Galactic Revolution is the second of 2 games that James West wrote on his Coco 2 back around 1985-1986 based on the Galactic Saga series done for the TRS-80 Model 1/3, Apple II and Atari 8 bit computers, first by Adventure International and later by Broderbund. Unlike his first effort Galactic Conquest, Galactic Revolution follows the original version much more closely both in gameplay and naming computer players and planets (this was the 3rd game from the original 4 part Galactic Saga series). It features from 1 to 3 human players, game save/load, and a different screen layout then James' previous entry. The presentation gets fancier too, with things like bar graphs for statistics, official alliances that you can create with independent planets (there are even charts of what parts of the social structure are more in support of the different players and their empires).
Like the original Broderbund version this game is turn based, with lots of logistics and resource management to keep track of. At the end of each turn the player can purchase various military assets as well, after they collect taxes (that they also control). Unlike Galactic Conquest, you also get to see some statistics on the computer players during their turns, to help you plan your strategy. A very involved trading/war simulation game with a science fiction twist, this game was quite popular in the early 1980's on the computers it was officially released on, and I am glad that the unofficial Coco port made half a decade later has been found and is able to be shared. This game also supports running on a cassette based system as well.
One quick note for players - if you pick a sub-menu and you don't see an option to return to the previous menu, the R key will return you to the previous menu.
Title: Galactic Revolution
Author: James West
Publisher: Previously unpublished
Released: 2022 (created around 1985-1986)
Requires: Color Computer 1,2,3, 32K RAM, disk optional.
Download GALACTIC_REVOLUTION.ZIP (contains REVOLUT.DSK image). Type RUN "REVOLT" to start the game.
Download CHARGEN_DOCUMENTATION.TXT.. This is a quick documentation file on the machine language graphical text driver CHARGEN used by by both Galactic Revolution and Galactic Conquest. It shows you how to load it for your BASIC programs, and how to use some special features it has (and a couple of things that work a little differently than regular BASIC).