Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Serte, White Deer: These thirty-year-old strategy games are classics.

As a strategy gamer, you probably know a lot about some of the mainstream strategy games today:

The glorious Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, the Nobunaga Nobunaga series, the Civilization series, the Age of Empires series, and other strategy games with a Western background, etc.

Wargame strategy games such as Hero Invincible, Fire Emblem, Fantasy Simulation Battle, Royal Knights and more.

These games, in terms of classicity, playability and impact, are the pinnacle of strategy games in recent decades. There are also many players who like these games, especially the most veteran players in their thirties and forties.

But if we look back to the 1990s, the first point in time when that strategy game began to be born. You'll find that, in addition to the games and gameplay we're all familiar with now, there's a whole host of very classic and playable strategy games.

Of course, over time, these games have gradually been submerged in the river of time and are not known to people. But that doesn't mean these games aren't fun.

Even some of these special gameplay and settings are much more fun than the cookie-cutter strategy mobile games of today.

Now, we'll take a look at five classic strategy games from the '90s, and let's take a look at what was so fun about those games and why they're disappearing.

1 Romance of the Three Kingdoms: The light of the domestic Three Kingdoms game that collapses with too many expectations

Now when it comes to Three Kingdoms strategy games, the first thing that comes to mind is the glorious Romance of the Three Kingdoms series.

But there is a question, is the most widely influential Novel of the Three Kingdoms not the Romance of the Three Kingdoms? Why would Glory choose a name for his sign that is less influential than that?

The answer is simple, because the name Romance of the Three Kingdoms was taken down by Taiwan's Zhiguan after the glorious launch of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2nd Generation.

As the largest game manufacturer in Taiwan, in the 1990s, Zhiguan was basically the main source of domestic games.

As the game itself, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms did not have anything particularly outstanding, following the consistent style of Zhiguan at that time. The first generation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is actually based on the content of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2, which is actually quite general, whether it is gameplay or graphics.

However, in 1991, when a large number of players had not been exposed to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, the birth of romance of the Three Kingdoms could be regarded as a precedent for the SLG game of the Chinese people. As soon as the work came out, it sold a lot of 170,000 copies. Even more than most of the works in the orthodox Romance of the Three Kingdoms series sold more.

Zhiguan, who tasted the sweetness, was determined to continue to make this series. And 5 years later, a large number of manpower and funds were gathered to launch the Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2nd Generation.

This game has changed the suspicion of plagiarism from generation to generation, and has put a lot of effort into system innovation and gameplay. A large number of satellite imaging photos were introduced as world maps, and nearly 800 civilian and military generals were produced at the same time, and more than 100 instructions were used for domestic and foreign affairs and military affairs.

The heart of the Three Kingdoms 5 generations of the same period is clearly revealed.

Unfortunately, the game design was too large, and the ability of the developers at that time could not cover such a large volume.

After the game was launched, there were frequent crashes, retracements, and various inexplicable bugs in the game; even various martial arts copies were endless. The game is basically not a normal experience.

Although after that, Zhiguan launched a restored version to replace it, and a few years later, it was authorized by CCTV to launch a 3rd generation with the avatar of the TV series character.

None of this incident could make up for the impact of the event's reputation among the player base. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, which originally had the hope of contending with glory, has also completely sunk.

Objectively speaking, the games of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series itself are not outstanding, but compared with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, the design ideas are more atmospheric. If you can really make a good work back then, then with the appeal of the Three Kingdoms and the gimmicks produced by the Chinese people, this series may really compete with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series today.

Unfortunately, there are no ifs.

2 Tales of the Three Kingdoms: A unique real-time battle Three Kingdoms strategy game

Like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series is a semi-real-time, half-strategy Three Kingdoms game developed by a Taiwanese company.

If the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is too big, in the end the ambition is greater than the ability to lead to failure. Then the Legend of the Three Kingdoms is a unique path, and it has been living in a relatively niche field for a long time.

The prototype of this game is actually the sandbox of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms + the power of the dragon, a hundred-man battle against a hundred people. Through the former, the strategic level of the game and the construction of diplomacy are demonstrated, while the latter, the battles of the strategy game are turned into real-time, showing the visual sense of the battle of the large corps on the battlefield.

