Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares

MS-DOS, Mac, Windows1996

  1. JP—
  2. NA1996
  3. EU1996
  4. RU—

Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares is sold today simply as Master of Orion 2. The easiest legal way to play it is the Master of Orion 1+2 package on GOG or Steam.

Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares is a turn-based 4X strategy game developed by Simtex and published by MicroProse in November 1996. Steve Barcia was the lead designer, with Ken Burd as co-designer and lead programmer. MicroProse had agreed to buy Simtex in June 1995 and kept it as an internal division.

The game supports one-on-one multiplayer and matches of up to eight players. A Macintosh version followed a year later from MacSoft. It still has a large fan base, is still played online and serves as a yardstick for newer space 4X games.

Since 2016 Wargaming Labs has sold it digitally together with the first Master of Orion.12

Names and releases

RegionTitle on the boxPlatformDatePublisherSrc
NA Master of Orion II: Battle at AntaresFor MS-DOS and Windows 95. MS-DOS Nov 22, 1996 MicroProse 1
NA Master of Orion II: Battle at AntaresPublished in partnership with MicroProse. Mac 1997 MacSoft 1
EU Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares MS-DOS Dec 16, 1996 MicroProse 1
WW Master of Orion 2Steam release; also on GOG as Master of Orion 1+2. Windows Feb 25, 2016 Wargaming Labs 2

Also known as: Master of Orion 2 WW2MOO2 WW3

Box art by region

  • Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares box art, North America release
    NA Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares

Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.

Version differences

  • TextMac

    The Mac version arrived a year after the PC one, and Macworld's reviewer called its interface clunky for lacking common Mac conventions.1

  • GameplayPC (CD)

    Because the PC version loaded artwork from the CD it ran slowly, so reviewers recommended installing the full CD to the hard disk.1

Translations

  • Spanish Official

    —MS-DOSReleased

    GOG's Master of Orion 1+2 lists English, German, Spanish, French and Italian; the Steam release lists English, French and German.3

Where to play legally today

  • GOG Purchase

    Master of Orion 1+2

    Master of Orion and Master of Orion II, DOSBox

    Checked: 2026-10-133gog.com

  • Steam Purchase

    Master of Orion 2

    Bundled with Master of Orion 1

    Checked: 2026-10-132store.steampowered.com

How to run it today

Buy Master of Orion 1+2 on GOG or Steam. The GOG package runs in DOSBox on Windows, macOS and Linux.3

Reception

Master of Orion II reached 10th place on PC Data's November 1996 sales chart and sold over 200,000 copies by mid-January 1997. It won the Origins Award for best fantasy or science-fiction computer game of 1996, and a 2006 GameSpot review called it the pinnacle of the genre.1

Sources

  1. 1en.wikipedia.org
  2. 2store.steampowered.com
  3. 3gog.com

Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13

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