Armada 2525

The Good
I like "classic" hardware from my childhood and recently got an ibm type "10mhz 8086" clone with 640k, so what have I been doing... playing classic games of course.

Armada is perhaps the best "4x" style game before the term existed. Its very simmilar to to 1983's "Reach for the Stars: The conquest of the galaxy", but:

1: has more AI "players" (up to 5 opponents, instead of 3), 2: diplomacy is pretty much the same (they surrender/sue for peace) 3: combat is vastly better, in you can watch, issue "general" orders/formations 4: graphics are far "better" in that they have much more detail and colour, and i was testing in both "VGA"

Easily one of the best 8088/8086 games maybe the best space setting "4X" game for these systems

The Bad
The game lacks:

1: a musical score and/or sound effects past "beeps", i dont expect a soundtrack, but a simple "8-bit chip style" tune made of a collection of 8 to 16 "notes" maybe? That and up to 8 more "notes"... 2 sound effects for weapons, 1 for "explosions", 1 for "scene" switching and maybe 4 others for various things. Really, about 16 "notes" could really improve this game.
2: Any type of goal past: "4x" to eliminate opponent via war. This game has no way to achieve victory past that, there is no victory via science or population or percentage of galaxy owned. 3: races lack any real differences, they are just "names"

But its still an amazing game, especially considering the minimum requirements of an 8088 cpu!

The Bottom Line
By far the best game of its type (4X in space) in its of games that will run on an 8088 cpu. Fun, challenging, and very re-playable. Re-playable is huge for any game, even today, but it was harder to come by in the early days, this alone makes Armada 2525 a top game. Dont let its age fool you, there is a lot of challenge in this game.

Over looked, with its minimal requirements of little interest or unknown to most, this game is right up there with other 8088 strategy gems like: war of the lance, star control, Genghis Khan series, and even the 1st "civilization" game.

A must play, easily a classic

Look for more game reviews of dos, windows 3.x and pc booter games from me for 8088/8086 and 286 systems