Commodore Plays Civilization 1

[Commodore]

A whim struck me, and I looked up abandonware Civilization. No, not FreeCiv. Not any of the clones. The original. I played a LOT of this game when I was 5 and 6, but it’s been a long long time. Why not blindly fire up the DosBox and try it out?

VGA graphics, IBM sounds, because that’s how I used to roll. Let’s start…oh man, I had forgotten:

The scope and scale of this little intro animation (designed to play while the system screams in the background trying to reticulate ALL the splines) is impressive. Starting with the Genesis 1 reference, you go to the formation of land, unicellular life, complex life, then primitive man. The intro confidently states that what you need A LEADER (you, the player), to achieve A CIVILIZATION. I’m pumped, this is awesome, let’s go.

I’m feeling confident, and bright. I'm able to hang with the Civ4 AIs at the highest levels, and if I don't play Alpha Centauri on Transcend I'm sure to die of boredom, so why not play at King level? The difficulty levels are Chieftain->Warlord->Prince->King->Emperor, by the way. I roll up the Americans, and LOOK AT ALL THOSE TECHS I START WITH.

Well hot diggety. I start on some plains, next to a fish in the nearby seas, so seems like a fine place to settle. I love these little city animations:

Workers and settlers are the same thing, so I need one of those...but I fuzzily remember that settlers take away one population point when they are born, so let's build a quick militia first. Need to scout around first.  

I'm also going to get a little research going. If I recall correctly, chariots are the super-unit for the first part of the game, so let's go for THE WHEEL. I have forgotten how to skew my research percentage.

I believe I remember the yield meta okay; coast is 1f/2c, with the ubiquitous Fish resource adding another 1f. Your main best tiles are grasslands-with-shields...these give 2f/1s (not hammers, production is shields), which is pretty nice. Plains are 1f/1s, hills are only 1f, and so on...but the improvements are pretty huge. Irrigation is +1f, and doesn't actually need freshwater. Mines are +1s, but more in hills. ROADS are HUGE...in addition to the movement boost, they give +1c, so it's how we research. All of this is my fuzzy memory, folks.

The militia hits a hut early on, and that yields...CAVALRY. Which in Civilization isn't the uber super-unit, but is instead a 2/1/2 light unit.

Still, that's great for exploration. The cavalry goes around north, and finds ANOTHER unit...A LEGION (3/2/1 fellas).

This seems like great news, but there's a challenge here, with three units out on the map, poor Washington is now being taxed 1 shield per turn for upkeep. This is a challenge, but worth it to explore even more, right?

Even better news, THE WHEEL is now come in. This is great for future work, right?

I go for Ceremonial Burial next, based on my fuzzy memories that happiness is hard to come by in Civilization, and that unlocks temples.

Unfortunately, this is where I see a PINK MILITIA UNIT ALERT. My militia and my legion are too far away to reach home and defend, the only thing fast enough is my cavalry...

Nuts. The HORDE OF BARBARIANS is a single horse archer, but that's still enough to kill my poor horse.

The pink unit gets closer. I'm beyond its field of vision, but the AI cheats, I remember that much...no diplomatic envoys. No stops. No communication. No wavering. No...

Um. Maybe I should try again...

[Gavagai]

Sweet memories! I think it was the first computer game I played ever. I recall when I started playing it I did not understand the concept of a turn-based game. Would queu up a militia in the city and go play outside for a couple of hours, expecting to have a whole army of those when I come back.

[Commodore]

Sweet memories! I think it was the first computer game I played ever. I recall when I started playing it I did not understand the concept of a turn-based game. Would queu up a militia in the city and go play outside for a couple of hours, expecting to have a whole army of those when I come back.

That's charming, and very understandable.

I think I might restart (on Prince) as a Let's Play if there's any interest.

Alternately, if enough people would enjoy succession, happy for that too...

[Gavagai]

I will enjoy a let's play, not sure about succession game. Probably can be talked into it.

[Cyneheard]

Sweet memories! I think it was the first computer game I played ever. I recall when I started playing it I did not understand the concept of a turn-based game. Would queu up a militia in the city and go play outside for a couple of hours, expecting to have a whole army of those when I come back.

That's charming, and very understandable.

I think I might restart (on Prince) as a Let's Play if there's any interest.

Alternately, if enough people would enjoy succession, happy for that too...

I will gladly lurk a Let's Play. I have zero desire to play an SG.

[haphazard1]

What a blast from the past! It has been a long, long, long time since I played the original Civ. But I played a TON of it back in the day. And even more Civ2.

Thanks for posting this, Commodore. I would love to see a Let's Play. So many memories....

[Tarkeel]

The scope and scale of this little intro animation (designed to play while the system screams in the background trying to reticulate ALL the splines) is impressive. Starting with the Genesis 1 reference, you go to the formation of land, unicellular life, complex life, then primitive man. The intro confidently states that what you need A LEADER (you, the player), to achieve A CIVILIZATION. I’m pumped, this is awesome, let’s go.

Oh, the memories! We discovered that you could mess with the files in order to make the intro shorter, somehow believing that meant the game would load faster.

[Whosit]

Hi Commodore! I've actually been very curious about Civ 1 gameplay for a while (hard to find good stuff on YT), so I would definitely follow a Let's Play. With no experience, not sure about a SG.

Even from the little bit you've already posted, I love the charm of Civ 1 and the older games. I feel like with Civ 4 and onward, with the removal of your advisers as characters and some of the streamlining, a lot of the flavor was lost from the different eras. I think it would be fun to go through Civ 1 and see how things have improved in newer installments, and what could have maybe been kept around.

[haphazard1]

It has been long enough that I have forgotten a lot of the details of smart play for Civ. Somewhere in my stored book boxes I still have a copy of the game guide, the 'Rome on 640K a day' book, which was extremely helpful. I might have to try to dig that out, for another burst of nostalgia.

[Brian Shanahan]

I'd follow a let's play, but have never played the first Civ (was a bit before my time with PCs).