Space Empires I
Malfador Machinations · 2020 · Strategy, Exploration, Management, Turn-Based Strategy, 4X
PC
Mixed54% · 13 📉 Recent reviews down 45%
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About Space Empires I
✦ AI summary
Lead an expanding space empire from humble beginnings to galactic dominance, researching technologies and building customizable ships with hundreds of component combinations as you explore star systems connected by warp points. Encounter alien civilizations and navigate intricate diplomacy, trade, and espionage while building everything from massive warships to reality-warping megastructures in this deep turn-based strategy classic.
Space Empires I is the first chapter of the Space Empires series. A classic galactic conquest and turn-based strategy video game where you are the leader of a race of intelligent beings building large spaceships for interplanetary and interstellar travel through warp points between star systems.
You will meet extraterrestrial races while fighting for survival and conducting diplomacy signing treaties between empires, trade agreements to full-blown partnerships, and even create protectorates.
In Space Empires, the player assumes the role of the single leader of a race of intelligent beings that has recently acquired the technology required to build large fully space-based ships for interplanetary and interstellar travel.
Starting out with only a few possible hull sizes for their ships, on which they can place any number of components to essentially create a unique ship, the player can research new hull sizes and components to use with them, eventually being able to build ships ten times the size of his original hull size.
The components available to the player can vary greatly, from ship bridges, long-range scanners and shield generators to emergency supply components that, when used, will be destroyed but will allow a ship to continue moving for a longer time, and of course, weapons of various kinds, boarding parties, cloaking devices right up to Dyson sphere construction material and star-destroying devices.
The player can meet extraterrestrial races (which will inevitably happen as the player expands their realm) and conduct diplomacy with them. Treaties can be signed between two empires, varying from the basic trade agreement to full-blown partnerships and even protectorates. The player can also conduct intelligence operations, from simple information gathering missions, to ship bombs, to inciting rebellion on a planet.
Interstellar travel in Space Empires is not faster-than-light drive based, but instead relies on anomalies called "warp points", essentially wormholes between two star systems. Warp points are naturally occurring but a player can open and close these warp points if she or he has the appropriate technologies.
You will meet extraterrestrial races while fighting for survival and conducting diplomacy signing treaties between empires, trade agreements to full-blown partnerships, and even create protectorates.
In Space Empires, the player assumes the role of the single leader of a race of intelligent beings that has recently acquired the technology required to build large fully space-based ships for interplanetary and interstellar travel.
Starting out with only a few possible hull sizes for their ships, on which they can place any number of components to essentially create a unique ship, the player can research new hull sizes and components to use with them, eventually being able to build ships ten times the size of his original hull size.
The components available to the player can vary greatly, from ship bridges, long-range scanners and shield generators to emergency supply components that, when used, will be destroyed but will allow a ship to continue moving for a longer time, and of course, weapons of various kinds, boarding parties, cloaking devices right up to Dyson sphere construction material and star-destroying devices.
The player can meet extraterrestrial races (which will inevitably happen as the player expands their realm) and conduct diplomacy with them. Treaties can be signed between two empires, varying from the basic trade agreement to full-blown partnerships and even protectorates. The player can also conduct intelligence operations, from simple information gathering missions, to ship bombs, to inciting rebellion on a planet.
Interstellar travel in Space Empires is not faster-than-light drive based, but instead relies on anomalies called "warp points", essentially wormholes between two star systems. Warp points are naturally occurring but a player can open and close these warp points if she or he has the appropriate technologies.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
[h1]“So long, and thanks for all the fish.” ~[i]Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[/i][/h1] 1993 was a very important year for 4X genre. Just because [b]SimTex[/b] released their first game that ended up blowing everybody's mind. I'm talking, of course, about legendary [b]Master of Orion[/b], which [b]Stephen Barcia[/b] and his team published under [b]Bill Stealey[/b] / [b]Sid Meier[/b]'s [b]MicroProse[/b]. And I'm not mentioning [b]MicroProse[/b] for nothing because for 4X games that take place in outer space, [b]MoO[/b] did exactly what [b]Civilization[/b] did for its own kind of games. Heck, the entire term “4X” began with [b]Master of Orion[/b]. With its preview from [b]Computer Gaming World[/b] magazine to be exact. Sure, [b]Roger Keating[/b] and [b]Ian Trout[/b] already established 4X genre ten years before [b]MoO[/b] in their game called [b]Reach for the Stars: The Conquest of the Galaxy[/b] (heavily inspired by a board game [b]Stellar Conquest[/b]), but you know what I'm talking about. Everybody knows [b]MoO[/b] nowadays, while [b]Reach for the Stars[/b] is long forgotten. Surprisingly, while [b]MoO[/b] was getting a lot of praise from both press and actu…14 found this helpful
This is just a very simple prototype for the actual game which is Space Empires II. There's not really any reason to buy this other than curiosity about early stage game development & the dark ages of game design.10 found this helpful
Space Empires I is an ancient, mostly text based 4X space empire building grand strategy game from 1995 that was distributed as Shareware. It's a whopping 28 years old at the time of this review. The game runs in text windows and lacks proper 4:3 aspect ratio and support for any modern gaming display resolutions, hasn't been modernised or updated to run smoothly on modern gaming PCs. There's also no working fullscreen mode due to the nature of the game running in Windows based dialog boxes. Despite this lack of modernisation, it carries a pretty high price tag for such an ancient game. This seems to have been put on Steam as a nostalgia gouge. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard in 2023. For gameplay purposes, because the user interface for this game is mostly just 2D static images... it might as well be a browser game. And we all know, Steam isn't here to compete with Chrome and Firefox. If the game can be done in a web browser, it's just not rich or compelling enough to appeal to serious gamers on PC. Despite having reasonable depth even for a game almost 3 decades old, the interface hasn'…4 found this helpful
The Space Empires series is cool, and I searched long and hard for a copy of Space Empires I to see where the game got its origins. I failed, and I could never find it anywhere...I was very surprised to see it on Steam. Long live Space Empires. It should be known that this game has no AI, but you can set the total player count to 1 and just dominate all the neutral systems, so it's not unplayable.1 found this helpful
Space Empires I is a turn-based science fiction strategy game developed by Malfador Machinations and published by Strategy First that laid the groundwork for a series that would eventually become well known among fans of large-scale space conquest games. Originally designed during an era when strategic depth carried more importance than presentation technology, the game focuses on empire expansion, technological advancement, colonization, diplomacy, and warfare across a galaxy filled with opportunity and danger. While modern strategy titles often emphasize visual spectacle and streamlined mechanics, Space Empires I reflects an earlier philosophy where patience, planning, and long-term decision-making formed the heart of the experience. The premise begins with a civilization standing at the edge of interstellar discovery. Players take control of a growing empire that has only recently gained access to travel beyond its home system through mysterious warp points connecting distant regions of space. From those early beginnings, the objective steadily grows larger. New worlds must be discovered. Colonies must be established. Fleets must be constructed. Rival empires compete for territ…
This FAKE GAME is not the original. This game does not even have computer players!
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