Shadow President

[Starpluck]

[IMG]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_s4yaF0W2Dis/TD91FjiCrlI/AAAAAAAARGM/d1kh6MIX7ys/s1600/shadow-president.png[/IMG]

Shadow President is a sandbox like game where you’re free to do with what you want (nuke Canada for no reason e.g, though nuclear fallout will likely spread into the U.S., your chances of reelection are slim, (though you might get impeached, or assassinated), the world will hate you, your current influence of the world will severely drop and other nations may even strike you as a result of that etc. etc. etc.) Despite this game’s age, it still kicks ass and the AI is amazing. There isn’t much info or screenshots due to its age as well I suppose. The game was released in 1993.

[IMG]http://www.freeinfosociety.com/media/images/5458.jpg[/IMG]

Quick snippet from Wikipedia:
[quote]The game put the player in the role of the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States"]President[/URL] of the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States"]United States[/URL] in a situation loosely based on the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War"]Cold War[/URL] and the early 1990s. Using a timeline that starts during the end of the Ethiopia-Somalia war, players can prepare [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwait"]Kuwait[/URL] to be invaded by [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq"]Iraq[/URL] during [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War#Operation_Desert_Shield"]Operation Desert Shield[/URL]. Being popular enough to be re-elected is a vital component of the game ([URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election"]re-elections[/URL] can be disabled, greatly reducing the effect of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popularity"]popularity[/URL]). Managing the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget"]budget of the United States[/URL], [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aid"]sending aid to foreign countries[/URL], dealing with [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_crisis"]diplomatic crises[/URL], and even fighting [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War"]wars[/URL] are a largely unavoidable aspect of the game. The player starts the game with seven [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advisor"]advisors[/URL], which makes the game a bit less confusing. During every American election year, players are not allowed to access their virtual screen starting at midnight on election night so that a panel of bureaucrats can analyze their progress. If their popularity and efficiency is good enough, the player is authorized to use the terminal for four more years. Not getting re-elected automatically means "[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_over"]game over[/URL]."[/quote] And a simplified description from abandonia:

[release] Shadow President starts you in June of 1990, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and not long before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Iraq is becoming more and more volatile, and threatens military action for dominance of the Middle East. Tensions are rising in the Soviet Union as its days as a Communist super-power are coming to an end, and the threat of nuclear war seems very real. People are living in poverty in South America and Africa, and cartels and warlords strip their people of their basic human rights. You have two years until your next election campaign, and you must try to garner enough public support to be reelected.
You are given access to the Shadow President supercomputer, which is your command post for overseeing the world. Every country in the world can be targeted to display more information about the current state of that nation--everything from public opinion, to human rights violations, and even the likelihood of that country initiating military or other hostile actions against another country. When you select a country, you can give commands in one of five categories (social, economic, military, intelligence, or nuclear technology) that may help or hurt that country, or you can send financial aid to the country in one of those categories. Depending on your actions, the global community may follow your lead or oppose you, and certain actions improve or reduce the public's opinion of you. [/release]

[release] As president, you have your staff members to help and advise you as you go. At your disposal are the White House Chief of Staff, the head of the CIA, press secretary, Economic Advisor, Secretary of Defense, National Security Advisor, and Secretary of State. They will predict the results of your actions with or against another country, and tell you if they think your decision is a good one. Also, when you have selected a country, they will brief you on that country's status in the world and any information about the country that may affect America or the world. Your advisors are not guaranteed to you; they may resign their post if you do something really bad that they disagreed with, or they may even be killed. Likewise, your Shadow President supercomputer is not invincible. Your computer may slow down significantly if there are too many things going on in the world for it to monitor all at once. Disasters, both natural and human-influenced, may also affect your computer's capability.

If you're bored with the pre-Desert Storm era, you can also try different scenarios. What if Iraq was allowed to invade Kuwait, and eventually conquered Jordan and Saudi Arabia, thus gaining control over most of the world's oil? What if Germany and Japan became the world's economic powerhouses and America's quality of life dropped significantly? What if the world's natural resources were depleted? If you don't want to play one of the scenarios that come with the game, you can experiment leading your country in different ways; you can even be a true "shadow president" and try to invade countries and do pretty much anything the president shouldn't do.
[/release]

As the description stated, you start the game before the Soviet Union collapses, if you wish, you can prevent this from happening by aiding and strengthening ties with them. Iraq is also moments from invading Kuwait; I’ve heard trouble with players unable to prevent Iraq from invading Kuwait though personally, I don’t find it difficult at all. My regular strategy would to be station troops in nations bordering Iraq, especially Saudi and Kuwait. Send military aid or even nuclear aid to Kuwait. This will eventually pressure Iraq into not attacking Kuwait; though it is entirely impossible that’ll they’ll just continue the invasion if the deterrent you set up was not strong enough.

