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Master of Orion

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Master of Orion
Master of Orion cover
Developers
Simtex
Publishers
1993-1999 MicroProse
1999-2002 Infogrames
2003-2013 Atari
2013-present Wargaming.net
Mac OS MacSoft
Release dates
DOS September 6, 1993
Mac OS (Classic) 1995
Windows (DOSBox) April 20, 2010[1]
macOS (OS X) (DOSBox) November 29, 2012[2]
Linux (DOSBox) May 12, 2015[3]
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Turn-based
Genres 4X, TBS
Themes Sci-fi, Space
Series Master of Orion
Master of Orion on HowLongToBeat
Master of Orion guide on StrategyWiki
Master of Orion on MobyGames
Master of Orion on Wikipedia
Master of Orion
Master of Orion 1993
Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares 1996
Master of Orion III 2003
Master of Orion (2016) 2016

Master of Orion is a singleplayer 4X and TBS game in the Master of Orion series.

General information

Renamed to Master of Orion Classic on digital stores around the release time of Master of Orion (2016).
Wargaming.net Orion Forums - Official forums, has a subsection for the original classics
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions
Realms Beyond - Has a subsection for the series (particularly the classics)
The Orion Nebula

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Prompts for answers from manual, code wheel, etc.
DOS
Mac OS
GOG.com
DRM-free
Packaged with Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares. Pre-packaged with DOSBox.[4]
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Packaged with Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Packaged with Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares. Pre-packaged with DOSBox.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
ZOOM Platform
DRM-free
Packaged with Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares. Pre-packaged with DOSBox.
Windows
Free demo versions are available from Archive.org: playable, non-interactive.

Version differences

The pre-alpha/software pitch version of the game was actually known as Star Lords. It has some slightly different graphics and some races have slightly different names. Download.

Essential improvements

Run in DOSBox

To improve DOSBox performance make the following changes to the DOSBox configuration file:

  • Change core=auto to core=dynamic
  • Change cycles=auto to cycles=max

Patches

The latest official patch is version 1.3, which can be found here. Note that the digital releases are fully updated, thus the update file is unnecessary on said version. An unofficial 1.4m is also available for download here. The original thread where it was discussed and created (download link dead) can be found here or patches-scrolls.com. There is also a 1.4n patch here, which is slightly newer than 1.4m. Note that 1.4n requires 1.4m to be installed first.
In addition to the above there is a fix that adds Gravis UltraSound support available here. For more info on getting GUS working, see DOSBox. A map editor is also available here.

1oom

1oom is a GPLv2 game engine recreation that runs on Unix (Linux), Windows and DOS. It requires the LBX files from MOO1.
Does not require DOSBox. Extra features include larger galaxy view resolution, mouse wheel support, planetary governor for less micro, space combat autoresolve for skipping boring battles, hotseat multiplayer, and quality-of-life streamlining.[5]
Installing 1oom
  1. Download the latest Binaries.
  2. Extract the archive to another folder.
  3. Copy your MOO1 LBX files to the folder where 1oom was extracted.
  4. For Windows, Run either 1oom_classic_sdl1.exe (for older computers) or 1oom_classic_sdl2.exe (for newer computers).

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System Location
DOS
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game options menu.
In-game options menu.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
For DOSBox toggle with Alt+ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS
120+ FPS

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Controller types

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Russian
Fan translation by «Бюро переводов Old-Games.RU»

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Notes
Local play
See 1oom for hot seat
LAN play
A fan made "multiplayer project" was once attempted but later abandoned. After a server failure on the mods original host site, a map editor (same one listed in essential improvements) is all that remains of the project.[6][7][8]
Online play
See note above.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes VGA
ExecutablePPC16-bit 32-bit 64-bit Notes
macOS (OS X)
[9]
Mac OS (Classic)

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 3.3
Processor (CPU) Intel 386 16 MHz
System memory (RAM) 3 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 14 MB
Video card (GPU) VGA graphics card
Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista, 7, 8
Processor (CPU) 1 GHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 14 MB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 7 compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.6.8
Processor (CPU) Intel Core Duo 2 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) 64 MB of VRAM


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to <path-to-game>/cloud_saves/ even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).

References