Modem Wars

Modem Wars was published by Electronic Arts in 1988 and stands among the first strategy games that run in real time. Unlike the turn-based war games of the period, nobody waits while you think it through, and unlike later strategy games there is no base to build: you get an army, a map split into two halves, and an opponent who moves at the same moment you do. The PC release is a later conversion of the original version.

There are five unit types and each has a clear job. Grunts are the infantry, riders are fast and fragile, boomers shell targets from a distance, and spies carry no weapon at all and exist purely to see what is happening. The last one is the command centre, armoured, missile-armed and by far the most valuable thing you own. A match ends either when it is destroyed or on points.

What makes the game interesting is how hard it works with ignorance. Most of the map is hidden and information has to be bought with movement, so you are constantly choosing between pushing a unit forward and leaving it dug in on defence, where it survives longer. Units can hide, form up in groups, and terrain matters: fighting in woods or on hills is not the same as fighting in the open.

The weakness is obvious. This was built around two people connected by a phone line, and its charm was knowing that a specific human being on the other end is making a mistake right now. Against the machine the experience is thinner, and a 1988 interface does nothing for clarity either. As a historical piece it remains one of the sharpest designs of its time.

On oldgame.cz it runs in the browser directly, with nothing to install.