I have to say that the effect of the game in terms of combat is still good. Although it could not be compared with the original dragon power, the feeling of hundreds of people fighting on the battlefield of the Three Kingdoms was still relatively well restored.

Especially when it comes to the 7th of the Three Kingdoms, the big scene of a thousand people fighting. The gorgeous skills of the top warriors and the restraint of dozens of classes, and so on. Both have reached a fairly mature and well-balanced level.

This work is also sought after by many players and is considered to be the best performing game of its kind.

As of 2021, Three Kingdoms Has Sold 8 Canon works. Since 1998, spanning more than 20 years, it is also a very successful offshoot series of Three Kingdoms strategy games.

This series, although not as popular as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, is not an orthodox Three Kingdoms strategy game. But it also attracts enough players to have a place in a separate category segment.

Therefore, compared with several other series of works in this article, the Three Kingdoms Group Of Heroes is the most known and successful.

3 The Legend of Selter: Have you ever seen a strategy game set on the island of Ireland?

If you say that the first two works of the Three Kingdoms series, everyone has heard about it to some extent. Then the legend of the demon-eyed evil god Serte that is going to be said below, there are very few people who basically know.

This game is also produced by Glory, but unlike the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, the developer of the game is Glory North America Branch, so from the graphics to the gameplay, it is very different from the traditional Glory Strategy game.

The background of the story is also magical, using an Irish mythological story that is almost unknown to no one, the Celtic mythological system.

And barol, the most powerful evil god in Celtic mythology, has also become the ultimate boss Barrow to challenge in this game.

Speaking of which, I think there must be very few people who can understand what this game is about, and it is estimated that there are very few...

Although the background of the story is super unpopular, the gameplay of the game content is still more interesting.

At the beginning of the game, we choose one of 9 heroes to play, govern our territory and manage the warriors - although we don't know who these people are, they look like human heroes in Celtic mythology.

The picture adopts a forty-five-degree oblique perspective that was very novel at that time. Our territory and heroes can be directly seen on the map. Even the map shady screen is reflected in this game.

There's nothing special about the gameplay itself – grazing cattle and sheep, cutting wood, and building strongholds. Of course, in the game, there is also a strange way of playing like stealing cattle from each other's territory, don't be surprised, this is still relatively restored to the real situation of Irish history at that time. You must know that the game developers of that year had a lot more patience than the developers of today.

The ultimate goal, of course, is also to cultivate our warriors and troops

Moreover, in this game, there is also a special application of magic engraving similar to inscriptions. You must know that in the background, the strength of a bard or mage is much stronger than that of an ordinary barbarian warrior.

Ultimately, our ultimate goal is naturally to challenge the other lords and, after unification, to attack the ultimate demon king, Barrow.

In addition to the ordinary large-map wargame mode of troop battles, the game also has a heads-up gameplay - this is similar to the setting of the Great Navigation Era in the same period, with fleet warfare, deck warfare and single challenge modes.

Overall, this game has a lot of gameplay ideas, although itself is only a small capacity of 12M, but some of the prototypes of various later open world gameplay can be seen in the game. And the background theme of the game is really too novel, so new that most players don't know what this story is about.

It may also be for this reason that this work is only a short-lived flash in the history of strategy games, and there is no follow-up after only one.

However, in the eyes of many knowledgeable strategy gamers, this game is a rare masterpiece of the year, and to this day, there is no second similar work.

4 Water Margin: One Hundred and Eight Magic Stars made into a strategy game, surprisingly fun.

Since the Three Kingdoms can be adapted into a strategy game, it is natural that the Water Margin, which is also the four famous works, can also show war.

The Oath of Destiny of the Water Margin and the 108 Stars of the Water Margin Are two works based on the Water Margin launched by the Glorious Company in the early years.

The former was born in 1988, and no other strategy game can be said to have preceded seniority other than Three Kingdoms 1.

At that time, Water Margin also showed a different gameplay content from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Because the main perspective is based on the good man of Liangshan, such gameplay as escape, worship and so on will appear in this game. Although there are also internal affairs construction, but unlike the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the construction in the Water Margin also has special contents such as hunting, labor, and banquets.

