So, what lead you to the Civ series?

Played Civ 1 when I was a kid. Don't remember exactly how I got it, all I remember was that I was completely hooked. Same thing with Civ II and III. Mostly I remember very long loading times between turns in late game Civ III.

On the day Civ 4 was released, I was competing in the finals of the national sudoku championships. I didn't do very well that day, only got 4th place for a t-shirt and a 50€ gift certificate to a nearby department store. From there I marched straight to the department store and used the gift certificate to pick up Civ 4. Have been playing on and off since then.

I did buy Civ 5 about 6 months ago, but it's still in factory sealed condition...
 
I got Civ 2 at around age 13-14. I never touched any peasant console ever since. I was converted to PC games by both Civ 2 and Baldurs Gate.
 
I was a 40-year old history nut with very little knowledge of computer games.

I picked up Age of Empires II at Costco because I wanted to play as the Byzantines (strange reason, but that was it). I got to really enjoy the game on my old computer. I got to enjoy the series but I was also more of a turn-based player than real-time. Given that I play competitive bridge I don't like feeling rushed.

I noticed CivIII was turn-based and bought it and later CivIII complete. Loved it and played the devil out of the game, especially the scenarios. When CivIV came out I grabbed it and thought it was even better. I still have a soft spot in my heart for CivIII and play it occasionally but I like CivIV more and play it a lot. Given my history leanings I play RFC more than the base game.

When CivV came out I was enjoying RFC. I looked at the reviews of the game and found that most players didn't like it. When I looked at their reasons I realized it was 2 steps back (worse than III) so have never bought it.

So now I'm past 50 and playing RFC.
 
My best friend had the first Civ on his Mac. A lot of nostalgia for that game but we were real young and basically could only keep up on the easier difficulties. Years and years later when in the navy, my roommate couldn't stop talking about this game that he left on the easy setting and would just conquer and obliterate the computer players. I knew it was Civ but this was Civ 3 and after all the expansions already came out. I played feverishly until the wee hours.

Then I saw Civ4 brand new in E2 or whatever that game store was called. I snatched it up and have been off the wagon ever since. Been 10 years and counting!
 
I was in bar ads in 1994. Sitting with a buddy of mine during an interminable lecture on I forget what.

He mentions that he has a cool new game called Civilization. I can’t remember what he said about it, except snippets that included “start a nation from scratch”, “lots of wars” and “got nuked by Gandhi”. He handed me two 3.5” disks for me to copy to my PC.

I took the game home after class. Loaded it. Started a game when dinner was cooking.

Didn’t go to bed until 4AM. I was hooked.


Fast forward a few years; I was talking with a guy I used to play D&D with. We talked a bit about computer games and I mentioned liking Civilization. And then he mentioned that there was a SEQUEL! With more units, more techs, and a way to make those useless coastal cities productive (the Offshore Platform). I upgraded to Civ2 shortly afterwards.

A year later, I found Apolyton. A few years after that, I was directed to Civfanatics for a free (pirated) upgrade to Civ2 MGE. Reading posts on Apolyton and CFC led me to avoid Civ3, buy Civ4 (and BTS) and avoid Civ5.
 
I started out on Civilization 2, in perhaps 2000... and it was the console edition for Playstation. I loved it even though I wasnt very good. The game would have load times that were many minutes long in the later stages. I would take a turn and go do something else (I was in college so it probably consisted of some sort of consumption).

So later Civ III came out and I loved that. Civ IV, same, although I put it away at first because my CPU labored on it, and also the game was much harder and more complex than previous editions. I was still in constant land-grab mode too

Civ V I didnt like playing 4 hours. CPU labored. Havent touched it since Day 1. I got a new CPU... gonna give it a try along with BE....



However, I just find myself playing Civ IV still, lol
 
Thormodr said:
I loved the Civilization board game back in the day. :)



So when the Civilization computer game came out, I was intrigued to say the least. :D
Click to expand...

That was pretty much my experience.

