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Genesia

Available Platforms: DOS, Amiga - Alias: Ultimate Domain

Genesia (the US version was called Ultimate Domain) is a strategy game developed and published by Microids for the Amiga in 1993.

Genesia
Year1993
GenreStrategy
Rating4

76/100 based on 10 Editorial reviews. Add your vote

PublisherMindscape
DeveloperMicroïds
OS supportedWin7 64 bit, Win8 64bit, Windows 10, MacOS 10.6+
Updated21 June 2022

Game Review

Genesia (the US version was called Ultimate Domain) is a strategy game developed and published by Microids for the Amiga in 1993. The game was later picked up by Software Toolworks and ported out to the IBM PC.

At first look, the game looks like Populous set in the 17th century, or if you prefer, Powermonger. However, even though it seems like a clone of Bullfrog's super-hit, it is not precisely. Genesia combines aspects of different titles to make a strategy game that acts as a jack of all trades. You will find elements of both The Settlers, Populous, and Sid Meier's Civilization.

The end goal of the game is to create a massive, profitable, and strong empire. Players can use the settlers to do various occupations to sustain the economy and growth. Woodcutters turn trees into logs; architects use raw materials such as logs and stones to create buildings, whereas the specialist will create items that can be sold as goods as soon as a shop is built.

The game graphics were a bit controversial; some reviewers said that it did not reach acceptable standards. However, it should be noted that the game was entirely written using AMOS, and that alone is quite a significant feat, in my opinion. Genesia was one of the few commercial games to be developed using the BASIC dialect for Amiga created by François Lionet.

The game is pretty in-depth, with a lot of variables working simultaneously. All these factors can drastically affect the progress of your empire. Sometimes it can become a bit boring, especially because the instructions are a bit confusing. It was also rumored that the game could be completed from the starting position without expanding, but I never tried it.

Overall, Genesia was okayish; it's fun to try out for a while. For sure, there are better alternatives, but if you like strategy games and the Populous look-and-feel, you should try it.

Review by: Adam
Published: 23 March 2020 12:24 pm



Sorry, for copyright reasons we cannot provide any download link. You can check if the game is available on GOG or Steam, or you can search on the GamesVoyager search engine.

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Latest Comments

  • Maurizio Petta - 2022-06-28 - Reply

    @Manu Yes ..... I confirm ... the game now works very well ... Thank you very much.

  • Manu - 2022-06-21 - Reply

    The DOSBox configuration was not perfect, the settings were too fast, so the game didn't run properly. Now it should be ok, thanks @Maurizio!

  • Maurizio Petta - 2022-06-15 - Reply

    The game ONLY works if the game exe is dragged onto the dos box application. If, on the other hand, you use the commands provided by "Gamesnostalgia", the game crashes. Tested on win 7 64 bit!

    Problems for the Amiga version !
    Unfortunately, as with the Dos version, even the Amiga version has some problems. Unlike the Dos version, in the Amiga version we don't have any alternative method to make the game work. In the Amiga version, the program crashes on the choices screen. There is no way of being able to interact, after a while the screen blackens and only a laconic writing appears that requires the disc! Obviously, at that point, you can safely type ALT + F4, as it is the only way to unlock the situation and return to windows again. In this way the game is useless. Too bad, I bought "GENESIA", in the Amiga version, in the 90s. To tell the truth, I played little, in fact already at the time I noticed some bugs. For example, I remember that I bought a cannon in the summer shift, when the autumn season came, plants had sprung up next to the cannon. These plants had "trapped" my cannon. This was clearly a ridiculous situation. Not to be minimized, then, the discourse of playing on the surface no bigger than a postage stamp, and this was certainly frustrating. Now having a little more time I would have liked to study the game better to understand it better ... unfortunately your version is defective.