(Approx. Trans.: Article written in 2007, before the release of Civilization V and VI)

In 1990, at the request of his boss and partner, Sid Meier continued the production of flight simulators that was put on stream. But Meyer’s life, and the world of computer games around him, have changed a lot since its work began in 1982. Sid felt an irrepressible need to expand his design horizons. It is time to move on. Despite strong resistance within the company he created, Meyer broke the status quo and forever changed the path of development of computer strategies. Proving his skeptics to the skeptics, he achieved success and made an important contribution to game design through an epic game based on the history of mankind.

"Another move"

Few games are as interesting and infinitely variable as Civilization, a turn-based historical strategy in which the player alone manages the development of civilization for thousands of years, from the Stone Age to the space age. The game looks incredibly accurate, it actually shows how the world could have evolved if the course of history had changed a bit. Civilization designer Sid Meier with a stunningly good result managed to isolate, concentrate and translate into code the principles of human development after the farming phase, fitting them into a three-megabyte game for IBM PC computers. For this merit, many critics consider Sid Meier one of the greatest software developers in history.
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Meyer's classic game is in the company of innovative games such as Tetris, SimCity and Rogue, in which the inclusion of elements of randomness makes each passage unique. In this respect, Civilization stands out in particular: thanks to the random generation of a map, several methods of victory, fifteen computer-controlled civilizations and an almost infinite number of combinations, the game process of “Civilization” every time becomes a new adventure. "The many ways of playing and their interestingness make the player start the game again after passing," Meyer said in an interview.


First civilization

Meyer’s classic game always beckons to start it again, even if you were full with it the last time six to ten hours ago. Addictiveness Civilization is legendary. So much so that it has its own name: the phenomenon of “one more move”. When playing Civ there is always something that will happen soon. On the next turn, a unit or building will be ready, a new city will be established, or an amazing technology will be opened. “In fact, there’s no right moment to stop,” says Meyer. “I myself often played in it, and found that I was late for the meeting. So this phenomenon affects me. ”

How did Sid manage to imagine and create such a powerful, but at the same time deceptively simple simulation of the events of the world? To understand the whole story of this incredible game, we first take a short trip during the first computer games.

Birth MicroProse

Sid Meier met Bill Styles in 1982 when they both worked at General Instrument, a large electronic component manufacturing company. Meyer, a talented programmer of GI microcomputers, recently acquired his first personal computer, the Atari 800, and has already started creating primitive games for him in BASIC. John Wilbur (Bill) Styles (John Wilbur “Bill” Stealey), a management consultant and backup fighter pilot for the United States Air Force, also bought the Atari 800 to play Star Raiders.

In the company, their paths crossed, and they began to communicate. Styles shared stories from his work in the Air Force, and Meyer spoke about his plan to create a flight simulator for Atari. Styles, as a pilot, captured this idea, and he proposed to Meyer to create a joint business. Noisy and easy-going Styles (nicknamed "Wild Bill" by friends) had to be involved in marketing and administrative duties, and quiet introvert Meyer was writing games. It was a classic combination of mutually complementary personalities. None of them had done anything like this before, but together they made up the perfect team. Friends founded MicroProse Software in 1982. Styles became president, and remained in that position until the end of the decade.

Earth before the genre

At the time of the creation of the concept of Civilization 35-year-old resident of Michigan, Sydney K. Meyer led an idyllic life, and he had a dream job. “Working as a game designer at MicroProse was a wonderful time,” recalls Meyer. "I really liked her, and she continues to like me." Meyer was already married, the family was expecting a child when Meyer settled near Baltimore, Maryland, closer to the company's office. MicroProse has been around for eight years, and things went well. “We have put together a good team of designers, programmers and artists,” says Meyer. “These were the golden years of MicroProse, each of us had good games and we felt we were ready for new topics and experiments.”

