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#217 "CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS": A PRESENTATION OF THE GAME Mark Everson motions for your attention to talk about a gaming project that he is currently leading. #216 THE FINAL FRONTIER Rasbelin runs through the Stella Polaris project on which he serves as Project Manager. #215 APOLYTON 2007 Rasbelin walks us through his predictions for five years time on the site of the name above. #214 THE COURTS OF CANDLE'BRE: AN INTRODUCTION Vel opens the door of the Candle'Brewing laboratory just for glimpse of what's happening in there... #213 A FREECIV FAN RESPONDS CapTVK responds to the "accusations" against Freeciv #212 FOUR YEARS AND SIXTY EIGHT MILLION HITS PASSED DanQ reviews the 4th year of Apolyton COLUMN ARCHIVE

On the 13th September [2002] I read a note that MicroProse has ceased to exist. The news itself wasn't perhaps that much of a suprise, but it still makes me sad that a legendary game company has died. There has been some speculation about how Hasbro and Infogrames have taken advantage of MicroProse, but I myself noticed the greed of Infogrames already last year in connection with the unofficial German translation project and the BTC campaign. One could also now speculate about how Infogrames is ripping off everything still available from one of MicroProse's masterpieces; Civ II. Greedy indeed.

When I was writing the "Open community letter to FreeAC fans" with my old IBM PS/1 (for the geeks: 486SX, 25 MHz, 8 MB RAM, 170 MB [hard disk space]) from 1992, on the Sunday after the news bulletin was published on ACS. Iremembered the recent event and the situation recalled me the good old days. It was a moment filled with nostalgia. My career as a PC gamer began with the IBM PS/1, but unlike you would expect on Poly, it didn't begin with Civ. The first encounter with games from MicroProse was a copy of Railroad Tycoon from one of my friends. I enjoyed the game very much, and as a result of that, it's still one of my all-time favourite games. I can still remember my game as Butte & Boise RR on the West Coast map. The traffic between Butte and Boise was always through out the years the real mainline of the company. I expanded quite soon from Butte to Richland and continued towards Vancouver. Also the southwestern expansion began soon towards Reno and finally San Francisco, as my target was to grow towards Los Angeles that was at the time being of noticeable size. The eastern expansion was first more slow than the southwestern expansion du to the fact it wasn't so attractive. I already had a branchline to Eugene, but I also connected to the nearby small city of Pocatello, because I had somekind of fundamental mission to connect to as many towns as possible.

Not before the company was free from all debts, could I finally start a more aggressive expansion. This meant that the line to Los Angeles was completed (later to be extended to San Jose) and a rapid construction towards southeast, due to the fact that my worst competitor James Forbes was building a network in Arizona and New Mexico. I also had two other smaller competitors, but I can't after all these 7-8 years remember who they were. At least I recall the other one had a small company that had started the build-up from Memphis. My southeastern expansion had to be aggressive, because I feard that Forbes would capture all cities in Texas, so I had to round him up by connecting ASAP to Dodge City in Kansas, and continue from there southwards to Austin and Dallas in Texas. I also constructed swiftly a connection to San Antonio, because Forbes had almost managed to get it when he connected to Amarillo. As my period of 100 years as the manager where soon over, it had been a great game. Unfortunately I don't remember any of the details related to the expansion from Spokane and Regina onwards, but I assume I also reached the Great Lakes. The most amusing details has to be the fact that Butte & Boise RR's major concern wasn't officially the overall profitability, but the passenger train running on the route Boise-Pocatello with 2 passenger and 1 mail carriages, starting with an "American" steam locomotive.

What made me proud of Butte & Boise RR was the fact that I reached my own personal record on the Hall of Fame as Circus Impressario (sidenote: Major is the highest ranking) as my career after the retirement. Other good memories are the lucrative fertilizer and beer trains in England, and the TGV locomotive in Europe. It was good entertainment from the culprits Sid Meier, Brian Reynolds and Bruce Shelley. One and a half year[s] later I received a genuine copy of Railroad Tycoon Deluxe. In general it's like Railroad Tycoon, except of several differencies when it comes to outlook, maps and locomotives. The most interesting game must have been the one in which I used TGV trains to get protection from a competitor. I started my company somewhere in Germany, from where I expanded towards Austria and the Balkans, because I had two competitors in France and one larger in east. As I had connected to Graz, I understood that I had to prevent my competitor from taking over the Balkans, Romania and Ukraine, so I had to make the brave decision to build a continous track from Graz to Vinnica at the eastern edge of the map. The point was that the AI usually avoids building over the human players track, but it can do it unlike the human player (this is one of the AI cheats). I utilised the line by running passenger trains with TGV locomotives between Trieste/Graz and Kishinev/Vinnica. That provided me the alternative to gradually build inside the "defensive construction" towards Salonika (today known as Thessalonki) and Istanbul. But those TGV trains were gushing cash!

During the years I also had a small crush for Transport Tycoon. I really did find it interesting too. My secret weapon was after all the Hereford Tiger and MPS Regal buses; cheap and capacities of 28 and 30 (I still remember that after all these years) passengers. I also remember the bug when about 10 buses were jammed at the entrance to the Cockfoster's bus station. I simply couldn't do anything to that, so I had to quit my otherwise good game. At the time I also had my copy of Civ, so my career as a civer had begun too. Unfortunately I don't have that many specific memories to share, but in general I loved the game. Unlike some beliefs, I'm actually a Civ II newbie, because I didn't start playing Civ II until 1998, after a new PC in December 1997 (I can already imagine Asher's reaction when he thinks of using the same PC for almost 3 years). A few years after the release of Civ II in 1996, MicroProse began it's journey towards its initial end in September 2002. Sid Meier left for Firaxis, Bruce Shelley joined the Age of Empires team on Microsoft and Brian Reynolds found later on Big Huge Games. Names like Chris Sawyer disappeared into the darkness. Some remained aboard on MicroProse until the very last. No matter how things developed after that, I had a whale of a time with MicroProse games and they will also be a joy for me in the future. I haven't yet deserted my Civ or Railroad Tycoon Deluxe CD-ROM's.

As I look back with nostalgia. I wanted to share a few good memories with you, fellow Apolytoners (no matter how much you hate or dislike me or the titles mentioned). I also have many good memories that are about games related to MicroProse's production; i.e. CivIII and Railroad Tycoon II. I still remember the BTC, the hassle on Poly before the CivIII release, how TSC turned to be my best all-time souvenir from Greece and "Sorry, Teddy, but your election campaign will end now, unless you're lucky enough to have an extra sack of sand in your luggage." Those are still quite recent memories, so that proves that everything isn't yet lost when MicroProse is now dead. I do have Firaxis, Big Huge Games and PopTop Software.

*starts playing the "World of Jules Verne" track from the CivII UCC soundtrack*

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About the author: Stella Polaris Development Team Manager -- website [project now on hold until further notice]

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This article was originally submitted on September 29, 2002.

The opinions expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of Apolyton CS. They are just the personal opinions of the writer.