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51-402: At the start of a new game, a random game map is generated on a square grid basis. The map normally consists of numerous islands, although a variety of algorithms were used in different versions of the game, producing different styles of maps. Randomly distributed on the land are a number of cities. The players start the game controlling one of these cities each. The area immediately around the city

102-404: A Commodore PET computer to help with the bookkeeping involved in being a dungeon master , and he came up with the idea of writing a computer game for the machine before the end of the year so he could write it off on his taxes. Freeman had written on gaming for several publications, and he joined Connelley in the design of a new space-themed wargame. Starting work around August 1978, Freeman wrote

153-490: A Heathkit H11 ("If I'd had a brain, I'd have bought an Apple II ") and made it available commercially in 1983. Bright sold only two copies and, discouraged, returned to a "real job". At some point, someone broke through the security systems at Caltech, and took a copy of the source code for the FORTRAN/PDP-10 version of the game. This code was continually modified, being passed around from person to person. Eventually, it

204-561: A flood of orders. After writing to many software companies (including Broderbund , Sirius Software , Simon & Schuster , Sublogic , Epyx , and MicroProse ), he licensed the game to a small software company named Interstel. Mark Baldwin was brought in to coauthor the game redesigning it for the commercial market. Starting around 1987, Empire: Wargame of the Century on the Atari ST , Amiga , Commodore 64 , Apple II , Macintosh , and MS-DOS

255-425: A game called Jumpman came through and was a big hit for Epyx. The success of Jumpman made Epyx a lot of money, so Michael Katz had the capital to create a merger between Epyx and Starpath, bringing Starpath's programmers and hardware engineers under the same company. Michael Katz left Epyx in 1984 after being hired away by Atari Corporation as their President of Entertainment Electronics Division (and later, became

306-452: A lot of directions, all of which turned out to be failures." Epyx had shrunk from 145 employees in 1988 to fewer than 20 by the end of 1989. After emerging from bankruptcy the company resumed game development but only for the Lynx, with Atari acting as publisher. In 1993, with eight employees left, they decided just to sell off the rest of the company. Bridgestone Media Group eventually acquired

357-467: A map has been described to give a sense of exploring the unknown. Crawford said that "reasonable" uses of fog of war, such as needing to send out scouts, "not only seem natural, but ... add to the realism and excitement of the game" Merchant Prince displays over unexplored territory what Computer Gaming World described as a " renaissance-style map of dubious accuracy ". In some strategy games that make use of fog of war, enemy AI may have knowledge of

408-640: A meeting with former colleagues at Amiga Corporation , RJ Mical and Dave Needle , to see if there was a way to design a portable gaming system. Internally, the handheld gaming system they were working on was called the Handy. Unable to continue due to high costs, it was sold to Atari Corporation which brought it to market in 1989 as the Atari Lynx . In 1987, Epyx faced an important copyright infringement lawsuit from Data East USA regarding Epyx's Commodore 64 video game World Karate Championship . Data East thought

459-448: A sequel named Empire II: The Art of War . While the original had been a turn-based strategy, Empire II was shifted towards turn-based tactics : there was no more empire-building and production of units, but the complexity and realism of battles were enhanced with features such as morale rules and various degrees of damage. The playable campaigns consisted of a collection of diverse historical or fictional battles. The game editor feature

510-481: A trade-off of precision and certainty for speed and agility. Militaries employ command and control (C2) systems and doctrine to partially alleviate the fog of war. The term also applies to the experience of individual soldiers in battle: often cited is the pure confusion of direction, location, and perspective on a battlefield. Officers and soldiers become separated, orders become confused and subject to revision with poor communication. Sounds and vision are limited from

561-540: Is also common in both turn-based and real-time strategy games, such as League of Legends , the Close Combat series , Total War series , Age of Empires series , Red Alert series , Advance Wars series , Fire Emblem series , Sid Meier 's Civilization series , and the Supreme Commander series . Fog of war gives players an incentive to uncover a game's world. A compulsion to reveal obscured parts of

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612-477: Is called for; a skilled intelligence to scent out the truth. It has been pointed out that von Clausewitz does not use the exact phrase "fog of war", and also uses multiple similar metaphors, such as "twilight" and "moonlight", to describe a 'lack of clarity'. The first known use of the exact phrase in text dates to 1836 in a poem entitled "The Battle of Bunker Hill" by McDonald Clarke . The poem describes an assault by British forces upon an American redoubt during

663-513: Is the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations . The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign. Military forces try to reduce the fog of war through military intelligence and friendly force tracking systems. The term has become commonly used to define uncertainty mechanics in wargames . The word "fog" ( German : Nebel ), but not