You can execute a variety of actions like adjusting the spending of U.S. budget for example.

[IMG]http://www.freeinfosociety.com/media/images/5463.jpg[/IMG]

The adjustable options in the picture are: Personal, Corporate, Sales and Taxes.
Adjustable spending options are: Defense, Social, Investment and foreign aid.
Your 7 advisors are also useful in assessing and analyzing nations.

[IMG]http://www.thehouseofgames.net/files/s/shadow_president/shadow_president-2.gif[/IMG]

This is the world map, which allows you to select any country and perform whatever actions on said country accordingly.

[IMG]http://www.abandonia.com/files/games/579/Shadow%20President_5.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.abandonia.com/files/games/579/Shadow%20President_4.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.abandonia.com/files/games/579/Shadow%20President_3.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.freeinfosociety.com/media/images/5464.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.abandonia.com/files/games/579/Shadow%20President_1.png[/IMG]

As stated in the description above, an advisor may resign at any time due to severe policy disagreements.It is also possible for cabinet members to die in a military or nuclear attack or to face scandal.

[IMG]http://static.sftcdn.net/blog/en/2007/09/shadow-president1.png[/IMG]
[I]"We have modified our intelligence budget in Iran."[/I]

You will start with 5000 nukes in the game. You can launch all of them simultaneously at one nation but that’d be stupid. Nuking is also generally discouraged and very unpopular unless absolutely necessary or if it’s retaliatory. Bordering nations of a nuked will also publicly condemn you more harshly due to the spread of nuclear fallout.

Below is someone sending 5000 nukes to the Soviet Union.

[IMG]http://www.freeinfosociety.com/media/images/5460.jpg[/IMG]

The game also features very complex analysis on nations after an action is executed on them.

Below is an example of an analysis of the Soviet Union before and after the player nuked them.

[IMG]http://www.freeinfosociety.com/media/images/5461.jpg[/IMG]

The Soviet Union has retaliated and it appears one of your advisers resigned

[IMG]http://www.freeinfosociety.com/media/images/5462.jpg[/IMG]

A brief analysis on Yugoslavia:

[IMG]http://psy.blorgblorgbl.org/shadowpresident/shadow_143.png[/IMG]

The game also starts with sending military aid to Israel. I always cancel the aid to them due to just being a waste, and they’re undeserving of it :v:

The rest, from “Free info society”

[quote]When diplomacy and economic actions fail, you can employ the resources of the CIA. You can [B]supply arms to rebels to increase a country's instability[/B], making it more likely that the government will be [B]overthrown[/B]. You can [B]also sponsor a coup d'etat to try to have the government taken over by revolutionarie[/B]s. Another possibility is industrial sabotage to damage the country's GDP and [B]the ability to assassinate their leader[/B]. To [B]increase the likelihood of any of these succeeding you can increase intelligence spending in a country[/B]. Some of these actions are easier than others and if you are caught [B]red-handed, it will negatively impact your popularity at home and abroad[/B].”

The military options you have include encouraging or discouraging military spending in foreign countries. You can also [B]perform an aerial surgical strike on an enemy's military and nuclear facilities[/B]. Finally, there is the [B]war room, where you can move troops around and attack countries[/B]. [B]The hard part here is that you must find a neighboring country that will hold your troops. If they all refuse, you won't be able to invade, unless you find a nearby country and invade your way to your real target. Sometimes the country you want to invade will accept your troops, not realizing your intent. Amassing troops on a border will result in increased military tensions and often some diplomatic action. When you attack, you will see statistics on casualties and economic impact. Sometimes, an ally will come to your aid and help with the invasion.[/B]

Finally, we have the nuclear actions, which are the most severe of all. The USA has a large collection of ICBMs and the president is in control of them. As a result, you can launch nuclear missiles at any country you want, but the number is finite and based on defense spending. Nuclear attacks have serious ramifications and will often result in cabinet members resigning. If your target has nuclear weapons, you can expect a counter-attack that will cripple the US economy, population, and military. It is also worth mentioning that nuclear attacks are in general very unpopular and the drifting fallout will impact countries around the target.[/quote]Though may not always successful, coup d’états, assassination of a nation’s leader or supplying arms to rebel groups are generally recommended if you wish to avoid war. You do not want to get caught however.

Most nations in the game are either allied with the Soviet Union or the U.S., though alliances are not static in this game, and it is possible to get even worst of enemies as allies if you try hard enough.
Apologies for any grammatical or spelling errors I made, was a bit tired.

