Cyber Empires is a strategy/top-view fighting game produced by Silicon Knights

Silicon Knights

Silicon Knights is a Canadian video game developer. Founded in 1992 by Denis Dyack, the company is headquartered in St. Catharines, Ontario, Dyack's hometown....

. The game was produced in DOS

MS-DOS

MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...

, Atari ST

Atari ST

The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...

 and Amiga

Amiga

The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

 versions, and was originally released in March 1992. The current copyright holder was Strategic Simulations, Inc.

Strategic Simulations, Inc.

Strategic Simulations, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher with over 100 titles to its credit since its founding in 1979. It was especially noted for its numerous wargames, its official computer game adaptations of Dungeons & Dragons, and for the groundbreaking Panzer General...

, which later became part of Ubisoft

Ubisoft

Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....

.

Gameplay

The game has two basic components. The first requires the player to engage in Risk-like strategic decision-making with the goal of conquering the given land mass. The player raises cyborg armies to accomplish this goal. During the second basic component of the game, the top-down battle mode, players can choose to assume manual control of one cyborg in their army during offensive or defensive battle sessions, or let the computer simulate the battle behind the scenes to much more predictable outcomes. This allows players to play only the Risk-style board game component of the game. The opposite, battles only, is also possible. Cyber Empires innovated by mixing strategy with arcade action on a global scale.

The game offers a total of nine different cyborgs from which the user can create an army of up to 10 units, that is no more 10 units may occupy one country. The units range from the small fast mercury capable of little damage but a high speed, to the Titan which is the ultimate cyborg capable of long range missile attacks and short range auto-cannon attacks.

The strategy part of the game allows the user to place capitols in any countries occupied by their troops. Countries with capitols in them create extra revenue every turn and can be built upon. The buildings includes fortifications, factories and factory upgrades. Fortifications comes in 3 varieties: light, medium and heavy, but can only protect a country if at least one cyborg is present. Factories come in 3 varieties also, they can have 1, 2 or 4 bays. The number of bays a factory is determined the number of cyborgs it can build at once. The upgrade level of a factory, on the other hand, determines how fast an individual cyborg can be built.