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Sid Meier's Pirates! is a computer game series created by Sid Meier first published by MicroProse in 1987. The games in the series are a simulation of the life of a pirate in the Spanish Main in approximately the 17th century.

Description

Pirates! is a single-player game. The player does not in fact take on the role of a pirate at the start of the game, but rather that of a privateer, in the service of Spain, Holland, England, or France (though his loyalties may change over the course of the game and he may turn to piracy at any time). Gameplay is open-ended; the player may choose to go after enemy shipping or towns, or hunt pirates, or seek buried treasure or long-lost family members, or even avoid violence altogether and seek to increase his wealth through trade. The game also has no pre-determined end, although as time goes on, it becomes more difficult to recruit men for your crew. The game ends when the player retires, at which point he is given a position in his future life, from beggar to King's Advisor, based on his wealth, land, rank, marital status, and other accomplishments.

The game tests a wide range of skills: hand-eye coordination during the fencing sections, tactical ability during the land and sea combat phases, and strategic thinking, for everything from choosing a wife to deciding when to divvy up the plunder. Moreover, each game can take a different course, as various events early in the game can greatly affect future strategic options. Also, the game is, by computer game standards, fairly educational. Reading about naval tactics in the age of sail is one thing, but when in the course of the game a player may try to beat up wind in a frigate in order to run down a pinnace that's less than half his size, but was fortunate enough to have the weather gage, this will give the player an appreciation unobtainable from books.

Pirates! was a groundbreaking game in its era. Although other open-ended games had already been released (such as Elite in 1984), the style of player-directed game-play in Pirates! lead it to be the spiritual predecessor of countless others since, both by Sid Meier himself (Civilization, Railroad Tycoon) and many others, notably Will Wright (SimCity, The Sims). Not surprisingly, Pirates! won many awards at the time of its release, being named game of the year in its genre by at least three gaming magazines, and has continued to earn accolades ever since, having been voted one of the top 20 games of all time by Computer Gaming World Magazine. Pirates! won two Origins Awards, Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1987 and Best Screen Graphics in a Home Computer Game of 1987.

Sid Meier's Pirates! (1987)

The original 1987 version made by MicroProse was widely ported from the original Commodore 64 version. It was ported to the Amiga (1990), Apple II (1987), Apple IIGS (1988), Atari ST (1989), Macintosh (1988?), Amstrad CPC (1988), Nintendo Entertainment System (1991) and as a PC booter (1987).

The Atari ST version featured a copy protection scheme requiring the player to identify the first privateer ship they encountered by their flag. The Commodore 64, PC and Amiga versions also used copy protection, in which the player had to confirm the timing of the different treasure fleets by referring to the game manual. The Amiga and Atari ST versions featured the best graphics and audio of any of the original versions.

Pirates! Gold (1993)

The last release of the game before a decade-long absence was in 1993. MicroProse developed a 256-color version called Pirates! Gold for MS-DOS, Macintosh, Mega Drive/Genesis, Amiga CD32 and Windows 3.x featuring an inspired MIDI score and mouse support (in MS-DOS and Windows versions). The PC versions contained a copy-protection scheme similar to that employed on the 1987 Atari port. Sea-to-sea, Sea-to-land, and Land-to-land combat were done in a real-time strategy screen. Sun sighting was not present in this version, and there were no special items.

Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004)

The IP associated with Pirates! is currently owned by Sid Meier's company Firaxis Games. In November 2004, Firaxis released a new version of the game for Windows, which was published by Atari. Overall, the gameplay remains similar to the original game, though it features a state-of-the-art 3D game engine (NDL's Gamebryo). Some unpopular elements such as sun sighting have been removed, but features popular additions such as a ballroom dancing mini-game and an improved turn-based land combat system. A Microsoft Xbox version was released on July 11, 2005 which includes some multiplayer capabilities.

External links

1987 computer and video games | 1993 computer and video games | 2005 computer and video games | Firaxis games | MicroProse games | Piracy computer and video games | Strategy computer games | Origins Award winners | Commodore 64 games | Amstrad CPC games | Atari ST games | Apple II games | Amiga games | Apple IIGS games | Mac OS games | NES games | DOS games | Windows games | Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis games | Xbox games

Pirates! | Sid Meier's Pirates! | Sid Meier's Pirates! | Pirates! | Pirates!

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Sid Meier's Pirates!".

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