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Pirates! wasn't perfect, of course, but it was really fun (at least I thought so). Even with the bugs...
I still have the 1987 game on my computer (found it on an abandonware site years ago), because I didn't like the Pirates! Gold edition (early 90s). It's got problems, but I don't care.
The basics, for those who are curious:
You pick between several time periods:
1560
1600
1620
1640
1660
1680
Each has a different feel. 1560 was my favorite, because if you chose to be English, you started with a powerful force (fast galleon & ~150 men) and just about the entire map was available for plunder (all Spanish). By 1620, though, there are some decent colonies not owned by Spain (Barbados, for instance), and the Spanish possessions are poorer. The Dutch show up too, whereas early on they're just not a factor. Ships change a little bit too.
You pick nationality (English, French, Dutch, Spanish). Depending on the time period, this may result in very different starts. In the earlier periods, being Dutch means you start out as a trader (you can play the game peacefully, and if you really try hard you can actually do ok without any pirating at all) with an unwieldy merchant ship. Later on, though, you start out like the English in 1560 - with a Frigate & a bunch of men. Nationality also affects where on the map you start, too. Being French tends to start you near Tortuga. Being English... it varies. Dutchmen start around Curacao, or later on maybe St. Maarten, I forget. The Spaniards are usually "renegade" pirate types - they start with a tiny boat in hostile waters with very little crew. Except in the latest time period, where you are a pirate hunter.
You pick a skill:
Fencing
Gunnery
Navigation
Medicine
Wit & Charm
The first 3 should be obvious. Medicine means you stay healthy longer, which is key because the victory screen takes you health upon retirement into account. Wit and Charm is kinda silly - another thing the retirement screen measures is the quality of your bride (if any). Being witty & charming helps you get the high class ladies. But wealth and power do it better..
You pick difficulty:
Apprentice
Journeyman
Adventurer
Swashbuckler
The higher the difficulty, the bigger your share of the plunder is, but everything else is harder (navigation - storms are a real ***** on the upper two levels, battle, etc). I tended to like Journeyman. Each time you "divide the plunder" and set up a new expedition, you had the option of moving up in difficulty. So you could start out on a fairly easy level, build your rep as a badass captain (easy to recruit a new crew then) and get yourself a powerful flagship (when dividing plunder you can only keep 1 ship for the next round of rape & pillage), and THEN move up.
And you're off! Two basic combat types: sea and land. Land combat is pretty silly - it's REALLY easy to trick the "AI" and slaughter superior strength garrisons. Then again, I could care less because I never played Pirates! for challenge. Sea combat involves firing your cannons and then closing in to board the other ship (unless you really want to just sink it, and get nothing out of it).
You sail around, finding ships and maybe attacking them, visiting and/or plundering towns, etc. Depending on whom is at war with whom, you can get Letters of Marque and then be rewarded with lands and titles if you beat up on the enemy. The more lands and titles, the better. If you really rough up a town (I think it has to do with how many men you have vs. the total population of a town, actually), you can run out the local authorities and plant a new governer - nationality of your choice. That really makes your sponsoring gov't happy (titles, lands) and provides you with a safe port where you can fix your ships, recruit, and sell cargo (unless they get really rich, then they just see you as a pirate and shoot at you, even though you're "one their side." Bastards
) Trading with towns increases their economy (4 categories: struggling, surviving, prosperous, wealthy. It's the wealthy buggers who shoot at ya). So can random events (new gold mine discovered), but they are often bad (malaria, pirates plunder, captured by another nation, indian raid - though this last one just weakens the garrison and doesn't hurt the economy. It's a good thing to see on the "news" list if you're a pirate).
The Spanish have the Treasure Fleet and Silver Train roaming around each year, and if you track them and nail 'em in a town, you get more money (50K, IIRC).
The other (sorta silly) subplot is your "long lost" family. Scattered about the Carribean in bondage, you can rescue them by tracking down "evil spaniard" so-and-so (changes each time you nail one) who has a piece of map showing where your sister/mother/father/brother/etc is. I got to the point where one piece of the map (1/4 of it) was usually enough for me to know exactly where dear old dad was. The real benifit (though saving family again boosts your end score) was that each family member has a piece of map for the "Incan treasure" which is 100,000 gold pieces. Each time you find one, it resets, so if you're good with the map, you can get one per relative saved.
