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In the "Games" link off my home page, I told you how much I enjoy playing computer games. There is one game that grabbed my imagination as soon as I saw it. Circa 7000. Having been a long-time fan of tabletop miniatures games like Warhammer 40,000, I was excited when, one day out of the blue, some guy programs a very customizable game based somewhat on WH40K. The graphics were awful (16 colors!) but the game was so much fun that, much like a great novel inspires pictures of the characters and the plot, Circa 7000 inspired pictures of great space battles in my head, even though on the actual screen you are only moving little more than colored blocks. I was one of only a handful of lucky people who shelled out cash to register this great shareware game. One of the aspects of the game was that you could completely create your own armies, terrain, and weapons (all of the attributes and the graphics) to make battle scenarios. I immediately went to work creating my own armies and trying to "beautify" the blocky graphics that the programmer put in the game. (Well, you can't be a great programmer and a great artist!) The programmer (Michael Cooney) and I began regularly conversing via email. We shared ideas, I gave him new graphics, and he kicked my ass at the game via Email play. Eventually, he was convinced that he needed to update the design a bit to keep up with the times. He made the game even more customizable, and added more attributes to the forces. He also updated the graphics to 256 colors. He even asked me to do some of the graphics for the release of the game (yep, you can see my name in the credits - blush). Circa 7000 Version 2 is even more amazing than the first. People have made more armies to fight land space battles with, as well as experimenting with medieval armies and other themed events. I even hear tell that Michael Cooney is secretly working on yet a third version of this game, but that isn't "official" yet (wink, wink). Go to the Boku Strategy Games web page to download the shareware version of the game and find out how to order this gem. While you are there, check out my page on tips for drawing your own armies and terrain. |
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