The purpose of the game was no longer to unify the world, but to occupy enough territory and prestige within a specified period of time to allow Emperor Huizong of Song to order an attack on Gao Li.

If the player fails to complete this mission within the specified time, they will encounter the invasion of the Golden Kingdom and lead to failure, which is also a special setting unique to Water Margin.

Ten years later, in 1998, Glory improved the generation and launched a sequel to the SS and PS platforms, Tiandao 108 Stars.

On the basis of the previous game, Tiandao 108 stars have made a lot of additions and optimizations in terms of content and balance.

However, it is still obvious that Guangrong's familiarity with the Water Margin is far inferior to that of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Among all the good men in the game, the person with the strongest comprehensive attribute is Actually Yan Qing, followed by Hua Rong, including Guan Sheng, Lin Chong and other giants are ranked behind them; and Lu Junyi, who is recognized as the most powerful, can only rank in the 26th place in terms of comprehensive attributes, and the arm strength of the 100-point upper limit is only 81, and the skill is only 77.

Perhaps it is because of the unfamiliarity with the martial generals of the Water Margin and the low acceptance of the Japanese Water Margin. The Water Margin series is only these two.

Let's not talk about the fun of the game itself, but as one of the four famous books, the Three Kingdoms series can be popular to this day, but the Water Margin series has always been tepid, and the reason is difficult to say.

5 The Wolf and the White Deer: Once one of the Big Three of the Glorious Historical Strategy Games, it was unfortunate that it was later reduced to too few audiences

Once upon a time, the Glorious Series was called a historical trilogy. Generally refers to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Nobunaga Nobunaga, and the Wolf and the White Deer.

If the history of China corresponding to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the history of Japan corresponding to Nobunaga Nobunaga correspond to the history of Japan, then the wolf and the white deer correspond to the history of the great collision of the world across Europe and Asia.

As the name suggests, the wolf and the white deer tell the story of Genghis Khan's Mongol army. Unlike the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the map of this work is more extensive, basically covering the whole of Europe and Asia at that time. And in our choice of monarchs, there will also be monarchs of the Arab world such as Saladin.

The biggest feature of this game is that as early as 2000, it used a unified sandbox large map mode that integrates strategy and internal affairs.

All of our actions, both internal affairs and enemy expansion, can be seen clearly on a map of the entire sandbox.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, until the time of 11, really determined the gameplay of the integrated large map sandbox.

From this point of view, the setting of the wolf and the white deer was very innovative at that time.

The game's combat is still a grid-style wargame mode. However, with as many as 23 classes, and different strategies and class levels, the game's combat combines the strength of both the East and the West. It has a bit of an early imperial era.

Of course, such a broad plot background also makes this game a popular work of the historical story of the Mongol War in Europe. Including Genghis Khan's unification of Mongolia, the destruction of the Western Xia, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, as well as the expedition to Europe, the defeat of the Holy Roman See, etc., all the wars that were preached by the people at that time were reflected in the game.

However, the wolf and the white deer, which are so innovative and huge to play, only four works were finally produced. Up to 1999, the Wolf and the White Deer 4 generations. The entire series has been more than 20 years now, and no new sequels have been born.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms series and the Nobunaga Nobunaga series have produced 14 and 15 works to this day.

When people talk about Glorious's strategy games, they only mention double bibi, not trilogies.

In a way, this is also a very regrettable work.

6 Conclusion

The above five are all masterpieces in the ancient strategy games.

Although from the current point of view, the graphics of these games are already very rough. But when it comes to gameplay and innovation, these games are better than most of today's strategy games.

However, due to its own limitations, the limitations of the subject matter and some external problems. Today, these games are basically silent. With the exception of the Three Kingdoms, which can occasionally produce some sequels, the other films basically ended their own renewal journey around 2000.

So a lot of players haven't even heard the names of these games.

Today, we are re-listing these games to introduce, but also so that more people can understand them, to understand the era of the time when although the functional limitations are huge, but the whimsy of developers can emerge in an endless stream.

I hope that future strategy games can inherit the spirit of these pioneers and not have too many kryptonite mobile games.