Secret units in sprites.pic

[Judge_Deadd]

I've been using the Civilization image viewer (PIC.EXE) to look through various *.pic files when this caught my eye. Look at the end of the row of units. Units that didn't make it!
(note: it's garbled because pic.exe doesn't seem to do very well with sprites.pic)
It's pretty small, but you can make out a helicopter, a nicely-shaped plane, a plane preapring to take off and a short (low, that is) Armor.

 

[Tenochtitlan]

Maybe those are the same units but for the tandy version?

 

[Judge_Deadd]

I just noticed - in the bottom row, 9 from left - militia chariot! And all the units to the right are unused (take a special look at alternate Cavalry!) There are also three clones there (Artillery, Ironclad, Knight).

 

[Dack]

I enlarged the view of your SPRITES.PIC. It raises a bunch of questions for me.
1) What is the file date on your SPRITES.PIC file it should be 11/27/1991 11:06 am (27Nov1991).
2) What is version number of civ.exe?
3) Where did you get your copy of civ?
4) Are those vertical lines actually in the file? The regular file contains other civ features in that area?

Some how I don’t think this is a regular version. The one supplied with version 1 & 5 does not contain these extra units.

 

[Judge_Deadd]

1) What is the file date on your SPRITES.PIC file it should be 11/27/1991 11:06 am (29Nov1991).

Yes.

2) What is version number of civ.exe?

475.01

3) Where did you get your copy of civ?

I'm not sure, it has been on the computer as long as I remember.

4) Are those vertical lines actually in the file? The regular file contains other civ features in that area?

No they aren't, pic.exe apparently has trouble with this file. When I try to use it, the screen is black and I have to press Enter or Space and the image flashes for a while.

 

[GoldBerg]

i remember i'd read an interview (longer ago)
where Sid Meier OR one of the Civilization programmers did talk about tests with air transport units within Civ1 DOS.
as far as i remember
they dropped those units because of confusing / not satisfying gameplay results...

 

[Osvaldo Manso]

i remember i'd read an interview (longer ago)
where Sid Meier OR one of the Civilization programmers did talk about tests with air transport units within Civ1 DOS.
as far as i remember
they dropped those units because of confusing / not satisfying gameplay results...

That makes sense to me. It would be interesting to be able to transport "light" units (like riflemen and diplomats) from one continent to another using aircraft. Instead of using naval transports to move those units, air transports would make military operations in the later turns of the game a lot faster.