What brought you into civ?

[Lord Avalon]

http://freecol.org/

[OFogy]

With a name like OFogy, you can guess that I cop to Geezerdom. Also to Civ I, on my 386 that I upgraded from 1 to 2mb of RAM for $99 U.S.
What I've always admired about the franchise is that emphasis has been on engrossing play, virtually open ended, and that eye candy has been a distant second -- totally unlike the execrable Ascendancy, which was exactly the opposite.
Thanks to all for making the best computer game ever the even better best CGE.

[Supr49er]

I started with Civ I. I was on the computer staff at Pepperdine University and worked a regular shift at the help desk. Someone had installed Civ on the pc there. I played with no instructions or clue, and just moved the settler around the map revealing territory. Of course my settler was killed and I lost, but I was (and still am) hooked. It was great fun learning by doing. Still the approach I take.

[Supr49er]

Colonization is actually one of my favorites from the series, Lz. The problem is it won't run on VISTA no matter what you do and barely runs on XP if you use voodoo.

I really, really would like them to come out with a new VISTA/XP version of Colonization. That would make me a happy demon.

I also really love colonization and play it on my old notebook. I would love to see a new version.

[MrWhereItsAt]

Originally posted by VeryBigSword
I started with Playstation One CivII, about 3 years before getting my first PC.

Btw what is heretical about that, Dr MrWhereItsAt?

Is Apolyton upset that I had fallen under the sway of a heathen console?

Not really, but how on Earth could you control a Civ game without a mouse?!

Originally posted by Asmodeous
Who remembers the "galley land bridge"?

I do (although you mean Trireme)! In fact I even remember building a Railroad across a Trireme bridge, although I can't remember if it had any effect on the sea food or trade arrow yield.

[jdunson]

Yet another here who started out with the boardgame shortly after it came out in the early 80s; I really enjoyed it, but was never able to badger friends and family into committing the time and table space to play it as often as I'd like. Nearly a decade later, when the computer game Civilization was announced, I thought it was a great idea - no more dodging the card table full of little cardboard counters from one weekend to the next, and computer opponents who could stay up as late as I wanted to.

Of course, over the years, the "one more turn" factor has been a bit of a mixed blessing I've played every version and expansion since, plus C:CTP, Colonization, SMAC, MoM, etc. Some have been better than others, but they've all had that "augh, dawn!" factor.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

One more vannilla civ convert here... does that mean that civ audience did not really expand with later generations? Or was the first civ really the greatest so we all project its greatness on later incarnations and keep on playing

[jnh140]

long time civ player, first time poster.

Started with civ1 but the balance of my civ time was spent on civ 2.

Someone said they were the only one to like test of time: thats the version I have to this day! The reason I still have it is that I copy the installed game to CD and copy the game in its entirety to each computer I own. The fancy maps are all broken but the traditional game still works.

Also hated civ 3, played for a week or two.


Bought Civ 4 right after its release and played for several weeks-- then came WoW. After waking out of that coma i'm back into civ-- off to the store to buy BTS!

[OneFootInTheGrave]

OK I need to confess...

I am a bit of an addict

Started with Civ Vanilla on Uni in Zagreb... just clicked on an icon to see what it is in the computer lab and clicked on a few things... it was like WOW! I like it like it...

Uni was history but Civ stayed ...

After moving to UK I was without computer access for a while (for the last time in my live ) and had a break from Civ, but than got the comp and Civ 2 was here...

Than I played Civ CTP, CTP II

and finally Civ III which I still liked but the least of all the civs... got out of playing civ there for a few years without major addiction, didn't even know Civ IV was out until I saw it in the shop, and bought it off course... addiction back on

until it subsided a little, but now found BTS in the shop and awwwww this is the best civ since Civ 2... I am like on drugs, sleeping 4 hrs per night, and being quite a bit older than before (and all that extra weight gain in last 7 years) it bothers me more than before, but I am still addicted

So overall, I think for sentimental reasons Civ Vanilla will always stay my favourite, it's like love at first sight than Civ 2 for legacy reasons, but this current Civ IV BTS is right up there with them, it is just brilliant. (btw I did buy almost all the expansions, and SMAC, + expansions, but really I am a civ player in my heart )

[Virdrago]

Civ 1. My mom gave me a 5 1/4" floppy disk with this game that was coming out (we had bought our first computer about six months earlier). In the demo, I was the pink Greeks, and had three cities on an island in 1400 AD. The whole premise got me hooked; I found out that Sid Meier's Civilization was coming out in stores two weeks later. So, on the Saturday (the day the game came out! - I couldn't wait, even then), I went to the computer store and bought my first ever computer game.

My first ever game I was the Babylonians on Earth, Warlord level. I was a little stupid; I couldn't get the mouse to change my builds, so I only built militia (the TIP of the flame should touch the box, not the torch! ). After a while, I met Stalin. He soon declared war, and showed up with legions and rumbling cars, in 800BC! The "cars", i found out later, were cats.
Anyway, I went down fast. I watched Babylon being taken over by the Russian armies, saw that my inscription would be found thousands of years later ("Hammurabi will return!), and immediately played a new game.
But I learned, fast, how to change my build for this one.

Since then, I have played 1, 2, 3, 4, both CTPs, all the expansions, Colonization, MoM, and two of the MoOs, and I will play every one that comes out until I keel over. All thanks to a five-and-a-quarter-inch floppy.

[Standup]

I suppose if we're being geezerish it was the Civilisation board game from Hartkland Trefoil although I never really made the connection with the microprose game until many years later. That was the early 80s when we were still waiting to be impressed by Monster Maze on the ZX81.

First Civ vid game was Civ 1 on the Amiga500. I think I later bought the AGA version ( or something like that) and was dead impressed by the animation on the Aquaduct on the city screen.

[conmcb25]

My wife got Civ II for the kids.

I played one game and was hopelessly lost.

Been addicted ever since

[jbp26]

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
Not really, but how on Earth could you control a Civ game without a mouse?!

i got civI when i was 10 or so, so like 1993. i had windows 3.1 and knew nothing about computers, so i could never get a mouse to work in DOS games. but i still played civI for probably 2 years, without a mouse. its possible, just very, very difficult. you had to be absolutely sure about every move. suffice to say i never moved passed chieftan until civII.

[jkp1187]

Have to admit, I am a little concerned at the incredible skewing of the poll results. Very few people (at least, on Apolyton,) appear to have gotten their start on anything post-Civ I. So this means that there's a population of people, probably ranging from late 20s to late 40s who have been playing Civilization and its many sequels since 1991-ish. Before buying Civ IV, they all knew basically how to play Civilization, they know what went before, and Firaxis (rightly) catered to this market, making sure that everything in each sequel was a little harder, a little more complex to satisfy the fans.

But it doesn't appear that we're drawing in new people, at least not in significant numbers. I'm worried that as the Civ franchise continues, the games will get more and more complex (to satisfy us old grognards who want a challenge,) while the number of people who actually buy the games declines -- no 'new blood' entering, so to speak.

At first I was a little skeptical about Civ Revolutions....but now I'm starting to think that it's a necessary step to make sure that Civilization is introduced to the next generation of players.

[Andemagne]

vanilla Civ1.