Planet X3 and Planet X2.1 - two real-time strategy games for old computers

March 24, 2021, 16:14 Mikhail Sudakov ред.

Two years ago we wrote about how the real-time strategy Planet X3 for MS-DOS by David Murray, better known online as 8-bit Guy, showed up on Kickstarter and raised three times the money it needed in three weeks. Well, in that time, of course, the game managed to come out and is now for sale on his personal site. You can buy it for anywhere from $10 to $50, and the options are as follows:

• $10 - a digital copy of the game with 13 cards, a PDF user manual, and an MP3 soundtrack;
• $20 - 720KB 3.5-inch floppy with 13 cards, a paper user manual, and everything from the digital version (same as the other bundles);
• $30 - box with a 3.5-inch floppy with 13 cards, floppy sticker, user's manual and soundtrack on cassette;
• $40 - all of the above plus a 360kb floppy diskette with 9 cards for CGA and Tandy computers;
• $45 - everything from the $30 version, but with David's autograph;
• $50 - everything from the $40 version, but signed by David.

Recall that this classic representative of the RTS genre differs from its modern genre companions in that it can run even on the weakest computers, but also supports a bunch of graphical modes:

• regular CGA (320×200, 4 colors);
• CGA for composite output (320×200, 16 colors);
• Tandy (160×200, 16 colors);
• Tandy Med-res (320×200, 16 colors)
• Tandy Hi-Res (640×200, 16 colors);
• Hercules (720×350, 2 colors);
• Plantronics Colorplus (320×200, 16 colors);
• EGA (640×200, 16 colors);
• VGA (320×200, 256 colors).

The minimum system requirements for this look like this:

• an 8088 processor at 4.77 MHz (8 MHz recommended) for the CGA/Tandy/Hercules version:
• an 8088 processor at 10 MHz (286 at 10 MHz is recommended) for EGA/VGA;
• 256 KB RAM;
• a 360KB or 720KB disk drive, installation on a hard disk is also possible;
• PC-Speaker, Tandy or Ad-Lib sound.

And if you're not convinced yet that any fan of the genre and MS-DOS aficionado should buy Planet X3 right now, check out this great teaser, narrated amicably by Clint Basinger (Lazy Game Reviews):

And it's impossible not to mention another recent release, Planet X2.1 for the Commodore 64. As it is easy to guess, this is an improved version of the previous strategy created by David especially for the most popular 8-bit computer in the world. The graphics has improved, the music has become even nicer, and, most importantly, the game is now available on cartridge!

He, of course, comes in a box with a user manual included. The regular version costs $50, and the signed version costs $60. Each purchaser will also receive a digital copy of both this game and the regular Planet X2. You can still buy the cartridge there at David's Store.