HISTORY


Strategy games on the computer are a fairly recent development. The roots however date way back in the past when board games such as chequers and chess were played.
RoN2

When the first home computers became available, bundled with them came a few games, primitive as they might have been compared with what we have now. With very little or no graphics to speak of, the first strategy-based games were played by issuing typed instructions via the keyboard. To complete tasks that the game required, you typed commands such as “turn left”, “turn around”, “pick up the goblet”, “drop the gun” etc. After each command the computer would respond, informing you where you were and what you could see around you. Very primitive indeed you might say but as simple as the games may have been, the programming behind them was quite complicated. Any command entered needed to be analysed syntactically and grammatically in order to decide if it was valid or not and then provide the user with the correct response. Needless to say, many of these games were bug-ridden.

Nowadays, with the advances in speed, graphics and overall performance of the modern day PC, things have changed dramatically. There is specially written software available to design and write all types of games. So they may be easier to create but conversely they are extremely complex and take a great deal of testing before being declared bug-free. Gone are the very simple written commands. The mouse is now the main tool and by dragging, dropping and using the buttons, you take command of the game without ever having to type a single word (unless you are “speaking” to someone in the game).