When did you first start playing Civilization?

[TheGrandWazoo]

Civ 1! And before that I was playing Empire, which is sometimes considered a pre-cursor. Played all variants since, including Alpha Centauri and Colonization.

And coincidentally I was cleaning out the garage when I came across this:

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Still have the floppies and even an Amiga. Wonder if it works...

Brilliant, I remember those massive boxes for games! I like how the PC screenshot is "IBM" version even though there were many compatibles that could probably run it!

 

[Depravo]

To be pedantic, the Civ boardgame. I was hardxxxcore enough to get the Western Extension Map by mail order, as it was then. (I also came to Europe Universalis through the boardgame... for which I also own the expension. Yes I have kissed a girl.)

I used to babysit circa 1995 for a family that had CivNET and that was that. I picked up Civ 2 as soon as it came out for the Mac.

 

[Zilkin]

I saw a review of Civ1 in a Finnish computer magazine called MikroBitti. I still even kinda remember one of the pictures in that review. It was a late game pic with railroads everywhere in the X in a box graphic Civ1 had, I thought it looked awesome!

What kept as loyal fan is simply how good the games were, and are. The games have been improving since Civ1, and Civ5 BNW is the best iteration yet.

 

[tranx]

I was in high school at that time (1996), and a friend kept telling me about that awesome game called Civilization, a game where you could conquer lands, grow cities, build armies, research techs, launch nukes... I couldn't play the game because my family's home computer was an Amstrad CPC 6128, but I loved to hear him talking about his games. In my head everything was in 3D, with almost movie-like graphics. On Christmas that year, my parents offered us (me and my brothers and sister) a PC. The first thing I thought when I saw it was : "I can play Civilization now". I got the game, and although the graphics weren't exactly as good as I had imagined them, I was not the least disappointed. Heck! The very first all-nighter I pulled was on Civ1 !

To be pedantic, the Civ boardgame.

The boardgame (its french version looked like this) looked awesome but I've never played it. Thought about buying it once or twice back then but never actually did.

 

[jjkrause84]

The board game actually differs considerably from the video games. One of its core features was trading resource cards that made more points as you got more of the same type (because you would corner the markets). And the goal was to advance from 4000 BCE to 250 BCE, with spaceships and all that modern humbug left out.

The board game is AWFUL. All it is is overly complicated 'Go Fish'. Severely disappointing.

 

[paulcarri]

Im old..probably to old to be playing computer games!!

I was a first year uni student when i saw the IT tech playing a game on the computers, it turned out to be civ I and i was hooked.

Ive played all of them (aside from five ironically which ive just bought) and all the spin offs, smac, ctp etc.


The only other game ive ever spent a lot of time on was ELITE when i was a kid (it was on the bbc micro)

God im old, bet noone remembers that!

 

[paulcarri]

Brilliant, I remember those massive boxes for games! I like how the PC screenshot is "IBM" version even though there were many compatibles that could probably run it!

God yeah you used to get all sorts, wall charts with tech trees, posters, massive printed manuals..heck my first game (elite) had a novella specially written for it and included

 

[Depravo]

The board game is AWFUL. All it is is overly complicated 'Go Fish'. Severely disappointing.

Perhaps you're right but I have halcyon memories of it due to not knowing any better at the time. 'We've only one virginity to lose, and where we've lost it there our hearts will be.'

 

[fotonut]

The only other game ive ever spent a lot of time on was ELITE when i was a kid (it was on the bbc micro)

Right under my Civ box in the garage I found the box for Elite II... Never played Elite though, but did spend a lot of time on this version.

 

[kkapalk]

2005, civ 3. I instantly was hooked on it. I played it for a good five months solid. I eventually got bored and stopped playing. Then I bought civ 4 when it came out but didn't find it appealing at all. This Christmas I got civ 5 and am still playing it every day. I find it an incredible game, so much fun. beautiful graphics too!

 

[Lunchmoney]

Started on Civ 1.

Right under my Civ box in the garage I found the box for Elite II... Never played Elite though, but did spend a lot of time on this version.

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I played a little Elite. Played a lot of Elite: Frontier. And played huge amounts of Frontier: First Encounters. And am part of the kickstarter for Elite: Dangerous
But that's a bit off topic

 

[Snes]

During my childhood, we had Civ I for the SNES and Civ II: Test of Time for the PC. Pretty sure we had Civ I first.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Of the games listed, civ2, but it might have been Alpha Centauri. Pretty sure it was civ2. I skipped civ3, not sure what I was doing at the time, my memory of my youth is pretty hazy. Got back into Civ4 in highschool with the vanilla+warlords combo pack.

