Sid Meier, MicroProse, and the Making of Civilization (Kim Justice video)

[gagewood]

The original Civ was a huge part of my early gaming years. I poured an insane amount of hours into that game. Civ II is imo the best in the series, or at least of the first three games (I didn't put many hours into IV or V, and I haven't played VI). Civ II all but perfected the formula of the original.

I actually had the Windows version of Civ which was slightly easier on the eyes and allowed you to resize and move the main, map, and status windows on the screen. I can still recall all the sound effects and music for each civilization/leader.

 

[Robin]

Cool! I'll give this a watch when I get out of work. I missed out on the first Civilization but I remember Civ 2 very fondly.

 

[Angst72]

Sid Meier has undoubtedly made some classic games where the gameplay loop still holds up today. I've sunk countless hours into the civ franchise, but my personal favorite is Pirates! The old games, not the dumbed down remaster from the early 2000s.

 

[Graefellsom]

I remember dropping a nuclear bomb on a barbarian diplomat and getting the ransom money.

Still one of my favourite games ever. I'm not sure I ever played it without cheats like instant road building and irrigation tho. Or unfortifying enemy units and selling their buildings so I got more money.

My favourite mechanic was taking over the captial of a large empire and it splitting into two civs that made no sense at all.

 

[Prolepro]

Cool! I'll give this a watch when I get out of work. I missed out on the first Civilization but I remember Civ 2 very fondly.

Click to shrink...

Same. First and probably only game my dad and I bonded over.

 

[woopWOOP]

I played Civ1 a lot at my aunt's place, but never went for very long and always started a new game next time I came over. The intro was cool to look at!

I had no clue how cities worked, so I just built them wherever, usually too close to each other. One time I even had my capital surrounded by cities (don't remember if Civ1 allowed building cities right next to each other?) and I thought I was being super smart because now no enemy units could get to my capital!

Civ2 was an amazing sequel and I even played that one multiplayer against a friend a bunch, many years later. I really liked how they allowed for "custom" civilizations where you could change the names and enter anything for the leader, nation name and unit adjective.

Skipped 3 and 5, but spent a shitload of time playing Civ4 with different mods and Civ6 on Switch is pretty good (tho I really want those expansions please).
So yeah, Civ been a big part of my gaming life, so this making of is cool to see how it all came together.

 

[BrutalInsane]

Not just Civilization, but MicroProse was such a big part of my gaming youth. Any game by them I knew I was getting quality and something that pushed the boundaries . . . Pirates, Gunship, Airborne Ranger, their line of sims such as F14, F15 and the speculative F19. They had a stretch in the 90s that was incredible, around the time of Civ, Masters of Magic and the original Xcom.

I remember reading the argument that they were pushing out too many quality titles in the 90s that they were cannibalizing sales from each other, pushing their sales totals down, which lead to their demise. Makes sense in my eyes.

I feel the same way about 80s and 90s Electronic Arts and SSI. How the mighty have fallen.

Oh and funny story, when I was working at a certain game company, I saw his name on the internal chat up for all the companies under the publishers banner. I was so tempted to fanboy chat him as I knew I was on the way out, but didn't. Kind of kicking myself for it, but I wanted to stay professional.

 

[ParanormalFupa]

Good stuff. I also recommend the Designer Notes podcast episodes with Sid Meier.

 

[Silvergun-Blue]

I'll watch this when eating my dinner tonight.
If you guys like this, check out KJ's other documentary videos, particularly if you're interested in learning about the UK gaming scene in the '80s and early '90s.
Kim's super thorough research wise.

 

[Confusatron]

Thanks for posting! I know what I'm watching during lunch today!