Software:Realms (video game)

Realms
Developer(s)	Graftgold
Publisher(s)	Virgin Games
Platform(s)	MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST
Release	1991
Genre(s)	RTS
Mode(s)	Single-player

Realms is a 1991 real-time strategy game produced by Graftgold Ltd. for MS-DOS, Amiga, and Atari ST. It was published by Virgin Games. In Realms, the player has to build cities, collect taxes, create troops and fight enemy cities and troops in order to defeat their opponents.

Introduction

Realms shows an intro as the game loads. During this intro, it tells the story of a prince watching his late father, the king being immolated at sea. Mourning, he sheds a tear, and his mourning is rewarded by the gods. He is struck by lightning, which forms and serpent in hands, an emblem of his right to rule the world. A tagline appears afterwards, stating "There can only be one... just make sure it's yours." After inserting and loading the second disk, the game can start.

Gameplay

First, the player must choose a race to control. Each of the six races is based on a fantasy race ala Tolkien. Each race has their own attributes, including some strengths and weaknesses. For example, Dwarves prefer having an axe as a weapon, but Elves are the best archers.

After completing a training mission, which allows the player to get to grips with raising armies and keeping the population fed, the player can play any of the 10 missions on offer.

Cities

Player controlled cities can be taxed, fed by buying of grain, improved defensively with city walls and grown by cultivating surrounding land. If the population is sufficient, an army of 1000 men/women can be raised. Information about population, health rating, morale and grain amounts for the city are found by clicking on a friendly city.

Armies

A player can raise an army from a player-controlled city. Infantry or cavalry can be raised. The quality of the soldiers (elite warriors, warriors, militia or raw recruits) depends on city size and number of armies already raised from that particular city. The army can be equipped with a range of weapons, armour and bows. The army also needs to be paid. A well paid army will have high moral and recover its numbers quickly after battles, whereas a lowly paid or unpaid army will disband soon after creation. An army can be paid through the pillages it carries out, but this needs to be done regularly to avoid the unit disbanding. An army's equipment level and pay can be adjusted when the army is based in a friendly city, but there are no refunds for removing more expensive kit.

Army units will appear as coloured flags when based in a city (yellow for player controlled units, red for other units). Horse image represents one cavalry unit and an image of a man represents one infantry unit. Moving the mouse over the image will give information about the number of soldiers and where it was raised. When a unit is crossing over water, a Trireme image is shown.

World Map

The world map is a 3D world, with mountains, grassland, forests and oceans. It is also populated with cities of the player's realm and of their rivals. As the game happens in real-time, a handy 'message board' informs the player of their army movements, famine and disease warnings, and alerts regarding sieges of their cities and the cities they are attacking. Army movements can be tracked on the map using the mouse or the keypad. Unit speed is based on the type of unit (as cavalry are faster) and the amount of armour on the soldiers (lighter units move faster). An overview map allows trade routes to be adjusted. Trade routes are important to collect tax revenues and keep control of the player's cities.

Attacking and defending

The objective of each mission is to conquer all of the cities on the map. Capturing an enemy city involves laying siege to it, by sending an army to attack it. Most cities will be defended by an army, which will cause a battle to occur. The player can organise their armies formation and can maneuver them before the battle begins. Armies with bows can fire a set number of arrows at the enemy to reduce their numbers, but the bowmen's range depends on the race. When morale or troop numbers for one side fall sufficiently, that side loses the battles and the troops retreat. A player can order a retreat, but this has a bad effect on the army's morale.

Depending on grain levels, morale and whether a city has walls, a city can take a while to fall to a siege. When a city falls, it can be sacked, razed to the ground or captured. If the player captures a city with a different race from their own, they can raise army units with that race, enabling specialised armies to be created in the later stages of the mission.

Games can take many hours to complete, but there is a save game option to allow progress to be saved.

Reception

Computer Gaming World reviewed the MS-DOS version, stating that the game's high difficulty level and "awkward interface" made Realms best suited for "tenacious fantasy wargamers with the perseverance to learn the game system and master the included scenarios". The magazine concluded that the game "advances the genre but doesn't quite usurp SSG's Warlords as the quintessential fantasy wargame". The game was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #194 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3½ out of 5 stars.

The One gave the Amiga version of Realms an overall score of 81%, starting their review by saying "Yes, it's like Powermonger and no, it's not as good." The One highly criticizes the gameplay, stating that "Realms has missed quite a few opportunities with its design, most notably in the combat sections. The whole process of laying siege to a town is glossed over and the battles could have had a lot more depth and strategic content." The One's main criticism of Realms is unoriginality, expressing that "[Realms] is trying to enter a market that's flooded with similar strategy titles ... [Realms] is little different from many others". Despite this criticism, The One says that Realms "Doesn't enter any new territory but does what it sets out to do with a degree of competence", and praises the controls as "concise and easy to get to grips with".

Reviews

• Datormagazin (Mar 26, 1992)
• ST Format (Feb, 1992)
• Amiga Action (Feb, 1992)
• ASM (Aktueller Software Markt) (Feb, 1992)
• Amiga Joker (Jan, 1992)
• PC Review (Jun, 1992)
• Power Play (Jan, 1992)
• Amiga Format (Mar, 1992)
• Génération 4 (Jun, 1992)

External links

• 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. 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". This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months. 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. A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.

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. 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. 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.

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount. This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign. 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). Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel, and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million. The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager. 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. This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.

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

See also

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