Download: [URL]http://www.abandonia.com/games/579/ShadowPresident.htm[/URL]

Oh, and it's free.

[editline]25th January 2011[/editline]

[B]System requirements[/B] MS-DOS version 3.0 or greater; [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80386"]386[/URL] processor

[Sigfrial]

This seems really interesting, albeit really complex.

I may or may not give it a try. I fear I'd be too trigger happy in the game (under the pretense of seeing what happens. :v: ).

[Starpluck]

No other responses? :(

[Alyx Zark]

Seems like this would be an interesting LP.

[Potatoes]

The player in this gif looks like his committing nation suicide, it was this post on /gif/ that got me into the game.

[img]http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq255/Sandwich35/wootstrike-21f-fa.gif?t=1296026584[/img]

[lazy]

Looks cool, I'll download it tomorrow.

[Itsjustguy]

I can't get it working sadly, gets stuck in the shadow president logo

[Starpluck]

[QUOTE=Itsjustguy;27666400]I can't get it working sadly, gets stuck in the shadow president logo[/QUOTE]
This may sound dumb but have you tried pressing Enter, Space or Esc? If that didn't work have you tried running it in DOSBox?

[Potatoes]

This thread needs more love, this game seems way ahead of its time.

[Starpluck]

IMO, [URL]http://www.freeinfosociety.com/article.php?id=479[/URL] should convince you to play it.

[Da_Arwin]

It does not appear to be able to run on my computer.
Oh well.

[Gmod_Fan77]

I nuked Cuba and got my arse kicked by the Soviet Union. :(

[elitehakor v2]

This is pretty fun. While i was invading Mexico and Cuba, China and the USSR were going at it. In another game I got assassinated because I tried to invade Europe

[imbatmanlol]

This game is really awesome, it's absolutely worth giving it a try.

[Malos]

Oh boy! Now I am going to disable elections and be an ominous world dictator!

[ewitwins]

Can someone help me get this thing running? I'm on Vista x64 (I think, could be x32), and I keep getting an error message.

[Malos]

Run it on DOSbox, that's the only way you're going to get it to work.

[Jad Hinto]

This is going to sound stupid, but how do you install? I got the rar.

[ewitwins]

Alright, I installed it correctly, and its running perfectly, but... I have no idea how to play :V

[8BitLord]

I got it to run perfectly in DOSbox on vista 64bit

[Gmod_Fan77]

[QUOTE=Malos;27681989]Oh boy! Now I am going to disable elections and be an ominous world dictator![/QUOTE]

It's pretty difficult actually. The slighest globally-condemned action sets the world against you. If you don't get impeached for bad actions, you can be sure either the Soviets/Europeans will join together and beat the shit out of you.

[ewitwins]

Figured out the controls...and promptly wiped half of the planet off the face of the...well, the planet.

[TamTamJam]

We need to use DOSBox for this or what?

[editline]26th January 2011[/editline]

I need to figure out who said what in order to play, primative DRM.

[JohnStamosFan]

Time to go bust ass in China!

[imbatmanlol]

[QUOTE=TamTamJam;27684672]We need to use DOSBox for this or what?

[editline]26th January 2011[/editline]

I need to figure out who said what in order to play, primative DRM.[/QUOTE]

You can actually just press enter and it bypasses that, you don't need to put who said the quote.

[Terragen]

My PC can't handle the system specs...

[TamTamJam]

My Press Secretary resigned after I nuked Iraq.

[editline]26th January 2011[/editline]

Now the fucking french nuked me.

[editline]26th January 2011[/editline]

All my advisors are dying from france nuking me.

[editline]26th January 2011[/editline]

Sent 10 presents to france, shit this is fun. Is there a way to pause?

[Grenadiac]

I nuked China five thousand times, but nobody cared. China retaliated by nuking me and everyone is "strongly condemning" them, the UK tried to assassinate the leader and most countries are considering sanctions against China.

[editline]27th January 2011[/editline]

Uh oh, this is getting heated. India strongly condemned China, but China just strongly condemned them back.

[LunchboxOfDoom]

This reminds me of that one DOS game where you played as Israel during the 1960s and had to survive against Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, the whole lot of 'em.

I got my ass kicked. A lot. [b]"I'm so sorry, Mr. Prime Minister."[/b]

[editline]27th January 2011[/editline]

Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator

[url]http://homeoftheunderdogs.net/game.php?id=225[/url]

[Grenadiac]

UH OH! I sparked a war in Ethiopia by strongly condemning China!

[editline]27th January 2011[/editline]

Japan just strongly condemned south korea the world is falling apart