Civil War (video game)

Civil War simulates 14 major American Civil War battles, with the human player as the South and the computer as the North. The player has control of four direct variables which determine the outcome of each battle: food, salaries, ammunition, and offensive or defensive strategy. The side which suffers the fewest casualties is the winner of a battle, and the side which wins the most battles is the winner of the game (the computer wins all ties).{{cite journal

|title=The Electric Eye

|author=Herro, Mark

|journal=The Dragon

|issue=38

|date=June 1980

|pages=52–53}}

The program tracks the morale of the Confederate soldiers and determines whether they are on offense or defense, and morale is one of the factors that determines victory in a battle.

Civil War was programmed by 1968 by three Lexington High School students: Larry Cram, Luther Goodie, and Doug Hibbard.{{Cite web|url=https://www.andreacontato.com/video-games-stage-1---preview|title=Andrea Contato author and videogame historian|website=www.andreacontato.com}}{{Cite book |last=David H. Ahl |url=https://archive.org/details/101basiccomputer0000davi/page/80/mode/2up |title=101 BASIC Computer Games |date=1974-01-01 |publisher=Digital Equipment Corp., Maynard, MA |others=Internet Archive}}{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_creative-computing_september-october-1975_1_5/page/n55/mode/2up |title=Creative Computing September-October 1975: Vol 1 Iss 5 |date=September–October 1975 |others=Internet Archive |language=English}}{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/Whattodoafteryouhitreturn/page/n77/mode/2up|title=What to Do After you Hit Return (1975)|date=April 13, 1975|via=Internet Archive}} The game was written entirely in BASIC. The high school computing consortium Project Local provided the time-sharing network that these students used to develop Civil War, and was the same network used by the student from the same school to develop Lunar Lander.{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Alexander |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cxy_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT217 |title=They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry, Vol. I: 1971-1982 |date=2019-11-19 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-0-429-75261-2 |language=en}} The game was modified into a two-player game by G. Paul and R. Hess of TIES, in St. Paul, Minnesota.{{Cite book |last=David H. Ahl |url=https://archive.org/details/computersinscien0000davi/page/16/mode/2up |title=Computers in Science and Social Studies: A Sourcebook of Ideas |date=March 1983 |publisher=Creative Computing Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-916688-44-8}}

Civil War was one of a number of text-based games available on early 1980s pay to play systems, along with games such as Adventure, Blackjack, Football, Hangman, Lunar Lander, Maze, and Star Trek.{{cite book|last=DeMaria|first=Rusel|author2=Johnny L. Wilson|title=High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games|publisher=McGraw-Hill Osborne Media|year=2003|pages=305–306|accessdate=2009-07-16|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HJNvZLvpCEQC&dq=%22civil+war%22+text+game+mainframe&pg=PA305|isbn=978-0-07-223172-4}} Civil War was available on The Source, Big-Top Games, and A.R.C.A.D.E.

One reviewer determined in 1974 that "CIVIL is very suitable simulation for secondary level course in American history. It has been effectively used as a group activity session, even by students who have not previously studied the war in class."{{Cite book |last=Digital Equipment Corporation |url=https://archive.org/details/digital_edu_number_11/page/32/mode/2up |title=DEC EDU Newsletter Issue Number 11 |date=1974}}

{{reflist|2}}

Category:1968 video games

Category:American Civil War video games

Category:DOS games

Category:Mainframe games

Category:Video games with textual graphics

{{simulation-videogame-stub}}