Empire: Total Burnout?

[Tomisama]

A little perspective on waiting and dreaming (in reverse).

Early exposure to a televised stage play of the Seven Samurai, and then later watching the Shogun TV series, encouraged my interest in ancient Japanese warfare. So much so that when the computer gamming industry started showing promise, I set myself a goal of programming a game that would simulate battles in early Japan.

Just as I started studying the necessary computer languages as my first step fulfilling my dream, I found a snippet of news in a Next Generation magazine. The news clip was just a note about a new game proposed by Electronic Arts called Taisho: Total War. And when I saw it, I knew that this was my game. Someone was already building my dream; all I had to do was to wait a bit. This was glorious! The date on the magazine was November 1998.

Later information promised the release in the second quarter of 1999, and told that the name had been changed to Shogun: Total War (both of which I wrote on the snippet). I believe that there was even later news that the date had been changed to the second quarter of 2000, but I don’t have hard copy on that. The waiting was excruciating! Nothing else would satisfy or even reduce the empty longing. I needed this game; it was my dream come true.

Eventually it was released in July 2000. That’s about 20 months of low level agony (qualifies as two years in my book). I think I might be able to wait a few months for Empire.

The real story is; that it was worth it, even with its short comings, it was worth it!

Next Generation magazine November 1998 page 102, upper right corner.




Next Generation magazine July 2000 page 93 - if you want to seethe release anouncement (full page).

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