TheMulattoMaker said:
Setting: An apartment in suburban Detroit, mid-1991. A rather dorky-looking 13-year old sits in a recliner and flips through his dad’s PC game magazine*. His eyes fall on a picture† showing a map of a continent not of this Earth. Intrigued, he reads the article accompanying the picture.

Dork: Hey Dad! We should totally get this rad game.‡
Dad: What game?
Dork: This game. (Shows father the article.) It’s called “Civilization”. Looks kinda like SimCity, but with a whole continent. And armies and planes and stuff. And you can, like, build the Pyramids and stuff.
Dad: Hmm… I dunno. We’ve been buying an awful lot of games lately.
Dork: But this one was made by that guy who made Railroad Tycoon. And… Red Storm Rising. And Gunship and Strike Eagle. And, uh, I guess pretty much every game we have except King’s Quest V.
Dad: Okay, fine, maybe we’ll look for it at the computer show tomorrow.

Narrator: Predictably, Dork was unsuccessful in his attempt to locate a brand-new game among the Shareware titles that weekend. He would broach the subject again that Sunday evening, while mounting a desperate defense against the Soviet juggernaut invading Kwangtung.

Dork: Y’know, Dad, that Civilization game has all the same stuff from Axis & Allies, I bet. I know there’s tanks and battleships and probably factories too.
Dad: You’re just trying to distract me. Shoulda moved your AA gun here from Japan.
Dork: I read in that article that they even made a map to look just like Earth- I bet we could set up a game where the Russians actually do invade Eastern China.
Dad: (rolls dice) Eight hits from my tanks and fighters.
Dork: grumbles

Narrator: Dork would try, and try, and try again to reason with his father. For six months Dork petitioned to have this new “Civilization” game added to the pantheon. Not a day went by that the game was not mentioned. During this time, dubbed “The Great Pestering”, Dork’s father’s remaining brown hair turned gray, and it is believed that adoption, military prep school, and third-world sweatshops were all considered as a means of ending the questioning. Until one day…

Dad: (entering apartment) Hey [Dork’s first name], I got ya something.
Dork: You went to the store, right? Did you get taco pizza?
Dad: Well, yeah, but that’s not what I was talking about. Hold on, I gotta do something on the computer real quick.
Dork: (absentmindedly) …kay. (Continues playing Centurion on the Genesis.)

A short while later…

Dad: Okay, c’mere, check this out.
(Dork approaches the computer and happens to notice a semi-buried box that wasn’t there before. On it appears to be a pharaoh buried under a modern city. A faint hope rises in Dork’s consciousness but he dare not speak its name.)
Dad: Got this thing, wanted to see if you might like it.
(On the monitor is a beautiful rendering of outer space, panning towards a planet being formed in 16 glorious colors. State-of-the-art speakers bleep out an unknown tune. Unfamiliar names scroll by, as Dork’s father made sure that Dork missed the first twenty seconds of the intro, so as not to spoil the surprise. Dork gradually realizes the truth…)
Dork: OHMYGODHOLYCRAPDADYOUREFREAKINAWESOMEWHOOOOAAAA
Dad: …breathe.

Narrator: After settling down, and after a rather unfulfilling five minutes of confusion, the Dad/Dork team realized that the blinking Cheshire grin was, in fact, a settler. A settler that they could move towards the blackness and uncover new lands. And, after several centuries of random exploring in which they discovered oceans, mountain ranges, and a small tribe that gave them money for some reason, they accidently discovered that they could create a city. The Dorkan civilization was founded.

The next year of Dork’s life was spent in the following cycle: Wake up. “Help” Dad play Civ. Wait impatiently for Dad to go to work. Load saved game from last night. Play Civ until the very last second before sprinting to the bus stop. Slog through school thinking about the next fifty turns. Race home. Play Civ until Dad comes home from work. Grudgingly give up the computer, usually with helpful reminders about who pays the bills. “Help” Dad some more. Try to stay awake longer than Dad in order to get in a few turns before falling asleep. Dream about crushing the Zulus in nuclear fire. Rinse. Repeat.