714-575: Is visible, but the rest of the world map is blacked out in a fog of war . The city can be set to build armies, aircraft, and various types of ships. Cities take a particular number of turns to produce the various units, with the armies typically being the most rapid. Players move these units on the map to explore the world, typically seeing the land within a one square radius around the unit. As they explore they will find other cities, initially independent, and can capture them with their armies. The captured cities are then set to produce new units as well. As

765-636: The Dunjonquest label. The games were so successful that they were later re-released in 1985 as the Temple of Apshai Trilogy . Using the same BASIC game engine , a series of "semi-action" games followed under the Epyx brand, including Crush, Crumble and Chomp! , Rescue at Rigel , and Star Warrior , each of which added twists to the Apshai engine. Freeman became increasingly frustrated by Connelley's refusal to update

816-462: The 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill : "Will they dare a third attack? Is a question seen in every eye; Old Put across the neck and back, Rides slowly, their vengeance to defy— Wildy, in that deadly hour, The Ramparts shove their bolted shower, While mid the waving fog of war, Thunders the Yankee’s loud hurrah" The first known attempt to explicitly define the "fog of war" in a military text

867-564: The President of Sega of America ), and was replaced by Gilbert Freeman (no relation to Jon Freeman). By 1983 Epyx discontinued its older games because, Jerry Pournelle reported, "its managers tell me that arcade games so outsell strategic games that it just isn't cost-effective to put programmer time on strategy." By early 1984, InfoWorld estimated that Epyx was the world's 16th-largest microcomputer-software company, with $ 10 million in 1983 sales. Many successful action games followed, including

918-399: The amount of information available to the human player" to compensate for the computer's lack of intelligence. In a 1988 Computer Gaming World article Dave Arneson called fog of war "one of the biggest 'plus' factors in computer simulations", while Crawford concluded, using Tanktics as an example, that video game fog of war systems became less "fun" the more realistic they were, leading

969-512: The basic rules, mission sets, background stories and the manual, while Connelley coded up the system in PET BASIC . The two formed Automated Simulations around Thanksgiving 1978 to market the game, and released it in December as Starfleet Orion . Examining contemporary magazines ( Byte and Creative Computing ) suggests this is the first commercial space-themed wargame for a personal computer. As

1020-544: The exact phrase, in reference to 'uncertainty in war' was introduced by the Prussian military analyst Carl von Clausewitz in his posthumously published book, Vom Kriege (1832), the English translation of which was published as On War (1873): War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. A sensitive and discriminating judgment

1071-692: The film Battle of Britain . He found gameplay tedious, but later realized that a computer could handle the gameplay and serve as CPU opponent . The initial version of computer Empire was written in BASIC , before being rewritten in 1977 in the FORTRAN programming language for the PDP-10 computer at Caltech . It was so compelling as to cause video game addiction ; some students failed classes while playing. "One even threatened me because of this (incredible, hmm?)", Bright recalled. He ported Empire to assembly language on

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1122-498: The focus of computer gaming was shifting to PC compatibles and 16-bit machines. Although the console market, dominated by the Nintendo Entertainment System , was highly lucrative, Epyx objected to Nintendo 's strict rules and licensing policies and instead initiated a failed attempt to develop their own game console. Epyx was unable to fulfill its contract with Atari to finish developing Lynx hardware and software, and

1173-458: The game engine. He left the company to start Free Fall Associates in 1981, leaving Connelley to lead what was now a large company. A year later, Epyx was starting to have financial difficulties. Jim Connelley wanted and received money through venture capital, and the venture capitalists installed Michael Katz to manage the company. Connelley clashed with new management, left Epyx, and formed his own development team, The Connelley Group, with all of

1224-642: The game from this version. In 1984, Bob Norby from Fort Lauderdale, Florida , ported the DECUS version from the VAX to the PC as shareware. In 1987, Chuck Simmons re-implemented the game in C using the UNIX curses library in order to make use of its support for many different character-cell terminals. Eric S. Raymond maintains a copy of this version and shared some version with open-source projects. In 1996, Computer Gaming World declared

1275-546: The game was not a "simulation" of anything, the company introduced the Epyx brand name for these more action-oriented titles. Rated as the best computer game by practically every magazine of the era, Apshai was soon ported from the TRS-80 to additional systems, such as the Atari 8-bit computers and Commodore 64 . Apshai spawned a number of similar adventure games based on the same game engine, including two direct sequels, branded under

1326-566: The game was written in BASIC, it was easy to port to other home computers of the era, starting with the TRS-80 and then the Apple II , the latter featuring rudimentary graphics. They followed this game with 1979's Invasion Orion , which included a computer opponent so as not to require two human players. The company's next release, Temple of Apshai , was very successful, selling over 20,000 copies. As

