SUMMARY:
Amazingly the first 2 big Civilization games that started it all are still not legally sold in any digital stores (& can only be found on archive & dodgy warez sites) while other classic Microprose games and all later Civ games are all being digitally sold. Presumably the pre Firaxis Civ games seem to be stuck in some sort of licensing hell they need to be rescued from. Only fans voting and making themselves heard can possibly change that. Yes some classic Civ fans probably still have their original discs & CDs like I do and don't need another copy, but plenty probably don't now and these games should really be back in stores, easily accessible, ready to run without config hassle, and getting more attention again! More fans returning to these classic Civ games injects new life into this community and it's modding scene! Expand the spoiler full pitch area below for more details on the situation and the technical hurdles that have been overcome.
FULL PITCH:
VOTING LINKS:
* votes updated 23/02/2024 for comparison to original 11/02/2022 figures.
Civ1&2&ToT combination wish lists:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/civilization_1_2 (12.0k* was 9.1k votes) - GoG merged with Civ1 groups
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sid_meiers_civilization_123 (5.3k* was 4.9k votes - note Civ3 is already on GoG)
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sid_meiers_civilization_i_and_ii (2.6k* was 2.3k votes)
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/civilization_2_civilization_2_test_of_time (708* was 222 votes) - GoG merged with ToT group
Civilization 1 only wish lists:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sid_meiers_civilization_1 (5.0k* was 4.6k votes) - GoG closed and merged with Civ1&2 group above.
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/civilization_i (998* was 735 votes) - GoG closed and merged with Civ1&2 group above
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/civilization_i_dos_version (385* was 147 votes) - GoG closed and merged with Civ1&2 group above
Civilization 2 only wish lists:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sid_meiers_civilization_ii_1 (11.2k* was 10.3k votes)
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/civilization_ii_fantastic_worlds_1 (1.17k* was 951 votes)
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sid_meiers_civilization_ii_conflicts_in_civilization (640* was 400 votes)
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sid_meiers_civilization_ii_multiplayer_gold_edition (397* was 252 votes)
Civ2 Test of Time only wish lists:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/civilization_ii_test_of_time (2.2k* was 1.7k votes)
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/civilization_2_tot (288* was 190 votes) - GoG closed and merged with Civ2&ToT group above.
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/civilizations_test_of_time (198* was 130 votes)
I've also created a thread on the Civilization series GoG forum that I believe is monitored in some capacity by GoG staff and the current license holder. So feel free to post a supportive comment in there too!
https://www.gog.com/forum/sid_meier..._i_and_ii_mge_test_of_time_to_be_added_to_gog
1 Year anniversary - Roughly 2,750 more votes than original!
2 Year anniversary - Roughly 6,650 more votes than original!
.
Amazingly the first 2 big Civilization games that started it all are still not legally sold in any digital stores (& can only be found on archive & dodgy warez sites) while other classic Microprose games and all later Civ games are all being digitally sold. Presumably the pre Firaxis Civ games seem to be stuck in some sort of licensing hell they need to be rescued from. Only fans voting and making themselves heard can possibly change that. Yes some classic Civ fans probably still have their original discs & CDs like I do and don't need another copy, but plenty probably don't now and these games should really be back in stores, easily accessible, ready to run without config hassle, and getting more attention again! More fans returning to these classic Civ games injects new life into this community and it's modding scene! Expand the spoiler full pitch area below for more details on the situation and the technical hurdles that have been overcome.
FULL PITCH:
Spoiler Click to expand :
Hey guys,
We've talked about this a bit before in that SL rebuild thread but it's time for us fans to try and fix a bit of a silly wrong in the Civilization world and franchise. In that basically Sid Meier's Civilization 1 the game that started it all, along with all iterations of Sid Meier's Civilization 2 a game considered to be one of the greatest of all time (to this day it still ends up in top 50 or 100 lists in gaming media) are somehow still not on Good old Games or Steam and cannot be legally purchased anywhere other than in the secondhand markets.