…and I guess I’ve been a Fanatic since then. :goodjob:

Notes:
*A “magazine”, in this case, is, uh, a collection of gaming website printouts. See “Archaic forms of information”.
†i.e., a screenshot.
‡Sorry, but if you aren’t from the 90’s, you don’t get to know what “rad” means.

In related news, holy crap did this video bring back memories. :love:

And, adding to the discussion- Lennier, that's a pic of The Eternal War. That dude started that game ten (real) years ago, and has been fighting the same war for 1700 (game) years.

Also, the High Council should have been mandatory for every version of Civ after II. That foreign-affairs girl... :cooool:
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing this great memory!:goodjob:
 
Tatran said:
I saw a (p)review like the one below on tv in 1991.


Link to video.
Click to expand...

That was awesome! Thanks for that. :D

I also loved spying Pool of Radiance, Pirates and EOB (Eye of the Beholder) on the shelf. Those were heady gaming days. *Sigh* :cheers:
 
Got original Civ when it first came out. My CGA computer couldn't handle it well. Brought it over to my friend's with his VGA computer, and it looked and played much better. So I went over there several times to play Civ.

Later got Civ 2 and all the expansions. It was awesome. The built-in editor was awesome. Caravans were broken, but awesome.

Didn't like Alpha Centauri and Civ 3. Mainly I couldn't stand their color palettes. AC was all dark brown and green, while Civ 3 was too fluorescent, even the water.

Civ 4 was great all around. Lots of new stuff added. Great balance between sandbox and simulation. Modding capabilities opened up so much possibilities.

I actually like Civ Rev. Much simplified, but still provides a great feeling of controlling your empire. Also the civ and leader abilities were unique and fun. Aztecs are my favorite.

Civ 5 was hugely disappointing. No longer feel total control over my empire. The game centered around 1UPT, ironically that destroyed the other parts of the game. Instead of stacks of doom, you have carpet of doom, which is even more annoying and tedious. So now i'm back with Civ 4 on PC and Civ Rev on mobile / NDS.
 
Found a interesting game on the Internet called Civilization, it was very similar to the RTS games i played since i born. downloaded a demo from Civ 4, from first look i fought the game was boring with that turn system and deleted it. Some months after, i was at a Computer Shop and found the game for 12 Reals/5 Dollars, and remembered how it was boring and ignored it. a month later Civilization Revolution was free for Xbox Live Gold out, played it, got addicted, at the first hour of gameplay i was dressing me up to go to the shop and buy Civ 4 and find the they were selling Civ 5 also and bought it.
 
In the town I grew up in, there was a library.
The library had a few PCs with the main purposes of connecting to the new Internet (There was a stand with monthly magazines. With each magazine you would get a CD-ROM containing the current image of the internet, for off-line browsing) and searching the book-catalogues.
The library also served as a meeting place for young geeky boys like myself, who would gather around their common interests: D&D, Magic: The Gathering, and computer games.
Eventually, the same library commissioned PCs on which games you could loan were installed, for visitors to try out the games before taking them home. One of these games were Civilization 2, and after trying it once or twice I was hooked. Every day, I would come into the library first thing after school and play Civ until I was required at home in the evening. I bought the game for my 4MB RAM, 16 MHz 486SX computer with Windows 3.11, never minding that I only met 1/4th of the minimum hardware demands of the game. I could run it in 4-colour if I stripped the game down to a bare minimum, and the 'fast move' setting meant that I -only- had to wait ~5 seconds for each unit to move. But it was all okay: I was playing Civ at home, meaning the librarians and the other kids would no longer complain at me for hogging the computer all day, and my parents would not be worried if I came home late after having to take that extra turn to complete another wonder, conclude a war or found a few more cities
I eventually got a better computer and figured out how to beat the game at every level (cities. Lots of cities. Beeline Trade for caravans, beeline pottery and monotheism for happiness wonders. If in doubt, build more settlers and/or caravans for wonder spam).
I played Civ 3 when it came out, but the game seemed unpolished and off-balance after my intimate tangle with Civ 2. Civ 4 came and it felt like a fixed version of #3, and I was hooked all over.. BTS was like lifting off the first tray in a box of chocolate, to find even more chocolates :D
 
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