1377-423: The game's authors Mark Baldwin and Bob Rakosky. Computer Gaming World in 1993 called Empire Deluxe "a welcome addiction (sic) to the library of every serious strategy gamer". A 1993 survey in the magazine of wargames gave the game four stars out of five, noting flaws but stating that "Yet, I keep on playing". It enjoyed great success, and was noted as one of Gamespy's Greatest Games of All Time . Empire Deluxe

1428-732: The game's fans. In the Winter of 2002, Mark Kinkead of Killer Bee Software purchased the rights for Empire Deluxe from Mark Baldwin and Bob Rakowsky, and in 2003 produced a new version called Empire Deluxe Internet Edition ( EDIE ) for Windows . This was essentially a port of the code Baldwin and Rakowsky produced in 1993, with few changes, such as a slightly increased map size (255×255), but did not add any new rules. A year later, Kinkead would create an "Enhanced" version with new units and rules, including artillery, engineers and orbital units. The company produced several other editions for Windows, Android , and iOS . In 1995, New World Computing published

1479-554: The games to other major European platforms such as the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC . For the Commodore 64 , Epyx made the Fast Load cartridge which enables a fivefold speedup of floppy disk drive accesses through Commodore's very slow serial interface. Another hardware product was the Epyx 500XJ Joystick, which uses high-quality microswitches and a more ergonomic form factor than

1530-404: The hits Impossible Mission and the sports game Summer Games . The latter created a long run of successful sequels, including Summer Games II , Winter Games , California Games , and World Games . The company produced games based on licenses of Hot Wheels , G.I. Joe , and Barbie . In Europe , U.S. Gold published Epyx games for the Commodore 64 , and also ported many of

1581-598: The hunt for targets, there won't even be time for four hours' unbroken sleep." Abstract and military board games sometimes try to capture the effect of the fog of war by hiding the identity of playing pieces, by keeping them face down or turned away from the opposing player (as in Stratego ) or covered (as in Squad Leader ). Other games, such as the Dark chess and Kriegspiel chess- variants , playing pieces could be hidden from

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1632-517: The idea of a tournament karate game, but specific artistic choices not dictated by that idea. The Court noted that a "17.5 year-old boy" could see clear differences between the elements of each game actually subject to copyright. Epyx had become heavily dependent on the Commodore 64 market, which accounted for the bulk of its revenues most years, but by 1988 the C64 was an aging machine now in its sixth year and

1683-405: The information is often fully or partially re-hidden whenever the player does not have a unit in that area. The earliest use of fog of war was in the 1977 game Empire by Walter Bright . Another early use of fog of war was the 1978 game Tanktics designed by Chris Crawford , which was criticized for its unreliable and "confusing" fog of war system. Crawford, in 1982, suggested "limit[ing]

1734-412: The latter withheld payments that the former needed. By the end of 1989, Epyx discontinued developing computer games, began making only console games , and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection . According to Stephen Landrum , a long-time game programmer at Epyx, the company went bankrupt "because it never really understood why it had been successful in the past, and then decided to branch out in

1785-405: The medium to instead use simplified systems. Two large Blizzard franchises, Warcraft and StarCraft , use a fog of war which only reveals terrain features and enemy units through a player's reconnaissance . Without a unit actively observing, previously revealed areas of the map are subject to a shroud through which only terrain is visible, but changes in enemy units or bases are not. This

1836-402: The opposing sides, participants in the roles of sub-unit leaders, and the use of radio sets or intercoms. A computer's ability to effectively hide information from a player is seen as a distinct advantage over board games when simulating war. Fog of war in strategy video games refers to enemy units, and often terrain, being hidden from the player; this is lifted once the area is explored, but

1887-405: The original Empire the 8th-best computer game ever released. The magazine's wargame columnist Terry Coleman named it his pick for the second-best computer wargame released by late 1996, behind Panzer General . Bright recoded the game in C on an IBM PC . With low commercial expectations, he submitted an announcement to January 1984 BYTE Magazine 's "Software Received" section, and received

1938-539: The perspective of the individual and may not be easily resolved, resulting in a continuing uncertainty, a perceptual "fog". The fog of war has been decreasing as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technology is improving. In 2016, Chief of Staff of the United States Army Gen. Mark A. Milley stated that "On the future battlefield , if you stay in one place longer than two or three hours, you will be dead... With enemy drones and sensors constantly on

1989-405: The player's collection of cities expands, they are able to set aside some to produce more time-consuming types, like battleships . Ultimately they have to use these forces to take all the cities on the map, including those of the other players, who are often run by the computer's game engine . Walter Bright created Empire as a board wargame as a child, inspired by Risk , Stratego , and

