index int64 1 20 | mission int64 1 11 | rank stringlengths 5 10 | assignment stringclasses 2
values | map stringlengths 5 16 | brief_transcript stringlengths 481 2.98k | win_transcript stringlengths 149 357 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Citizen | Peaceful | Nameless village | Let your governorial training begin! First, you must learn the basics of constructing Roman settlements. Build areas of housing, and you'll soon see people move in to your city. You can click and drag the mouse to build lengths of path at once. Plan paths carefully, with as few intersections as possible, to ensure peop... | Congratulations! You have grasped the basics to my satisfaction. In the interest of advancing your education, I have one more gentle assignment for you. Onward to Brundisium! |
2 | 2 | Clerk | Peaceful | Brundisium | Your priorities should be security, housing, food, and water, in that order. Without housing and food, new immigrants will not move into your city. Rome now wishes your city to grow food. Build a farm on fertile land. Look for the yellow tufts that indicate this. Connect it to housing with a path. If the housing is too... | You learn quickly! You now have the skills to complete a real assignment. From now on, you can choose your career's direction. Take the more peaceful province to concentrate on governing, or the more dangerous one to confront Rome's enemies. |
3 | 3 | Engineer | Peaceful | Capua | Caesar is at today's gladiator tournament, and is unable to see you himself. He has asked me, his proconsul for Roma, to brief you on your next assignment. Now that you have proven your skills, you are to found a small city just south of Rome. To build the city up to a modest level, you must provide more goods and serv... | Your management skills impress me. Many governors' careers end when I call upon them to build their first real colony. Leaders like you assure Rome's destiny. Now, can you repeat your success, or was that luck? |
4 | 3 | Engineer | Military | Tarentum | Caesar is at today's gladiator tournament, and is unable to see you himself. He has asked me, his proconsul for Roma, to brief you on your next assignment. Now that you have proven your skills, you are to found a small city far south of Rome. To build the city to its desired size, you must provide more goods and servic... | The Etruscans will not threaten Tarentum again. Well done. It is the rare governor who can balance city building and combat. Now let us see if you can repeat your success, or was that just luck? |
5 | 4 | Architect | Peaceful | Tarraco | Once again, I want you to found a new city. But the criteria for success are a little different this time. The Roman Empire is in crisis. Whether because of Ceres's anger or due to human incompetence, famine stalks the Empire. You have governed long enough now to understand the dire results of a lack of food. Thus, I a... | Tarraco's food exports got the Empire through a dark period. Citizens owe you their lives, and governors their jobs. Harvests are now returning to normal, and I have a new use for your talents. |
6 | 4 | Architect | Military | Syracusae | Syracusae is an important site for a new colony. A glance at the map will show you why. If we are to expand the Empire much beyond the shores of Italia, we must control these waters. Others have reached the same conclusion. We have been unable to reliably establish a permanent city of any size at Syracusae. The challen... | Governor, that was a delicate performance. Convincing the Greeks to relinquish their designs on Syracusae opens the whole Mediterranean to Rome's plans. And after that impressive performance, you will play a major part in them. |
7 | 5 | Quaestor | Peaceful | Miletus | Our recent expansion in the East must continue, now that the Greeks have reluctantly joined our Empire. You are to establish Miletus as a great new city. Miletus is key to bringing Asia under Roman rule, as well as being the gateway to many other beckoning lands, from Egyptus to Syria. Create a city on the Lycian coast... | As I expected, the example of Miletus has already inspired other eastern cities to negotiate terms for joining our Empire. And your experience with fishing has been a lesson to all my governors. |
8 | 5 | Quaestor | Military | Mediolanum | I now require a major Roman city on the Empire's northern border. Create a city of no fewer than seven thousand souls within sight of the Alps. Furthermore, I expect you to achieve higher levels of prosperity and culture than you have done so far, although your goals are still only moderately high. Ordinarily, I would ... | That Hannibal could cross the Alps with his elephants was amazing. That Mediolanum would prosper despite his assault is a miracle. Your success turns the tide of the Punic War in Rome's favor. All Rome thanks you. |
9 | 6 | Procurator | Peaceful | Lugdunum | Caesar is travelling this month on a matter which need not concern you. I, the Emperor's proconsul for Roma, shall explain your next assignment in his stead. Caesar decreed that the Empire shall now grow northward, beyond our traditional Alpine boundary. Create a medium-sized city in Gaul, and meet the more ambitious r... | Your treatment of the native Gauls in Lugdunum and that fair city's splendor bodes well for Rome's expansion into the northern wilderness. Well done. |
10 | 6 | Procurator | Military | Carthago | Caesar is presently returning from a trip to Carthago, where he met with the province's governor. A messenger from the Emperor arrived just this morning. Caesar commands me, his proconsul for Roma, to present you with the following instructions. The Carthaginians were not gracious after Hannibal's defeat ended the Puni... | Thanks to your brilliant performance, the Carthaginian menace is finally behind us forever. Our old enemies are now loyal Roman citizens. At least those who can still draw breath. |
