h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

'In all the Myth games players are given the ability to speed up or slow down the rate of gameplay. This simple idea brought an end to the tedium of watching a couple of lame units slowly struggle across a large desert, while the ability to slow down the game allowed more thinking time in the heat of battle.'

Um... Wasn't this a feature in Command & Conquer (1995)?

Not in the same way - C & C lets you choose the game speed from the options menu if I remember correctly. In Myth, players can change the game's speed using a couple of the F buttons, so that they can quickly and repeatedly alter the speed to their advantage.

So that's the same feature -- but with hotkeys. Fair enough, but Westwood still has prior art on giving players 'the ability to speed up or slow down the rate of gameplay'.

Yep - that's fair enough

I seem to remember the feature in Populous II (1991 or thereabouts).

Never played that one, so I can't say.

It's a bit awkward the way Molyneux's games are typically termed 'god games' rather than RTS. Maybe C&C was the first defninitely-an-RTS-as-we-understand-the-term to have the feature. Or maybe someone will drop in to tell us Dune II had it. (I've never played that one either.)

Wow, you guys are really into this And me just a humble, uncomprehending sub, eh?

Well done on this getting to the FP, AA!

Good article. Much enjoyed.

Just one question though.
In the description ;
"Soulless - these hovering archer units through poison-tipped javelins."
I assume you mean "throw"? Or have I missed some other point?

Sorry - I don't mean to be a pedant.

'through' - yes, that's a typo