Play Balance Of Power: The 1990 Edition Online

Balance of Power: The 1990 Edition is a historical simulation game released in 1990 for the MS-DOS platform. It was published by Mindscape, Inc. The game is set during the final years of the Cold War, casting the player as either the President of the United States or the General Secretary of the Soviet Union.

The player's objective is to increase their nation's global power and prestige over an eight-year term. This is achieved through a combination of diplomatic, covert, and military actions aimed at influencing the political alignment of various countries around the world. Players can engage in treaty negotiations, authorize risky covert operations through agencies like the CIA or KGB, or commit to direct military interventions to support governments or insurgent groups sympathetic to their ideology. The core gameplay involves managing these complex interactions across a simulated globe, where every decision carries the potential to escalate into a broader conflict.

The game world is modeled with 62 individual countries, each with defined attributes such as government type, demographics, and resources based on data from the mid-1980s. Progression is measured by shifts in global influence and the avoidance of a catastrophic nuclear war, which can be triggered by confrontations over even small nations. The simulation requires players to consistently analyze the geopolitical landscape and anticipate the reactions of the opposing superpower, which can be controlled by the computer or another human player.