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7.5 excellent
Let's say there are only a few dozen planets in your galaxy capable of producing starships. They're mostly inhabited by peaceful, neutral governments. These governments are not stockpiling a starship warfleet, but you (human) are at war, and both you and your enemy (computer) on the other side of the galaxy are turning out a few new starships each second. Then your enemy begins invading and inhabiting neutral planets, and using their resources to produce even more starships! What do you do? Your only choice is to begin invading as well, and so begins a quick game of Phil Hassey's Galcon!
Galcon is a very simple game at heart. You left-click on a planet your forces are currently occupying, and then right-click on the planet you want to invade. You can also click and drag from one planet to another. A percentage of your starships will then leave your planet and fly en swarm to the target planet. If they can overcome that planet's defending starships, that planet is yours, and will magically change to your color and automatically fire up its assembly lines and begin rolling out new starships for your galactic war machine. You can also move starships around among your occupied planets, to bolster your defences.
You can select what percentage of your starships will join a swarm by pressing the number keys 1 to 0. 1 = 10%, 0 = 100%. (The default is 50%, but should probably be 100%.)
The larger the planet, the faster its rate of production. In the normal Galcon game, planets have a production rate between 0 and 100. And you can cram as many starships onto a planet as you want; even tiny worthless production zero waste of mass planets can hold thousands of starships. Every planet your forces occupy has a number on its face. That number is the number of your starships on the planet, and is ever increasing as the planet produces more and more of your forces. Neutral (colored gray) planets also have a number, which is the number of neutral starships defending the planet from attack. Your enemy's planets do not have a number, however... you have no way of knowing how many forces are occupying these planets, except by paying attention as starships move about the galaxy. I suppose in times of galactic war, foes realized it was foolhardy to spend time and effort erecting massive digits on the face of a planet, thereby advertising the strength of the planet's forces.
In Galcon, starships are tiny triangles. Specifically, isosceles triangles. As you send them to battle, you may be tempted to shout, "Go, triangles, go!" or "Fly my pretty isosceles triangles!" Often there are thousands onscreen at once, but to its credit Galcon doesn't slow down or hiccup in the slightest.
The triangular starships used by you and your enemy are the same model (just with a different coat of paint). Their navigational system is crude: the shortest distance between two planets is a straight line, so fly directly to the target. If there is another planet between them and their target, they will bump into it and get turned around as they try to circumnavigate the obstacle. This can cause delays as starships get lodged in traffic jams, especially when several planets are packed close together.
Probably the best space opera I've ever read is A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. Highly recommended.
The ingame music isn't bad (at least in the latest version of Galcon), and I'd bet money that the "boom" sound that plays when planets are won is Phil going "boom" into a microphone.
The strategic element of Galcon comes into play when deciding which planets to invade. Each game starts you in a randomly created galaxy. Larger planets are more ideal to occupy, because they have a higher starship production rate. But sometimes they have a big neutral defense force defending them, so taking them would result in heavy losses. And sometimes planets are so far away that by the time you've traveled across the galaxy to conquest them, the enemy has taken a few nearby planets and gained a big lead in isosceles triangle production. It all comes down to numbers, and in the classic Galcon mission, usually after 30 seconds it is apparent which side will win.
Galcon is a simple game, with no real story or characters, and the multiple missions available don't really add much variation beyond the "classic" mission included in the downloadable demo. "Massive" increases the size of the galaxy, and is probably the most worthwhile mission. "Mega" increases the size of the homeworld planets. "Minions" lets you face off against an enemy occupying a dozen tiny planets. There are others. And there are multiple difficulty levels as well, from "practice" to "maniac." In maniac, the computer enemy reacts with lightning relexes, but after you become an expert player like me, you'll be able to beat the maniac computer nine out of ten times in classic Galcon. But some galaxies start your homeworld far from any decent planets, and in those cases I die like a dog with a stomach full of chocolate-covered onions.
My question is, can anyone beat the maniac computer at a Galcon "siege" mission? The answer is no.
Where Galcon really shines, and what makes it worth buying, is the network games. They are handled well, with everything you'd expect from online play. Chatting, etc. You can't draw smiley faces on the map like in Myth, but Galcon games are usually over quickly so maybe that feature wasn't feasible. (Though online games can last longer than you'd expect if you're only used to playing Galcon against the computer.)
This is a game that's easy to return to when you just want a quick relaxing battle with your computer or some mystery person online. If you like looking at isosceles triangles, you'll like Galcon. Check it out.