Master of Orion and Master of Orion 3: The Space 4X Classics

Few strategy games can say they gave their genre its name. Master of Orion can. This guide walks through the 1993 original, how it was made, how it plays, and why Master of Orion 3, released a decade later, feels like such a different game.

A hobby project from Austin, Texas

Master of Orion started as a spare-time project. Jimmy Maher's history of the game at The Digital Antiquarian says Steve Barcia, an electrical engineer in Austin, designed it and programmed it with his wife, Marcia Barcia, and their friend Ken Burd. For years they called it Star Lords.

They sent it to MicroProse, the publisher that had just had a hit with Sid Meier's Civilization. MicroProse producer Jeff Johannigman liked the rough prototype and signed the team to keep working on it. The three quit their day jobs and named their studio SimTex.

The game got outside help, too. Alan Emrich, then the lead strategy-game writer at Computer Gaming World, and his longtime gaming friend Tom Hughes played early versions and sent the designers a steady stream of suggestions. Maher reports that the game was renamed Master of Orion during this period, and that the credits thank both men for their "invaluable design critiquing and suggestions." Emrich and Hughes went on to write the official strategy guide.

MicroProse released the game in the fall of 1993. Maher dates the release to October 1, 1993.

The magazine preview that named a genre

In its September 1993 issue, Computer Gaming World ran Emrich's "sneak preview" of the game under a headline saying it was rated XXXX. The joke had a point. He gave it four X's because it had what he called the essentials of any good strategic conquest game: explore, expand, exploit and exterminate.

Players soon shortened that to "4X," and the label stuck. Today it covers everything from Civilization to modern space-empire games. Maher points out that Master of Orion was not the first game of its kind. Board games like Stellar Conquest (1975) came before it, and so did computer games like SSG's Reach for the Stars. But it was the first 4X game ever called a 4X game.

How the original plays

If you're new to the original, here's what to expect:

• You lead one of several alien races, and each one plays differently. Emrich's preview listed ten races, with the note that the names might still change. Maher's examples from the finished game include the Psilons with a big research bonus, the insect-like Klackons with a big worker-productivity bonus, and Humans with bonuses in trade and diplomacy.
• Planets are run with slider bars. Each planet's output is split among ship building, planetary defenses, industry, ecology (cleaning up pollution) and research. You won't be queuing buildings city by city, so managing a big empire takes less fiddling than you might expect.
• Most stars have one useful planet. According to the preview, about half of the planet types (irradiated, tundra, inferno and so on) can't be colonized until you research the right technology.
• You can win by conquest or through the Galactic Council. The council meets every 25 turns and votes on the two most populous empires' leaders. Whoever gets two-thirds of the vote wins.
• It is a single-player game. Emrich's preview noted you could face one to five computer opponents, with no multiplayer of any kind.

Maher argues that much of the game's charm comes from how varied each game feels. Galaxies are randomly generated, and each race's strengths and weaknesses push you to play, and to handle each rival, differently, so there's rarely a standard path to victory.

Master of Orion II

SimTex followed up with Master of Orion II, which GOG lists with a 1996 release date. Today GOG sells the first two games together as Master of Orion 1+2, running on DOSBox.

Master of Orion 3: same name, new approach

Master of Orion 3 came from a different studio, Quicksilver Software, and was published by Infogrames. GOG lists its release date as February 25, 2003. Development was bumpy. GameSpot reported in 2002 that Infogrames had delayed the game so Quicksilver could streamline and simplify the design, and that Alan Emrich, Master of Orion 3's original designer, had left the project.

Infogrames announced that the game had "gone gold" (was finished and headed for manufacturing) in January 2003. Its press release called the game a "5X" strategy game: the classic four X's plus "Experience." The biggest differences from the earlier games:

• Your role changed. The press release said players were no longer petty interplanetary dictators but the controlling power behind a whole galactic civilization, with its leaders as pieces to be used.
• Automation took center stage. GameSpot's 2002 preview explained that the original design used "imperial focus points" to limit how much the player could directly control, leaving the rest to an AI bureaucracy. That system was reworked. In the revised design the preview described, you can set empire-wide policies and let the AI handle as much or as little as you like. The preview also described the "heavy foot of government," where larger empires pay more for things, giving smaller rivals room to catch up.
• Everything got bigger. There are 16 playable races, and the preview described real-time tactical battles of 500 to 700 ships, organized into task forces.
• New victory paths. GameSpot's 2003 review describes three: conquest, winning the presidency of the Orion Senate, or finding five ancient artifacts.
• Multiplayer. The press release promised up to eight players taking turns simultaneously.

GameSpot's 2003 review called the game more complex than its predecessors. It credited the automation with cutting down late-game micromanagement, but faulted the computer opponents, the interface and the graphics, and called it a disappointing follow-up to the two earlier games.

Playing the classics today

GOG sells Master of Orion 1+2 and Master of Orion 3 as DRM-free downloads, listing Wargaming Labs alongside the original developers. GOG's version of the first two games runs through DOSBox, so you don't need to set up an emulator yourself. The classics are also on Steam, where the store page notes they first arrived as part of a Collector's Edition package with a newer Master of Orion published by WG Labs.

If you're new to the series, the 1993 game teaches the whole 4X loop: scout, settle, build up, then choose between diplomacy and war. Maher calls it the game every new 4X space opera still has to be compared to.