WIN9X, 2000ish, real-time strategy game, AOE like

Help locating old / Pre year 2000 games you used to play.
Post Reply
User avatar
eSwirl
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2021 4:06 am

WIN9X, 2000ish, real-time strategy game, AOE like

Post by eSwirl »

I played it on PC, WIN9X. I bought it from an old shop around 2000ish. (It is not a legal copy of a game, I didn't know it when I was like 4 or 5.)
My old memory, some of the detail maybe come from my wrong memory. (but most of them I am 99% sure)
Very Similar to AOE rts game, it is a Fantasy-Medieval game. Mostly medieval and some fantasy such as Dragon, turtle-man unit.
I believe the graphics is 3D (only 75% sure). Bird's eye view/Isometric view like AOE, but you can scroll down like Warcarft 3.
Starting from the farming, building house, mining, etc.
The most special is that you can build a Hero House to have a Hero, but it is just a simple knight. No special power, just a knight.
Each fighting unit can have its own a weapon. You can assign each weapon to each unit.
You can build an arrow tower or a bombard tower but it's expensive.
There is a Pathfinder, he goes around the map by himself automatically, and try to find something good.
The world is round and connected which means that when you go to the top of the map, you will be at the bottom of the map. It is a globe.
It is a seamless map. The minimap only show what your current screen has.

One other thing, I am from Hong Kong. The game when I bought it, it is already translated to traditional chinese. And It is not a legal copy of a game, the shop just copy the original game to a green disk. I am not sure if the game was translated to traditional chinese or it was made by people from Taiwan (they use traditional chinese) or China (they use simplified chinese). But I remeber the name of the game is an English word. (probably start with A, only 25% sure)

And I think its a single player game or a indie game. (only 50% sure)
There are 15 mission or story.
Each one has its special case.
All winning condition is destroy enemy kingdom/empires. (kill everyone)
I can only remember a few.

1. At the beginning there was a bard who could control the monsters. There is a strong dragon on the mountain. You can fight the dragon with your unit and the bard, then the bard will control the dragon.
Control the dragon and you can win easily.

2. The story is that the green turtle are fighting with the blue turtle. Your king sends the strongest cavalry to attack the turtle but none of them come back. You have to build your empires and unit to fight them.

3. Level 15 and it is the hardest
At the beginning of the game, you already had a lot of unit and resources. You have a perfect valley, but your opponent has more troops than you.
At the mountain, there was a hero name called Conan. He told you, if you gave him a ruby gem, he would help you. (in-game cinematic scene using game unit model) I always give him, but still lose.

Thanks in advance!
User avatar
MrFlibble
Demoniac Demo maniac
Demoniac Demo maniac
Posts: 3733
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 11:39 am

WIN9X, 2000ish, real-time strategy game, AOE like

Post by MrFlibble »

eSwirl wrote: I played it on PC, WIN9X. I bought it from an old shop around 2000ish.

<...>

One other thing, I am from Hong Kong. The game when I bought it, it is already translated to traditional chinese. And It is not a legal copy of a game, the shop just copy the original game to a green disk. I am not sure if the game was translated to traditional chinese or it was made by people from Taiwan (they use traditional chinese) or China (they use simplified chinese). But I remeber the name of the game is an English word. (probably start with A, only 25% sure)
Hi.

You game certainly does not remind me of any RTS that I know, except maybe Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns or its sequel.

In the time frame that you specify, RTS games were very popular, especially in South Korea where StarCraft clones were booming.

There is a very good and rather detailed piece on South Korean games at Hardcore Gaming 101. They have a list of commercial releases sorted by genre, so you can look up strategy games.

And of course you can also look up the MobyGames list of RTS games:
https://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/ ... ist-games/
User avatar
eSwirl
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2021 4:06 am

WIN9X, 2000ish, real-time strategy game, AOE like

Post by eSwirl »

Hi,
I don't think it's Kohan, the building in the game should be bigger than Kohan (the unit is smaller). The level of graphics is similar tho. Thanks for helping anyway!

I will keep looking at Hardcore Gaming 101, and let you guys know anything new.
I looked up all strategy games from list of commercial releases, none of them is. And the level of graphics of my game is better than those. Similar level of graphics to AOE2 original.

