Page History

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h2. History

Galactic Empire 

History

Galactic Empire was,

clearly,

Mike

Murdock

's

most

successful

module

for

The

Major

BBS

.

It

was

also

one

of

the

top

5

modules

ever

produced

for

the

platform;

it

was

a

virtual

"must

have"

game

for

any

system

into

serious

gaming.

From

Mike

Murdock

:

"_Galactic

Empire

was

inspired

by

the

desire

to

make

the

simulation

in

Galactic

Raiders

much

more

real.

I

wanted

to

have

more

than

a

simple

field

of

battle,

I

wanted

to

incorporate

a

strategy

simulation

part

also.

I

also

wanted

the

game

to

keep

its

"real-time"

appeal.

That

meant

that

the

code

needed

to

do

quite

a

few

things

behind

the

scenes

in

order

to

present

the

"illusion"

that

things

where

happening

in

real-time.

GE

first

came

out

with

a

limited

square

universe,

20x20

or

50x50

etc.

This

universe

was

pre-generated

using

a

utility

provided

to

the

Sysop

and

each

sector

consumed

a

record

in

the

database.

When

a

Sysop

would

run

the

game

over

an

extended

period

of

time

the

newer

players

never

had

a

chance,

all

the

sectors

were

populated,

owned,

and

well

defended.

In

order

to

make

the

simulation

more

real

I

needed

a

universe

that

could

be

huge,

or

at

least

32767x32767

sectors.

Given

that

each

sector

took

about

a

K

byte

of

data

in

the

database

this

meant

that

the

database

would

be

larger

than

the

hard

drives

of

the

time...

and

most

of

that

data

was

empty.

To

solve

this

dilemma

I

developed

the

concept

of

a

virtual

"unlimited"

universe

using

the

old

philosophy

question...

"If

a

tree

falls

in

the

forest

and

no-one

is

there...does

it

make

a

sound?".

In

other

words...

If

you

fly

though

a

sector

and

never

look

(scan

it)..is

the

sector

really

there?

The

answer

– Nope!

In

1992,

GE

3.0

was

released

which

contained

a

terraforming

universe...

The

game

would

create

data

for

a

sector

on

the

fly

as

players

scanned

a

sector.

This

meant

that

the

game

could

now

have

over

4

Billion

sectors

to

explore

and

brought

up

some

interesting

problems

and

possibilities.

How

do

you

get

to

all

those

other

distant

sectors

without

having

to

sit

at

your

terminal

for

200+hours

straight...

enter

wormholes.

Yes,

Einstein

did

me

a

big

favor

in

providing

the

ideal

solution

to

my

game.

Randomly

create

wormholes

to

link

distant

parts

of

the

universe

together.

I

later

decided

I

wanted

a

visual

depiction

of

the

entire

universe

so

I

created

a

graphical

mapping

utility

which

Sysops

could

run

on

a

daily

basis

to

generate

a

TIFF

map

file

for

their

users

to

download.

The

images

generated

by

this

utility

was

fascinating

to

view.

You

could

see

the

wormholes,

and

how

the

colonized

sectors

had

expanded

out

from

them.

It

even

let

you

run

it

in

an

interactive

mode

and

zoom

in

and

out._"

In

2002,

Mike

Murdock

released

the

latest

Galactic

Empire

under

the

GPL

license.

Game Information

Galactic Empire was M. B. Murdock and Associates' premier module for The Major BBS. It provides all the action of a user versus user space battle game and the challenge of an economic adventure. Players explore and settle the far reaches of the universe and set up empires of their own. This provides a game that has plenty of interest when a few players are on the system and during off hours, increasing system utilization and a dynamic user vs. user real time space battle game.

Since the game has no "fixed solution" you can reset the databases and start a new campaign as often as you like. This gives those players who came into the game late a chance to start over and win the next game. You determine what prizes the winners of each campaign receive. This increases the attraction of the module and its worth to your system.

Plot: It is 3250 in the standard year, 975 years since man has developed inter-planetary space navigation, and 412 years since neutron flux warp technology was perfected by the ship builders of Zygor. They currently lead the industry with the state of the art ships and weapons systems.

These are good times where a commander with a good ship and some business sense can make himself very very rich. Many of the planets in the known universe are ideal for basing industries to supply the demands of the interstellar fleet. These are also times when the less scrupulous commanders can overrun a distant settlement and claim the planet for his own. It is not a good idea to leave a distant settlement unprotected and the Galactic Command (an ad hoc legal body) recommends that commanders check up on their colonists regularly.

Once you have secured your ship, it is yours to command and keep maintained. The Zygorians will outfit you with enough supplies to get you started but you will surely run out if you encounter any rouge ships. The Galactic Command recommends you find and settle some planets immediately to secure a supply source for your ship. Or you can purchase supplies from other commanders with whom you have established trade agreements.

The object of the game is to build and maintain as large an empire as you can sustain, using any means you find appropriate. You can do this by yourself or with a team of other players. Your System Operator will inform you of the prizes and awards for becoming the top player(s) in the game.

Good luck and beware the dreaded Cybertrons at all cost.

Gameplay

Galactic Empire is a text-based multi-user action and strategy game. All events are presented in real-time to the user's ANSI/ASCII terminal. Commands are given on a command line, and occasionally, menus are present. Shortcuts for commands are available to allow for quick typing, or for easier macro programming. Users could control only one of their ships at a time, but could own many ships.

Galactic Empire Control Panel

Galactic Empire Control Panel is a front-end for Mike Murdock's Major BBS game, Galactic Empire, that aids the avid player with navigation and combat. It was written by Dave Walton in 1991.

GECP simplifies navigation and combat, provides some automatic defense features, and keeps your last SCAN in a window onscreen so you can see the movement of ships easily. It automatically aims phasers for you so you rarely miss a shot, and its auto-orbit feature prevents crashing your expensive ships into planets. It simply is a must for anyone who takes Galactic Empire seriously.

"Picture this. I'm cruising around warp 6 towards my unsuspecting target. As I approach, I drop to impulse and the shields automatically raise. My scanners update constantly to show my target's course. Seconds later, I scan as my ship automatically sends a volley of missiles, re-shields and re-cloaks all in one fluid motion. Next!"
– Commander Shadow of The Scarlet Brotherhood (Keith Johnson)

In 2002, Walton released the source code to GECP v1.14 under the BSD license.

• GECP v1.14 Source - BSD license.
• GECP v1.14 Binaries - includes v1.03, aimed at GE v2.
• GECP v1.14 Documentation
• GECP v1.14 Revision History

Binary Registrations:

• v1.03 - The registration code for "The Major" is: "MKCHCYJAVGCXWVVWNPLDFCVB"
• v1.14 - The registration code for "The Major BBS Restoration Pro" is: "OTCVWRRTLYBKSKNOZYTTAVCX"

Official Website is http://www.digger.net/projects/gecp/

.