/r/impressionsgames

Photograph via snooOG

Impressions Games was a game developer founded by David Lester in the UK. He sold the company to Sierra Entertainment in 1995.

This is a subreddit dedicated to their games!

Impressions specialized in historical strategy games, and is most well known for its City Building Series, which include Caesar, Pharaoh, Emperor and Master of Olympus - Zeus.


Intro

Impressions Games was a video game developer founded by David Lester in the UK. He sold the company to Sierra Entertainment in 1995, which was then bought out by Cendant and eventually, Vivendi Universal (now known as Vivendi SA). Today it is succeeded by Tilted Mill Entertainment.

Impressions specialized in historical strategy games, and is most well known for its City Building Series, which include Caesar III, Pharaoh, and Zeus.

A complete list of their games can be found here.

All the games are either abandonware, re-released on GOG with better support or readily available online.


Links

Heaven Games is a source for patches, scenarios and game help for Caesar III, Pharaoh, Zeus and Emperor.

Caesaria is an open source remake of Caesar 3.

Some of the games can be found here: http://www.abandonia.com/en/game/all

You can download Caesar II as abandonware or purchase it from GOG.

You won't get widescreen support though. For that you have to try some of these options...

How to play in widescreen for:

How to get this game to work on Windows Vista/7/8/10:

Lag/Slow Animations in Zeus and Poseidon:

Want to learn how to make full-sized screenshots of your city? Details here.


Subreddit Rules

  1. Mention what game your post is about in the title.

  2. Discussion of strategy games by Tilted Mill Entertainment is allowed as it is the successor of Impressions Games.

  3. In fact, all discussion vaguely relating to Impressions Games is allowed!

  4. No spam, scams or trolling.


Related Subreddits:

/r/retrogaming

/r/gog

/r/Sierra

/r/SimCity

/r/Pharaoh

/r/impressionsgames

7,409 Subscribers

1

glitch in Emperor

I am working on the Panlongcheng map in the Shang dynasty. I keep getting thrown out of the game at the same point in October of 1302 BCE. How can I stop this and continue playing?

1 Comment
2025/02/02
09:24 UTC

26

Game like Zeus master of Olympus

Hi guys I'm loving the retro vibes and gameplay of Zeus and since I'm new to this genre I wanted to ask you for some advice. I'm undecided between these games at the moment: •Pharaoh new era •Nebuchadnezzar •Emperor •Ceasar 3 (Augustus mod) Tell me your opinion and advise, thanks in advance. If you want you can also tell me which is the easiest, I don't want something too unnerving

38 Comments
2025/01/29
17:39 UTC

3

Pharaoh + Cleo, kingdom rating collapse

I'm playing Sawu mission, vh difficulty level. Kingdom rating is around 90 - I'm fulfilling all requests. I'm trying to get pops to 8k, finish mausoleum and get high rating of culture... and suddenly the kingdom rating literally drops to 0 in a few months and I get rebellion from all sides. What could be the reason? I lowered the salary to "noble" level but the rating still drops. Ra is not pissed.

17 Comments
2025/01/27
21:30 UTC

55

My 20k city in Caesar III

8 Comments
2025/01/24
21:35 UTC

5

Question about Zeus/Poseidon

Is there an Atlantean adventure where you can build a sanctuary to both Zeus and Poseidon in the same city?

This old game I sometimes return to and sanctuarybuilding is one of my favorite things. I would love to sink my teeth into a map where it’s doable to make both of the biggest ones together. I’ve played a few custom adventures but have yet found one where it’s possible.

3 Comments
2025/01/23
19:18 UTC

5

There is a way to soften or control the aging population curve?

https://preview.redd.it/dllwzx4unlee1.png?width=801&format=png&auto=webp&s=7b0ddc14d7bd665ed89c6ccb3d4f1f0e667c6640

I resort to mass expulsion when building more housing is not the best option, but I would like a more "realistic" solution.

10 Comments
2025/01/22
19:54 UTC

12

Employment in megacities

I'm always impressed by the 10k population cities but how do people create that many jobs? Do you just have a lot of towers?

14 Comments
2025/01/20
00:46 UTC

28

How should we arrange our forts, general? Wang Mang: As the Confucius says, as per Feng Shui of course!

0 Comments
2025/01/18
17:30 UTC

54

Large Londinium with Augustus mod

16 Comments
2025/01/17
13:41 UTC

8

No Pantheon?

Hey guys, I'm playing Caesar 3 with the Augustus mod for the first time and it's great fun. However, I somehow can't seem to build the Pantheon. It does not even show up in the building options. It should be with the religious buildings, right? I might have not properly patched the game before installing the mod. Might this be why? Besides this the game works without issues.

4 Comments
2025/01/17
10:46 UTC

36

Made a tower defense-esque map in the Poseidon editor! Towers built before rocks so enemies can't touch it until the end, then troops to block foes if you so choose :)

4 Comments
2025/01/17
10:38 UTC

65

Another Augustus City Custom Map "Ostia Nova"

7 Comments
2025/01/15
14:41 UTC

14

Caesar V - real or imagined?

