When did you first play Civ?

[Grille]

It was in 1992 on atari st (on 4 floppy discs - had no harddrive).
Usually you just needed disc 'b' during game (except for starting or improving palace). Remember your floppy working for some minutes just to tell you:'Floods strike Berlin-temple destroyed'.-
First game was funny - only four cities on a small continent, irrigation 3-4 tiles away from center square, bad exploring of the world (only got contact to Greeks), but managed to send small space-ship (didn't read manual...)
Later, i found beating ai on emperor level wasn't too hard.
Now i'm a civ-junkie...

 

[Siegmund]

I was a latecomer to Civ, and have only just rediscovered it.

Sometime around 1995 or 1996, had a (now-ex-)brother-in-law who used to spend hours every day playing Civ while the rest of us watched over his shoulder. When he moved on to CivNet with his friends across town he passed on Civ I to me. I played it quite a lot in 96 and 97 but always seemed to lose interest not too long after railroads - never quite grasped how to keep citizens happy until after the internet came out and I could talk to other players.

It was just a phase then, though -- most my game time then was Railroad Tycoon, and most of it now is bridge and backgammon.

This past few weeks I've gotten back into Civ (and stayed up until 5 too many times) and still like the old game. The level of complexity even in this version gets a bit daunting toward the end -- I really don't think it's a "feature" to add more military units, more caravan types, and so on in the new one.

 

[eyeball]

I first played it around 1998. My dad showed me how to play (he was hopelessly addicted since 1993, although now he plays Civ 3). I was about 11 years old at the time.

 

[ellie]

Hmm i was a student, 2nd year so that would be around 1993

Enjoyed those types of games from then onwards

Ellie

 

[Kai-Fabi]

1994 I was just 7 years old
In that time chieftain was very dificult for me

 

[addiv]

I think it was in 1995 that I got Civ 1. First it didn't really look very cool to me, but after having not played it for half a year or so, I tried it again and I got hooked immediatly! I got Civ 2 in 1998 I think, Civ CTP in 1999 and Civ 3 in 2002.

 

[Cilpot]

Hmm.. Civ I was just released.. I think it was 1991.. Playing civ on the Amiga demanded a lot of patience

 

[Leonel]

I think it was in 1993 when I first played Civ1. I had a friend in the same apartment complex as me and he lent me Civ1 to play on my dad's IIsi. It was amazing! I really didn't understand it but I tried to play it like in real life. My family's friend's would urge me to wage war! Wage war! But I always insisted on making peace! Ooooh how idealistic I was back then. Hey! I suppose this year would be the 10th anniversary of me playing the Civilization series!

 

[Groovin']

I think it was around 1994 when i first got Civ. I got it off a Army mate of my dads, and we had just upgraded to a 286 from an XT (yup, we had a XT instead of a 486 at the time, it was a 8086 instead of a 8088 but!! ). At first i thought 'what the hell is this?' but i kept going back to it. I didn't have the manual so i printed out all those text files that come with the DOS ver and always read them and kept them by my side while playing.

Those files (and CIV) done wonders for my general knowledge and history at school too! Stayed up till 5am then went to school like many others. The only other game on the PC that came close was Wolfenstien 3D, with the screen reduced, only PC sounds so the thing could run fast enough on my PS/2 286.

And i cant wait to get home from work and finish my game from this morning!

 

[superslug]

Am I the only one that Civ1ed on a Nintendo?

 

[pdescobar]

superslug: yes j/k I actually started out civving on a Mac.

I first found civ somewhere between 1991-1993 when I was doing tutoring in a computer lab at a local communtiy college. Someone had installed civ1 on one of the Macs there and I found it one night when I was bored and just poking around. From what I recall, I got absolutely slaughtered by the Chinese since I had no idea what I was doing and wound up with a tiny little island defended by sticks and stones while they were rolling battleships around the world. I loved it, though; so much that I went out and bought a copy even though I didn't own a Mac myself at the time; although I used it on Macs at another school later and finally got an old one myself a few years ago. (I only had an Atari 8-bit computer then.) Eventually I got a copy of the DOS version as well when my brother lent me his old PC to use and have bought civ2, smac, and civ3/ptw when they came out in the years since now that I have my own PC too.

 

[Fundamentalist]

I first played Civ in 1997. My dad borrowed an old 486 and whilst out shopping for games I came accross a Worms/Civ combi pack for a tenner and with it being one of the few games that would work on my PC I bought it

 

[Fundamentalist]

I first played Civ in 1997. My dad borrowed an old 486 from a friend and whilst out shopping for games I came accross a Worms/Civ combi pack for a tenner and I decided to buy it as little else would work on my PC. Suffice to say I spent a lot of time on that crumbly old 486!

 

[Mrogreturns]

1994 I think. I bought it from a second-hand games store. The guy warned me that it was addictive- but did I listen?

 

[tordo]

Must have been shortly after it was first released in 1991 (thought it might have been 1990?). My friend had it first. We played on a 286 with EGA graphics. Then a little later I got it, and that was a great leap forward since I had a VGA-monitor. I think my old 286 ran DOS 3.3, those were the days.

 

[t0mme]

It was 1996. I went to Canada with my grandmother to visit my our relatives over there, and when I came back my father had copied Civ and Sim City 2000. I played SC2000 a lot because it looked nicer (hey, I was about ten years old and used to the CGA graphics of our old Olivetti 8086) on our new P100. But soon I realised that Civs gameplay was WAY better!

I still remember playing it with my friends.... Our first nuke, we loved it. But big parts of the game we didn't understand; changing over government or science (we had build or first city on a terrible place and somehow we didn't get to research advances, finally or phalanx were killed by artillery)

 

[Bob_Smurf]

The first time I played was about a year ago...
I used to play as Chinese on Earth and run up to Russia, near Alaska. Then I would sit there, Ahead in techs b/c of all the hut I got, at least for a while...Around the gunpowder era, I would fall behind and my enemies would start to close on on me...In my one city...

 

[Eli the Lich]

I Think it was 1992 the first I played it most of the time winning by Conquer the best score was King 125 % at hight level king or empror most of the time 3 civilisation only like to get to armor and to alfa century build wonder with caravan the best game was stealing all city and technology with diplomat and conquering the capital hate to look after reborn civilization like to make them surender and destroying after made army with diplomat from barbarian

 

[pantlesscommy]

voodoocat: i did the same thing when i started playing. i just fortified stuff outside my (usually) 1 city and then the AI would show up with carriers and tanks and bombers and i still had phalanx. (boy a lot has changed)

this was back in '93-'94 on my 386. ive been looking for an old b: drive so i can convert it to a cd burner.

anyone remember building their first carrier or nuke?

 

[Force]

I started like the first poster when I was 7 or so.

Didn't know anything about how to play, but it was the only game I had, so I was forced to learn about irrigation, communism, what a phalanx was, etc.

I used to think that the militia was putting clothes on when I fortified it, because the 'F' looked like some white cloth!

Half of everything I know is down to Civilization....