Civilization 1 For Windows - Complete Soundtrack Overhaul Mod

Blake00

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Well since September 2021 is the 30th anniversary of Civilization 1 being released I thought I'd finally go public with the final full release of my Civilization 1 For Windows - Soundtrack Overhaul Mod that replaces all the old CivWin short low quality WAV music files with full length high quality Roland MT-32 recordings. Full details below…

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Civilization 1 For Windows - Complete Soundtrack Overhaul Mod
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Author:
Blake

Version:
1.0 09/06/2018

ModDB Page:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/civwin-complete-soundtrack-overhaul-mod

Civ Website:
https://blakessanctum.x10.mx/Games/CivColSeries/ (If link doesn’t work Google Blake's Sanctum)

Civ News & Updates:
https://blakessanctum.wordpress.com/tag/civilization/

Demonstration Video:
youtu.be/eVfpkzb_C3g?list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY


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Contents:

1. About
2. Requirements & Installation Instructions
3. Known Issues
4. Version History
5. Credits
6. DOWNLOAD


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1. About:

Anyone who happens to follow my Civilization preservation work and lost scenario search threads will know that I’m a huge Sid Meier’s Civilization fan! As someone who grew up playing the Dos version of Civilization I was frustrated when I tried the Civilization for Windows (CivWin NOT CivNet) and found that all the music tracks had been converted from midi to low quality 10-30sec WAV files. Some of Civ1’s music tracks went for minutes so a lot was lost, especially considering that the Civ1 intro goes for 3 minutes meaning you sat there in silence for 2.5 mins! There wasn’t much we could do about this in the 1990s as space was premium however these days a few big WAV files isn’t going to do any damage!

So I decided to test replacing the game’s music files with high quality full length versions of the soundtrack and was pleased to discover that the game allowed them and on most occasions didn’t ‘chop end’ playing the music. I hunted across the internet and managed to discover on youtube a very special high quality genuine Roland MT-32 recording of all the Dos version tracks uploaded by BarbarianBros. He very kindly gave me his original uncompressed WAV files to use for this mod. You can find his uploaded copy HERE.

I had the lower the quality a bit for the files to be compatible with the game (see known issues) however working from an uncompressed source instead of a youtube compressed file has produced a much better final product which I hope you all enjoy. Most people couldn’t afford a Roland MT-32 back in the day so this soundtrack mod for CivWin will give even experienced Dos Civ players a much upgraded music experience should they wish to jump ship!

Finally if you’re someone like me who also prefers the graphics & colours of the Dos version but wants to play in the higher resolutions of CivWin then I recommend you try out Honzas ‘DOS Tileset for Civilization I for Windows’ mod which combined with my mod converts CivWin into the ultimate classic Civ 1 experience. I’ve been playing Civ 1 in 1080p HD on my 46 inch screen with both these mods and having a blast!
Example Picture:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/civwin01-png.494781/
Honzas DOS Tileset for Civilization I for Windows mod:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/dos-tileset-for-civwin.8830/

Check out my Civ1 HD tour & demonstration video to see how I used these mods:
youtu.be/eVfpkzb_C3g?list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY

If you’d like to try out some cool Civilization 1 scenarios then check out my scenario preservation collection project:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/672488/
https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject:Civ1ModCollection&sort=titleSorter

If you like my work please feel free to check out my other mod projects such as my & Metropolis's Civ2 - Heroes of Might & Magic 2 scenario, my Civ2 - Red Alert 2 Siege of NYC scenario, my Civ2 - Command & Conquer scenario remaster, my Civ2 - Dune 2 Dynasty scenario, my Civ2 - Terminator Future War scenario remaster, my Civ2 - Civ1 Graphics mod demaster, my Civ2ToT - Master of Magic Jr scenario remaster, my Civ2 - Deadworld Reborn scenario remaster, my Civ2 - Starcraft scenario addon, my Civ2 - Warcraft scenario addon, my Civ2 - Better Terrain Graphics mod, my Civ2 - Playstation Graphics mod remaster, my Civ2 - ToT Graphics mod remaster, my Civ2 - Alpha Centauri scenario remaster, my Attila's Conquest - Play as Barbarians in every Civ game scenario series, my old Civ2 - Star Wars scenario, and my Civ1 - Soundtrack Overhaul mod. I'm also the creator of the popular GZDoom - Star Trek TNG Doom and GZDoom - Quest For Glory IV 3D Hexen mods.

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2. Requirements & Installation Instructions:

Requirements:
Sid Meier’s Civilization For Windows (CivWIN) as this mod is not designed or needed for other versions of Civ1 (eg CivDOS and CivNET). Sadly Civ1 is not currently for sale on Good Old Games or Steam so please help us vote to change that!

Installing:
  • Download the latest 7zip file for this mod using one of the download links at the bottom of this post.
  • Just to be safe I recommend you backup all of your WAV files in your CivWin install folder just in case you don’t like the mod or it causes an unforeseen bug I haven’t already listed below.
  • To install just simply extract all the WAV files out of the 7zip archive file into your CivWin install folder overriding all of the old music WAV files in there. If you don’t have 7zip installed, you should as it’s better than all the others. ;) https://www.7-zip.org/
  • Enjoy! :)
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3. Known Issues:
  • 24,000Hz 16bit Mono WAV format was the highest the game would accept during my testing. If anyone knows of a way to trick the game into using higher quality files (eg 44,000Hz stereo) let me know!
  • Unlike the DOS version CivWin uses only 1 track for both the title sequence and the evolution intro. Forcing me to combine both songs into one track that fits the 3 minute length of the intro sequence. As a result I had to edit out a few ‘slow’ bits.
  • Music stops playing in Diplomacy screen once you start pressing the ok button. Unfortunately this would require someone very skilled with hacking the Civ1Win game files to fix.
  • I had no other issues with my Windows XP VirtualBox VM CivWin test install, however I had these extra issues occur on my Windows 98 DosBox VM CivWin test install:
  • Music starts playing when you receive the "an emissary wishes to speak with you" message however it sometimes stops playing when you continue into the diplomacy screen.
  • Sometimes after the above issue all sounds & music would stop working and only restarting the VM would fix it. Not sure if it's the virtual OS or the VM program.
Note: All tests were done with CivWin version 1.2.0. Other versions of the game may produce different results. Testing in other Virtual Machine software or other Operating Systems may also produce different results. CivWin will not work on 64 bit Windows hence why a VM is required.

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4. Version History:

09/06/2018 Version 1.0 – First release!

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5. Credits:
  • File conversions, editing, mod assembly & release by Blake
  • Original Civilization 1 Soundtrack composed by Jeff Briggs
  • High quality genuine Roland MT-32 recordings done by BarbarianBros
  • The CivFanatics Civ1 Community - for support while creating this mod.
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6. DOWNLOAD:
.
 
Last edited:
Those are very nice tunes! Many thanks to you and BarbariaBros for all the work put into this!
 
Have updated my download to include the latest documentation info as a few things have changed over the 3 years however the mod itself is unchanged as I haven't had any new bugs reported to me by anyone over the last 3 years.

I've also created a mirror download in the top post of this thread so people now have 2 options.

And finally I've posted my video of my Soundtrack overhaul in action! People can check it out here:
youtu.be/eVfpkzb_C3g?list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY

 
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