11 | 7 | Aedile | Peaceful | Tarsus | Syria and Judea recently joined our Empire, but I question the depth of their loyalty. We require a major new trading port in the reliable border state of Cilicia. Build a city of six thousand at Tarsus to project Rome's power near our new clients in the East. You will be pleased to know that you need not grow food in ... | You are fast becoming my most valuable servant. Your mastery of trade made Tarsus exactly the city I had hoped it would be. The eastern provinces are more loyal today, thanks to you. |
12 | 7 | Aedile | Military | Tingis | Our expansion west has ended at the edge of the world. I want a major Roman city built at Tingis to anchor our western border and to guard the approach to Hispania. Various forces throughout Africa and Mauretania resent our presence, and will object strongly when they realize that you are blocking their passage north. ... | Are you a governor or a general? Your good work at Tingis frees my legions from duty in the west and lets me pursue other ambitions. You are becoming key to my planning. |
13 | 8 | Praetor | Peaceful | Valentia | For many generations we have recognized Toletum as the capital of Hispania. As part of my consolidation of the western provinces, I command that a new capital be built on the coast, where it may be more tightly integrated with the rest of the Empire. Toletum has long struck me as too independent. To leave no questions ... | Hispania's new capital is exactly what we needed to bind that far-off province more closely to Rome. Crushing the remnants of the Etruscans so thoroughly removes the last threat in the west. |
14 | 8 | Praetor | Military | Lutetia | As part of my plan to consolidate the western provinces, I command that a new capital be built deep in the heart of wildest Gaul. Caesar Augustus once predicted that the Gauls would become model Roman citizens. It is time that the great Augustus's vision was realized. In the midst of this savage land, you are to build ... | Surely Caesar Augustus must have foreseen your coming when he predicted our absorption of the Gauls. Your success at Lutetia goes far toward crushing their rebellious spirit. |
15 | 9 | Consul | Peaceful | Caesarea | How I wish that all of my governors were as successful as you are. Are you surprised that I would say that? We do not advertise Rome's failures, preferring to handle them quietly. Sadly, some governors abuse the trust that I have placed in them. I take this personally. Your colleague in Caesarea proved to be little mor... | So, Caesarea's former governor shall live after all, shall he? Rescuing that city from its crisis is quite an achievement. Perhaps I will let you choose the land of his exile. |
16 | 9 | Consul | Military | Damascus | The Empire's western provinces are bustling since my consolidation program succeeded so well. Now I want to apply the same policies to our eastern borders. Damascus is a good place to start. Build a medium city there and absorb the natives already living in the province. Nameless nomadic raiders have long plagued the p... | Once again, you have attained what lesser men called impossible. All of the East was watching your balancing act in Damascus. Now I can safely recall some of my Syrian legions. |
17 | 10 | Proconsul | Peaceful | Londinium | You will enjoy this assignment. It is the most constructive that I've awarded in quite some time. With Gaul finally integrated into the Empire, we are free to expand our northern boundary to its logical extreme, Britannia. Yes, Romans have gone there in the past, but never before with the intention of establishing a pe... | By Jupiter, the savages of Britannia have never seen the likes of Londinium. Claudius the God, who showed those islanders the edge of Roman swords so long ago, is surely smiling on us. |
18 | 10 | Proconsul | Military | Sarmizegetusa | The Roman Empire now includes nearly every habitable land in the world, except for the darkest forests of Germania and Dacia. That is where you are going next. Build a medium city in the enemy's heartland. You will meet stiff resistance from local tribes, the most noteworthy being the Goths. Build the appropriate defen... | Incredible! I send you deep behind our weakest border, where the hatred of Rome is as thick as the trackless forests, and you build a strong outpost on the very bones of the Goths. What a great achievement! |
19 | 11 | Caesar | Peaceful | Massilia | Against my better judgment, I shall tell you a secret. All the world hails me as Emperor and God. But I still wear the flesh of a man. I am getting on in years, and this supreme power weighs heavier each day. I wish to be one of the few emperors in Rome's long history to enter a peaceful and voluntary retirement. The l... | Congratulations. You have achieved the highest goals ever set to one of Rome's governors. I am proud to hand over to you. I decree that you be crowned Caesar, Emperor of all Rome. The whole Empire is yours. At last I can retire to my island villa, a private citizen once again. May your name forever join the pantheon of... |
20 | 11 | Caesar | Military | Lindum | Our borders to the far east, the south, and the west are secure. The various Germanic tribes threaten the near eastern border, as they have always done, and Rome's legions are committed to that frontier. I have no troops left for the far north, or generals to command them. You will secure Britannia once and for all. Bu... | Congratulations. You have achieved the highest goals ever set to one of Rome's governors. I am proud to hand over to you. I decree that you be crowned Caesar, Emperor of all Rome. The whole Empire is yours. At last I can retire to my island villa, a private citizen once again. May your name forever join the pantheon of... |
90s Games Transcript
A small English-language corpus of narrative text from classic PC games.
