This "War Stories" video explores how <em>Civilization</em> almost wasn't a turn-based game.
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Video: Ars talks Civilization with the man himself: Sid Meier
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The Reference to "Empire" made me smile.
What a GREAT game. It's still around and can be downloaded but most people don't know about it anymore (kinda like nethack in that regard)
What a GREAT game. It's still around and can be downloaded but most people don't know about it anymore (kinda like nethack in that regard)
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I have played every version since the first one, and it NEVER gets old. Truly lightning in a bottle.
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One of my favorite game devs... Sid is a class act. Last week I walked into the kitchen because I heard a familiar song - and my wife was playing the Civ V soundtrack while making dinner. There's something magical about that.
Also, Lee - thanks for the seizure gif. Personal foul - 3 minutes in the penalty box.
Also, Lee - thanks for the seizure gif. Personal foul - 3 minutes in the penalty box.
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I have no idea how many hours I have spent playing the various Civ games, but it is in the thousands. My buddy and I often just boot up a CO-OP game and play against the AI (which is the only part of the game that doesn't seem to have increased in complexity or depth over the years). It is a great way to be able to play a game with a friend in the evenings, while still being able to have a normal conversation because you dont have bullets zinging by and explosions going off everywhere. Greatest game series of our time, IMHO.
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I lost many, many hours to Civ 1 as a boy. It was a rarity in the battle with my parents over seat time as they saw it as educational. Ha!
I've tried to get even remotely as engaged with the new versions but i just can't seem to bridge the gap. In the quest to make them more detailed an deeper/broader they've lost the fun for me. I'd love to see the original game-play, 100% intact and true to the original but in the modern engine for the visual treat. Dare to dream.
I've tried to get even remotely as engaged with the new versions but i just can't seem to bridge the gap. In the quest to make them more detailed an deeper/broader they've lost the fun for me. I'd love to see the original game-play, 100% intact and true to the original but in the modern engine for the visual treat. Dare to dream.
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Never had the Strike Eagle games, but I did play F-19 Stealth Fighter quite a lot as a kid! I have a copy of Silent Service for the Atari ST, I suppose I should break that out some time soon. (I guess we did get F-15 SE III from some sort of mail-in offer, but couldn't get it to run on my parents' computer.)
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great video!
good old school personalized anti piracy tech
...and yeah be careful booting up those old computers, there's a non trivial chance of fire and smoke shooting out of the vents.
good old school personalized anti piracy tech
...and yeah be careful booting up those old computers, there's a non trivial chance of fire and smoke shooting out of the vents.
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Tantalum capacitors can make for some mildly amusing, if somewhat malodorous, fireworks.
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This confirms the disturbing reports about Sid Meier's being a talented and genuinely nice person.
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I wonder how many people were introduced to the concept of integer rollover bugs by coming across that famous one.
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Civ is awesome, no doubt!
Two other games I'd love to see get some love with updated versions are Pharaoh and Railroad Tycoon.
Two other games I'd love to see get some love with updated versions are Pharaoh and Railroad Tycoon.
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i still play civ all the time - civ iv is my fave (mainly because it still works on my modern mac and for some perverse reason i prefer squares to the far superior hexagons)
i think it'll break when the next version of the macos kills 32bit apps though. i may not be making that leap anytime soon.
i think it'll break when the next version of the macos kills 32bit apps though. i may not be making that leap anytime soon.
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I think the second game was an improvement in gameplay over the first. IMHO games 1, 3 and 5 changed up the gameplay whereas 2, 4 and 6 refined the previous games. So if I had to choose one to have a "HD" upgrade, it'd be 2.
But of course this misses out Alpha Centuri which is a classic in its own right. I'd really like a modern take on that (no, Beyond Earth doesn't count).
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I knew I was in trouble when an ironclad battleship showed up and I still had wooden ships. One time I was marching along opening up territory and the damn cavalry charged.
It made me understand a lot about history.
It made me understand a lot about history.
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If you don't have one of those, try it out in your browser: [Edit: this version has messsed-up colors, try the ones below.] https://archive.org/details/Civilization1 This version requires you to answer questions from the manual (linked in the description) to prove you didn't copy it!
There's also a DOS version https://archive.org/details/CIVILIZATION_201902 and a black-and-white Mac emulator here https://archive.org/details/CivilizationMacintosh if you're allergic to Windows 3.1.
