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[Grand Dad]

thanks Muad Dib...have been playing it since it first came out on 5.25" floppies. That's the spirit keep it up!

I remember when I first saw this game back in the early 1990's... I had moved into a place with one of my old high school buddies and he had his PC set up at the house. Another friend of his that was going to Washington State U brought the software over one weekend and loaded it up. I watched my roommate play it for a while then I got a chance to give it a go. At first, it was irritating because the other guy (Dave) wasn't being all that helpful on what to do. Maybe it was the beer... but eventually, I found myself addicted to this game. I didn't go into addict mode on that first day... I think it might have taken a week, but I was soon addicted indeed. I would get home from work in the afternoon around 3, then I would blink and it would be 11 at night! Yes, both my roommate and I both were addicts but I think I was worse. I also became the superior player and mastered it before he did. I was glad to see that they came out with CIV II and multi-player mode later on down the road, but the game itself was a dissappointment to me. I hated the skewed layout of the landscape and longed for the days when the layout was "square" or at 90 degrees to the monitor.

If I had my dithers, I would make a modern version of the original CIV and make it multiplayer... but keeping the same basic gameplay the same. Yes, I would in fact modify a few things... like the classic Battleship weakness to the rowboat (and the propensity to lose!) or to the Militia encamped on a mountaintop in Fortify mode while standing inside a Fortress. Smart players that played the game in the hardest setting learned to use the older units as battleship bait on the coastlines if they got behind one of the AI players but it was still ridiculous. I mean really... a battleship somehow losing to a schmuck in a rowboat. Give me a break... the blokes at Microprose blew it there but their blunders were few in CIV. Overall, that game has to be the all-time number one game in history. It is in my book! For sheer playability, CIV was great... you could start fresh over and over again with a new game and the same excitement was there. The mystery and excitement was always fresh since you simply did not know where the enemy was or how far along he was (other than getting messages about World Wonders being built which was the ONLY way to gage how far along the AI players were until you found them.... or they found YOU!). I will admit that I eventually got burned out on CIV... but after a few months away from the game, I would find it fun to play again for a game or two. Even now, I still occassionally play... although I enjoy "live" games much more over the web. Still, CIV is always there... ready and waiting for me to fire it back up for a game. Somehow, I think that I might be playing CIV another 15-20 years from now... as long as I still have a way to actually play it. MOO II is another game I like to play although I rarely fire it up.

Isn't it amazing how far games have come since 1990 or 1991? I was fortunate enough to grow up in the video game arcade age... meaning I was in Junior and Senior High School between 1981 and 1986. I remember when there were arcades and upright video game maches EVERYWHERE. Gas stations, mini-marts, grocery stores, the bowling alley, movie theatres, the mall, the local arcades in the shopping centers... they were all over the place and it was awesome! Those were the golden years of arcades... but unfortunately, they fell by the wayside due to the influx of too much competition and the cut-throat methodology that goes hand in hand with it. Yes, I'm talking about the introduction of tokens as opposed to quarters... while it was great to be able to play 5 games for a dollar... then 6 and 7 and 8 and so on, it actually ended up killing the industry. 20 games for a buck! Awesome! Up until there are no more arcades left to play at because they all went out of business. Ironically, in the mid-1990's, I used to go to a good sized arcade in Portland, Oregon on Burnside Stteet not too far from the Polytechnic High School. It was a kind of throwback to the 1980's for arcade machines... which means that it had most of the classics. In fact, it often had multiples of the macines... so you could find 2, 3, 4, or 5 of Pac Man or Defender lined up next to each other or spread around the arcade. Yes... it was a nickel arcade... all games took nickels. I walked out of there at closing time with blood blisters and fried eyeballs on a few Friday or Saturday nights.

I suppose I can also blame the generation of home based games for the demise of arcade machines... yes, I had an Atari 2600 and an Atari 400 and those games were fun to play too.... but there was no comparison between the real machines and the home based consoles. At least there wasn't for over a decade in my book. The 1990's saw a rapid rise of computer technology and gaming was the driving force... and I'm very glad it exists today... but the look, feel, playability, sights and sounds of the classic machines will always hold a special place in my life. Ironically, CIV saved me a lot of money over the long run... and did provide for a new source of enjoyment. You could save your game (something you could never do in an arcade!) and you could play it at any time of the day or night. Since I was dealing with a PC, I also furthered my usage of and education in programming/computers which is nice. It's funny...to this day, my old man still cannot use a computer and can barely turn one on. In fact, I still doubt he even recognizes the powerful potential of computers to improve everyday life. Not that it's a slam in my old man... he just grew up in an entirely different world is all. At the end of the day though... I'm glad my world included video games and CIV. Too many hours of playing it to count... many of them wasted hours in a way - haha! Still, I got mass enjoyment out of it and I certainly could have been doing far worse things like developing an alcohol problem... or be a real idiot and waste my life on dope or stealing or whatever detrimental activity you can think of. Thanks guys for putting CIV up for those that didn't have it... I already did but it's greatthat others have the opportunity to get into it after all these years. - Brian