This dataset was assembled as a compact research corpus for game studies, digital humanities, discourse analysis, narrative analysis, computational stylistics, and computationally assisted close reading.
Dataset
| Config | Records | Content |
|---|---|---|
caesar3 |
20 | Mission briefings + victory messages |
diablo2_lod |
7 | Cinematic narration and dialogue |
warcraft2 |
53 | Human + Orc mission briefings and ending text |
| Total | 80 | ~11.8k words |
Each transcript has its own schema.
Quick start
from datasets import load_dataset
caesar3 = load_dataset(
"user_namei/old-games-transcript",
"caesar3",
split="train",
)
diablo2 = load_dataset(
"user_namei/old-games-transcript",
"diablo2_lod",
split="train",
)
warcraft2 = load_dataset(
"user_namei/old-games-transcript",
"warcraft2",
split="train",
)
The train split is simply a Hugging Face loading convention.
This dataset is not organized as an ML train/test benchmark.
What's inside?
Caesar III
The caesar3 configuration contains campaign assignments from both the Peaceful and Military paths.
Each record includes metadata such as mission, rank, assignment, and map, together with:
brief_transcript— the pre-mission briefingwin_transcript— the post-victory message
This makes the game particularly interesting for studying the relationship between instruction, player performance, evaluation, and progression.
Diablo II
The diablo2_lod configuration contains seven cinematic records, from The Sister's Lament through Destruction's End.
Each row represents a complete cinematic rather than individual speaker turns. The transcripts therefore preserve the scene as the primary unit of analysis.
act is a dataset sequence identifier and should not necessarily be interpreted as canonical in-game act numbering.
Warcraft II
The warcraft2 configuration contains Human and Orc material from:
- Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (
TOD) - Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal (
BTDP)
The corpus primarily consists of mission briefings and is well suited to examining military instruction, factional framing, player address, objectives, and narrative justification of gameplay.
Research uses
Potential applications include game studies, discourse analysis, player agency and address, narrative temporality, factional rhetoric, computational stylistics, and historical analysis of game writing.
This is a small, curated corpus, so quantitative findings are best used to guide and support close reading rather than to make broad claims about video-game language in general.
Audio sources
Corresponding game audio is available through the Internet Archive: LINK1, LINK2, LINK3
The audio is not included in this dataset.
These links are provided as reference material and can be used to verify transcripts or study features that text alone cannot represent, such as performance, timing, pronunciation, and prosody.
Acknowledgements
This dataset exists because of the original writers, designers, performers, and developers behind these games, as well as the preservation efforts that keep historical game media accessible.
Special thanks to the fan communities that continue to document, preserve, and discuss these games decades after their release:
- Warcraft II: Warcraft Wiki — Tides of Darkness · Warcraft Wiki — Beyond the Dark Portal
- Caesar III: City-Building Games Wiki — Caesar III
- Diablo II: Diablo Wiki — Lord of Destruction
And a small shoutout to the fans of Warcraft II, Caesar III, and Diablo II who are still playing, modding, documenting, discussing, and preserving these games. Long-lived fan communities are a major reason pieces of game history like these remain accessible.
All game titles and trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Copyright and usage
The transcripts reproduce dialogue and text from copyrighted commercial video games. The underlying game text, characters, performances, trademarks, and other source material remain the property of their respective rights holders.
This dataset does not grant or imply a license to the underlying game content. It is provided as a research and documentation resource, and users are responsible for determining whether their intended use is permitted under applicable law.
No game executables, installation media, or audio files are included.
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