R&J Cyberware was formed by a group of computer game playing enthusiasts in early 1996. Initially, it was a response to the distinct lack of good role playing games on the market. Basically, we finally decided that, given the horrid state of computer role playing games (CRPGs) from 90-97, we could do one much better. All of us did, after all, come from a childhood of playing paper RPGs for years. We gathered together a small team with all the various and sundry needed skills, and we felt we had all the necessary tools and experience to put out the most amazing CRPGs in the history of the genre. With that, schemes were hatched, plots were formed, the game was afoot, and we got to work.

Then a funny thing happened. Starting in early 97, the CRPG market made a huge comeback. A couple of decent titles hit the shelves and there were more on the way. Half way into our project, we realized that it was entirely possible the CRPG market would soon be flooded with great titles. It seems we weren't the only ones who had finally become disgusted with the state of the genre. Needless to say, this was a problem for us. While I loved the fact that finally we were getting good titles to play, we knew that, even when we finished our great game, it would very likely be buried under the deluge of other great games. We decided (for now) to shelve the CRPG. This left us as a company without a project. Not good.

Then there was another interesting development. We discovered how much fun it is to play against human opponents. Strategy games were slowly but surely making their way onto our hard drives. I personally have always enjoyed strategy games, but I usually quickly got bored with them as soon as I discovered the limits of the artificial intelligence (AI) routines. But to play against a human opponent (or 16). Now THAT was a challenge.

So it was settled. We were going to do a turn based strategy game, one designed to be played by submitting e-mail turns to a host who would collect all the players files, generate a new turn, and send them back out to the players.

So the genre was decided, but what sub-genre? The space exploration game is the obvious choice, but that one has pretty well been saturated. There's at least one game out there that I feel is the penultimate space exploration strategy game and I didn't want to compete with something like that. Then we realized that there is at least one area in strategy games which has been almost completely ignored - history.

Sure, there are a couple of them. Sid Meier's are certainly the most prominent (Civilization, Colonization, etc.). I've played those games. None have particularly impressed me, except perhaps Civilization, which I enjoyed. But even Civilization I wasn't entirely happy with. Why? It's too limiting. The races are predesigned, the units are static, the technologies too few. In my opinion, it was a good start, but it didn't go far enough.

What if you started right at the beginning? Right when self-awareness begins. You know no technologies, not even fire. You're living in caves. But you do know your ultimate goal, to rule the world! That's what this game is all about. Discover technology, build cities to increase production, create units to defend your territories and take your opponents.

So Manifest Destiny was born. Of course, it wasn't initially called Manifest Destiny (MD). For a long time, our working title was "The History of Warfare", which I personally hated. MD is much much better.We think it's going to be an amazing game. We hope you will enjoy it.

- R&J Cyberware