Allegiance

aka: Microsoft Allegiance
Moby ID: 2843
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Description official descriptions

Allegiance is an online multiplayer game (the only offline component is the tutorial) with action and strategy elements, comprising a fusion of real-time strategy and spaceflight combat simulation. Originally developed by Microsoft Research, the game was published for multiplayer play on Microsoft's Gaming Zone platform in 2000 under the name Allegiance Zone. The game was not commercially successfully, and its servers were shut down in 2002.

In its two years of operation, the game acquired a loyal and active player community who continued to play using player-made LAN servers and client software. In 2004, Microsoft released the game's source code under a Microsoft Shared Source license, and the community has since maintained the game under the name FreeAllegiance. In 2017, the community sought to bring the game to Steam, and Microsoft changed the license to an MIT license, and it is now freely playable on Steam as Microsoft Allegiance. The community continues to operate at the FreeAllegiance web site at www.freeallegiance.org as of January 2021.

Allegiance features six playing modes: (1) deathmatch, (2) deathmatch with a time restriction, (3) capture the flag, (4) prosperity (generating a certain income), (5) artifacts (searching for artifacts), and (6) conquest (conquering all systems). Up to 75 players can participate in a match, with 2-6 teams of 3-15 players each.

The game is played as a spaceflight sim from either a first- or third-person perspective, with an overhead perspective available. Players can take control of a variety of different space ships with different tactical uses, from regular combat and stealth fighters to capital ships and utility ships, such as salvation ships which can rescue downed player pilots and allow them to respawn immediately. Players can also serve as turret gunners on other players' ships.

On each team, one player serves as Commander and coordinates the team, explores unknown sectors, and sends out vehicles to exploit resources. Another player serves as Investor, administering the team's funds and using it to research, build production plants, and upgrade ships. If it is preferred, the Commander can fill both roles.

While Microsoft's Gaming Zone was originally a paid subscription service, players could play for free on the reduced-feature Free Zone. A paid subscription to MSN was necessary for statistics comparisons or registering squads (similar to guilds from online role playing games).

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Windows version)

87 People (57 developers, 30 thanks) · View all

Executive Producer
Based on an orginal concept by
Lead Game Designer
Art Director
Lead Developer
Test Manager
Training Mission Designers
Designers
UI Graphics Designer
3D Art Lead
Artists
Special Thanks To
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 25 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 15 ratings with 0 reviews)

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Trivia

Source code

The source code for Allegiance, developed by Microsoft Research Games, was released after the discontinuation of support for the game (check the related links section for a download link). Joel Dehlin commented:

It took some work to come to this decision. The chief concern was that the development team (who are all off doing new projects) would have to take too much time to reconstruct the build environment to work with the latest tools, pretty up the code, scrub the comments, etc. Since it was impossible to free up the time for the development team to do this work, we were left with the choice to release it as is (unsupported) or skip it altogether. Given where the Allegiance community has gone with NO SOURCES WHATSOEVER we decided that it would serve the community better to release the sources unsupported.

The source code was picked up by the community at FreeAllegiance.org and is now further developed by them. The game can be downloaded from the site and can now be played once again on their servers.

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Related Sites +

  • Allegiance Source Code
    The developers released the source code of this game. It can be downloaded at Microsoft Research (511 MB).
  • Allegiance Vault
    Features, guides, message boards, and polls.
  • FreeAllegiance.org
    A site made by Allegiance fans who are still improving the game and are hosting servers for people to play on them.
  • Planet Allegiance
    Guides, game information, forums, and news.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 2843
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Adam Baratz.

Additional contributors: Rebound Boy, retinadesgastada, Abi79, Cantillon, Plok.

Game added December 29, 2000. Last modified March 21, 2024.