Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri ($44.95), by Electronic Arts Inc., Activision Inc.'s Civilization: Call to Power ($49.95) and Microsoft Corp.'s soon-to-be-released Age of Empires II: the Age of Kings are three new titles in the so-called god-games genre that are likely to have wide appeal. The games do have their share of violence, but it isn't particularly graphic. The current test version of Age of Kings, for example, has deleted the blood splotches that previously popped up when soldiers were killed by sword, spear or bow. (Alpha Centauri and Call to Power are rated playable by "everyone," while Age of Kings will be rated for teens and up.)

While warfare is still a mainstay in the games, players -- playing alone or with others on the Internet -- can engage in nonviolent strategies such as"exploring," "discovering" and "building." And in Age of Kings, a good defence is as effective as a good offense.

One other caveat: It takes a Pentium-class computer to play the games at a good speed. Alpha Centauri players also may have to download fixes from the Firaxis Web site to get the program running properly.

All three games are derivative of Civilization, the 1991 bestseller created by veteran game designer Sid Meier. Civilization was one of the first god games, giving players godlike control over civilisations they build and pit against rival civilisations by making decisions about economics, technology or war. He followed up with Civilization II in 1996.

Civilization: Call to Power is much like the original Civilization games, allowing players to develop societies from the Stone Age to A.D. 3000. As such, it is the least creative of the new bunch.Players start with settlers who found cities, which generate more settlers, armies and new technologies. Over time, one civilization bumps upagainst another and either an alliance or a war ensues. Among the most novel ideas in the game: Players can dispatch a lawyer to slow down production of goods in an enemy city.

Players can thank real-life lawyers for the creativity in Alpha Centauri, developed by Mr. Meier and his colleague Brian Reynolds at Firaxis Games Inc., Baltimore. The two men had to create an entirely new world without copying Civilization, because they temporarily lost the right to the Civilization name when they formed Firaxis in 1996.

Activision acquired use of the name from the developer of the original boardgame. Now, Hasbro Interactive has the rights for a game being developed by Firaxis called Sid Meier's Civilization III.

Alpha Centauri picks up at the end of Civilization II. Winning players send aspaceship with colonists from Earth to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. Upon their arrival on a world called Planet, seven factions from Earth break into separate colonies. Players assume the role of faction leaders and mustengage in diplomacy, economic expansion, technology races or war to become Planet's ruler.

Each faction has its own strengths and weaknesses. One, called Gaia's Stepdaughters, is a militarily weak environmental group that can tame the indigenous "mindworms" that threaten to overwhelm life on the planet.Morgan Industries, meanwhile, is a monopolistic faction in the game with Microsoft-like expansion plans for business. It is out of touch with the environment and eschews military spending.

Because of the opportunities for diplomatic alliances, Alpha Centauri games are well balanced and can easily stretch into multiple evenings. One of my favourite activities was to deploy spies known as "probe teams," which let players wage a cold war.

Probe teams can steal technology from a rival city and then blame it on someone else. The story has a lot of depth, and players who want more details can read a series of novel-length episodes on the Firaxis.com Web site.

Players who love history may find Age of Kings tobe their game. It's a kind of nonstop history where participants must build an economy and learn about the civilization before they can send armies against their enemy. In this "real-time" strategy game, players can move simultaneously as the clock ticks, unlike in Alpha Centauri and Call to Power, with which only one player at a time can move.

The game, created by Bruce Shelley, co-designer of Civilization, picks up where the first Age of Empires left off, at the fall of Rome, and runs through the Middle Ages. Players can choose one of 13 civilisations from the Scotland of William Wallace's "Braveheart" to Japan in the samurai age. They must build fortresses and supporting economic units, such as farms and markets, before creating armies of mounted knights, archers, foot soldiers, catapults and battering rams. The game comes with a thick historical treatise on each civilization, but it isn't a slave to accuracy.

"We put the word 'Hittites' before more people than a lot of college professors did," Mr.Shelley says. "But where history and fun conflict, we err on the side of fun."

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