It took 10 years to port Civ2 to mobile devices, how long for Civ4?

[VetLegion]

http://www.n-gage.com/en-R1/games/gamedata/civilization.htm

This could well be some kind of record


Anyway, Civ2 is a classic, but I would prefer to play Civ4 on something like this...



Nowadays high end mobile devices pack 640x480 graphics and 500 Mhz processors, which is quite respectable.

So, how about we petition Firaxis to make a mobile version (before 2016)?

[Qwertqwert]

I'm gonna guess that we can get a mobile port of Civ4, or atleast something capiable of running Civ4 decently by 2010 or 11.

[LordShiva]

Civ4 running on a 500 MHz processor with 64mb RAM?

[Unimatrix11]

I remember a chess-program (Grandmaster was its name) on my old C64 (8bit processor, 0.97 Mhz) that was just 8 KBytes long and always managed to beat me... Now i am not a pro-chess player, but not that bad either... No offense, but i think computer games nowadays are not programmed very effieciently, since people keep buying new hardware anyways... I am not a programmer either, but it simply can not be true, that 64 MBytes and 500 Mhz is generally too weak to handle the calculations Civ4 is doing, if 64 Kbyte and 1 Mhz was enough to make a descent chess-game some 20 years ago (and it never took longer than 1 minute per turn).

[MikeH]

I bet your 8K chess program didn't have much in the way of 3D texture mapped graphics, cd quality interactive music and speech etc.

[Willem]

That's not Civ 2 that's going to the mobiles, it's the original.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Unimatrix11
I am not a programmer either, but it simply can not be true, that 64 MBytes and 500 Mhz is generally too weak to handle the calculations Civ4 is doing, if 64 Kbyte and 1 Mhz was enough to make a descent chess-game some 20 years ago (and it never took longer than 1 minute per turn).

Why do people keep comparing Chess to Civilization? Civ is far more complex. Chess doesn't use a map of 4368 squares (Standard) or have nearly as many units throughout the game with different abilities and strategies. Nor does it require any calculations for culture, trade, diplomacy or city build orders. It's ludicrous to even compare the two when it comes to system requirements.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Willem
That's not Civ 2 that's going to the mobiles, it's the original.

The graphics sure looks like Civ 2



But the main question is: Does it have the high council videos?

[proviisori]

Civ III is also coming to mobile phones.

http://www.gamespot.com/mobile/strategy/civilizationiii/news_6104878.html

[proviisori]

Correction... CIV3 is pulished for mobile phones!

http://www.com2us.com/ENGGlobal/Game/GameDetail.asp?Gcode=31

[Willem]

Originally posted by Adagio

The graphics sure looks like Civ 2

Yes the graphics are Civ 2 but the gameplay is Civ 1. It mentions this in the article I believe.

[Adagio]

Oh, I just looked at the pretty pictures

[Unimatrix11]

Willem, but it is also ludicrous to compare a C64 to a 500 Mhz PC... What is the calculation power ratio ? I guess it must be at least 1:1000, probably a *lot* higher.
But i guess part of the problem is also, that back then a well defined system would stay on the market for years, giving programmers the opportunity to figure out how to program software for it to its limits (maybe that is still true for video-game-consoles). If you compare 1983 C-64 games (pac-man for example) to 1989 C-64 games (Katakis for example) you will know what i mean. The Commodore 64 is probably the best example for this, but sure not the only one.
I guess the (extreme use of) open system architecture has its major backdraw here, since tweaking the software to close to one graphics adapter (for example) would cause compatibilty problems with the another Graphics adapter.
But my point is: 500 Mhz on a 64-bit processor along with 64 MByte of memory should be suffiecient to run a game like Civ4 in theory (that the graphics would need to be cut down is obvious, given the screen of a palm top).
Younsters these days dont even know on what kind of rockets they sit (compared to the kittyhawk-planes we used to have a lot of fun with) and how far and fast they should be able to take them (with the exeption of 3-D graphics - those are most impressive these days), especially in terms of game-A.I., where as i see it, no real progress seem to have been made in the last 20 years or so.
I only brought up the exapmle of "grandmaster", cause it was most impressive in these terms: I got so frustrated with it (it only had one difficulty level) ; i simply could not believe that a 8KByte code (which also contained the graphics for the board and everything else) could beat me that fast no matter how often and hard i tried.
Sure Civ4 is a lot more complex than chess though. But (to close the circle and finish) compared to grandmaster's 8K the resources for the A.I. in modern games are relative limitless, even if the computer has to manage a complex world besides its own strategies.

[Nikolai]

Civ1 with Civ2 grapics, on a cell phone? What is the world coming to today. But I won't swap my P910 for a PDA anytime soon though.

[LordShiva]

You have a P910

Nice... I bet there's no java version that would run on my piece of cr@p Razr...