# What was this game?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-game/371201>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 2, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-game/371201 "2006-09-02T14:35:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-game/371201/1 "2006-09-02T14:35:49Z")

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When I was in high school (late nineties) I played a free, downloadable game. It was a ripoff of Master Of Orion–you started in a galaxy with a certain number of other intelligent races, usually all in different star systems, and then you scrambled to develop weapons and engines and terraforming technology and to wipe out all opposition.

It was a really great game, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called. As I’ve said, it was free for download, in the late 90s. Help?

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**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-game/371201/2 "2006-09-02T19:51:39Z")

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Found it. It was “Space Empires III” by Malfador Machinations.

If you like strategy/simulation games, you should give it a try. I enjoy playing it a lot more than I enjoy SimCity or Civilization.