Regardless of which game in the series is your favourite (ie many love 3, 4, 5, & 6) it's time for all us Civ series fans to band together to try and fix this problem that has gone on for long enough! I'm also going to post this around all the Civ communities to see if we can get some momentum on this and hopefully get some attention.
Colonization, Master of Magic, and Master of Orion 1&2 are on both platforms these days and unlike many old games that are still lost in limbo due to only being 16bit Windows apps neither problem truly exists with these 2 classic Civ games so is the problem simply that the current license holder has forgotten about them? Or are they stuck in a licensing limo out of reach like some other Microprose games? Civ 1 & 2's source code is likely long lost however the source codes were lost for those other Microprose games I just listed above and it didn't stop them being re-released by their respective current license holders as quite franky it wasn't needed (would have been nice though lol).
Sid Meier's Civilization 1 is a DOS game and these days DOS games are all sold on these sites inside a Dosbox setup. Civilization for Windows & CivNET were unfortunately 16bit windows apps so it's unlikely we'll get them unless the source is found (which is a shame as I recently got CivWin working in HD) or GoG make a deal with the WineVDM guys (an app that plays 16bit games on modern OS without needing a VM), but there should be no 'technical' excuse for not putting Civ1 DOS back out there again at the very least. EDIT: Also I've recently been informed that CivNET uses Civ2 like CD audio tracks system however there's a CD audio track emulator GoG uses that could fix that.
Sid Meier's Civilization 2 vanilla along with its Conflicts in Civilization and Fantastic Worlds addons were 16bit Win applications so once again it's unlikely we'll get them (unless WineVDM is used), HOWEVER the Multiplayer Gold Edition (MGE) re-release of Civ2 (with it's 2 addons included) was a 32bit application and there is a freely available fan patch by FoxAhead that further ensure's it's fully compatible with modern 64bit systems. Yes MGE made some changes some people didn't like however once again there is a excellent freely available Civ2UIA fan tool by FoxAhead that disables those things (ie over aggressive AI) to make it feel more like classic Civ2 again, along with adding some nice new features and disabling the CD check. Civ2 was built to play videos off the hard drive (if you copied them off the cd) and in 2024 FoxAhead's Civ2UIA now supports MP3 music (& other formats) which truly removes the need for the old CD (yes it also removes the CD check too). The game also works fine without music so even if they wanted to keep things simple there should again be no serious 'technical' excuse for not putting Civ2 back out there again, just a matter of getting some fan permissions and cutting through some licensing red tape.
Civilization 2 Test of Time was built from MGE so naturally it is also a 32bit application and once again the same fan patch mentioned above by FoxAhead also works with ToT ensuring full compatibility with modern 64 bit OS. Just like MGE, ToT supports playing videos off the hard drive (if you copied them off the cd) so no troubles there. On top of all that the excellent ToT Patch Project by TheNamelessOne has made many many improvements including better graphics, improved video playing and MP3 music support which truly removes the need for the old CD (yes it also removes the CD check too). So once again there would be no serious technical excuse for not putting ToT back out there again, just a matter of getting some fan permissions and cutting through some licensing red tape.
Steam doesn't really have a missing game wishlist list however Good old Games does and when games get a lot of wish list attention it often prompts GoG to chase after the license holders themselves. In many cases they've worked with fans to include some of the fan made patches and mods to ensure modern system compatibility too which has been awesome! And then most of the time (but not always) after the license holder has gone to the effort to set things up on GoG they'll go and do Steam too.
So we just need to get their attention! I've done some searches on GoG and there are many Civ wishlists. Below are all the biggest ones I could find so if you're a big Civ1-2 fan or you're a later Civ games fan that wants to help your Civ loving brothers and sisters right a wrong then please visit these wish lists and click the little +1 plus one button. If you don't want to visit them all then just visit the first one under each section as that's the biggest one! If you think it's all a waste of time doom and gloom etc maybe you're right but please please please click on the wish buttons in the links below anyway as hey.. it can't hurt to try and then you can totally come back here and say we're wasting our time haha. So many other 'difficult situation' games out there that were less successful that Civ made it to GoG due to big fan wishlists showing that the money would be there so why not classic Civ too!
