Play Cyber Empires Online

Cyber Empires (or Steel Empire if you're in Europe) is one of those MS-DOS gems that somehow flew under the radar. It's got all the space battles and empire-building you'd expect, but without drowning you in spreadsheets and micromanagement. The first time I played, I expected another slow-burn strategy slog—instead, I was designing weird ship loadouts and watching them blast each other to bits within minutes.

What really hooked me was how it balances depth with speed. You're not just moving icons around a map—you're tweaking weapon placements, watching your custom destroyers trade fire, and making snap decisions that actually matter. The graphics still hold up surprisingly well for a DOS game, with chunky pixel ships that somehow feel weighty when they collide.

If you ever wished Master of Orion had more explosions and less bureaucracy, this is your game. Just don't blame me when you lose three hours redesigning frigates at 2 AM.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".