Play by email is a concept I like in theory, but no game since the early 2000s has really toyed with the concept.

In this modern age where not everyone has the time to be online at the same time as their peers, you'd think there'd be a resurgence with the ease of file sharing at an all time high, but alas.

Now, have you ever played a game by Email? I haven't, but I was also but a teenage/lad when PBEM was at it's biggest.

One game I recall being famous for PBEM was "Stars!", a graphically simple, but fairly deep and fun 4X space game. The problem being that the service one could have used to buy registration keys is defunct and the other problem is that "Stars!" is a 16 bit program.

Now, this discussion is on the matter of PBEM memories, mostly as I doubt there's still much a scene for it.

Would only play chess if any but not nowadays as it would be easier to play via a phone and quicker.

Civilization is probably the series most known for PBEM. Civ 4 was the last to have support built in (it acted as an email client in order to send and receive the game file), while Civ 5 does not have direct support but can be used through the hot seat multiplayer function (you get to save the game when your turn ends, and then you can send the save file off to your friend manually), and Civ 6 got a third-party client to do the work for you (automating what would be manually done for Civ 5).

Solveable by running Windows 3.1 in DOSBox, I've actually run this specific game that way.

PBSS

And I've got it running in Wine. Still doesn't make it any less easy for the Luser to access. Hm? I wasn't aware of Civ IV having PBEM functionality. Is it hidden away or am I blind?

Play By Smoke Signal

I honestly couldn't tell you, but the post I liked should give you instructions. If they've changed something since January 2007 when the original post was made (the one I linked is a quote in 2011), then the information may very well be faulty.

Yes, it's one of four options when you click on Multiplayer.

Hot Seat
LAN
Play By Email
and I forget the fourth but when you start the the game you are confronted with a menu in which the top choice is SINGLE PLAYER and the second one is MULTIPLAYER and clicking that one takes you to the play be email option. Always been there, though I've never tried it.

Almost 2000 hours on Steam, and I know for a fact I played it more than that on the disc version before I ever got the Steam version.

Okay, I do admit that I've not really explored the other menu options. :B

Play by Email...

Not too hard to do, supposedly some games supported this, I THINK MOO did it, or other strategy games, although how big the dump was between turns I am not sure...

Email, post, other, done that before. Slightly annoying when 24 hours in-game-time is a year IRL.

Yep, I checked myself.

If you are looking to play or see how turns progress have a look in the Age of Wonders forum. There are a couple of active PBEM games going on now.

Never done PBEM myself, thought about it once or twice over the years but the desire didn't stay long enough.

I don't think I have any AOW game.