EDIT: Unfortunately I'm getting a lot of snarky and unhelpful comments on social media sites I've shared this with suggesting lots of alternative actions to helping with this campaign so I guess despite this already being a massive post due to me trying to cover every base an extra big disclaimer is still needed lol. Yes there's probably little chance of this working, yes many of us still have our CDs, yes there are copies on ebay, yes many abandonware and archive sites offer free copies of them, yes there are similar alternatives like FreeCiv & C-Evo, and yes maybe you like one of the sequels more. However none of that means Civ1 & Civ2 should not be brought back from exile and sold in modern digital stores like Civ3-6 are, like plenty of other formerly lost Microprose games are, and like many other games from that mid 90s era are that were FAR less successful. To say otherwise is missing the point of the post, as this is about getting these great old games back out into the world, getting them out of exile and the lost backwaters of the internet, making them easier to get working, and also injecting a bit of fresh life back into their fan communities!
We've talked about this a bit before in that SL rebuild thread but it's time for us fans to try and fix a bit of a silly wrong in the Civilization world and franchise. In that basically Sid Meier's Civilization 1 the game that started it all, along with all iterations of Sid Meier's Civilization 2 a game considered to be one of the greatest of all time (to this day it still ends up in top 50 or 100 lists in gaming media) are somehow still not on Good old Games or Steam and cannot be legally purchased anywhere other than in the secondhand markets.
Regardless of which game in the series is your favourite (ie many love 3, 4, 5, & 6) it's time for all us Civ series fans to band together to try and fix this problem that has gone on for long enough! I'm also going to post this around all the Civ communities to see if we can get some momentum on this and hopefully get some attention.
Colonization, Master of Magic, and Master of Orion 1&2 are on both platforms these days and unlike many old games that are still lost in limbo due to only being 16bit Windows apps neither problem truly exists with these 2 classic Civ games so is the problem simply that the current license holder has forgotten about them? Or are they stuck in a licensing limo out of reach like some other Microprose games? Civ 1 & 2's source code is likely long lost however the source codes were lost for those other Microprose games I just listed above and it didn't stop them being re-released by their respective current license holders as quite franky it wasn't needed (would have been nice though lol).
Sid Meier's Civilization 1 is a DOS game and these days DOS games are all sold on these sites inside a Dosbox setup. Civilization for Windows & CivNET were unfortunately 16bit windows apps so it's unlikely we'll get them unless the source is found (which is a shame as I recently got CivWin working in HD) or GoG make a deal with the WineVDM guys (an app that plays 16bit games on modern OS without needing a VM), but there should be no 'technical' excuse for not putting Civ1 DOS back out there again at the very least. EDIT: Also I've recently been informed that CivNET uses Civ2 like CD audio tracks system however there's a CD audio track emulator GoG uses that could fix that.
Sid Meier's Civilization 2 vanilla along with its Conflicts in Civilization and Fantastic Worlds addons were 16bit Win applications so once again it's unlikely we'll get them (unless WineVDM is used), HOWEVER the Multiplayer Gold Edition (MGE) re-release of Civ2 (with it's 2 addons included) was a 32bit application and there is a freely available fan patch by FoxAhead that further ensure's it's fully compatible with modern 64bit systems. Yes MGE made some changes some people didn't like however once again there is a excellent freely available Civ2UIA fan tool by FoxAhead that disables those things (ie over aggressive AI) to make it feel more like classic Civ2 again, along with adding some nice new features and disabling the CD check. Civ2 was built to play videos off the hard drive (if you copied them off the cd) and in 2024 FoxAhead's Civ2UIA now supports MP3 music (& other formats) which truly removes the need for the old CD (yes it also removes the CD check too). The game also works fine without music so even if they wanted to keep things simple there should again be no serious 'technical' excuse for not putting Civ2 back out there again, just a matter of getting some fan permissions and cutting through some licensing red tape.
