Utopia (1981 video game)
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| Utopia | |
|---|---|
_boxart.jpg) North American Intellivision box art by Jerrol Richardson[1] | |
| Developer | Mattel Electronics |
| Publisher | Mattel Electronics |
| Designer | Don Daglow[1] |
| Programmer | Don Daglow[1] |
| Artists |
|
| Platforms | Intellivision, Mattel Aquarius |
| Release | Intellivision
|
| Genres | Real-time strategy,[2][3][4] city-building[5][6][4] |
| Modes | Single-player, multiplayer |
Utopia is a 1982 strategy video game developed and published by Mattel Electronics for the Intellivision. Designed and programmed by Don Daglow, it is often regarded as one of the first city-building games,[7][5][6] and has been referred to as "arguably the earliest ancestor of the real-time strategy genre."[3] It was ported by Mattel to its Aquarius computer in 1983, and was later re-released on Microsoft's Game Room service for Xbox 360 and Games for Windows Live in 2010.
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Utopia is a two-player game in which the two players each control one of the two islands. It lacks an AI opponent, although a single player can play to achieve a high score and ignore the other island. When starting the game, the players may choose how many rounds to play (up to 50) and the length of each round (30 to 120 seconds). The winner is the player with the most points at the end of the game.[8]
Each player rules their own island and uses the controller disc to move a rectangular cursor around the screen. Both players spend gold bars to construct different buildings (houses, schools, factories, hospitals and forts), plant crops, build fishing boats or PT boats, or to fund rebel activity on the enemy island. As each island's population grows, the ruler is responsible for housing their people, feeding their populace and keeping them happy, or else risk rebel activity, which decreases the player's score and sometimes destroys buildings. Income is produced when randomly generated rain clouds, (and sometimes hurricanes) pass over a player's farms, when a fishing boat is positioned over a school of fish, and at the end of each round, based on the player's factory output and fishing boats.[8]
Most rounds consist of constructing a building, then continuously maneuvering the player's fishing boat over a moving school of fish in order to maintain fishing income, with occasional interruptions to construct new buildings whenever they are affordable. Alternatively, a player might spend resources and time maneuvering a PT boat to try and sink their opponent's fishing boat in order to keep their income down. Game algorithms generate and determine the course of rain clouds, tropical storms, hurricanes, schools of fish, and pirate ships.[8]