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This game blew. my. mind. when I was a kid. The first summer we had it, I played it eight hours a day on our IBM PS/2. When school was back in session, I wrote
by jpm_sd 9y ago
This game blew. my. mind. when I was a kid. The first summer we had it, I played it eight hours a day on our IBM PS/2. When school was back in session, I wrote about it and drew maps for school projects. I dreamed about it.
- w0de0 9y agoWhat a joyful connection across generations: I did the same with Civilization III & a Compaq.
- Brendinooo 9y agoCiv III and a Compaq - same! I even got involved making multi-unit graphics over at CivFanatics.
- bergie 9y agoSadly, its sequels still have that same pull. Bought Civ VI on the iPad around Christmas, and have lost countless weekends since...
- spdionis 9y ago* have enjoyed it for countless weekends since. Fixed that for you :).
- untog 9y agoNot mutually exclusive!
- matte_black 9y agobetter to have enjoyed and lost than to never have enjoyed at all
- psyc 9y agoThe game taught me some high-level things at an early age, like cities grow near water, transit lanes are like blood vessels, and food becomes people.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Romanulus 9y agoThat's actually a really good point... it also goes on and shows how viscerally those cities are connected in terms of trade, movement of troops, and thus warfare/conquest. Thank goodness for Civilization on SNES, too. ;)
- acjohnson55 9y agoAnd then people become Soylent Green :)
- kyberias 9y agoNo spoiling of fine movie plots! :)
- Erlangolem 9y agoI used to love games like Oregon Trail and Spaceward Ho as a kid, and I remember dreaming about what games could be as a result. Then Civ came along and it was a revelation. My dreams were nothing, and I fell headfirst in love with Civ. It was the first game I could point to and say, “Do you see that? Can you see where this medium can go from here? The value and pleasure in it?” It was just so deep, and so far beyond anything else I’d ever seen. I think I can honestly say that it was the first game that was at least as good as a great book.
- kakwa_ 9y agoAs a child, I loved this game. I remember spending hours on it, not knowing what I was doing. I had an english version of the game, and being 9 or 10 at the time, I didn't speak a word of english. It took me ages to understand that you could switch from despotism to another form of government (monarchy, republic, etc). I was always wondering why my cities were so small, even with irrigation and railroads everywhere. Also, I didn't have the manual, so with time, I started to learn the tech tree by heart (the "license" verification was based on knowing the parents of a given tech IIRC). I've also read the civilopedia countless times. I'm still proud to have beaten the game in Emperor ^^. I've also spent a lot of time on other Sid Meier's games like Railroad Tycoon or Colonization. Thank you for these lost hours.
- yread 9y agosame here. I was having great fun travelling around with the little carriage and exploring the world. Took like three playthroughs to realize you can and should build a city with it. And being super proud I've learnt a new english word - "granary" was probably in the first 100 english words i knew
- ethbro 9y agoTry being given SimLife at 7. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimLife https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimLife Think my parents may have overreached a little on the educational software, there.
- distances 9y agoI also had this as a kid. I think the game was quite lacking in the "game" aspect, though it was nice to have my new mutated orchid overtake the world.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- paulclinger 9y agoI had the same experience. I was a bit older, but didn't know much English either and had a printed copy of Civilopedia with me to study. It was fun experience both playing the game and studying English (and a bit of history) at the same time. I still occasionally play it with my kids.
- pimeys 9y agoIf I wasn't so good at mathematics, my teacher would've probably called my mom for me being late so often when I just needed to play one more turn before bed and one more turn before going to school...
- adaven_xt 9y agoThat's your problem right there. We convinced the teacher of it's historical merits and brought the game to class each day to play after we completed our assignments!
- jwdunne 9y agoThat's genius. I feel like I've missed crucial Civ time now!
- isostatic 9y agoI had an RE gcse exam (a mock I think) in about 95. One question was "describe a creation story". So I wrote something very close to this: In the beginning the earth was without form, and void. But the sun shone upon the sleeping earth, And deep inside the brittle crust, massive forces waited to be unleashed. The seas parted, and great continents were formed. Mountains arose, earthquakes spawned massive tidal waves. Volcanoes erupted and spewed forth fiery lava, And charged the atmosphere with strange gasses. Into this swirling maelstrom of fire and air and water, The first stirrings of life appeared. Tiny organisms, cells and amoeba, clinging to tiny sheltered habitats. But the seeds of life grew, and strengthened, and spread, and diversified, and prospered. And soon every continent and climate teemed with life. And with life came instinct, and specialization, natural selection, reptiles, dinosaurs and mammals. And finally there evolved a species known as man. And there appeared the first faint glimmers of intelligence. The fruits of intelligence were many: Fire, tools, and weapons, The hunt, farming, and the sharing of food, The family, the village, and the tribe. Now it required but one more ingredient: A great leader to unite the quarrelling tribes, To harness the power of the land, To build a legacy that would stand the test of time: A CIVILIZATION!
- jd20 9y agoAlso brings back memories for me. I was never good at managing many cities, focusing on a few megacities instead and opting for large scale nuclear war :) Kinda reminds me of another game I used to play around that time, Global Effect. Civ.exe was also the first game I customized. I was entertained to no end when I found out you could use a hex editor to change the strings. I rewrote the introductory text, and gave all the leaders new dialogue. That was also probably around when I started getting more interested in how games worked, rather than just playing them...
- Namrog84 9y agoAs an amateur game developer and professional developer. I got into both because of similar origins of things. I do wonder though how modern games and tools are both easier to use but also more complex how it will shape the next few generations of devs and game designers.
- alanfalcon 9y agoRedEdit in the system 7 days was a godsend in my life. Hacking new sounds into Maelstrom. Changing character names in Pararena. Stumbling into learning what a sprite was.
- kolpa 9y agoResEdit. A word I haven't seen in decades, still one ECC pointer hop from top-of-mind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ResEdit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ResEdit
- kzrdude 9y agoAnd it was a staple of Escape Velocity plugin editing too. Very fun program for a child with an old mac at that time.
- lowdest 9y agoThe ResEdit days! I changed every sound in Marathon to the point it was unplayable. I had no idea what I was doing but I was fascinated.