Xiphos

About

Xiphos casts you as a Galactic Council agent racing to dismantle a rogue AI before it obliterates an entire artificial galaxy. Piloting the ship Arrow, you juggle real-time space combat, base docking, alien negotiations, and resource trading across six fractured universes. The Pio and Qon factions wage war over collapsing territories while XIPHOS ravages the space-time continuum. Your choices matter as you balance tactical battles with supply management and diplomacy to reach the AI’s core. Released in 1990 for DOS and 16-bit systems, Xiphos pushed 3D visuals and layered strategy beyond most contemporaries. Its mix of fast reflexes and long-term planning earned a cult following among retro strategy fans. With no online scores or modern ratings to track, its legacy persists in niche circles who praise the bold scope of its sci-fi conflict and the challenge of surviving a galaxy gone mad.

Storyline

CONFRONT THE FUTURE Having isolated themselves from the rest of the galaxy, the Xiphons created a multilevel, artificial universe controlled by XIPHOS, the all powerful, electronic intelligence. The worlds of the Xiphons prospered until the day XIPHOS inex- plicably went mad destroying planets, shutting down environmental systems and disrupting the space time continuum. Suddenly, the people struggled to survive, and two Xiphon factions, the Pio and Qon, began to fight for control of the remaining territory. As an agent of the Galactic Council, you enter the war-torn, artificial universe of the Xiphons. Your mission is to take the spaceship Arrow to the center level and destroy XIPHOS... or be destroyed.