Software:Pax Imperia

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For the political concept, see Pax imperia.
Short description: 1992 video game
Pax Imperia
Developer(s)Changeling Software
Publisher(s)Changeling Software
Designer(s)Andrew and Peter Sispoidis
Platform(s)Apple Macintosh
Release1992
Genre(s)Turn-based strategy or Real-time strategy (user selectable)
Mode(s)Single player or Multiplayer


Software:Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain was released in 1997 as a sequel, for both the Mac and PC.

Pax Imperia is a Latin term, meaning "peace of the empires".

Gameplay

File:Pax Imperia game start.tiff

Like most 4X games, Pax Imperia's basic gameplay involved building spaceships and flying to other worlds in order to take them over. Once captured, the worlds could be upgraded to provide materials, ships, and improve their defensive capabilities. Unlike most other 4X games, Pax had much more complex solar systems, including moving planets, their moons, and a habitable temperature zone that varied depending on the star and the race's preferences.

Races could be customized by players at the start of the game. Options included which atmosphere type they breathed (oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, or hydrogen), temperature range and tolerance, and four percentile-rated attributes: curiosity, efficiency, reproduction, and aggression. These attributes impacted the race's rate of scientific discoveries, building speed, population growth, and on-planet combat effectiveness, respectively.

Larger planets and moons had multiple "territories" in the higher skill level settings. Territories had a natural population limit based on their ecological fitness for the player's species. As the population grew and started to reach the maximum for any one territory, they would naturally migrate out of a territory into surrounding ones. Over time a single colonization attempt would take over an entire planet. This also allowed a player to take over a single territory on an enemy-colonized planet and attempt to build it up. As the population of that territory rose, the inhabitants would naturally try to emigrate to surrounding territories, fighting "migration wars" if they were already inhabited by the enemy player.

The economy in Pax was based on the mining of five commodities, and the taxation of the population. Taxation only occurred on territories that were not colonies; the conversion from colony to taxable "home planet" occurred when the user built a spaceship port in the territory. Each type of infrastructure required a minimum population to be operated - ports required 2,500 people for instance. Adding infrastructure thus increased the maximum population in the territory, and the tax base. The "city" infrastructure was used solely to build up the population, adding 5,000 people to the maximum.

In most 4X games, the space between systems did not exist - ships could fly only from system to system and combat takes place only within them. This was not true in Pax, where ships could be flown to any point on the game map. The flexible design allowed for a number of different strategies. For instance, inexpensive spy ships consisting of sensors and little else could be left in the outskirts of enemy solar systems to allow the player to examine what was going on in that system. On the other end of the spectrum, ships equipped only with shields and weapons, and no drive, could be used as defensive satellites.

Pax included design systems for both ships and the technologies that would be installed on them. The ship design was based around a fixed selection of "hulls" which differed primarily in mass, materials cost and the number of attachment points for technologies. The technology design system was quite complex, allowing the player to select tradeoffs on range/power of the weapons, speed/cost of the engines and so forth. Players could design the technologies, and then attach those technologies to one of the ship classes. Alternately they could leave the tech design to the computer, which would generate new technologies over time, and then manually select those technologies to design ships. In the extreme, all of this could be left to the computer, which would periodically generate new ship classes automatically.

Development

Pax Imperia was released for Mac computers on December 21, 1992.[1]

Reception

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
Computer Gaming WorldStarStarStarStar[2]
DragonStarStarStarStar[3]

The game was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #196 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.[3] Computer Gaming World stated in August 1993 that Pax Imperia innovated on previous 4X games like Reach for the Stars and Spaceward Ho!. While calling it "a work in progress", the magazine concluded that "the quality of Pax Imperia more than outweighs its blemishes ... a pleasing and challenging addition to its genre".[4] A 1994 survey of strategic space games set in the year 2000 and later gave the game four stars out of five, stating that it "rivals Reach for the Stars in scope". The magazine praised its detail but wished for faster play and "a good tutorial".[2]

In 1994, Pax Imperia was inducted into Macworld's 1993 Game Hall of Fame in the "Best Strategy Game" category. Macworld called it "lavishly presented" and "a superb exploitation of the Mac interface", concluding that it is "a space odyssey with truly operatic grandeur."[5] It was also noted for its "absurd complexity".[6]

References

  1. ↑ "The Mac Games Release List". http://discmaster.textfiles.com/view/2769/TricksOfTheMacGameProgrammingGurus.iso/Information/Inside%20Mac%20Games/9303%20(March%201993)/IMG_Mar93/IMG_Mar93.rsrc/bin.rsrc_styl_147.rtf. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Brooks, M. Evan (May 1994). "Never Trust A Gazfluvian Flingschnogger!". Computer Gaming World: 42–58. http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1994&pub=2&id=118. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia; Lesser, Kirk (August 1993). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (196): 59–63. 
  4. ↑ Winship, Douglas (August 1993). "Changeling Software's Pax Imperia". Computer Gaming World: 116. http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1993&pub=2&id=109. Retrieved 12 July 2014. 
  5. ↑ Levy, Steven (January 1994). "The Game Hall of Fame". Macworld (San Francisco, CA: Macworld Communications, Inc) 11 (1): 100. https://archive.org/details/MacWorld_9401_January_1994/page/n97/mode/2up. 
  6. ↑ Bart Farkas and Christopher Breen, "The Macintosh Bible Guide to Games", Peachpit Press, 1995, pg. 369
  • 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. 
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