Just Play today announced the Gold master for its turn-based empire-building strategy game set in the Ancient Greek period has been released for manufacturing. The street date has been set at 24th March to ensure the game is available for the forthcoming Easter peak selling period.

About Spartan

Spartan is the third in a series of empire-building strategy games that includes the best-selling Legion and Chariots of War.

Spartan focuses on one of the most influential civilisations in the history of mankind – the Ancient Greeks, and allows players to choose from 100 nations to lead to victory, including Sparta, renowned for its total dedication to the art of war and for producing the ultimate fighting machine of the ancient world – the Spartan Hoplite; probably most famous for the courageous last stand of 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480BC

• Spartan contains many improvements and enhancements over the previous two games and features:
• Over 100 historically researched nations, each with a varying number of settlements and cities
• Hundreds of buildings and city improvements, utilising nine different resources such as gold, marble, copper and grain
• Heroic leaders to inspire soldiers and lead armies in the field.
• Philosophers and scientists able to research dozens of different technologies.
• Over 40 different troop types across 10 ethnic and cultural groups
• The option to fight interactive battles on a 3D map.
• Cities that can be besieged to weaken them before an assault and catapults that hurl Greek Fire at the armies as they attack
• A fully rendered and authentically accurate campaign map of ancient Greece around 400BC
• A new multiplayer option which incorporates an unique AAM (always active multiplayer) feature for two players over LAN or GameSpy®
• Spies and diplomats that can broker trade deals, non-aggression pacts, alliances and undertake covert operations.
• Naval movement, battles and amphibious invasions.
• Roman, Persian or Barbarian invaders.

A reactive stock market that allows players to trade resources.

Bob Malin Just Play's Brand Manager offered:
"Slitherine software have done a great job with Spartan, and achieved every milestone they were set on time, which is a real rarity in this industry. We now aim to capitalise on the increased interest in Ancient Greece generated by the various movies scheduled for release in 2004 that are set in the period, such as Troy and Gates of Fires which re-creates the battle of Thermopylae"

JD McNeil, Slitherine Strategies' Business Manager further stated:

"We are pleased to have delivered Spartan on time, and that we are launching at a good time of the year. The marketing is timed to coincide well with the release, with magazine previews, Full page advertisements in the specialist PC and tabletop wargaming magazines and a cover-mounted demo appearing just prior to the scheduled street date. Initial feedback has been good; indeed, Worthplaying.com, described Spartan as: "Civilisation with a 3D battle engine...", which is precisely what we are trying to achieve."

ABOUT Just Flight And Just Play

Just Flight is the world's leading flight simulation specialist and has been established for over 6 years. It prides itself on quality, value and customer service, which it backs up with a unique money-back guarantee on all its products. It has been recognised with nominations for 'Best of British' by the software industry and accolades from the Daily Express and Royal Mail for its innovative marketing techniques.

Sister brands include Just Trains and Just Play covering train simulation titles and wider simulation and gaming titles, such as Steel Beasts Gold and Laser Squad Nemesis. Just Flight's community-focused approach to the games market has seen its launch of Just Football with club-specific football management games - a joint venture between Just Flight and experienced developer Smoking Gun.

Full details of the company's products can be found at:
www.justflight.com 
www.justtrains.net 
www.justplaynow.com 
www.justfootball.net
Mungo Amyatt-Leir, Managing Director - Just Flight
Bob Malin, Brand Manager – Just Play

ABOUT Slitherine Strategies

Slitherine Strategies was founded in 2001 by a small but talented team with an insatiable appetite for hard work. Their first title LEGION (worldwide sales 100,000+) was released in 2001 and this has since been followed up by LEGION GOLD and CHARIOTS of WAR (worldwide sales 50,000+). To date they have concentrated their efforts in the TBS market where their prestigious knowledge of the Ancient World gives them a tremendous edge. They enjoy the freedom of developing and generating their own original ideas and the result is a series of games, which is a welcome development for Strategy fans. Slitherine's aim is to produce games that are both enjoyable, original and that will immerse players in a world were they can build and control an Empire through a subtle mix of military conquest, diplomacy and research.

Minimum requirements
Spartan has a 2D and 3D mode that have different system requirements.
2D mode
Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP
Pentium II 233 MHz MMX or fully compatible
128 Mb RAM
500 Mb Hard Drive Space
DirectX Compatible Graphics Card with 4 MB VRAM
DirectX Compatible Sound Card
DirectX 8.0 or higher

3D mode
Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP
Pentium III or fully compatible
128 Mb RAM
500 Mb Hard Drive Space
16Mb DirectX Compatible 3D Graphics Card
DirectX Compatible Sound Card
DirectX 8.0 or higher