Did it

[JTEM]

Finally broke down and bought a copy of the
original 1993 version of Empire Deluxe.

Sure, I would have bought the "New" version,
but the price is just ridiculously high, especially
for four or more players.

For about $20 on Ebay I got a copy of the
Original -- 3.5" disks -- complete with the
original box, the book and even the registration
card. It runs fine on XP, with only one tiny
issue:

If I walk away and leave the game running
long enough for the screen saver to come
up, the game runs incredibly fast.

Well, the stuff the game runs by itself, anyway.

The blinking, for instance, as well as all the
command movements ("home," and "move to"
and "Patrol" for example).

Save the game, quit and then re-start it for
an instant fix. It also seemed to correct itself
all by itself after a while, if you can deal with
annoying blinking.

Oh: I should mention that internet play isn't
an issue for me. We got into the habit of
hot-seat play, starting with the old "Empire,
Wargame of the Century."

Anyone remember that one? The entire game,
plus saved games & scenarios all on one disk,
and it ran absolutely fine on my 086 processor
with 512K of ram!