Reddit user has played a single Civ2 game for over 10 years

[The_J]

Moderator Action: Merged a thread from the Civ5 area into the one in the Civ2 area.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Here is the signup for the proposed competition based on the saved game.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Here's the saved game that Lycerius uploaded.

There is a pretty good chance that the proposed competition will not use this particular saved game for the competition (we'll probably save it as a scenario).

 

[KevinLancaster]

I haven't looked at his savegame, but shouldn't he have won a time victory by now?

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Scoring is complete in 2020 or when a spaceship reaches Alpha Centauri. You have the option to keep playing after the scoring is complete. Since he didn't win the space race, he technically "retired" as opposed to winning.

 

[Muskie]

Just checking, you know you can get this from gog.com don't you?

You know you could have at least clicked on the link I posted. I not only own Alpha Centauri, I own two copies of it. One for the PC and one for the MacOS. I own the expansion. I used to play the unofficial OS X native port. But it was a struggle and it was always based on Carbon ie old codebase and now does not run at all on Mac OS X Lion or whatever the marketing people are calling the current version of Mac OS X.

I linked to the Good Old Games page in my blog post. I could use my mom's old, old, Windows 98 computer to try and play it, it's in a box somewhere, or as I hypothesized, I could run it on my old G4 Tower, which can't run Mac OS X Lion due to more decisions by Apple to not support old hardware. I could even try running it on my current MacBook Pro as I have Windows 7 installed on that, but most of my stuff is in storage, including my discs for Alpha Centauri.

So yeah the game is available for purchase. But it is unplayable on the current version of Mac OS X. Thus requiring you to run an old version of your OS to play a game, which will run buggy as it was ported to Mac OS X by one of the programmers who also liked the game in his spare time. Or I could find an old Windows PC in storage and try running it on Windows 98 or I could try running it in emulation. None of those solutions are inspiring. Running the PC version on my laptop might be the most viable if I can find my PC copy of Alpha Centauri, but I only have the expansion for Mac... What I and others want is Alpha Centauri 2.0

I've long maintained it is the best of the Civ games with the most varied gameplay. It also had the most interactive planet. You could even terraform and build land bridges so you could march your troops across or you could just make all your troops fly.

Apparently EA has the license and is not interested in making a sequel even though people are still buying and playing the original.

Plus if you think Nukes are cool, you should try the Planet Buster...

Cheers,

 

[trada]

This can be done on Civ1 and Civ2. Is it possible to bypass the hardcoded 1000 turn limit on civ3?

 

[bestrfcplayer]

This has made me consider playing Civ 4 again just to see if I can reach past 4000 AD.

 

[madviking]

This is getting all over the internet.

Yahoo
Forbes
The Atlantic
More

 

[Mise]

I can think of a few strategies to beat this. Definitely gonna reinstall when I get home!!

 

[Tokme]

Very interesting to read. I'm also going on with a civ2 game, but it'll take so much time to reach this guy

 

[deanej]

This has made me consider playing Civ 4 again just to see if I can reach past 4000 AD.

You could even use the Next War mod/scenario!

 

[snapple232]

Maybe I've become cynical (okay, I've definitely become cynical) but anyone else find it coincidental that a story about Civ goes viral exactly a week before the release of the latest Civ title? Ingenious viral marketing campaign perhaps?

 

[The_J]

Maybe I've become cynical (okay, I've definitely become cynical) but anyone else find it coincidental that a story about Civ goes viral exactly a week before the release of the latest Civ title? Ingenious viral marketing campaign perhaps?

Moderator Action: Merged into the main thread.


And yeah, this topic is freakin' everywhere .
It reached sure the german gaming sites (gamestar), but also the main site of my freemailer o_O (here).

 

[tuxedohamm]

Maybe I've become cynical (okay, I've definitely become cynical) but anyone else find it coincidental that a story about Civ goes viral exactly a week before the release of the latest Civ title? Ingenious viral marketing campaign perhaps?

If it is, it worked at getting me to find my copy of Civ 2 MGE and start playing it again, but not purchasing anything new.

Granted that effect would maybe only be on those who have played Civ 2 and desired to return to it. For those who have never heard of Civilization or only limited knowledge of it, they might see the story and go out to get a newer version to see if they could do something similar.

 

[Arwon]

Maybe I've become cynical (okay, I've definitely become cynical) but anyone else find it coincidental that a story about Civ goes viral exactly a week before the release of the latest Civ title? Ingenious viral marketing campaign perhaps?

I think Reddit's a bit too unpredictable for that, especially since the dude has a history on there.

 

[Thunderfall]

Maybe I've become cynical (okay, I've definitely become cynical) but anyone else find it coincidental that a story about Civ goes viral exactly a week before the release of the latest Civ title? Ingenious viral marketing campaign perhaps?

lol... if it is, then it's really ingenious.

But marketing campaign or not, this should certainly help them sell more copies of Civ5 and the upcoming expansion pack.

There may be lots of first time Civers as a result of this.

 

[KevinLancaster]

It's funny because they would be buying the game/exapnsion not for any of its own features but because of things that were in a previous iteration.

 

[cuc]

As I said, a well-made and creative viral marketing video is guaranteed to create interest; the appeal of this Civ2 story is more subtle in comparison, and its success is harder to predict. I don't think it's viral marketing.

Articles on this phenomenon:

Jason Begy at Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab:
Ten Years of Civ II: Why Procedurality is Insufficient yet Critical
http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/2012/06/ten_years_of_civ_ii_why_proced.php
Summary:
1) For games' growth as an art form, procedurality (generating experience from algorithm) is vital, yet insufficient.
2) This story became popular because it stroke a chord with people's mind. A ten year game that ends in utopia would not be such a success.

Jorge Albor at Experience Points:
Tensegrity and the Eternal War:
http://www.experiencepoints.net/2012/06/tensegity-and-eternal-war.html
Summary:
Er, something about "people can change the world". I think it's fair to mock this one as "pretentious game criticism".

Troy Goodfellow at Flash of Steel:
The Long Game:
http://flashofsteel.com/index.php/2012/06/13/the-long-game/
Summary:
1) Any experienced Civ player knows how to break the situation (as CFCers know).
2) What's truly special about the story is the player's (Lycerius) drive to return to a statement again and again. Most strategy gamers would simply abandon the game.

 

[Specialist290]

It's funny because they would be buying the game/exapnsion not for any of its own features but because of things that were in a previous iteration.

You know what they say in advertising circles: There is no such thing as bad publicity.

That being said, once I get my copy of Civ2 up and running again, I might take a crack at this game. It's been far, far too long since I've dusted off my game disc for Civ2.