Sid Meier's next game! YARRRR!

[Skanky Burns]

I still have my Tandy1000 (which I originally played Pirates on). So yes, I would be able to play if the disks hadn't deteriorated.

I might just try that Amiga version though.

[child of Thor]

This is long overdue - i still play it on my amiga, one of the top 10 best games of all time(on any platform).
All it needs is the ability to setup your own colonies and manage them(so throw in a bit of Civ!) and i'd never leave the high seas.
All that remains to be seen is if the publisher can NOT push it out before it is ready, which would be a novelty and ensure the games place in history.

[Lord Zalzabad]

All it needs is the ability to setup your own colonies and manage them(so throw in a bit of Civ!) and i'd never leave the high seas.

I doubt that would work out. The essance of Pirates! was that of like a RPG with no set goals. It was never a building game like the Civ or Colonization Series, and to add this into such a great game would make it worse insted of better.

Maybe the ability to found colonies (but not manage them) would be good, and also a larger map other than the Carrabean, such as Europe, and the Medeteranian, and new playable counties like the Barbary Pirates, or the Ottoman Empire (or Portugal).

[Cruddy]

One problem that may stop many posters from playing the original Pirates - is the copy protection. You need to enter certain dates from the manual for the Silver Train and Treasure Fleet.

In other words - if you haven't got an original manual (and the map helps a lot too) don't bother getting it.

I guess if you were really persistent, you could just enter any old dates until you got lucky... it's not my idea of fun.

[Kropotkin]

Cruddy: Who needs the manual for that, doesn't everyone know them by heart?!

Seriously, I kind of did know them, but iirc, you can find those dates on the internet.

[Arrian]

You can find those on the internet. I did, and printed them out, along with the map - though I DO have that memorized. Hell, gimme 1 piece of one of the treasure maps and 9 times out of 10 I know just where it is.

The problem with my copy of Pirates! is that it's buggy. If my party accumulates more than 320K gold, it freaks out. Occasionally, it freaks out for no reason. Another issue appears to be trying to get titles from 3 different countries... and/or pirate amnesties.

Despite all that (big time bugs) I still occasionally fire it up and play. It's just plain fun.

The greatness of Pirates! is its simplicity. Adding features is ok and all, but not too much. I hope they keep it relatively simple. Update the graphics. Maybe add more theatres of play (East African Coastline/India, South China Sea, etc.) and time periods. Allow some ship customization. But I don't think that "Civ-like" features would actually improve the game.

-Arrian

[Cruddy]

They could really go over board on the ship boarding sequence - but wouldn't all the smoke make it chug?

I was hoping for some kind of "duelling" swordplay - I can't think of a single game where this has been done in 3D.

I don't mean beat-em-ups like Tekken or Toshinden. I mean a system that is fun but actually uses the theory of swordplay (sixte, carte etc).

Now THAT would be innovative. Or has it been done?

[Skanky Burns]

The greatness of Pirates! is its simplicity.

Repeated as it is so true.

Another bug was that if you marched into a town (say, to loot them without the townspeople hiding their gold) and then saved the game while your ships were elsewhere, that save game would be invalid.

[Randolph]

How well versed in swordplay theory do you think the average was?

This is definitely a wait and see, although I have to say I’d be more interested in Colonization II, or MoM II, or gee maybe even actually something new… too many twos

[Tiberius]

Only Chris Sawyer will never make a Transport Tycoon II.

As for this game, I know I won't preorder it. Let's see those reviews first.

[Mahdimael]

I played Pirates! Gold all the time, even on my win98 machine (it would crash a lot).

If that truly is the game they're (re)making, the main thing is for it to be open-ended.

I remember you used to be able to get titles in Pirates. I'd love to see this expanded into some sort of in-game ability, like if you became an Admiral you would be in charge of whatever fleet you had a letter of marque in, or you could become Governor and develop and defend a colony.

My only concern would be that there's a plethora of Pirate games coming out- Pirates of the Burning Sea (mmorpg), Sea Dogs II/Pirates of the Caribbean, Port Royale, the recently released Tropico II and I think there's one more. In that sense, I'd love to see a different game altogether.

Then again, who's to say that Firaxis isn't just pulling one over on everyone and will announce something completely different?

[Spiffor]

I'd wait to see how Pirates! II turns out before buying it. It seems fun, but many pirate games have been wasted recently, and Firaxis/Atari have proven to love rushing their products...

What I really hope is that the whole Firaxis team isn't working on Pirates! II, and that there is a dedicated team to make a second expansion to Civ3 (This second expansion would hopefully be announced during the E3 as well). Otherwise, I would really feel bad for the wasted potential of Civ3

[tniem]

Pirates 2? I am looking forward to it with big ifs and buts looming. One is that this is through Infogrames again (yes, yes with a new name but it is still the same organization that makes a cheap quick buck). Second, I am afraid of too many features. Keep it simple but make it worth it. Not a very easy balance - hopefully the can pull it off. Good luck to them.


Anyone have ideas as why they have not gone back to EA games? SMG, SMAC, and golf were fairly playable when they came out. They did well with all the expansions. Why has Firaxis not gone back instead of Infogrames that did not help them get perfection? Wait, never mind, they own the rights to it just like they owned the rights to Civ III. Makes sense. Never mind. Just as long as when Sid decides to make something new he goes back to EA.

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by Arrian
The problem with my copy of Pirates! is that it's buggy. If my party accumulates more than 320K gold, it freaks out.

327,670 gold, perhaps? The last digit isn't used in the game so 32767 = signed 16 bit arithmetic clocking over and causing a crash.

Personally I preferred the 8 bit versions to the Amiga version. On the 8 bit graphics were a lot easier to use to figure out where the treasure maps lead to.

Couldn't play either nowadays. Been a King's Advisor too many times in the past, and my joystick waggling skills are not what they were.

[DrSpike]

Pirates on my Amiga gobbled up many hours. I eagerly (but also with trepidation) await the sequel - please please don't ruin it.