2040-695: The players by using a duplicate, hidden game board. Another version of fog of war emulation is used by block wargaming where, much like Stratego , the blocks face each player, hiding their value. However, this also allows for incremental damage, where the block is rotated up to four times to indicate battle damage before the unit is eliminated from the playing field. Solitaire games also by their nature attempt to recreate fog of war using random dice rolls or card draws to determine events. Complex double-blind miniature wargames , including military simulations , may make use of two identical maps or model landscapes, one or more referees providing limited intelligence to

2091-430: The positions of all other units and buildings on the map regardless, to compensate for lack of true intelligence, which players may consider as cheating if discovered. A designer may use fog of war to keep a game that has become impossible to win enjoyable, by hiding this fact from the player. Epyx Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and video game publisher active in the late 1970s and 1980s. The company

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2142-479: The programmers going with him, but continued to work under the Epyx umbrella. With no programmers to develop any games in-house, Michael Katz needed to hire programmers to ensure a steady supply of games. Several venture capital owners involved in Epyx also had ownership of a company called Starpath . While Starpath had several young programmers and hardware engineers, they were facing financial difficulties as well. Around this time, an independent submission to publish

2193-403: The standard Atari CX40 joystick while remaining compatible. Starting in 1986, Epyx realized that the Commodore 64 was starting to show its age, and they needed to think about the future of the company. They hired Dave Morse to explore the next generation of consoles and computers and to learn about their strengths. David's son wanted his father to come up with a portable game system, so he had

2244-631: The whole game, and particularly the depiction of the referee, looked too much like its 1984 arcade game Karate Champ . Data East won at the US District Court level and Judge William Ingram ordered Epyx to recall all copies of World Karate Championship . Epyx appealed the case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, who reversed the judgment and ruled in favor of Epyx, stating that copyright protection did not extend to

2295-488: Was enhanced by allowing the user to design not only new maps and campaigns, but also new units with new graphics and sounds. There are ports and source code for modern PC operating systems available for free download at Walter Bright's Classic Empire webpage. Strategic Conquest , not associated with Bright, is based on Empire . Sid Meier has stated that Empire inspired his Civilization series . Fog of war The fog of war ( German : Nebel des Krieges )

2346-509: Was found on a computer in Massachusetts by Herb Jacobs and Dave Mitton. They ported the code to the VAX/VMS operating system and, under the alias of "DeNobili and Paulson", submitted the program to DECUS . DEC technicians routinely installed Empire with VMS. In 1983 Bright contacted DECUS, who credited him in the catalog description of the program and source code; many players became aware of

2397-480: Was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman , originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before renaming the company to match in 1983. Epyx published a long series of games through the 1980s. The company's assets are currently owned by Bridgestone Multimedia Group Global. In 1977, Susan Lee-Merrow invited Jon Freeman to join a Dungeons & Dragons game hosted by Jim Connelley and Jeff Johnson. Connelley later purchased

2448-415: Was made in 1896 in a book titled The Fog of War by Sir Lonsdale Augustus Hale, where it is described as "the state of ignorance in which commanders frequently find themselves as regards the real strength and position, not only of their foes, but also of their friends." The fog of war is a reality in all military conflict. Precision and certainty are unattainable goals, but modern military doctrine suggests

2499-639: Was produced later in 1993, including a map and scenario statistics tool, a map randomiser tool (as random maps were present in the Interstel version, but lacking from Empire Deluxe ), upgrade patches for both DOS and Windows versions and a collection of 37 scenarios (with accompanying maps) from "celebrity" designers, many of them famous in the games industry including Will Wright , Jerry Pournelle , Jim Dunnigan , Johnny Wilson ( Computer Gaming World editor), Gordon Walton , Don Gilman ( Harpoon series architect), Trevor Sorensen ( Star Fleet series designer), and

2550-535: Was produced. In the early 1990s, Mark Baldwin and Bob Rakowsky rewrote the game, calling it Empire Deluxe for DOS , Mac OS , and Windows , released in 1993 with New World Computing as the publisher. Empire Deluxe sustained the old game play of Interstel's version in a standard game, while adding a basic version for beginners, and advanced game with new units such as the Bomber and Armor and map sizes up to 200×200. An expansion pack , Empire Deluxe Scenarios ,

2601-495: Was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #195 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars. In 1994, PC Gamer US named Empire Deluxe the 35th best computer game ever. The editors called it and "elegant" and "adaptable" game system that allowed "almost endless" replayability. Computer Gaming World in 1993 stated that Empire Deluxe Scenarios offered "a lot of value" to

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