Boy does this game bring back memories

[MysteryX]

In the late '90s I had a roommate who played a lot of Civilization, but his description of the game didn't appeal to me at the time. Still, I have had quite a few friends since who picked up the game and raved about it, insisting that it's essentially the same game as Master of Orion and Master of Magic (two games I like), just better. So when I saw Civilization III Gold (bundled with CivCity: Rome) in a bargain bin a couple of years ago, I picked it up.

Though I like playing computer games, I hate learning new games. I often cycle through playing the same games I have had for 15 years (I'm very thankful for DOSBox). So even after I bought Civ III, it sat unopened for a while before I finally started playing it. Since it is, at its basics, very similar to Master of Orion and Master of Magic, it was very easy for me to learn.

I remember when Master of Orion came out, it really was a kind of strategy game that was unlike anything before it (at least as far as I and my friends knew). I was in law school when Master of Orion came out, when Magic: the Gathering came out, and when MUDs started to flourish. For quite a few of my classmates, their biggest struggles in law school wear not mastering complex legal theory or dealing with tough professors, but pulling themselves away from gaming long enough to study. I'll never forget one classmate's glazed-over eyes as he told me before a class one day, "Master of Orion is a great game. I haven't bathed in days."

I got Civilization III: Complete a month ago. That might be the newest computer game I have played.

 

[PaperBeetle]

Ah, a good old nostalgia thread, just like we used to have back in the day.

My first look at Civ must have been back in about 1993; my friends at college were into it. Their dads all worked for IBM, so their houses were full of PCs, which at the time were pretty intimidating things; so serious and professional that even schools didn't have them. And they had this game that was way deeper than anything on my Atari.. except soon enough it did show up on Atari & Amiga too, so I snapped it up. And it really stretched the poor machine to breaking point. Came on about 20 floppies (well, maybe 4 or 6), frequently locked up, some in-game stuff took minutes to load off the disks (random events, like pirate attacks and earthquakes), and the graphics for the spaceship were totally corrupted (consisting partly of misplaced WLtKD bitmaps). But it probably was still responsible for eating more of my time, over many years, than any other game except Civ3.

So when I finally got a PC in 1998 or 1999, Civ2 was a must-buy. But I couldn't get into it like I had Civ1. I had a PlayStation by then too, and that had a lot of superb games which held my attention. So I guess I didn't really notice the release of Civ3 at the time. But in 2002 I met a guy (TaxPayersMoney on here) who had it. He lent it to me, I was impressed, but not hooked. Then after a bit of time playing other things, one of us stumbled onto CivFanatics. I was totally blown away by the breadth and depth people had found in the game, and quickly went out and bought myself a copy. Studying the forums and articles here took my game to a totally different level of proficiency, and hence enjoyment, and soon I summoned the courage to dive into the GotM. I have barely looked away since!

I got CivIV on release of course, but found it over-complicated and punitive in game mechanics, and over-specced for my laptop. So back to Civ3. I got CivV on release too, and I'm still playing it, but it both demands and deserves less attention than Civ3.

 

[ChaosArbiter]

Let's see ... my first Civ game was Civilization. My first win was as the Mongols, IIRC - (one of?) the white civilization. Yes, I remember the color of the civilization but not anything else. I think it was Space, but I could be wrong. I played that concurrently with Doom II, at the ripe old age of 6 or so, along with Super Mario World and Mortal Kombat. My first four real games.

Then came Colonization and Civ2, both of which I adored - Colonization moreso, I think, except for the WWII scenario, which was loads of fun. Must have gotten them in the mid-late 90s, since we were still in the states.

For 3, I may have played PtW first, although I don't really remember. I know my dad has Gold (and therefore PtW) on his laptop, but if I played it much, it didn't make much of an impact, as I was fixated on Rome: Total War and Starcraft at the time. It must have been ... oh, 4-5 years ago, I think (though I could easily be wrong - my parents both have better memories than I do, except when it comes to useless information, like how useful Scyther was in RBY ...) that I picked up a Civilization pack (Civ, Civ2 with a bunch of stuff for it, C3C, and Civ4) at GameStop, mostly for Civilization because that's the one my mom likes, and installed C3C on my laptop. As always, I played at Chieftain At least, until I finally managed to beat it .... Yes, I would lose to the AI on Chieftain (on 2 and on 3, and in Colonization as well!), although thanks to CivFanatics I'm now a Monarch player

 

[GamezRule]

I first got Civ 3 complete back in 06, but I actually ended up getting the original Colonization given to me, that's a fun game.

 

[timerover51]

I got the MacSoft version of Civ3 shortly after I got my second Imac in 2002. Did not really enjoy the game until I started modifying it, and that MacSoft Editor for the basic game is one of the buggiest pieces of software I have ever encountered for the Mac. Finally broke down and went over to the Dark Side and bought a used Windows box from my son's high school to edit the Conquests version. I enjoy it a lot more now since I am modifying the game a lot. There are things about the standard game, like the corruption and pollution models, that simply drive me up the proverbial wall.

 

[maxp779]

Heh i had a similar experience with alpha centauri when i was 11, i never built any colony pods just scouts and other random stuff, i figured out how to terraform and built a long line of sensor arrays thinking they would shoot enemies, i also thought dearies bases were natural forests or something because the first one i encountered was called "razorbeak wood", my plan was to cut it down

 

[Gamemaster77]

Heh i had a similar experience with alpha centauri when i was 11, i never built any colony pods just scouts and other random stuff, i figured out how to terraform and built a long line of sensor arrays thinking they would shoot enemies, i also thought dearies bases were natural forests or something because the first one i encountered was called "razorbeak wood", my plan was to cut it down

Haha you were going to cut it down. It made it even funnier for me because I thought I was doing good. By my second or third game I had 1 city defended by maybe 20 spearman and 20 archers. They came with some knights eventually and pummeled me. I had no barracks either. Its also funny because when I was playing it I was young so there were so many things I couldn't pronounce. Like a pronounced synthetic fibers like sib-net-ic figures.

