''The Perfect General'' is a

computer wargame A computer wargame is a wargame played on a digital device. Descended from board wargaming, it simulates military conflict at the tactical, operational or strategic level. Computer wargames are both sold commercially for recreational use an ...

published in 1991 by Quantum Quality Productions.

Publication

The game was designed by Peter Zaccagnino and published in 1991 for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

and DOS. A sequel, '' The Perfect General II'', was released in 1994. The original game was modified for the 3DO by Game Guild in 1996 and published by Kirin Entertainment. The 3DO version includes a few scenarios which are absent from the personal computer versions. A refurbished version is available for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

since 2003. The rights for the original version were purchased by Mark Kinkead in 2002, and later released in 2003 as ''The Perfect General Internet Edition'' by Killer Bee Software. As the name suggests, this version can be played via Internet.

Gameplay

The game is a turn-based map-oriented military simulation game. Along with ''

Modem Wars ''Dan Bunten's Modem Wars'' is a real-time tactics game developed by Ozark Softscape and published by Electronic Arts in 1988 for the Commodore 64. A version for IBM PC compatibles was released in 1989. ''Modem Wars'' is played over a modem conne ...

'' and '' Populous'', it was one of the early games offering an online mode for real-time-matches via telecommunication networks. The original online-game was played via modem or null modem serial connection.

Reception

''The Perfect General'' sold 75,000 copies by June 1993. ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'' in 1992 described The Perfect General as "a wonderful game system with a mediocre AI and great two-player potential", and later named it the best wargame of the year. A 1993 survey in the magazine of wargames gave the game three-plus stars out of five, stating that it "sacrifices realism for playability". A 1994 survey gave the ''Greatest Battles of the 20th Century'' two-plus stars out of five, noting the game's ease of use and "enjoyable", but inaccurate, scenarios. In 1996, ''

'' declared ''The Perfect General'' the 107th-best computer game ever released. The magazine's wargame columnist Terry Coleman named it his pick for the 12th-best computer wargame released by late 1996.

Reviews

* ''

Casus Belli A (; ) is an act or an event that either provokes or is used to justify a war. A ''casus belli'' involves direct offenses or threats against the nation declaring the war, whereas a ' involves offenses or threats against its ally—usually one b ...

'' #71 (Sep 1992)https://archive.org/details/casus-belli-071/page/n95/mode/2up

References

External links

''The Perfect General Internet Edition''
at Killer Bee Software * {{DEFAULTSORT:Perfect General, the 1991 video games 3DO Interactive Multiplayer games Amiga games Computer wargames DOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Online games Quantum Quality Productions games Ubisoft games Video games developed in the United States Windows games