Rise of Nations
Encyclopedia
Rise of Nations is a real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
computer game, developed by Big Huge Games
Big Huge Games
Big Huge Games is a video game developer located in Timonium, Maryland. The company was founded in February 2000 by four veteran game industry developers: Tim Train, David Inscore, Jason Coleman and Brian Reynolds...
and published by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
on May 20, 2003. The development of the game was led by veteran Brian Reynolds, of Civilization II
Civilization II
Sid Meier's Civilization II is a turn-based strategy computer game designed by Brian Reynolds, Douglas Caspian-Kaufman and Jeff Briggs. Although it is a sequel to Sid Meier's Civilization, neither Sid Meier nor Bruce Shelley was involved in its development.Civilization II was first released in...
and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is the critically acclaimed science fiction 4X turn-based strategy video game sequel to the Civilization series. Sid Meier, designer of Civilization, and Brian Reynolds, designer of Civilization II, developed Alpha Centauri after they left MicroProse to join the newly...
. Concepts taken from turn-based strategy games have been added into the game—including territories and attrition warfare
Attrition warfare
Attrition warfare is a military strategy in which a belligerent side attempts to win a war by wearing down its enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and matériel....
. Rise of Nations features 18 civilization
Civilization
Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
s, playable through 8 ages of world history.
On April 28, 2004, Big Huge Games
Big Huge Games
Big Huge Games is a video game developer located in Timonium, Maryland. The company was founded in February 2000 by four veteran game industry developers: Tim Train, David Inscore, Jason Coleman and Brian Reynolds...
released Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots
Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots
Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots is the official expansion pack to the real-time strategy computer game Rise of Nations. The game is the second in a series of Rise of Nations games by Big Huge Games. Thrones and Patriots had its premiere release for Microsoft Windows on April 27, 2004 in North...
, an expansion pack
Expansion pack
An expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game or video game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, and/or an extended storyline to a complete and already released game...
. Later that year, a Gold edition of Rise of Nations was released, which included both the original and the expansion.
In May 2006, Big Huge Games
Big Huge Games
Big Huge Games is a video game developer located in Timonium, Maryland. The company was founded in February 2000 by four veteran game industry developers: Tim Train, David Inscore, Jason Coleman and Brian Reynolds...
released Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is a real-time strategy game for the PC made by Big Huge Games, and published by Microsoft. It is a spin off of the popular game Rise of Nations, released in May 2003. However, rather than being a historical game, it is based in a fantasy world, where technology and...
, a stand alone title in the series. It is a fantasy type game that does not require the original Rise of Nations to play. It is different in many ways to the original, with no shared units or nations.
Overview
Rise of Nations employs the concept of "territory," as employed in the CivilizationCivilization (series)
Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy, 4X video games produced by Sid Meier. Basic gameplay functions are similar throughout the series, namely, buiding a civilization on a macro-scale from prehistory up to the near future...
long series of games; the area near the player's settlements is considered their territory, and players may only construct buildings within their territory or that of an ally. A nation's borders can be expanded by the creation and expansion of cities and forts, a technology tree, and obtaining access to certain rare resources. Other technologies and resources cause enemy units to suffer attrition
Attrition warfare
Attrition warfare is a military strategy in which a belligerent side attempts to win a war by wearing down its enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and matériel....
over time, which can eventually destroy an unsupported invasion force.
Cities are centrally important to gameplay; most buildings can only be built within a certain distance of a city, borders are most easily expanded by building and expanding cities, and cities are the only source of the resource-collecting Citizen unit. Only a limited number of cities can be built, and a city can only be destroyed by its owner. Conquered cities join the conqueror's faction.
Citizens (resource-collecting workers) in Rise of Nations do not remain idle after creation until orders are given to them; rather, after a brief pause, idle citizens look for any nearby construction sites, unoccupied resource gathering sites, or damaged buildings and automatically move to build, gather, or repair there. This option can be disabled if desired. All resource patches in Rise of Nations are infinite, unlike the finite amount of resources found in, for example, Warcraft
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a real time strategy computer game released by Blizzard Entertainment on July 3, 2002 . It is the second sequel to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, and it is the third game set in the Warcraft Universe...
single-player campaigns; the main limit is the player's maximum-collection-rate cap, which must be upgraded via research.
Unlike most RTS games, which feature four (Age of Empires, Warcraft
Warcraft
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy game , developed by Blizzard Entertainment and published by Blizzard and Interplay Entertainment. The MS-DOS version was released in November 1994 and the Macintosh version in late 1996. Sales were fairly high, reviewers were mostly impressed, and the...