Edit2: In the DOS version, you can save your progress to a virtual floppy disk in your browser. When you reload the page it will still have your saves!
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"The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbors were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near-absolute power and control which your hallowed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass... when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests."
(_Excession_ by Iain M. Banks)
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The funny thing about this meme is that this is almost the opposite of how they were developed. Civ II was written by Brian Reynolds in England, initially without access to the Civ II source, and even after he got it, he didn’t copy any code. Civ III, meanwhile, was based on SMAC, a game that was very similar to Civ II in its basic mechanics. Civ IV is the one big ground-up rewrite, which then formed the basis for Civ V and VI.
(Source: Designer Notes podcast, where Soren Johnson interviews other developers, including Sid Meier and Reynolds)
BTW, I disagree with the characterization of Civ IV as a polish. It is a much more fundamental reimagining than the iterative Civ III, which really only added strategic resources and great people to the formula.
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Yeah, I guess 3 to 4 is a slight stretch to fit the pattern. It can be argued that it was the expansions to 4 that really changed up gameplay but the base game did feel different to 3 (it felt much slower IIRC).
As to the design notes, I would draw a distinction between game mechanics and game code but the way they were developed is interesting.
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I felt the same way for the longest time.
Civ Revolutions 2 on my tablet isn't exactly the same, but comes close enough to scratch my itch whereas the other Civ mainline games couldn't quite do it for me.
Civ I and II were great because they were in-depth, but still casual enough. Subsequent versions I loved, but had to devote time to. As an adult with multiple kids and other things competing for my time, I just don't want to have to carve out that big of a chunk to get into the main games anymore. But Revolutions is a good mix between in-depth and casual that it works for plane rides, down minutes here and there, and in-depth play when I do have some time. Combat is a bit nerfed, but if you play as the Aztecs, whom auto-heal after victory, you can get the troops rolling just like you used to back in the day
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Oh man, I had no idea Sid had a hand in making Silent Service too. As a pre-teen I used to play that game for hours at a stretch on my NES. Wild.
Add it all together and I've probably spent more leisure time with Sid Meier games than with my own wife.
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One of my favorites was the "Please type in the 3rd word from the first sentence in the second paragraph of page 12 from the User Manual" verification method.
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Someone else called Civ "lightning in a bottle" and I'd have to disagree because of how many other great games Sid Meier has to his name (Pirates, Silent Service, F-15 & F-19, Railroad Tycoon, and more). It must be concluded that it was his skill rather than just a singular moment of creative genius, but I guess it's fair to say that Civ was the absolute pinnacle of his career.
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So many late college nights spent on Civ II with my roommate and that cursed "one more turn" black hole. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Such an amazing game (Civ I, too). Thank you, Sid.
Such an amazing game (Civ I, too). Thank you, Sid.
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greybeardengineer
Ars Praefectus
Nothing like getting a tech lead and steam rolling over the other continent with stealth bombers and modern armour. And nukes to keep the unhappiness of conquered cities down.
Scary is the only way to describe the time skip playing a few turns of Civ and then looking at a clock and gasping WTF?!?!
Scary is the only way to describe the time skip playing a few turns of Civ and then looking at a clock and gasping WTF?!?!
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I loved Civ (and also Railroad Tycoon before it). Thank you for this wonderful interview. I think many, many people in the games industry, including myself, were inspired by these games in the 1980s and 90s.
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Say what you will about LRH and Scientology, the Mission Earth series is a great pulp fiction, space opera series. My 12-14yr old self ate them up.
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Civ 2 single-handedly wrecked my college freshman and sophomore years to the extent I'm amazed I even passed. Many hours were spent trying to conquer the world and trying to squeeze in "one more turn" while sacrificing sleep. And studying. And grades in general. Well done Sid.
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Yeah, 2 took everything about 1 and made it better. 2 remained my favorite until 6, which I absolutely love.
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Sid is my hero. Pirates! are forever in my "buy it for whatever game system it will be put on" simply on the fun and replayability.
I STILL get a greedy thrill finding myself with a empty hold and a Silver Train in San Juan and its been nearly 30 years.
Never change Mr. Meier!
I STILL get a greedy thrill finding myself with a empty hold and a Silver Train in San Juan and its been nearly 30 years.
Never change Mr. Meier!
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