I have some new detail may help, but I can't edit the #1 anymore. I am adding them here.

The shape of the dragon look similar to this AOE2 video (not the attack tho):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_VJWCva0-s&t=14s
No fog of war in the game. (only 75% sure)

I posted this on the reddit too to get most of the help to find this game.
http://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/c ... tegy_game/
User avatar
eSwirl
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2021 4:06 am

WIN9X, 2000ish, real-time strategy game, AOE like

Post by eSwirl »

I actually find a similar game to what I mean a global map. The map is like Populous: The Beginning. It is a sphere. Hopefully that helps.

In the game, you can also change the camera view 90 degree to look from other direction.

But Populous: The Beginning is not my game.
User avatar
MrFlibble
Demoniac Demo maniac
Demoniac Demo maniac
Posts: 3733
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 11:39 am

WIN9X, 2000ish, real-time strategy game, AOE like

Post by MrFlibble »

I know a few RTS games with a seamless map (most prominently in The Settlers series) but none seem to match other details.

I think that the feature of manually equipping your soldiers would be more telling, but so far I can think of very few games like this, and most of them are from South Korea (e.g. War Diary, Jurassic War -- not matching your description at all).

Have you looked at the MobyGames list?

Do you remember if the game played straight like AoE with some magic elements (i.e. build base, train army, attack enemy), or had inclinations towards other mechanics, like in God sims similar to Populous, or "German school" RTS (The Settlers, Knights and Merchants) where there is a deeper focus on economy/production management, or something else altogether?

Also was the setting European medieval, or did it have some other vibes? Maybe some obscure East European game?

Was there only one faction for the player? How did it differ from the enemies, if at all?

For the 3D part, did it look close to anything from the following?
Invictus
The Dark Legions
Spellforce
Highland Warriors
Armies of Exigo
Warrior Kings
User avatar
eSwirl
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2021 4:06 am

WIN9X, 2000ish, real-time strategy game, AOE like

Post by eSwirl »

The game may actually is from South Korea due to how close it is to Hong Kong.

Yes, I am looking at the MobyGames list, and checking the game one by one very detailly to make sure if that is my game. I haven't finish checking yet.

The game played straight like AoE2, except for the weapon part, because that will determine what kind of soldier they are such as Swordsman, Archer, or Spearman, depend on what weapon you put on the soldiers. But for Knight, you have to get it from Hero House/Embassy. It is more focus on build building, army then fight. Just like AoE2.

The map is like Populous: The Beginning but you cannot zoom out to see the whole planet. It is a sphere.

The setting is like European medieval. I don't think it has some other vibes. Just the Dragon unit and the turtle-man unit I can remember.
Turtle-man unit is the enemy unit, you cannot build it, you can only be human.
Only one faction, human. Enemies are depend on the mission/story. Some are just human, some are Turtle-man unit, some are just stronger enemies with more unit/attack/defense.

For the 3D part, it looks very similar to Warrior Kings, but not the others.

And one more thing, you cannot build road like Settlers series (never play Settlers series before, but I saw roads on the game.)
User avatar
MrFlibble
Demoniac Demo maniac
Demoniac Demo maniac
Posts: 3733
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 11:39 am

WIN9X, 2000ish, real-time strategy game, AOE like

Post by MrFlibble »

eSwirl wrote: except for the weapon part, because that will determine what kind of soldier they are such as Swordsman, Archer, or Spearman, depend on what weapon you put on the soldiers
Do you remember if weapons could wear down, or was it just a one-time action to set the unit type? There is a similar mechanic to what you describe in games by Russian developer World Forge (The Golden Horde, Ancient Wars: Sparta and a few others) but they all came out much later than you describe, and do not match the setting, as none are in medieval fantasy Europe. Yet your description sounds vaguely familiar.

Even outside South Korea, the early to mid-2000s were very popular on the RTS front from what I remember, and inevitably there were not very well known games, possibly not even reaching wide circulation in the world market.
User avatar
eSwirl
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2021 4:06 am

WIN9X, 2000ish, real-time strategy game, AOE like

Post by eSwirl »

It could wear down. You can put the weapon down and put the weapon to another unit / same unit again.
You can put weapon on them massively, not one by one.
Yea, the Golden Horde and Ancient Wars: Sparta are fairly new. They are not my game.

