Comments on: Will Facebook bring back PBM games?

By: WMMorgan

WMMorgan — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:21:27 +0000

One of the grestest things about EstCon was that it was almost pure galactic fleet strategy. You didn’t bother with trading or mining or domestic economic policy, which I think is a lot of make-work that fouled up other similar games. The most ‘domestic’ things you had to do was set a single empire-wide tax rate, and decide what you wanted to build on each planet out of its annual production points: armies, groundbases, orbiting starbases, or 6 different kinds of ships.

By: Effonelson

Effonelson — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:22:29 +0000

Geez I might have the Esterian Conquest discs as well. Have to break out the 5.25″ floppy too. I wouldn’t know what to do with it then though… sounds like there is a market out there for it though!

By: WMMorgan

WMMorgan — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:04:45 +0000

Esterian Conquest had such a simple format, and was certainly based on simple algorithms and formulas. How hard can it be to just code a new EstCon from scratch?

By: JMoore

JMoore — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:43:55 +0000

I ran Esterian Conquest for years on my BBS. It was very popular…seems most folks migrated to VGA Planets as programs developed. If I remember right, the developer of Esterian Conquest lost his source code when lightning destroyed his computer..and much other stuff at his home. That was long ago when I tried to get some changes made to it, so haven’t heard anything since he dropped off the radar. I may still have the bbs installation discs (3.5) around.
Would be nice to have that game available.

By: John Hansen

John Hansen — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:57:53 +0000

Hello. We ran the registered Esterian Conquest on our computer bbs’s for years and LOVED IT. Our members did too – although occasionally they got hot at each other and us. Is there any space strategy game out there now that works on websites? I had solar wars but it wasn’t very good or didn’t seem to be. MajorHart@sbcglobal.net

By: WMMorgan

WMMorgan — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 05:30:27 +0000

“Esterian Conquest”???… did someone say “Esterian Conquest”?… count me in, if it ever flies again.

By: mich

mich — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:22:15 +0000

I do benefit from this new platform. I so like many applications available in facebook now. I get to enjoy my free time playing my favorite Realm of Empires. It’s just so sad to know that some applications or games are not licensed. How could this happen?

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 00:02:02 +0000

I am in complete agreement about facebook. They should adopt the game ESTERIAN CONQUEST. It’s simple to understand,easy to play, and it was alot of fun back in the old BBS’ing days. The sound of my modem crackling and dialing, and wurrinng… (sorry got lost in the moment) I loved those days!

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 04:54:55 +0000

There’s really no reason why a PBM game on Facebook would need to be either licensed or pay-to-play. Most of the people who pick up your game will have never heard of Trade Wars, To Boldly Go, or Star Web. A new game that uses some of the same mechanics but is well integrated with the social network would probably be more popular than any of them.

Facebook users are reluctant to pay for things, so you’re likely to bring in far more money with something that hooks them in the game before demanding money (like pay-for-stuff) or even building a game with very little management overhead and let ads support the thing.

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 04:20:34 +0000

The licensing and pay-to-play issues will certainly limit a lot of pbm efforts on Facebook. But it would be great if we saw a revival of pbm gaming.

I strongly recommend To Boldly Go (TBG) – http://tbg.fyndo.com/tbg/tbg.html – a free, open-ended, sci-fi strategy game that’s been playing for over 10 years now. Turns are 3 times a week, and the order-entry form is pretty simple. We actually have a few old Trade Wars players in TBG too…