I was very pleased with civ5, in no small part because the Greek UU was the hoplite, instead of the phalanx. That was an idea I posted in the "What do we want in civ 5?" thread, so I feel pretty good about that. I was also a supporter of a 1u/t and a restriction of some sort on horizontal growth, so I had a big trollface.jpg grin during the global happiness forum rage.

 

[shaglio]

As I said in the “First Civ Fail” thread, I started playing during the summer between my senior year of High School and freshman year of College (way back in 1992). I was sleeping over my cousin’s house and he showed Civ 1 to me. I immediately fell in love with it and I started playing it like a fanatic. I loved to explore, but I never built any buildings in my capital because of the maintenance costs.

I kept running into problems with all the barbs popping up from the shadows, and I never got very far in any of my games. One day I figured I’d go ahead and build some buildings, economy be damned. It was then that I realized how to properly play the game and I started winning finally. I loved Civ 2, I liked Civ 3, I didn’t care for Civ 4 very much, and I was apprehensive at first about Civ 5 because of all the dramatic changes.

But I have to say that Civ 5 is my favorite version so far. It’s the first version that I finally dared to play above the lowest level, and I’d been consistently winning on Prince, with about a 50% win rate on King in G&K. I even won an Emperor game once, but I’ve dropped back down to Warlord with BNW until I fully grasp the new mechanics. Then I’ll work my way back up the ladder.

 

[Depravo]

I loved to explore, but I never built any buildings in my capital because of the maintenance costs.

I kept running into problems with all the barbs popping up from the shadows, and I never got very far in any of my games. One day I figured I’d go ahead and build some buildings, economy be damned. It was then that I realized how to properly play the game and I started winning finally.

Yeah, some of the mistakes I made with Civnet at first want to make me kick my own arse. For a start, I used to pack cities together without regard for the 'fat cross' and only caught on when I happened to found a remote city that grew to a massive size when all the others were foundering around the 3-5 mark. I also used to build tons of fortresses for no good reason and had a very tenuous grasp of civil disorder and the economy in general. Magic memories.

 

[WChrisMullen]

I played Civ II an insane amount since its first release. At the time my dad was the one who bought all computer games in the house, and he didn't like Civ III very much from what he had played at my aunt and uncle's house, so we never got that one. By the time Civ IV rolled around, I played it a bit but didn't get into it much. I got Civ V Vanilla at release, but my crap-top could just barely run it. No way it could have handled anything larger than a small sized map. I got a better computer by the time Gods and Kings released.

 

[noontide]

but I think he would have preferred Civ IV anyway!

I know ppl here don't like hearing this but I still think Civ V is a less well-thought (from developers' point of view) and enjoyable (for players, well, me at least!) game compared with Civ IV. Then again I'm old. I have very similar experience with the Elder Scroll series. I think Morrowind is a master piece by any standard, Oblivion and Skyrim pales in comparison.

 

[_invy_]

I started with Alpha Centauri and was looking for similar games and found Civ 3. I remember being dissappointed with how crappy Civ 3 feels after cool AC story, factions, tech and environment. Anyway I played it a lot - still remember how I didn't like corruption system.
Civ 4 was very very good improvement afterwards, with many different ways to play the game - just beautiful. but later on it did become a bit silly with stack of doom + catapults gameplay. Played civ 4 for countless hours.
Civ 5 was disappointing after civ 5 because of dumb tactical AI that couldn't handle fighting at all. Also underwhelming were tile improvements, while in civ 4 you felt when you improved that crabs, fish or mines, Civ 5 in comparistion was meh +1 food for 6 worker turns. G&K improved game a lot, and now with BnW I can play the game happily until civ 6 at least.

 

[simonthesinner]

I've been playing since the earth was without form, and void. Civ 1 was my first civ in 1991. Played the hell out of civ 1 and civ 2, especially civ 2 with the WW2 mods. Disn't play as much civ 3, played a bit civ 4 and civ 5. Started playing more civ 5 after G&K and more still after BNW.

 

[Gaizokubanou]

Civ 2. Got Civ 3 but didn't play it much for some reason. Then got into cIV and ciV.