I find that I enjoy both. Here are some random thoughts on each:

MOO1
Like: Simple colony management
Dislike: Losing by Senate vote occurs too frequently. Races are too quick to dislike you - if you are big - they almost always attack

MOO2
Like flexibility of game: I can play the game with different play styles (some favorites: no shields alkari and ship-boarding Bulrathi)
Dislike: colony management in a sprawling empire

By the way guys, havent played MoO1 for a while. I cant remember. Is there a way to play it in multi, or hotseat, or anything?

No multiplayer at all in MoO 1 :(

I see. Too bad. Thanks tho'.

I used to play MOO1 when it was new, but it fell off my hard drive somewhere along the line (as computers were upgraded and other games distracted me). I never got around to trying MOO2, though I heard only praise for it. So, when I bought this GOG package, I intended to play MOO1 once for old times' sake and then move on to MOO2.

At first, MOO1 was completely foreign to me; nothing looked familiar. Guess that's what fifteen years or so away from a game will do to you. But when I took a look at MOO2, it seemed complicated; it was more than I wanted to tackle just then. So I went back and played MOO1 some more.

And it really clicked with me! Soon it all came back to me--all those old memories I had archived in my brain. Best of all, it proved to still be a great game--one well worth playing a lot.

Next time I looked at MOO2, I was annoyed by a couple external things: (1) the map is pretty small on my widescreen netbook computer--almost too small to enjoy playing on, and (2) the background music gets crackly; I turn it down and then end up turning it off. I finally did get past those irritations and figure out how to play the game--and it was somewhat fun, for a while. I still have it in mind to get back into it someday.

But meanwhile, I play MOO1 all the time. Every time I finish a game, I want to start another. I'll switch to a different game for a change of pace, but then I want to get back to MOO1 right away.

To me, it has everything in a wonderful balance. I get to explore, but I'm not groping about in the dark. I get to choose what to research, but I don't have to micromanage the R&D lab. I get to design ships and coordinate my fleets, but I don't have to personally assemble and name the vessels or specify every move. In short, I get to do all the fun stuff, but I never lose my strategic overview in the process.

In response to an above comment about the races and artwork in MOO1, I have to agree that it's aesthetically unsatisfying. I didn't like it years ago, and I still don't. But it's at least functional: I can remember that the bearlike Bulrathis are strong ground fighters and that the birdlike Alkaris are exceptional pilots, for instance.

So, MOO1 works beautifully for me and is one of my favorite games of all time--one I'm glad to have back after many years away from it. MOO2 is a game I'll have to work on getting used to when I'm ready for it.

Graphics ofc is better in moo2, but its more difficult, deeper, and has more options to play.

I've played loads of MoO2, and just started playing MoO1 recently because it comes bundled with 2 here on GoG. I really like both of them. In some ways 1 is better than 2, and in other ways 2 is better than 1.

I also highly recommend Master of Magic. I probably like MoM better than any MoO game, and that's high praise.

Yeay. I had even didn't tried MOO1 at release, for it was seeming not having enough features (and beauty too).
It was different for MOO2, there was included all what was missing in MMO1.

Oh boy. The memories! Now i need to play with MoM too. Curse you! -_-"

Curse accepted!

But MoM really is amazing. It manages to combine the simplicity and focus of MoO1 with the depth of MoO2.

I didn't like MOO2 compared to MOO1 at first. Choosing one tech with no % chance of getting the others bothered me a lot and it was definitely a somewhat steep learning curve at first that required letting go of certain MOO1 aspects.

Then I figured out the following:

* There were stronger uses of points than Creative even when it was only 5 points.
* There's never a good reason to not go for research lab, then beeline to automated factory.
* Interceptors auto-upgrade weapons and have a better chance at hitting than larger ship weapons do since they get up close before firing. They're a great early-game choice until targeting improves.
* Only take Deuterium cells over Tritanium if you have no way to expand without the added range. Having half-hitpoints is a major weakness early on.
* Spread population around when you can but less aggressively than in MOO1. Building freighters necessary to handle massive population movement can dramatically slow production.
* Soil Enrichment is hugely important if you don't have some other food advantage. Try lithovores out to truly understand how much of a drain food needs can put on production and research.
* Boosting population is huge. Terraforming is a major tech acquisition. Subterranean is really powerful
* So is improving morale if you're not Unification.
* Snatching that first or second Antaran scout race with a high-G race that got to powered armor in time and getting lucky with the reverse-engineering roll for Xentronium and Damper fields in the early game never gets old but races stealing those techs on their first successful attempts sure does.

So yes, I too didn't think much of MOO2 at first. However, since the learning curve I've gone on a MOO2 binge at least once a year since it came out. Only MoM and X-Com come close to that. I think I've finally played the bejeezus out of MoM to the point where I feel like there's really nothing I haven't tried yet though and you can only one-shot things with adamantium slingers so many times before you need to shelve the game for a couple years. But wow is it a shame people can't seem to make games like these anymore.

The one thing MOO1 has over MOO2 I think is more refined detail in terms of more specific tech advantages/disadvantages each race had that tied in with their specialties that probably would have been too granular for the custom-race options and I do sometimes wish MOO2 had a sliders mode where I didn't have to think about food and build-queues. At least in the late game. Or at least just a one-size-fits-all-build-it-first-if-you-have-it queue template would have been nice.

It's also too easy to improve engines in the early game with no real dilemma for fusion drives and even without them it just doesn't take as long to get to larger numbers of colonizable planets in MOO2. It would have made the Trilarians a lot more interesting if low speed limited your early expansion efforts the way it could in MOO1.

You dont need neither lab or factory if your goal is simply win a game VS AI in moo2, they will just slower you in this case (unless you play an intentionally weak race). There is actually no morale in it also, so only unification if playable. And deuterium fuel is one of really few really important tech in a game, beside blatantly overpowered interceptors you had already named. This 2 tech is enough to win a huge impossible (with right race surely). And about your other post - you could look at various game modes, they fix something you want already.

Wait, are you saying morale is bugged? I'm pretty confident that's not the case.

No, im saying "there is no morale", meaning what moral technologies appear too late to have any meaningful impact on game (exept 3 leaders, with best possible outcome of +15% on one system, and -20% for dictatorship, but this is essentially a case where "no morale" works as bonus), you can compare them with, say, Plasma torpedoes, they are present in tech tree, but absent from real game, as they are very weak and absurdly late.