Galactic Civilizations is a turn based strategy game developed by Stardock. Originally designed for OS/2 and released in 1994, Galactic Civilizations was re-released for Windows in 2003. An expansion for Galactic Civilizations, Altarian Prophecy, was released in 2004. In February of 2006 a sequel to Galactic Civilizations was released.
Galactic Civilizations was released approximately the same time as Master of Orion 3, and it was widely predicted that the newcomers didn't stand a chance against the venerable Master of Orion franchise. However, upon release, people found Master of Orion 3 to be significantly more complicated, confusing, and buggy than its predecessor. Meanwhile, the AI of Galactic Civilizations set a new benchmark for strategy games, and the game garnered a dedicated following.