It's a very simple game, but I love it.
-Arrian
I still have the 1987 game on my computer (found it on an abandonware site years ago), because I didn't like the Pirates! Gold edition (early 90s). It's got problems, but I don't care.
The basics, for those who are curious:
You pick between several time periods:
1560
1600
1620
1640
1660
1680
Each has a different feel. 1560 was my favorite, because if you chose to be English, you started with a powerful force (fast galleon & ~150 men) and just about the entire map was available for plunder (all Spanish). By 1620, though, there are some decent colonies not owned by Spain (Barbados, for instance), and the Spanish possessions are poorer. The Dutch show up too, whereas early on they're just not a factor. Ships change a little bit too.
You pick nationality (English, French, Dutch, Spanish). Depending on the time period, this may result in very different starts. In the earlier periods, being Dutch means you start out as a trader (you can play the game peacefully, and if you really try hard you can actually do ok without any pirating at all) with an unwieldy merchant ship. Later on, though, you start out like the English in 1560 - with a Frigate & a bunch of men. Nationality also affects where on the map you start, too. Being French tends to start you near Tortuga. Being English... it varies. Dutchmen start around Curacao, or later on maybe St. Maarten, I forget. The Spaniards are usually "renegade" pirate types - they start with a tiny boat in hostile waters with very little crew. Except in the latest time period, where you are a pirate hunter.
You pick a skill:
Fencing
Gunnery
Navigation
Medicine
Wit & Charm
The first 3 should be obvious. Medicine means you stay healthy longer, which is key because the victory screen takes you health upon retirement into account. Wit and Charm is kinda silly - another thing the retirement screen measures is the quality of your bride (if any). Being witty & charming helps you get the high class ladies. But wealth and power do it better..
You pick difficulty:
Apprentice
Journeyman
Adventurer
Swashbuckler
The higher the difficulty, the bigger your share of the plunder is, but everything else is harder (navigation - storms are a real ***** on the upper two levels, battle, etc). I tended to like Journeyman. Each time you "divide the plunder" and set up a new expedition, you had the option of moving up in difficulty. So you could start out on a fairly easy level, build your rep as a badass captain (easy to recruit a new crew then) and get yourself a powerful flagship (when dividing plunder you can only keep 1 ship for the next round of rape & pillage), and THEN move up.
And you're off! Two basic combat types: sea and land. Land combat is pretty silly - it's REALLY easy to trick the "AI" and slaughter superior strength garrisons. Then again, I could care less because I never played Pirates! for challenge. Sea combat involves firing your cannons and then closing in to board the other ship (unless you really want to just sink it, and get nothing out of it).
You sail around, finding ships and maybe attacking them, visiting and/or plundering towns, etc. Depending on whom is at war with whom, you can get Letters of Marque and then be rewarded with lands and titles if you beat up on the enemy. The more lands and titles, the better. If you really rough up a town (I think it has to do with how many men you have vs. the total population of a town, actually), you can run out the local authorities and plant a new governer - nationality of your choice. That really makes your sponsoring gov't happy (titles, lands) and provides you with a safe port where you can fix your ships, recruit, and sell cargo (unless they get really rich, then they just see you as a pirate and shoot at you, even though you're "one their side." Bastards
) Trading with towns increases their economy (4 categories: struggling, surviving, prosperous, wealthy. It's the wealthy buggers who shoot at ya). So can random events (new gold mine discovered), but they are often bad (malaria, pirates plunder, captured by another nation, indian raid - though this last one just weakens the garrison and doesn't hurt the economy. It's a good thing to see on the "news" list if you're a pirate).The Spanish have the Treasure Fleet and Silver Train roaming around each year, and if you track them and nail 'em in a town, you get more money (50K, IIRC).
The other (sorta silly) subplot is your "long lost" family. Scattered about the Carribean in bondage, you can rescue them by tracking down "evil spaniard" so-and-so (changes each time you nail one) who has a piece of map showing where your sister/mother/father/brother/etc is. I got to the point where one piece of the map (1/4 of it) was usually enough for me to know exactly where dear old dad was. The real benifit (though saving family again boosts your end score) was that each family member has a piece of map for the "Incan treasure" which is 100,000 gold pieces. Each time you find one, it resets, so if you're good with the map, you can get one per relative saved.
It's a very simple game, but I love it.
-Arrian
I went a little overboard.
.
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