The first SimTex that puts their name on the map is also arguably the best games Steve Barcia ever designed in his short career. This is the 4X space strategy game that has it all: solid AI, varied alien races that require different strategies to win, innovative combat and technology systems, intriguing espionage model, and much more.
This game never leaves my hard drive since its first release, because of its immense replayablity and nearly inexhaustible strategic combinations. If you can play only one space strategy game, THIS is your best bet.
Note: Pictures of ships needed to pass copy protection are included in the manual file below, thanks to Anym and Bateau :) You cannot crack the game, because the game will detect the alteration and automatically makes it impossible to win in later stages. Devious programming by SimTex ;)
Review By HOTUD
English 
Comments and reviews
Back in the day I was addicted to this game. Taking over planets and being able to rename them is so satisfying. The AI is hard and even on simple the AI can still crush you. My go-to race was and always will be Psilon, because they research advanced tech faster than the other opponents. My strategy was to scout another planet and use the colony ship to land it while the starting planet sliders were IND and ECO (eco so the population doesnt die) So due to grinding IND to the max I was able to research advanced stuff more faster and build ships faster. In the beginning phase as long as your map size isnt small and you arent playing against an agressive race, the default ships dont have any use and you dont need to keep building your ships in early game. The only ships that are useful early game is scout and colony ship (make sure to max out factories to boost ship time!) Only build ships if you have the right tech, or if the enemy is advancing. So yeah, dont worry about the game dragging on, it will only make things funner with random events and wars. This game is awesome worth a try.
Interesting comment about not being able to crack the game or it becomes impossible to win. I cracked the game myself back in '93 and I've beaten the game many dozens of times since then at the hardest level.
This was also available for the Classic MacOS, before OS X. 4 floppies, you ran the installer on disk 1, is asked for each floppy in turn, and when it finished you had a ready to play game folder on the hard drive. Floppies and floppy drives are in short supply, I could swear I imaged them for archival, but that was 1995, not sure where it is backed up, have to search my old hard drives, if they work anymore, to find it. Graphics are virtually identical to DOS, but on any OS X up to 10.4, it runs in Classic, so no additional emulator/configuration needed.
Guess what's the date this post was made?
There is a crack which altered the starmap file.
hey astro girl can i get the latest version of masters of orion?
How do i get 1.3?
NICE GAME!
check out FreeOrion the windows remake at sourceforge
AllSoftware can be Cracked silly people.
This is the nature of computer programs.
Artmoney for those who want to attempt to increase lives, ammo etc..
olly for those that want to change the source code on the fly...
though the second is more complicated and not legal unless you are working with your own or open source software...
Also those mentioning version 1.3 you could zip and email it to the mod maybe. SHare a little in todays world it would only tak you a minute. but thanks for letting me know. I Hat ebuggy software.
As far as this program goes, I've been playing it for years, and I've almost never had it crash, except once. You can prevent problems by, every few hours, saving the game, shutting it down and closing the DosBox window, then restart everything where you left off.
I think that the game just runs out of memory or something, but mostly it can run for a long time without any trouble. I always use Control-F12 until the speed is at least 30,000 cycles. If I don't do that, each turn will take a long time, which is unnecessary.
Trying to get the game to run. I've followed the DOSBox instructions word for word, but trying to run the game displays the message "Run INSTALL to configure ORION." I've run the installation and configured the settings maybe 10 times, and I don't know what the game wants, it just won't let me play.
v1.3 is much better as it can be completely cracked. If anybody wants it, leave a comment and I will contact you.
I don't know the date of these comments or even if they'll ever be read. Today is Sept. 3rd 2013 and UpCycler I've saw a picture with ships but didn't read it cause I assumed it was helpful. Am looking into 1.3 before I try this download.
This particular version is 1.0, it is infested with bugs. Go download 1.3 somewhere else.
white : EMS=true in the C:\ console
Mine wont run, It's saying that I don't have an EMS driver? I have no idea what this is, any help? thanks
Below is a link to picture which has all of the starship names (needed intermittently to answer the security questions) It might be worth saving it as a file and adding it to the install?
http://www.freegameempire.com/games/Master-of-Orion/manual
Wow bunch of nerds
To slow it down you press Ctrl+F11
I think it is, with CIVILIZATION, the best game ever. The sounds and graphics were stunned. I still like playing it - PSILONS or SILICOIDS ;-)
I dont get it, Rebel, how did you make it work?
Id love to be able to play this but it keeps asking for me to insert the floppy in the drive then hit enter lol.... Help please?
Oh Never-mind I found it lol
OK to speed up is CNTRL F12, how do you slow it down
The best way to describe the MOO series is Civilization in space.
You choose a race, build ships, colonize planets, build facilities, manage the colonies, build starbases and battle other civilizations for control. Master of Orion is excellent as is the sequel Master of Orion II, but stay away from MOO III.
You don't really need the manual for the starship pictures. Just use Google images and search for "Master of Orion Ship Identification".
This game runs slow if you run it in dosbox as is, but if you use "control-F12" to increase the emulation speed to at least 20,000 cycles, it will run plenty fast, even in a huge universe.
good game
This is one of the great games of the last century
so....thanks for that superlative review, but, where is this manual link you mentioned with the pictures of the starships?
plz correct me if wrong, but I'm not seeing it anywhere on this page.
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.