Dapra is a barren planet at the edge of settled space, surveyed only recently. The climate over most of the planet is arid and unpleasant. There is apparently no life on this world today, although ruins of a past civilisation remain.
But Dapra has a high concentration of valuable minerals that have attracted the attention of interstellar mining corporations. Two corporations in particular, Nuvutech and Avuscorp, are in a good position to move in and exploit the newly discovered resources.
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Nuvutech is an old company, mired in bureaucracy but with considerable financial power. They can afford to invest heavily both in mining infrastructure and in the military forces to preserve their investments. A mining colony on Dapra would be a profitable addition to their assets.
Avuscorp is a newer corporation, more energetic and more unscrupulous. Their methods are not always civilised nor, as many suspect, always legal. There have been violent run-ins between Avuscorp and other corporations over lucrative resources, and it looks like another one is brewing between them and Nuvutech over Dapra.
It remains to be seen which of these corporations will gain control over this planet and its resources.
Barren Planet is a turn-based strategy game. Players take on the role of a strategist, controlling a number of units that move around on a battle map, attacking their enemies in an attempt to control strategic locations or to wipe their opponents out altogether. A series of battles is linked together to form the full campaign, with the outcome of one battle determining what battle is fought next.
The game can be played by one player or two. A single player can choose which corporation to work for, with the computer taking control of the opposing side. Two players can play in hotseat mode, taking turns at the same computer, or in PBM (play-by-mail) mode, sending game turns to one another using disks or electronic mail.
Barren Planet was released on Sunday 23rd April 2023.
Barren Planet
Download: barren.zip
Size 122kb, downloads 312.
This download requires DOSBox to run. The zip file has all the game files tidily stored in the barren folder. Extract the contents of the ZIP to wherever you put your DOS games and have fun! A read of the manual would be beneficial for this game if you want to know what you're doing. (read more...)
Barren Planet manual
Download: barren.pdf
Size 3397kb, downloads 289.
Here's a PDF manual for Barren Planet. It's worth reading if you want to know what you're doing when you first run the game. It includes a full tutorial to get you started. The reference sections at the end tell you what you need to know about all the units and terrain in the game. (read more...)
The Polar Expedition
Download: polar.zip
Size 22kb, downloads 232.
An expansion to Barren Planet in the form of a new campaign file. The CAM file within this archive should be placed in your Barren Planet play directory, alongside the other game files. Once done, The Polar Expedition should appear in the campaign list. Note that you need the latest version of Barren Planet to run the expansion. (read more...)
The Polar Expedition manual
Download: polar.pdf
Size 3420kb, downloads 112.
This is the PDF manual for The Polar Expedition expansion. It tells the story, and explains the capabilities of the new units and terrain in the expansion. (read more...)
Waterworld
Download: waterwld.zip
Size 24kb, downloads 97.
An expansion to Barren Planet in the form of a new campaign file. The CAM file within this archive should be placed in your Barren Planet play directory, alongside the other game files. Once done, Waterworld should appear in the campaign list. Note that you need the latest version of Barren Planet to run the expansion. (read more...)
Waterworld manual
Download: waterwld.pdf
Size 3434kb, downloads 36.
This is the PDF manual for the Waterworld expansion. It tells the story, and explains the capabilities of the new units and terrain in the expansion. (read more...)
Comments
OMG dude this is awesome, thanks! There's a major shortage of turn-based strategy games out there just like there is one for 1st Person dungeon exploration games...
I was reading your post about tracking the memory bug and porting the tools over to Linux. That seems like a happy accident that will "force" you to upgrade your entire framework. I get it, DOS is cool, but it's almost sad to watch someone with such great potential "waste" all of it by limiting yourself to DOS. If you find a way to make these games run out of Steam natively, you will instantly find a much bigger audience. Hey I was just watching a video on how you can "workaround" the Steam 30 percent fee by using Steam Keys, selling Steam Keys on other sites such as Itch IO... that is completely allowed by the rules and have ZERO percent fee. Maybe this is will encourage you to make the transition to Native apps for Windows and selling on Steam. The Steam page will only be used as your main landing hub, but people can choose if they want to give you DIRECT money through Itch IO purchases. This is a game changer. Take advantage of it before they change it.
MSDOS fan - 11:30, 03/01/2024
This is AWESOME! New DOS games in 2023! And even better a Strategy one!! Wow...
DOS fan - 11:31, 03/01/2024
That's food for thought, MSDOS fan. I still intend to make DOS my primary target platform though. I think players on modern platforms expect a lot more from a game than a sole developer can easily provide, but if a game is just a port from an older OS, they are more forgiving.
Cyningstan - 14:11, 03/01/2024
very good
Marco - 16:02, 29/02/2024