The Ancient Art of War (1984) — Release Date, Cheats, Price & Requirements

The Ancient Art of War

The Ancient Art of War is a computer game developed by Evryware and published by Broderbund in 1984. In retrospect, it is generally recognized as one of the first real-time strategy or real-time tactics games…

31 December 1984

What The Ancient Art of War is

The Ancient Art of War is a real time strategy (rts) game developed by Evryware and released in 1984. It was published by Brøderbund Software. It is available on Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST/STE, DOS, Mac, PC-8800 Series and PC-9800 Series.

The premise, in the publisher's words

The Ancient Art of War is a computer game developed by Evryware and published by Broderbund in 1984. In retrospect, it is generally recognized as one of the first real-time strategy or real-time tactics games. A battlefield simulation, the game's title comes from the classic strategy text The Art of War written by Sun Tzu around 400 B.C. The objective of the game is to win a series of battles using four types of troops: Knights, Archers, Barbarians, and Spies. All four types are unmounted. It uses the simple "Rock-Paper-Scissors" type of unit balance typical of the genre. Knights beat Barbarians in melee; Barbarians have the advantage over Archers; and Archers have the advantage over…

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a bird view / isometric perspective. Its themes are historical and warfare. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component.