[jimmyD1]

Imperium Galactica is a 4X type of game (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) like Master of Orion or Reunion. Especially it shares many similarities with the last one as IG was created by the same team that developed Reunion. If you have ever played Reunion, you will find that many concepts were used in IG as well, for example linear storyline, planetary development (building types and placement on planet surface), research or fleet management.

In Imperium Galactica you are impersonating officer in Galactic Empire Navy and you are given responsibility over planets on the Empire border. Game play is divided into five stages/ranks: Lieutenant, Captain, Commander, Admiral and Grand Admiral. Each rank extends your area of responsibilities: new planets and additional options like production, research or diplomacy. At first (as Lieutenant) you can only manage three planets with no production or research capabilities and have one small fleet. As Grand Admiral you are commanding entire Empire with 40 or more planets, fight or cooperate with another races and shape the future of the galaxy.

New options are unlocked with each promotion.
Production (available from Captain stage) is very simple. Just choose item (must be researched) and number of items to produce. Production uses only money and time - no other resources are required. All produced items are available instantly in every planet so you can move tanks, ships or star bases to threatened planet at once.
Research (available from Commander rank) requires special buildings "Development Centers". There are five types of Development Centers and only one DC can be build on the planet, so you can't research some technologies that require more DCs than you have planets until you colonize or invade more. In each stage more technologies are "unlocked" and can be researched.
Fleet management requires much manual work. You can choose main components (lasers, bombs/missiles, shield, sensors, hyperdrive) for each larger ship (from destroyers to flagships) but if you have full fleet of 3 flaghips and 25 destroyers/cruisers it's rather boring. Equipping fighters and ground troops is simple - just add them to fleet from the pool.
Space and ground combat allows some degree of tactics but most of the time stronger side will prevail.
Diplomacy (available from Grand Admiral rank) allows you to: propose treaties, offer money, demand surrender and similar "standard" diplomatic operations.

As in Reunion, IG storyline is rather linear. Special events occur at predefined moments and you have to respond to them to push the storyline further. In several cases you can skip or postpone event but it could help you later - for example if you defend one pirate against another, he will return the favor and help you in the next combat "event".
Later as Admiral/Grand Admiral IG gameplay becomes more open as you can research, colonize or maintain diplomatic relations with other races as you see fit. However storyline requires to defeat most advanced and hostile race - the Dargslans. Conquering all of the Dargslans' planets is the main objective of the Imperium Galactica and ends the game.

Imperium Galactica has rather steep learning curve. In the Lieutenant stage you are given two underdeveloped planets and one that has many damaged/not operational buildings and is on the verge of rebellion. You have to raise people morale and at the same time gather enough money to rebuild your colony. Additional events (like pirate raid) will make your days more interesting. Moreover in most 4X games all races start from equal research level. In IG you are far behind even Garthogs (first alien race you will be fighting against) and you have to choose which inventions to research in each stage. You probably won't have enough money and time to research all of them.
For the entire game you will be short on two things: time and money. If you stall in the first stages, other races will expand and colonize many worlds, making it impossible to achieve high research level. If you won't gather enough money you won't be able to discover new technologies and prepare strong fleets and ground forces to repel enemy attacks or invade their planets. You will have to push your citizens with taxes to the limit and at the same time make them happy by building morale building like church, bar or stadium, make them healthy (hospitals) and well fed (hydroponics or phood factories). This is another similarity to Reunion.

In short, if you liked Reunion, you probably won't be disappointed with IG. Graphic is mediocre even for a game published in 97 but IG has "something" that keeps you playing for hours. Many cinematic cut scenes add to the overall feeling of this game. I give it 4 of 5 points.

IG works fine with DosBox - some sound issues were reported on better Sound Blaster cards (like Audigy). On built-in AC97 it works without problems. Full version of IG and it's sequel IG2 is available in the ISO cellar.