), three (Company of Heroes
Company of Heroes
Company of Heroes is a real-time strategy computer game developed by Relic Entertainment. It was released on September 12, 2006, and was the first title to make use of the Games for Windows label. A standalone expansion, Opposing Fronts, was released on September 25, 2007. A second standalone...
), only two resources (StarCraft
StarCraft
StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...
, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment based on Games Workshop's popular tabletop wargame Warhammer 40,000. It was released by THQ on September 20, 2004 in North America...
, or Rise of Legends, the sequel to Rise of Nations) or even one (Homeworld
Homeworld
Homeworld is a real-time strategy computer game released on September 28, 1999, developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment. It was the first fully three-dimensional RTS. In 2003, Relic released the source code for Homeworld...
, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts for the Windows, Mac OS X and Xbox 360 platforms, and released internationally in March 2007...
,The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II, abbreviated BFMEII, is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic Arts. It is based on the fantasy novels The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien and its live-action film trilogy adaptation...
), there are six resources in Rise of Nations, five of which (Food, Timber, Metal, Oil, and Wealth) are used mostly to build units and buildings. The sixth resource, Knowledge, is used for researching technologies, though it is also necessary for the construction of missile
Missile
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
s and the last two World Wonder
Wonders of the World
Various lists of the Wonders of the World have been compiled from antiquity to the present day, to catalogue the world's most spectacular natural wonders and manmade structures....
s (Supercollider
Supercollider
A Supercollider is a high energy particle accelerator. The term may refer to:* Superconducting Super Collider, planned 80 km project in Texas, canceled in 1993...
and Space Program
Space exploration
Space exploration is the use of space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
). Despite this proliferation of resources, each building, technology or unit type requires only one or two types to build; thus, gameplay is streamlined. While creating harvesting infrastructure can be time-consuming, it is partially eased by the fact that certain resources only become very available after progressing to a certain age; for instance, the player cannot harvest Oil until they have entered the Industrial Age
Industrial Age
Industrial Age may refer to:*Industrialisation*The Industrial Revolution...
because oil was not needed until after the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
.
As in the Civilization
Civilization (series)
Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy, 4X video games produced by Sid Meier. Basic gameplay functions are similar throughout the series, namely, buiding a civilization on a macro-scale from prehistory up to the near future...
series, any nation can be played during any age, regardless of that nation's fate throughout actual history. Some unique units are based on units that those factions had, if certain nations were not destroyed in real-life history: for example, the Native American nations (the Aztecs, Maya
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
, and Inca) have unique units in the Modern and Information ages which resemble real-world Iberian-South American guerrillas. The end conditions are also made to be historically neutral, in that one can win the game by a capital capture, territorial superiority, researching four dominating technologies, or the usual wonder and score victories. It is also worth noting that the same city can be built by multiple nations: if the Romans, Greeks, and Turks are found in the same game, it is possible that the cities of Byzantium
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
, Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, and Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
will co-exist during the same game, despite the fact that these are different historical names for the same city.
Each of the 18 civilizations in Rise of Nations has its own set of between four and eight unique units spread throughout the ages, if at the age of play the faction did not exist in history the faction uses default units that were used in that time. Rise of Nations uses a hybrid 2D/3D engine to render buildings, but a 3D engine to render units, terrain, and special effects.
A single player campaign, Conquer the World, is included in the game. It is comparable to the board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
Risk
Risk (game)
Risk is a strategic board game, produced by Parker Brothers . It was invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse and originally released in 1957 as La Conquête du Monde in France. Risk is a turn-based game for two to six players...
, except that attacks on enemy territories take place using the in-game battle engine, which can last as long as 120 minutes depending upon the scenario. The campaign map is similar to Risk's, but luck is not a factor. The player can also purchase reinforcements or bonus cards and engage in diplomacy with other nations. The campaign starts at the Ancient Age and progresses slowly over the course over the campaign to end at the Information Age (present day). Within the context of a battle, it may be possible to advance to the next available age (and thus benefit from the associated potential unit upgrades in that battle).
There are five different campaigns, "Alexander the Great", "Napoleon", "The New World", "The Cold War", and "Conquer the World". They all follow a set formula in which the player either chooses a nation (New World, Cold War) or is put with their general's historic nation (Alexander the Great, Napoleon) aside from "Conquer the World", in which any nation may be chosen to play throughout every age in the game.
Rise of Nations uses an Elo rating system
Elo rating system
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....
to rank players.
Rise of Nations was shown in 2008 to improve a variety of "critical cognitive skills," most prominently working memory and task-switching ability, in older adults.
