading factories; building or upgrading a planet's shields and missile bases; research; spaceship construction; and ecology (pollution control, terraforming, increasing population growth). A planet's output can also be transferred to the planetary reserve (treasury), but with a 50% penalty.

The treasury can also be increased by scrapping ships or missile bases, by gifts from other empires and by random donations from non-playable rich merchants. Its funds can be used to boost the output of other planets, subject to strict limitations, and to provide gifts to other empires.

The need to clean up pollution is a serious constraint on economic growth in the early game. Various technologies reduce the cost of cleanup to the point that pollution may not be a significant factor in later stages. Players must also pay maintenance costs for ships, missile bases and spies, which is financed by a percentage tax that is calculated by the software and applied to production at all colonies; players cannot control how this burden is allocated between colonies.

The designers regard technology as the most important contribution to a player's success. Advances can be acquired through research, trading, spying or conquest. Six technology areas can be researched to produce new advances:

1.Computers: spaceship systems that improve combat effectiveness; factory controls that increase the number of factories each colonist can operate; scanners that monitor the movements of other empires' ships and eventually can even "explore" planets remotely; and a weapon that can destroy other ships' computer systems. Computer technology advances also improve the effectiveness of spies in both offensive and defensive operations.

2.Construction: reductions in the cost of building and upgrading factories; reductions in pollution; improved armor; and self-repair sy

A huge influence on many more recent strategy games, at this price MoO still offers wonderful value for money - especially when bought in the bundle with MoO II.

Its an classic to own and play at least once.

If you only want of space empire game then 2nd game you should go for, but current price (and package price for both games) I say you should not pass up this chance to play and old school game.

Don't turn away just because of this game's classic graphic. After getting this game and having a try, I am addicted to it immediately. Not only due to the game system, a well designed technology tree, plus the randomized settings which make the game "replayable". After completing a game, I will create a new one and use a different way to play again and again. Strongly recommend this to those who like strategy games.

There's not much that can be said about this game that hasn't already been said. It's one of the classic space-based 4X games, and it's still loads of fun today. "Just one more turn..." results in two more hours of playing until it's well past midnight.

This game runs in dosbox, and all the the settings should be correct. Using alt-enter should let you get the window to full screen, instead of the 640x480 sized window it starts in.

Please bear in mind that you will need to find a picture of the ship classes to play the game, which caught me off guard as a nasty surprise the first time I played this version. I had been hoping that the DRM would have been removed. Googling "master of orion ship classes drm" will hep you find the picture you need to answer the questions correctly, since the PDF version of the manual does not contain the images you need.

The graphics are what you would expect from a game that was released in the mid-90s, but you shouldn't play this game for the eye candy.

For $3, it's a steal. If you're a fan of turn-based strategy, get this game.

Played MoO years back, and the only game I've played that approaches it's optimal blend of depth and simplicity is SotS - MoO is still well worth playing, even now.

Also, for those who don't know, it's played in DOSbox, which means you can go to the DOSbox directory inside your MoO folder and edit the DOSbox.conf file with notepad. Fullscreen is also doable with the usual alt+enter.

A classic. I spent hours and hours playing this when it first came out however many years ago, it's fun to play it again.

I loved this game when it originally came out, andthe original was still the best. Versions 2 and 3 just made it more complicated without really improving it.

Only thing i don;t like is, you can't make it full screen, otherwise, it plays just as great now as it did then!

Great little 'retro' game. A very standard 'conquer the stars game', nowadays we get games that look better but they do not go a lot beyond what 'MoO' already acheived. And it's cheap too. A game worth having if you don't mind the simple graphics.