I know there aren't too many out there, but is there in fact any games, old or new, that are similar to Empire Earth or Civilization in the sense that you can go travel from the stone age, the middle ages, colonial period, imperial, world wars, to the present day, and even into a fictional future? It could be either turn-based or real-time, but I'm simply curious if there are other series out there I've never heard of other than these two franchises.

It would be neat if there could be a new real-time version of a game like this, not that the classics don't keep me busy. I just like to play a fresh game here and there. But Civilization is the only series with notable entries that are still being produced. Every other game of note is centered on one era, one town or empire, and limited battlefields.

I love games with a global scale theme, especially when you go through many eras.

Call to Power is of course another series but it spawned originally from Civilization, and Alpha Centauri sort of travels through eras with new tech, but the first games I mentioned are what I'm curious about.

EDIT: Patrician 1+2 Code for those who were willing to read through my blabber :) HUD9-CF4W-THDG-BT5S

Thanks for Patrician. :)

edit: my suggestion - Rise of Nations.

Check or its open source remake [url=http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.harman/comp_gigalomania.html]Gigalomania. I've never played the latter but the former is pretty good, especially considering its age.

There exist official/non-official save converters that allow you to play through Crusader Kings / Europa Universalis / Victoria / Hearts Of Iron. That's quite a broad swath of history. :)

You could try Original War... not sure about the future, but at least you travel to the past... ;p

Rise of Nations is like Civ in realtime.

Edit: Oops didnt see it was mentioned before

Yes.. I've also found the paradox titles like Crusader Kings and others to my liking. Even though they are not turn based. Still Civilization rulez :P

You could always try modding your game. Caveman to Cosmos possibly makes Civ 4 the biggest, most complex game in the genre in existence.

Master of Orion 2 ? You go through "ages" there too, sort of .

Spore? You basically go from a single cell microbe all the way up to a galaxy spanning space empire. Granted, it's not very good and at this point probably doesn't qualify as new anymore, but it certainly meets your chronological specifications.

Age of Empires is kind of, in a way, Civilization in realtime. Sid Meier.

It's a little bit taken out of context, because Sid was explaining why he stayed at turn-based gameplay, but it's still a good comparison

If you like those games, as mentioned before, Rise of Nations is quite simply spectacular. I've probably played it more than the Empire Earths and Civilizations.

I had Empires: Dawn of the Modern World and enjoyed that for quite some time. That goes middle-ages to modern. Just like Empire Earth, but with some interesting differences (which I can't totally remember, but I vaguely remember some unique units and abilities).