 

[darski]

I started with Civ 1 in 1991. I loved that game and to this day I still miss the throne room. I was going to ask in C&C if they could change the castle back to the Throne room.

I played II when I was living in Toronto with my son (I was childcare ) he loved the game and the new graphics but I am spatially challenged and I still find it hard to keep the diagonal graphics clear in my eye to hand movements. I was not impressed with 2 at the time (lost too many caravans) but looking back I did enjoy it more than I allowed at the time. I remember discovering the great joy of Fanaticism and those Immortals. I did like the way you could share resources in II. That made sense to me.


My son bought CivIII as soon as it came out and also quickly discovered CFC so I made decent progress (for me) in playing it. I was just grateful that my caravans were all traveling in cyberspace this time and the barbarians couldn't get to them.

I was doing well on Regent until I moved from Vanilla to C3C; I had even tried a couple of Monarch games. Now I am a wussy warlord with the worst RNG luck on the planet but I just can't give up this game.

I don't know if I could go back and play 1 or 2 again if I had them. Might be interesting to try.

 

[Scratch]

I started playing Civ2 before the OP was born. Hey you, get off my lawn! :shakesoldmanfist:

 

[Death2thepelicn]

@Gamemaster77, what a great topic.

I started on Civ II. I was around the same age as you were when you started Civ III, maybe a little older. I'm 25 now. I remember the first time I played, I played as the Mongolians. I thought the currency, or what you needed in order to buy buildings, was "tums". Turns out it was "turns". lol. I had no idea what I was doing. I basically explored and popped goody huts and wondered why the amount of "tums" it took to build something decreased.

Eventually I read the manual.

One more thing. I was so happy when I heard the Civ Leaders' music in civ IV. Some of those tunes, like Montezuma's, are remakes of the regular Civ II game music...I loved the music from II. If I could only find it outside of my game, I'd burn it to CD...

 

[Takhisis]

*Ahem* What's YouTube for?

 

[dominatr]

*Ahem* What's YouTube for?

watching videos

 

[Silmaril Dragon]

Had to break my lurker's vow with this thread--just too tempting a topic to resist!

My first Civ was Civ III Gold, I believe, in the bargain bin at Best Buy in the fall of 2001. Picked it up on a whim due to price, and hearing so much about the title's predecessors in various game magazines in the '90's. Had enjoyed strategy titles in the past, especially Warlords II, Warcraft II, and Caesar III, and thought the $9.99 price tag couldn't be beat. Also needed something to divert my attention from my studies, and the horrible tragedy that was Pool of Radiance (the new version). I played it and enjoyed it for a month or two, but eventually put it aside when life intruded.

However, the "aside" period lasted not at all long, and I found myself picking it up and reinstalling it every 2-3 months, after having randomly thought of a new strategy and wondering "would THIS advance me up a difficulty level?" Eventually I read a strategy guide regarding city micromanagement--which I had never bothered with before--somewhere on the web (maybe Civfanatics?), and my skill level improved such that I was beating Emperor without too much difficulty and was making headway into Demigod level regularly when life intruded again.

The funny thing was that I sold and re-purchased the game two or even three times when I felt that life was intruding too much and my responsibilities were receding, respectively. I rediscovered Civ with Civ IV, which I purchased on release day. Initially unimpressed (load times, bugginess, "weird" new features) and missing Civ III, and stopped playing and started reading Civfanatics, which at the time (fall/winter 2005) was way more fun.

Fast-forward to November 2010 and a new computer, I again remembered Civ III and wanted to reinstall it, but found that I had sold it AGAIN, and "merely" had Civ IV, which I remembered with more than a little disappointment. Booted it up regardless, and haven't looked back. Bought the full game plus add-ons on Steam for a ridiculous price, and have moved up to Monarch difficulty with an eye at Immortal eventually.

Still find that reading these topics and reading about strategy can be way more fun than putting it in practice.

 

[Aabraxan]

Wow! 5.5 years and one post. That has to be some kind of record. Welcome to CFC, Silmaril Dragon!

 

[GamezRule]

Nope, we saw a first post on a 9 year old account.

 

[Silmaril Dragon]

Dang, and I thought I might be close to a record...

Thanks for the welcome!

I found Civfanatics just before going on my extended playing hiatus, and enjoyed just reading page after page of expert players' exploits in the ? PBEM Civ III 1- and 3-city challenges games. I've been unable to find them again, but would love to see those plays again--there was a 3-city challenge in particular which was riveting to read about.

I'm sure I'll sell Civ IV in a month or two and drift away, only to return again in 2014 or so.

 

[Takhisis]

No you won't, nbow you've posted and you are ours… forever and ever…

 

[Silmaril Dragon]

You may be right, but I can always cut this silver cord thingy here if I just GOTTA leave...

I was reminded of Civfanatics with a nice email every time another birthday rolled around, only took 5 reminders to get me to visit the site again! Glad I'm back.

 

[Takhisis]

Three posts in a day already. It feels good… and you know it. Feel your posts… use them… join the Dark Side!

 

[Silmaril Dragon]

Must lurk...lurker's code, remember the code, remember the CODE...

AHHHHH!! The power, the POWER of posting, it feels, it feels,...such POWER!!