I swear, a few days ago when I opened Steam I saw Caesar V available for pre-order. I watched some footage and thought "this looks amazing". I had to put the computer down, but now when I search for it I can't find anything. Also internet searches are not returning anything. Is it possible there'll be a new installment, or was I dreaming?

17 Comments
2025/01/14
15:53 UTC

2

did anyone ever beat caesar 1?

how?

7 Comments
2025/01/14
12:15 UTC

3

sidebar only showing partial info?

according to the manual i should have more info regarding ratings etc within the new sidebar but i only have info from speed settings down to the gods, but nothing below. am i missing some menu option somewhere?

3 Comments
2025/01/14
08:31 UTC

110

feelsgoodman.jpeg

19 Comments
2025/01/14
06:19 UTC

7

Caesar 3 All houses are suddenly gone

Everything was going well. They had everything they needed. All of a sudden no houses were there and everyone just gone.

Is this an old bug?

3 Comments
2025/01/12
15:07 UTC

1

Weird bug on enlightenment in the west adventure

https://preview.redd.it/4zvw537asgce1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=5385f89c48f9d84c402f829412ca2906699b02bc

When I start a playthrough of this specific adventure, there are no mountains anywhere on the map. Has this bug ever happened to anyone else? How can I fix it?

1 Comment
2025/01/12
01:24 UTC

3

Show walking ranges when placing a new building.

I was watching GamerZakh's Augustus videos. In one of them, when he was placing an engineer building (or a prefecture or a market), there was a highlighted path showing how far the walkers from that building will walk.

I have installed the latest unstable Augustus build, and checked the options to show ranges wherever provided.

I am still not seeing that highlighted path. Please help. TIA.

7 Comments
2025/01/11
19:02 UTC

8

Opinions on grand temple epithets and my ranked list

Seems to me that all grand temples, except Mercury which is purely situational, basically have 1 epithet that’s useful 90%+ times and another that’s 10-0% useful. For example my 0% would be that I can’t honestly think of a situation where I’d choose to have a Ceres temple act as an extra market over reducing food consumption by 20%. Useful epithets: Venus-entertain and desirability Mars-10% goods usage reductio Ceres-20% food consumption reduction Mercury-20% goods usage reduction, chose oil/wine or pott/furn Neptune-5% additional pop per housing Pantheon-evolve housing extra step

As far as usefulness in general of the grand temples, I’d rank them: 1. Venus, 2. Mars, 3/4. tie Ceres/Mercury depending on resource availability, 5. Neptune and 6. Pantheon.

There are of course situations that could shift rankings. On a Miletus-like fishing, desert, and seas-trade heavy map, Neptune could easily leap frog to second maybe even first due to core buffs. Mars could fall a couple steps if particular resources are scarce/expensive though in a military heavy map, Mars might be needed first to quickly fill and keep forts filled with soldiers. Venus is clearly queen in most situations. Pantheon is too expensive in resources to be useful on most maps unless future versions break the 100 prosperity requirement cap.

I tend to build Venus then Mars, Ceres, or Mercury depending on the situation but rarely build Neptune and, unless I’m sandboxing an already beaten map, almost never Pantheon.

Does anyone find additional or different usages that would make your opinion different from mine? How would yall rank the GTs?

29 Comments
2025/01/11
17:41 UTC

12

Unstable build worth it? Other related Qs

See subject line. Getting into the Reconquered Campaign and enjoying it but know that the final, fully realized version is on the unstable build. Is it worth it to finish the RC on stable (4.0) then maybe try it on unstable or should I switch over to unstable before I get too deep? Also, those who’ve messed with the unstable, is it worthwhile in general? Anyone tried setting up both on their pc at the same time?

13 Comments
2025/01/08
18:48 UTC

3

Augustus tavern question…

I have a housing block of 16 grand insulae. I built a tavern to serve it, with both meat and wine located in a nearby warehouse. (There’s also meat in a nearby granary). The tavern has staff, road access, everything. But it never gathers any resources, and never serves the population. What am I doing wrong?

2 Comments
2025/01/07
22:54 UTC

13

Market ladies only buying foods

I started growing a second type of food and now the market ladies are only buying the 2 types of foods. They won't buy pottery/furniture/oil etc. All my housing has regressed and my population is down. How can I get them to buy non food items as well?

5 Comments
2025/01/07
18:04 UTC

24

Really into the new Re-Re-Conquered Campaign

The new Edition of the Augustus Campaign has some really good maps. I am thouroughly enjoying it, though I miss the option to choose between civil and military maps each time.

The maps and challenges are really interesting so far. In Capua, you're made to support Rome's war effort – Pretty cool.

Capua

I want to say that I miss the old voice actor from the briefings though. I'd rather just have the old briefings, and then an additional text info. But you can't have everything I guess.

I'm super grateful for the immense amount of work that went into this new campaign, and I'd recommend it to everyone.

6 Comments
2025/01/07
11:30 UTC

Back To Top