PC gamers, know the roots of RTS games: TecnoSoft's HERZOG..

everyone who played / plays RTS games, including Dune 2, Command &
Conquer series Red Alert, WarCraft series, Starcraft series, Total
Annihilation, Warzone 2100,
Jagged Alliance series, Tiberian Sun, Conflict Zone, Red Alert 2,
Kohan, Age of Empires series, Homeworld, Warlords: Battlecry, LoTR:
Battle For Middle Earth series,
Star Wars: Empire at War, and countless others

you should know the roots of all RTS games: It's really Herzog Zwei,
made & developed by Tecno Soft in Japan. called Tecno Soft *or* Techno
Soft in the U.S., sometimes with the space sometimes without ) in 1989,
published by SEGA for the SEGA MegaDrive / Genesis console. Herzog
Zwei came out in Japan in 1989, and then early 1990 in the United
States.

http://www.wolfgames.com/mdherzog.JPG
http://www.discountgames.org/images/Herzog%20Zwei%20BS.jpg


Herzog Zwei was a real-time strategy game with arcade/shmup elements.
when i say shmup i don't mean first-person shooters (i,e, Doom, Quake)
that everyone on the PC knows, i'm talking about overhead shmups like
Xevious, Ikari Warriors, Thunder Force II (also by Technosoft /
Tecnosoft), Aleste, Raiden, Truxton/Tetsujin, Granada, etc.

Herzog Zwei, although it had these arcade/shooter/shmup elements, was
very much a strategy game, and realtime.

Herzog Zwei came out LONG before Command & Conquer, and even before
Dune 2 / II.
Most PC gamers only acknowledge Dune 2/II as the first RTS game. that
simply is not true. It was Herzog Zwei that started the whole RTS
genre. even though Herzog Zwei was not technically the first RTS game
ever (Herzog by Tecnosoft came out before on the MSX computer in Japan
in 1988, before the sequel, Herzog Zwei, and a game called 'Cytron
Masters' was apparently the very first RTS game, back in the early
1980s on one of the Atari machines, i know nothing about it) but
Herzog Zwei is where everything launched from, because it was more
widely available, modern enough / fast enough to make a massive
impression on those developers (like Westwood) that would later take
RTS to the PC with games like Dune 2, C&C, Red Alert, and create a
huge genre out of it.

there are almost NO RTS games that match the frantic pace of Herzog
Zwei and the almost totally unique aspect in that you ARE actually a
unit yourself, a transformable mecha / fighter-cargo jet, not just some
mouse cursor / pointer on the screen.

there was a somewhat recent homebrew / shareware / freeware
RTS/shoot'em up game made for the PC that was totally inspiried by
Herzog Zwei. it's called Rapid Aerial Deployment, and while it is not
nearly as good as Herzog Zwei, the developer did their best to pay
homage to the first significant RTS game, Herzog Zwei.
-Rapid Aerial Deployment quite is playable.

looking ahead, I am *so* looking forward to Supreme Commander on the
PC. it is the closest game I have ever, EVER seen to what I had always
imagined a 3D polygonal, map zoomable Herzog Zwei-like game could be
like. while Supreme Commander has little in commen with Herzog Zwei
and more in commen with Total Annihilation because its the same main
person in charge of development (AFAIK), and Supreme Commander is said
to be the spiritual sequel / successor to Total Annihilation.

Supreme Commander has to be, now, my most anticipated game for any
platform, after watching both the teaser trailer and the gameplay
demonstration.

trailer - http://www.tinyurl.com/zlr2m
demonstration - http://www.tinyurl.com/om3tc


i know this cross posted to several off-topic groups, but so be it,
and, my spelling, grammer, etc is not exactly, great. again, so be it.
i wanted to make this a permanent recognition of Herzog Zwei as the
first RTS game of any real value, for all time.

now, bring on Supreme Commander!