Malfador Machinations was a small game company based in

Santa Rosa Santa Rosa is the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish name for Saint Rose. Santa Rosa may also refer to: Places Argentina *Santa Rosa, Mendoza, a city * Santa Rosa, Tinogasta, Catamarca * Santa Rosa, Valle Viejo, Catamarca *Santa Rosa, La Pampa * Sa ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. They were best known for their ''

Space Empires ''Space Empires'' is a series of 4X turn-based strategy games by Malfador Machinations that allow the player to assume the role of the leader of a space-faring civilization. Gameplay In ''Space Empires'', the player assumes the role of the sing ...

'' series.

Brief history

Malfador Machinations was created by Aaron Hall to publish '' Space Empires II'', the sequel to his self-produced

4X game 4X (abbreviation of ''Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate'') is a subgenre of strategy-based computer and board games, and include both turn-based and real-time strategy titles. The gameplay involves building an empire. Emphasis is placed ...

, ''Space Empires'', which was released two years earlier in 1993. Space Empires II was a strong success, often being included in limited form in

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...

collections, including Romtech's best selling ''Galaxy of Games'' series. On September 6, 2002 Malfador Machinations broke with its reputation for space themed games by releasing a hack-n-slash

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

entitled '' Dungeon Odyssey'', but this was not as successful as the ''Space Empires'' games and never received a sequel. On April 5, 2006, Malfador Machinations was acquired by

Strategy First Strategy First Inc. is a Canadian video game publisher based in Montreal. Founded in 1988 by Don McFatridge, Steve Wall and Dave Hill, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and was subsequently acquired by Silverstar Holdings in 2005. Initia ...

. Malfador's last game was ''Space Captain'', which was released to the

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android (operating sys ...

store in 2014. While it continued many concepts from the Space Empires series, it was more focused on elements of combat and exploration rather than the micromanagement that the series had been known for, and is the last release from the company.

Games

*'' Space Empires II'' (1995) *''

Space Empires III ''Space Empires'' is a series of 4X turn-based strategy games by Malfador Machinations that allow the player to assume the role of the leader of a space-faring civilization. Gameplay In ''Space Empires'', the player assumes the role of the sing ...

'' (1997) *''

Space Empires IV ''Space Empires IV'' is a turn-based 4X strategy computer game developed by Malfador Machinations and published by Strategy First as part of the ''Space Empires'' series in which players control an alien race in an attempt at galactic conquest. ...

'' (2000) *'' Dungeon Odyssey'' (2002) *'' Space Empires: Starfury'' (2003) *''

Space Empires V ''Space Empires V'' (''SEV'') is a 4X turn based strategy game that was released in 2006. It was developed by Malfador Machinations and published by Strategy First Strategy First Inc. is a Canadian video game publisher based in Montreal. F ...

'' (2006) *''

World Supremacy In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

'' (2010) *''Space Captain'' (2014)

References

External links

Official site
(offline) via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{Authority control 1995 establishments in California 2006 disestablishments in California American companies established in 1995 Companies based in Santa Rosa, California Companies based in Sonoma County, California Space Empires Video game companies established in 1995 Video game companies disestablished in 2006 Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game development companies