Balance of Power: The 1990 Edition is an old Windows 3.x simulation game, developed by Mindscape, designed by Chris Crawford and published by Mindscape in 1989. It's available for download. Archive of Macintosh abandonware primarily focused on games, although there is a section for applications. Users can leave ratings and comments. Also provides guides on using various Mac emulators, a forum, and chat.

• Balance Of Power Game Download Mac 2012

Absolute power corrupts absolutely, the old adage tells. And what better stage could there be on which to examine your maniacal tendencies than that of global politics.

In what can only be described as fanatical detail. Balance of Power: The 1990 Edition (successor to the award-winning Balance of Power) takes the player through eight years of world politics as figurehead of either the USA or the USSR, protecting their interests in countries around the globe.

The basic aim is to increase the geopolitical prestige of the host nation above that of the opposing superpower. This means getting friendly with powerful nations, and making sure enemies are few and weak. At the higher levels, this is achieved by using every military, economic and diplomatic trick in the book. However, the opposition doesn't just sit there and take it: if disparate policies can't be sorted out across a debating table, problems escalate rapidly through the Defence Conditions: push too hard and it's time to re-boot the world.

The simulation provides four levels of play, including the newly-added Multi-Polar scenario where players have to contend with 80 countries, all of whom indulge in active foreign policies. (The monumental logistical task of coordinating global intercourse is most evident in lengthy delays as the computer works out the effects of each turn!)

To attempt to summarise all but the most basic mechanics of this simulation cannot be covered in any great detail here; it takes the 91-page instruction manual to do them all justice. Suffice to say, that this is a strategist's dream. The sheer size and scope of the simulation mean that it is possible to become totally immersed in the proceedings; single turns can take hours to fully digest and implement.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

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1. Balance of Power

Balance of Power

DOS - 1985

Also available on: Amiga - Atari ST - Apple II - PC-88 - PC-98

Description of Balance of Power

Balance of Power is among the first political simulation that emphasizes diplomacy and politics over outright aggression. When he first released this seminal game in 1984, Crawford single-handedly established the political simulation genre and left a lasting legacy on how to design good diplomatic models in a game that gives a nod to reality.

You must use diplomacy, make treaties, issue risky, covert CIA or KGB actions, or riskier, direct military intervention to prop up 3rd world countries or help their insurgents and win them to your governmental philosophy: Capitalism or Communism.

The game, not surprisingly, attracted many non-gamers to the field and inspired countless books on the subject. International cold war politics at its best!

Review By HOTUD

A retrogamer provided a fixed version of the DOS game:

I've put together an improved package for Balance of Power (1985 DOS version) that adds graphic options and fixes some gameplay-affecting bugs. As far as I know, there aren't any abandonware sites with any versions of BOP for DOS that work correctly.
The version that you have has some bugs in it. An easy one to reproduce is to start a game, click on the South America menu, and choose Argentina. Instead of highlighting Argentina, the engine will highlight the entire ocean. The various geopolitical maps generally don't work; some countries will never be shaded when they should, which harms gameplay.
The bug seems to be tied to the graphics mode. So I made a setup tool that lets the user select one of five graphics modes. They are high-res EGA monochrome, Hercules, low-res EGA color, CGA, and high-res EGA color. The first four work perfectly, the fifth one looks nicer but exhibits odd behavior.

To play the game properly, don’t launch the bat file directly. Run DOSBox, mount the BOP1985 folder, and run the bat file from within DOSBox.

You can see the different video mode in the screenshots, in the following order:

• EGA high res monochrome
• Hercules (green one)
• EGA low res color
• CGA
• EGA high res color (has bugs)

Captures and Snapshots

Screenshots from MobyGames.com

Screenshots from MobyGames.com

Screenshots from MobyGames.com

Screenshots from MobyGames.com

Comments and reviews

wisdom of the sages2020-03-041 point

Too add, I worked on this game's development and am impressed with the comments here.
Today's youth are not the problem. The youth have never been the problem. The problem as you will see as you age as well becomes clear as day.
Also to highlight why working in programming is a cruel mistress, I never really made anything from this game and was more a technical achievement of mastery of skill. To any young up-n-coming coder wizards, you know where the money is.

Peso2019-02-0680 points

This game is good practice now that the arms manufacturers have their Cold War 2 up and running.
Who knows, we may live to see those mushroom clouds since today's youth thinks nuking people will be just like a video game

Badwolf742015-09-18-1 point DOS version

Not quite sure how I'm supposed to get anything done. No matter what side I play, I enact any policies and the other side nukes me because I refuse to back down. I tried to switch to diplomatic relations with Lebanon to help slow down their revolution. Apparently that's capitalist behavior worthy of ending the world, thanks USSR.

unclemoneybags2014-06-092 points DOS version

I couldn't get this to run on DOSbox... :-(

CJR2013-06-100 point DOS version

Balance Of Power Game Download Mac 2012

Works on the BBC Master 512

Another Linux User2013-04-180 point DOS version

@Linux user
sudo apt-get install dosbox

@LinuxUser2013-04-18-3 points DOS version

If you can't get this working on linux then stop using linux..

Linux user.2013-04-181 point DOS version

Make support for my computer please? :)

Atari Old School2011-10-161 point DOS version

This was one of the best games I played when I was 15 on my Atari 520ST. It not only taught me about politics and world affairs it was also a game that till this day I can remember almost all about how to play it. I am eager to relive my youth with the game.
And Yes Atari did make some of the best computers at the time, the graphics were better then Apple and Commodore.

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DOS Version

Amiga ROM

• Year:1987
• Publisher:Mindscape, Inc.

Atari ST ROM

• Year:1987
• Publisher:Mindscape, Inc.

Apple II Version

• Year:1986
• Publisher:Mindscape, Inc.

Game Extras

Various files to help you run Balance of Power, apply patchs, fixes, maps or miscellaneous utilities.

PC-88 Version

• Year:1989
• Publisher:ASCII Corporation

PC-98 Version

• Year:1988
• Publisher:ASCII Corporation

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