Play Stellar Conquest III: Hostile Takeover Online

Stellar Conquest III: Hostile Takeover came out in 1994 as part of the MS-DOS Classic Games lineup, developed by a small team whose name escapes me now. It was one of those deep space strategy titles that felt right at home in an era when complex, keyboard-driven games demanded your full attention and a well-organized binder for notes.

You control an interstellar empire, starting with a single planet and slowly expanding through resource mining, fleet construction, and tense diplomacy with alien factions. The main goal is to dominate the galaxy, either through conquest or careful alliances, while managing your economy and responding to real-time space battles that can erupt without warning. Signature mechanics include detailed fleet customization, tech research trees, and a diplomacy system where trust is fragile and backstabbing is common. The pacing is methodical, often interrupted by bursts of intense combat; the difficulty is unforgiving, especially when the purple faction's cruisers outgun you in early encounters. It feels like conducting a chaotic symphony where one wrong move can unravel hours of progress.

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