Civilization 2 Test of Time was built from MGE so naturally it is also a 32bit application and once again the same fan patch mentioned above by FoxAhead also works with ToT ensuring full compatibility with modern 64 bit OS. Just like MGE, ToT supports playing videos off the hard drive (if you copied them off the cd) so no troubles there. On top of all that the excellent ToT Patch Project by TheNamelessOne has made many many improvements including better graphics, improved video playing and MP3 music support which truly removes the need for the old CD (yes it also removes the CD check too). So once again there would be no serious technical excuse for not putting ToT back out there again, just a matter of getting some fan permissions and cutting through some licensing red tape.
Steam doesn't really have a missing game wishlist list however Good old Games does and when games get a lot of wish list attention it often prompts GoG to chase after the license holders themselves. In many cases they've worked with fans to include some of the fan made patches and mods to ensure modern system compatibility too which has been awesome! And then most of the time (but not always) after the license holder has gone to the effort to set things up on GoG they'll go and do Steam too.
So we just need to get their attention! I've done some searches on GoG and there are many Civ wishlists. Below are all the biggest ones I could find so if you're a big Civ1-2 fan or you're a later Civ games fan that wants to help your Civ loving brothers and sisters right a wrong then please visit these wish lists and click the little +1 plus one button. If you don't want to visit them all then just visit the first one under each section as that's the biggest one! If you think it's all a waste of time doom and gloom etc maybe you're right but please please please click on the wish buttons in the links below anyway as hey.. it can't hurt to try and then you can totally come back here and say we're wasting our time haha. So many other 'difficult situation' games out there that were less successful that Civ made it to GoG due to big fan wishlists showing that the money would be there so why not classic Civ too!
EDIT: Unfortunately I'm getting a lot of snarky and unhelpful comments on social media sites I've shared this with suggesting lots of alternative actions to helping with this campaign so I guess despite this already being a massive post due to me trying to cover every base an extra big disclaimer is still needed lol. Yes there's probably little chance of this working, yes many of us still have our CDs, yes there are copies on ebay, yes many abandonware and archive sites offer free copies of them, yes there are similar alternatives like FreeCiv & C-Evo, and yes maybe you like one of the sequels more. However none of that means Civ1 & Civ2 should not be brought back from exile and sold in modern digital stores like Civ3-6 are, like plenty of other formerly lost Microprose games are, and like many other games from that mid 90s era are that were FAR less successful. To say otherwise is missing the point of the post, as this is about getting these great old games back out into the world, getting them out of exile and the lost backwaters of the internet, making them easier to get working, and also injecting a bit of fresh life back into their fan communities!
VOTING LINKS:
* votes updated 23/02/2024 for comparison to original 11/02/2022 figures.
Civ1&2&ToT combination wish lists:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/civilization_1_2 (12.0k* was 9.1k votes) - GoG merged with Civ1 groups
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sid_meiers_civilization_123 (5.3k* was 4.9k votes - note Civ3 is already on GoG)
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sid_meiers_civilization_i_and_ii (2.6k* was 2.3k votes)
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/civilization_2_civilization_2_test_of_time (708* was 222 votes) - GoG merged with ToT group
Civilization 1 only wish lists:
Civilization 2 only wish lists:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sid_meiers_civilization_ii_1 (11.2k* was 10.3k votes)
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/civilization_ii_fantastic_worlds_1 (1.17k* was 951 votes)
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sid_meiers_civilization_ii_conflicts_in_civilization (640* was 400 votes)
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/sid_meiers_civilization_ii_multiplayer_gold_edition (397* was 252 votes)
Civ2 Test of Time only wish lists:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/civilization_ii_test_of_time (2.2k* was 1.7k votes)
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/civilizations_test_of_time (198* was 130 votes)
I've also created a thread on the Civilization series GoG forum that I believe is monitored in some capacity by GoG staff and the current license holder. So feel free to post a supportive comment in there too!
https://www.gog.com/forum/sid_meier..._i_and_ii_mge_test_of_time_to_be_added_to_gog
1 Year anniversary - Roughly 2,750 more votes than original!
2 Year anniversary - Roughly 6,650 more votes than original!
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