It may be true that it is not very well known games. As I remeber, it is just a single player game whereas popular RTS games are multiplayer game.

I have checked the game on MobyGames list from 2001 to 2007. None of them matches. I will keep checking those before 2001.
User avatar
MrFlibble
Demoniac Demo maniac
Demoniac Demo maniac
Posts: 3733
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 11:39 am

WIN9X, 2000ish, real-time strategy game, AOE like

Post by MrFlibble »

eSwirl wrote: It could wear down. You can put the weapon down and put the weapon to another unit / same unit again.
Yes, this reminds me of the South Korean titles I mentioned earlier (War Diary and Jurassic War). But of course it does not mean your game has to be necessarily from South Korea too. Anyway, I looked at yet another site by a South Korean old game collector (I hear they have some weird laws concerning video game copyright over there in South Korea, so the site is more or less legit AFAIK; but I won't give a link JIC) and while there's a lot of original RTS games there are very few full 3D ones, and none like what you describe. In fact, the only 3D RTS with a somewhat medieval setting (judging by screenshots) is a Japanese title First Queen: The New World by this developer. A lot of games concern the history of Ancient China (Romance of the Three Kingdoms seems a pretty popular topic) or Ancient Choson, or the Imjin War.

There was a very good Russian game database but some years ago the site changed hands and the new owner made a tablet-oriented design overhaul after which it became impossible to properly view games by genre and sorted by year. But it's partially accessible via the Wayback Machine apparently:
http://www.ag.ru/games/filter/st2/g11

The site is fully legit, they only have demo downloads, no "abandonware". Their advantage is that the database includes some pretty obscure titles, and unlike MobyGames they have screenshots for most games. If a game page does not open in WM, try the link directly, most pages are still online; just the useful listing is completely gone.
User avatar
eSwirl
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2021 4:06 am

WIN9X, 2000ish, real-time strategy game, AOE like

Post by eSwirl »

MrFlibble wrote:
eSwirl wrote: It could wear down. You can put the weapon down and put the weapon to another unit / same unit again.
<...>

There was a very good Russian game database but some years ago the site changed hands and the new owner made a tablet-oriented design overhaul after which it became impossible to properly view games by genre and sorted by year. But it's partially accessible via the Wayback Machine apparently:
http://www.ag.ru/games/filter/st2/g11

The site is fully legit, they only have demo downloads, no "abandonware". Their advantage is that the database includes some pretty obscure titles, and unlike MobyGames they have screenshots for most games. If a game page does not open in WM, try the link directly, most pages are still online; just the useful listing is completely gone.
I some how find a way to view games by genre and sorted by year.
https://ag.ru/games/strategy/2000-2007? ... g=released

However, I checked all the game from 2000-2007. I still find nothing. I feel so frustrated. :cry:

Anyway, thank you for all the help. I appreciate it!
User avatar
MrFlibble
Demoniac Demo maniac
Demoniac Demo maniac
Posts: 3733
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2010 11:39 am

WIN9X, 2000ish, real-time strategy game, AOE like

Post by MrFlibble »

eSwirl wrote: Fri Mar 19, 2021 2:54 am I some how find a way to view games by genre and sorted by year.
https://ag.ru/games/strategy/2000-2007? ... g=released
Unfortunately they screwed up genre categorisation (some games ended up in wrong categories) with the update/overhaul, and there is no more fine-tuning like in the old version where you can view real-time or turn-based strategies only etc.

Sorry to hear this did not help! Your game must be pretty obscure or just came out in your region and nowhere else. Have you tried reaching out to other people from Hong Kong, certainly someone else bought and played this game, and might still have a copy. Maybe something will crop up eventually.

Also don't forget that so far, many, many games from previous decades are not properly documented anywhere at all. It's almost absurd but true. I dare not imagine when we're going to have anything approaching full coverage of at least one platform (e.g. IBM PC) in let's say any five years from the past thirty or so.
Post Reply