PS Want a "new" challenge? Try out www.runescape.com It's my current favorite game. It's live on the web 24/7 365 days a year. Good fun and it's "live".

[Mighty Midget]

Originally posted by Guest @ Nov 29 2006, 12:13 AM

... a battleship somehow losing to a schmuck in a rowboat.

What excellent choice of words, and how true. This was what eventually nailed that coffin for me. I remember my 40-something tank army being blasted to kingdom come by that militia guy on the mountaintop. Then and there I said to myself I was never going to touch that game ever again. Too bad in a way, since I never saw the same charm in the follow-ups.

EDIT: Another thing that annoyed me, was that after you had built every possible improvement in every city, you had to build units, even if they choked your economy. That was the improvement in later civs, beside the improved battle algorithms.

@Muad Dib: I don't remember my "best" in the space race, but I remember nuking my opponents BC! That was pretty insane.

[rlbell]

Originally posted by Guest @ Nov 28 2006, 11:13 PM

I remember when I first saw this game back in the early 1990's... I had moved into a place with one of my old high school buddies and he had his PC set up at the house. Another friend of his that was going to Washington State U brought the software over one weekend and loaded it up. I watched my roommate play it for a while then I got a chance to give it a go. At first, it was irritating because the other guy (Dave) wasn't being all that helpful on what to do. Maybe it was the beer... but eventually, I found myself addicted to this game. I didn't go into addict mode on that first day... I think it might have taken a week, but I was soon addicted indeed. I would get home from work in the afternoon around 3, then I would blink and it would be 11 at night! Yes, both my roommate and I both were addicts but I think I was worse. I also became the superior player and mastered it before he did. I was glad to see that they came out with CIV II and multi-player mode later on down the road, but the game itself was a dissappointment to me. I hated the skewed layout of the landscape and longed for the days when the layout was "square" or at 90 degrees to the monitor.

You should look at Freeciv. It is an open source project based on reverse engineering the original. It plays as either Civ1 or Civ2, and both can be played multiplayer. The doubleplusgood thing about it is that there is a square tileset that can be used, even while playing Civ2 style.

[Grand Dad]

That's all very interesting guys...still CIV 3 (with its two expansions) [didn't get 2, so can't comment on it] and even CIV 4 donot come up to the thrill of first discovering the very first one

About editing Civ 1:
I'm really not a computerwizz, but I found out how to edit the game with Norton Texteditor. In these days I was a student and had time for this kind of fun.... I even made my own Civ translation into Dutch. Also I edited the game a bit.
Editing became much easier with CivII and its txt-files.

[Grand Dad]

Good for you, congrats! But I consider it a form of cheat. But then don't let me stop you .

[rupertbear]

o i take it back, if there was one game that i played more in my childhood than both powermonger & populous 2 it was definitely civilisation! as a young child i used to stay up all night (hiding my dressing gown under the door so my parents wouldn't see my light on!) playing this game!

So unbelievably classic, although the load time was pretty abysmal on my amiga 500+ & i was always rather dubious over the options when you created a new world (i never really noticed any difference)

long live civilisation... i haven't tried the fourth instalment yet, very excited i am!

[Grand Dad]

Even today Civ I reigns supreme, I have III and IV but they just don't compare with it ! And neither do Sierra's Empire Earth nor Microsoft's Age of Empires I to III though they are good especially AOE II. And then there's the Age of Mythology series. I just discovered that I had 1503 A.D. lying with me. It's looks like Colonization (have you played it, it too is very, very good?). I haven't really tried 1503 really, just started but that's all .

Happy Gaming and Peace!

[rhetangle]

I lost my Father to this game and Railroad Tycoon

Without them perhaps my childhood would have been a little richer? Who knows.

Damn you Sid Meier