CivDOS Copy Protection

[krille]

I remember as I child I hated the thing. I didn't know the answers and the fact that I didn't speak English at all didn't help. Thankfully, my brother had drawn all the pictures and the correct answers (the prerequisites) for me (the manual was long lost).

Nowadays, though, I actually like the thing. It gives me this warm tingling sensation when I manage to deduct the answers (that picture is probably this tech and those prerequisites make the most sense, right!). Occasionally though I fail the first one (and look up the answer for the second question unless I'm 100% already).

Does anyone else appreciate Sid's little mini-game? Or do y'all see it as a nuisance?

 

[Osvaldo Manso]

It started as annoying but I came to like it! I enjoy seeing how much I know about Civ, particulary about techs. Just like you I like to deduct the answer but once and a while I fail and give a wrong answer. It happened recently when I thought that Theory of Gravity was a prerequisite to Flight. I was wrong - i missed the importance of Combustion. In the second attempt when I'm not 100% sure, I check the right answer at «Sid Meier's Civilization or Rome on 640k a Day».

However, I think it is funny that one needs to know which tech is asked just by looking at a drawing. Not much of a help for first-timers, is it?

 

[Whelkman]

I agree that it's the most entertaining copy protection I've come across, though it's not effective, which is a fundamental flaw of logic based protection mechanisms. Trial and error or a quick study of the Civilopedia will defeat it.

A close second would be the protection method used in Interplay's Star Trek: 25th anniversary. Plotting coordinates revealed a map of the solar system, and the manual labeled all the stars. Traveling to the wrong location would put you in "hostile territory" and a battle would ensue. However, it was perfectly fun to zip around to "wrong" locations and duke it out with some Klingons or Romulans. Like Civilization's protection method, a moderately patient individual can easily defeat Star Trek's copy protection, but the way Interplay seamlessly worked it in deserves mention.

 

[HylandPaddy]

I used to dread this quiz as I used to have only have one city. So when all the soldiers returned to their homes my entire civ was defensless!

May I ask a question, do you have a physical manual i.e (paper book)? because thats what I used to think it was...until recently... it turn out that I had the manual the entire time, it was on pdf. on the civ disc already! I'm bloody useless with computers!!!

 

[Whelkman]

I have a manual, but I get the impression that it's a consolidated second revision because I recall some of the internal references as incorrect.

 

[krille]

I have the PDF, I don't have a "physical" manual however.

 

[Osvaldo Manso]

I used to dread this quiz as I used to have only have one city. So when all the soldiers returned to their homes my entire civ was defensless!

By 3000 BC, you should have at least another city... Why do you take so long for founding other cities?

 

[krille]

By 3000 BC, you should have at least another city... Why do you take so long for founding other cities?

Rushing Colossus isn't a good thing?

 

[Osvaldo Manso]

Rushing Colossus isn't a good thing?

There are lots of successful strategies, but I think that your initial turns are the most precious. It's in those turns that you lay the foundations of what will become hopefully a great empire. So, I think that your initial resources are better spent elsewhere. Why rush to build a temporary wonder? Sooner or later, Electricity will be discovered. I prefer to explore the surroundings and build a couple of cities before other civilizations (if any) in your land mass develop too quickly leaving me without room for expansion.

 

[krille]

Why rush to build a temporary wonder?

Because sarcasm is .

 

[HylandPaddy]

By 3000 BC, you should have at least another city... Why do you take so long for founding other cities?

It was the first couple of times I playing Civ, I used to have only 1 city the entire game, no irrigation or mining or roads, despotism the whole time.

Can't believe how much of a novice I was, I came far since then.

 

[Bratmon]

The protection is interesting. Like my own little addiction test.

 

[GenMarshall]

I find it to be annoying, especialy if you get the answers wrong (Thankfully this feature is absent in the Windows, Mac, and SNES versions)

 

[C1v1l1z@t10n]

Well nowadays I play only in Vista nearly with DosBox and if I miss the first question (shame on me) I just fireup another DOS box, start a second civ and check the answer and then switch back to my original Civ in DosBox and enter the correct answer

 

[Volcanon]

Its definately in the Mac Version.

 

[Tristan_C]

Strange, but I think the game's copy protection had a real impact on my historical perspective. I committed the entire tech tree and ancillary prereqs to memory when I was ten, mainly because it was damn useful for getting through the copy protection, but also because Civ's weird conceptualization of "advancements" in general fascinated me. The copy protection created the need to study the tree, and studying the tree made me think. Unfortunately, this early indoctrination also made it hard to accept the additions and changes which new versions of Civ have brought.

 

[Dandenoth]

I have the PDF manual printed out, so it's a quick reference, but I like trying to guess, since most of the time I get it right anyways, plus it's something you should know anyways if you're a serious player.

 

[GoldBerg]

Strange, but I think the game's copy protection had a real impact on my historical perspective. I committed the entire tech tree and ancillary prereqs to memory when I was ten, mainly because it was damn useful for getting through the copy protection, but also because Civ's weird conceptualization of "advancements" in general fascinated me. The copy protection created the need to study the tree, and studying the tree made me think. Unfortunately, this early indoctrination also made it hard to accept the additions and changes which new versions of Civ have brought.

:nods: ^^

 

[Cavius]

I've played Civ 1 DOS version so extensively that I've memorized every single possible question/answer, that 9 times out of 10 I get the first question right. I'm such a pro at it now, I don't recall ever getting both questions wrong in over three years of consistent gameplay. I also own a copy of Civilization for DOS in a jewel case along with the game manual, but I never use it. =p