Gameplay
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
easier than cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
will). Learning the surrounding terrain of your empire to defend from attack and to flank an enemy army will allow a player to fight more efficiently. Generals can also be created from a fort to aid an army.
Five tactical formation
Tactical formation
A tactical formation is the arrangement or deployment of moving military forces such as infantry, cavalry, AFVs, military aircraft, or naval vessels...
s are also available, including the ability to compress or expand the line of battle. When a formation is chosen, the selected units automatically reposition themselves accordingly, typically with faster moving units in the front and slower moving, vulnerable units in the rear. With sufficient skill in creating proper unit distributions in an army and fielding that army, it is possible to defeat a numerically superior enemy in Rise of Nations.
In a manner similar to chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, slight strategic mistakes early in the game can turn into major tactical
Military tactics
Military tactics, the science and art of organizing an army or an air force, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. Changes in philosophy and technology over time have been reflected in changes to military tactics. In...
problems later on. For example, if a player starts with the nomad setting (where no city is build at startup) it is wise to scout for an area that has resources before building a city, for without resources there is no army and the player will lose.
Units
There are more than 200 different types of units in Rise of Nations, ranging from the Ancient Age HopliteHoplite
A hoplite was a citizen-soldier of the Ancient Greek city-states. Hoplites were primarily armed as spearmen and fought in a phalanx formation. The word "hoplite" derives from "hoplon" , the type of the shield used by the soldiers, although, as a word, "hopla" could also denote weapons held or even...
to the Information Age Stealth Bomber. Military units are created at certain structures: the Barracks
Barracks
Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
, Stable
Stable
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...
/Auto Plant, Siege Factory
Siege engine
A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. Some have been operated close to the fortifications, while others have been used to attack from a distance. From antiquity, siege engines were constructed largely of wood and...
/Factory, Dock
Dock (maritime)
A dock is a human-made structure or group of structures involved in the handling of boats or ships, usually on or close to a shore.However, the exact meaning varies among different variants of the English language...
/Shipyard/Anchorage, Airbase
Airbase
An airbase is a military airfield that provides basing and support of military aircraft....
, Missile silo, and Fort/Castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
/Fortress/Redoubt
Redoubt
A redoubt is a fort or fort system usually consisting of an enclosed defensive emplacement outside a larger fort, usually relying on earthworks, though others are constructed of stone or brick. It is meant to protect soldiers outside the main defensive line and can be a permanent structure or a...
.
Most Infantry units operate in squads of three, and when a player builds an infantry unit, three soldiers are produced, rather than just one soldier. Exceptions to this rule are: Scout and Special Forces units, armed civilians, flamethrowers, and machine gunners. When a machine gunner is produced, there are two soldiers, but they are, however, counted as one.
Unit types, such as Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, and Ranged Cavalry, are upgraded as the player advances through the ages. These upgrades usually represent revolutionary changes in their particular field. For example, the Arquebusier of the Gunpowder Age becomes the Musketeer
Musketeer
A musketeer was an early modern type of infantry soldier equipped with a musket. Musketeers were an important part of early modern armies, particularly in Europe. They sometimes could fight on horseback, like a dragoon or a cavalryman...
of the Enlightenment Age, representing the great advantage of flintlock
Flintlock
Flintlock is the general term for any firearm based on the flintlock mechanism. The term may also apply to the mechanism itself. Introduced at the beginning of the 17th century, the flintlock rapidly replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies, such as the doglock, matchlock and wheellock...
muskets over the earlier matchlock
Matchlock
The matchlock was the first mechanism, or "lock" invented to facilitate the firing of a hand-held firearm. This design removed the need to lower by hand a lit match into the weapon's flash pan and made it possible to have both hands free to keep a firm grip on the weapon at the moment of firing,...
muskets and showing increased attack power and reload speed. Also, each nation gets its own set of unique units. For example, the Greeks
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
can build Companion cavalry
Companion cavalry
The Companions were the elite cavalry of the Macedonian army from the time of king Philip II of Macedon and reached the most prestige under Alexander the Great, and have been regarded as the best cavalry in the ancient world and the first shock cavalry...
; the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
ns can build Red Guards
Red Guards (Russia)
In the context of the history of Russia and Soviet Union, Red Guards were paramilitary formations consisting of workers and partially of soldiers and sailors formed in the time frame of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
infantry and T-80
T-80
The T-80 is a main battle tank designed and manufactured in the former Soviet Union. A development of the T-64, it entered service in 1976 and was the first production tank to be equipped with a gas turbine engine for main propulsion.the Swedish Stridsvagn 103 of 1971 used a gas turbine alongside...
tanks; the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
can build Longbowmen, Highlanders
Black Watch
The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The unit's traditional colours were retired in 2011 in a ceremony led by Queen Elizabeth II....
