Software:Pacific General

From HandWiki
Short description: 1997 video game
Pacific General
Developer(s)Strategic Simulations
Publisher(s)Strategic Simulations
Designer(s)SSI Special Projects Group
Programmer(s)Michael Coustier
Artist(s)Mike Filippoff
Platform(s)PC (Windows 95)
ReleaseJuly 16, 1997[1]
Genre(s)Computer wargame, turn-based strategy
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

Pacific General is a computer wargame depicting famous battles of the World War II Pacific campaigns. It was published by Strategic Simulations in 1997 using the same game engine of the earlier and successful Panzer General for Windows 95. It was re-released on GOG.com in May 2015.[2]

Gameplay

Pacific General (also known as "PacGen") is played on a hex map with icons representing aircraft, warships, tanks, and groups of soldiers. The turn-based style allows each player to strategize their next move. Combat involves various factors, like critical hits, surprise, and terrain. Particular attention is spent on naval warfare, where ships can sustain critical hits to ship systems and submarines can submerge to launch stealth attacks. The weather and time of day are also important factors to consider: darkness can obscure troop movements and rain can prevent airstrikes. Troops can sustain suppression from enemy fire, inhibiting their offensive and defensive abilities, and they can also entrench themselves, enhancing their defensive strength.

Players win by amassing victory points that are gained by occupying specific objective hexes. The side with the most victory points is declared the winner. Like role-playing games, the player can upgrade or add units to his core force, with the unit's experience carrying on to the next battle. He also must be aware of each unit's fuel and ammunition levels, and also the fog of war, the collective vision of all units under his control.

Prestige is the currency of the game. Prestige is gained by destroying enemy units and lost when a player buys or upgrades his units. Prestige is also available at the start of a new scenario before any combat begins.

Whereas the first Panzer General targeted DOS, Pacific General was made for Windows. Pacific General utilize interface and share an underlying file system that differs from the original Panzer General. Fans created a version of Pacific General, based on its own DOS version, that borrows interface features from the original Panzer General. Called Pacific Panzer General (PacPG), it includes all scenarios and campaigns from the original, as well as bugfixes.

The player can choose between the Allied and Axis sides in both real and hypothetical scenarios, like the Battle of Midway and Operation Downfall. Thirty-one countries are represented, including the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Soviet Union but only United States and Japan have campaign modes. Each nation has historical weapons available.

There are several types of unit categories: tanks, infantry, artillery, fighter aircraft, bombers, aircraft carriers, battleships, forts, etc. Infantry and towed weapons may have attached trucks or half-track transports and land units can be moved around the map on cargo ships or cargo planes. Most nations have several units in each category, and many are unique to each nation; the Japanese have kamikazes at their disposal. Each unit has specific entry dates to when they can be available to a player; the U.S. cannot field jet aircraft until the hypothetical invasion of Japan from late 1945 to 1946. Custom Equipment Rosters (referred to as "E-Rosters") have been made available for this game after initial release by third-party fan sites, increasing the number of units available for each nation as well as improved in-game graphics.

Scenarios and campaigns

The battles are only approximate representations of historical battles, where only a fraction of the participating forces are included. An Allies (United States) campaign and an Axis (Japan) campaign are included, as well as several other scenarios. A campaign is composed of many scenarios strung together. Similar to other titles in SSI's "General" series of wargames, players may find themselves commanding forces in hypothetical scenarios if they are much more successful than real-life commanders. For example, if Japanese players attain impressive victories, such as capturing Port Moresby or winning Battle of Midway for Japan, it's possible to invade Australia, Hawaii or even San Francisco, victories that historical Japanese commanders didn't come close to imagining.

The player can also create custom scenarios and campaigns, and a battle generator is available. Multiple fan-sites exist offering downloads of additional scenarios and campaigns.

The additional user-built campaigns include several German, several American, one Chinese, one Japanese, one Soviet, one British and two Italian campaigns.

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
CGSPStarStarStar[4]
CGWStarStarStarStar[3]

Like earlier games in the General series, Pacific General sold at least 50,000 units by September 1997.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "News for July 16, 1997". July 16, 1997. http://ogr.com/news/news0797.html. 
  2. ↑ "Release: Pacific General + Fantasy General". 5 May 2015. http://www.gog.com/news/release_pacific_general_fantasy_general. Retrieved 2015-05-05. 
  3. ↑ Carter, Tim (September 19, 1997). "Pacific General". Computer Gaming World. Archived from the original on August 16, 2000. https://web.archive.org/web/20000816011024/http://www.gamespot.com/strategy/pacgen/review_cgw.html. 
  4. ↑ McIntosh, Mark (1997). "Pacific General". Computer Games Strategy Plus. Archived from the original on April 28, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20050428063023/http://www.cdmag.com/articles/003/076/pacific_general_review.html. 
  5. ↑ MacDonald, T. Liam (September 23, 1997). "Panzer General II Preview". GameSpot. Archived from the original on April 18, 2001. https://web.archive.org/web/20010418003719/http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/previews/0,10869,2560272,00.html. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
  • No URL found. Please specify a URL here or add one to Wikidata.

Template:Atari





Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Software:Pacific_General&oldid=4136998"