, and Avro Lancaster
Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...
Bombers; and the Germans
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
get the Tiger
Tiger II
Tiger II is the common name of a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B,Panzerkampfwagen – abbr: Pz. or Pz.Kfw. Ausführung – abbr: Ausf. .The full titles Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf...
and Leopard
Leopard 2
The Leopard 2 is a main battle tank developed by Krauss-Maffei in the early 1970s for the West German Army. The tank first entered service in 1979 and succeeded the earlier Leopard 1 as the main battle tank of the German Army. Various versions have served in the armed forces of Germany and twelve...
tanks. In the Thrones and Patriots expansion pack, the Americans can build various Marine units.
Because of the wide variety of units in the game, players have the opportunity to create an army customized to their tastes. Most units have a cost that is roughly equal to that of their peers. Additionally, most units use only two resource types, making the creation of diverse armies easier and almost required. Terraced costs further contribute to the incentive for a diverse army, as each additional unit a player creates of a single type will cost more.
Wonders
Wonders are important buildings in the game. They are real-life structures ranging from the Colossus and the Pyramids to the Supercollider and Space Program. They improve resource gathering and also provide many other benefits to the game. Building wonders can also allow a player to win the game if 'wonder victory' is chosen as a custom setting of the game. Each wonder is worth a preset amount of "Wonder Points", which can be used as a victory condition, if customized before the game begins. Wonders can be built starting in the classical age. The only exception is the Egyptians can make wonders an age earlier. As you progress in the game the wonder points for wonders are higher. For example, the Supercollider is worth eight times as much as the Pyramids in terms of Wonder Points. However it costs many more times in resources.Reception
Rise of Nations received many positive reviews from most websites and magazines and won several awards. It holds a 89% rating at review aggregator site MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
.
Reviews
- PC GamerPC GamerPC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
(UK) - 88% - PC GamerPC GamerPC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
(US) - 95% (Editor's Choice) - PC FormatPC FormatPC Format is a computer magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and licensed to other publishers in countries around the world. In publication since 1991, it is part of Future Publishing's Format series of magazines that include articles about games, entertainment and how to...
- 93% - LeveLLeveLLEVEL is a computer and video games magazine originating in the Czech Republic with branches in Romania and Turkey. These three brother divisions occasionally exchange content...
Turkey - 92% - Gamesmaster UK - 89%
- GameSpotGameSpotGameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
- 9.3/10 (Editor's Choice) - IGNIGNIGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
- 8.2/10 - GameSpyGameSpyGameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
- 90/100 - EurogamerEurogamerEurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
- 9/10 - Maximum PCMaximum PCMaximum PC, formerly known as boot, is an American magazine and web site published by Future US. It focuses on cutting-edge PC hardware, with an emphasis on product reviews, step-by-step tutorials, and in-depth technical briefs...
- 10/10
Awards
- GameSpy 2003 Game of the Year - PC RTS
- GameSpy Top 10 RTS Games
- Best Strategy Game of 2003 by GameSpot
- Best PC Game of 2003 by GameSpot
Multiplayer
On Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Rise of Nations uses the GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
matchmaking service.
On Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, Rise of Nations uses GameRanger
GameRanger
GameRanger is an Internet gaming service for the Macintosh and Windows computing platforms. The service includes custom software and unlike other gaming services is not strictly web-based. GameRanger was created by Scott Kevill and was first released in July 1999 for Macintosh with support for 11...
as a matchmaking service.
The LAN networking, implemented on both platforms, provides a system for people on the same network to play together. There is also a Direct-IP option, allowing non-networked players to connect without the use of GameSpy.
Cross-platform play is not supported between Windows and Mac users.
Sales
Rise of Nations and its expansion pack Rise of Nations: Thrones and PatriotsRise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots
Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots is the official expansion pack to the real-time strategy computer game Rise of Nations. The game is the second in a series of Rise of Nations games by Big Huge Games. Thrones and Patriots had its premiere release for Microsoft Windows on April 27, 2004 in North...
have received combined sales of over 1 million copies.
External links
- BHG Rise of Nations site
- Microsoft Rise of Nations site
- Rise of Nations Community site
- GameSpy Rise of Nations Rankings
- Rise of Nations for Mac OS XMac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
- Wikia's Rise of Nations wiki, Wikia.com
- Rise of Nations Strategy Catalogue