In these serene days of the emerging gaming industry, the design of computer games was not limited to modern narrow-minded copying of popular genres or multi-million dollar budgets. Meyer did not research focus groups or market conditions to create games, he simply suggested possible themes for games, such as “pirates”, “trains”, “civilization” or “civil war”, and then developed them. He warmly recalls this period as a simpler time: “Then there were much more experiments. Graphic and sound technologies were limited, so creating a game did not require a lot of money. It was less risky, so we could try our luck with the games, because they were not worth much. ”

A few years before, Meyer had worked with a MicroProse employee named Bruce Campbell Shelly. During the development of Civilization, the newly married 42-year-old Shelley already had eight years of game creation experience. He participated in the development of Avalon Hill board games and was ideal for working on Meyer’s strategy games. “He worked on the adaptation of Francis Treshem's 1829 railroad game, and based on it he created the 1830 for Avalon Hill,” recalls Meyer. Under the pressure of computer and video games, the board game market did not feel very well in the 80s. “It's a tough time for board games at Avalon Hill,” says Shelley. “I did not think that I would have a future there. Then I found the company that created the game “Pirates!” For Commodore 64, I tried to get a job with them. I thought that computer games have a future. ”

He got a job with MicroProse in 1988 and worked with Meyer on important projects like the F-19 Stealth Fighter, Railroad Tycoon, Covert Action and, of course, Civilization. “I immediately started playing on the F-19, and it took almost my entire first year in the company,” adds Shelley. In the second year, he worked on porting games to other platforms. “This year [Meyer] asked me to become an assistant designer, it was a great opportunity,” says Shelley. Meyer was a co-founder of the company with a solid amount of games for the soul, which could not impress Shelley. He liked the subtle sense of humor and the sharp mind of the new boss. These two quickly worked together and became an inseparable whole, "Team A", as some employees began to call them.


Civilization II

What is in the name?

The story of the emergence of "Civilization" was neither simple nor rectilinear. Many sources of inspiration came together in Meyer’s head, leading to Civilization. Since popular culture is constantly fueled by itself, the ingredients and benchmarks that make up the final result are in each case variable and confusing. The recipe for "Civilization": add three parts of "Risk" , two parts of SimCity , one - Railroad Tycoon and a teaspoon of designer genius Sid Meier. Mix in a bit of Bruce Shelley for taste and put in the oven to the "Wild Bill" Styles.

One of the most cited sources of inspiration for Sid Meier's Civilization is the early board game Avalon Hill with the same name, developed by Francis Tresham for Hartland Trefoil in Britain. Although Meyer undoubtedly knew about this game until 1990 thanks to his acquaintance with Bruce Shelley, he continues to repeat that her influence was not as strong as some assert. “I didn’t play it before I created Civilization,” says Meyer. “I played it later. I remember there were cards and trade. It is dedicated to more ancient times, and does not affect modernity or the Middle Ages. ”

However, the connections, although thin, were still present: Bruce Shelley not only worked at Avalon Hill (American publisher Tresham's Civilization), but also created the American localization of the game about the “1829” railways Tresham. This game inspired the creation of the Railroad Tycoon. It is therefore not surprising that Shelly was well acquainted with Tresham's Civilization. “I've played it many times,” recalls Shelley. “I think Sid had a copy of the game, and he saw the components. I had an original desktop, but I don’t remember that I brought it to the office. ”

Regardless of whether Tresham’s classic game affected Meyer, players familiar with Avalon Hill’s Civilization usually noticed a significant difference in the approaches between these games, which makes Meyer’s computer work unique. Soren Johnson, the lead designer of Civilization IV, gave his assessment in an interview with Civilization Chronicles: “The board game is fairly linear. The difference between Computer Civilization is in the branch, and I think that the desktop has no such thing. ”

In any case, MicroProse did not want to risk waiting for lawsuits for the similarity of the two games: the company acquired a license for the name “Civilization” from Avalon Hill, postponing legal disputes over the name and intellectual property for almost a dozen years.

According to Meyer, his Civilization actually began as an improved version of his favorite children's game. “It was like the incarnation of Risk on a computer,” says Meyer. “That was the original idea. Later we added technology and a general sense of historicity. ” Meyer was also a big fan of the old computer game Empire, which combined a world-like domination with complex urban management. “Once Meyer asked me to write a list of 10 things that would make the Empire better,” says Shelley. "This was one of his studies for building Civilization."

Such a shocking world of games like the Populous companies of Bullfrog and SimCity by Will Wright invented the genre of “game of god” in which the almighty observer, controlled by the player, guides the development of people from top view. After its release in 1989, both games (especially SimCity) had a powerful influence on Meyer as a game designer. SimCity taught the players that the computer game does not have to be about chaos and destruction, but instead can focus on “building”. Wright's masterpiece has become a vivid illustration of the fact that the game can be a “digital toy” that allows the player to experiment and manipulate the virtual world without a particular goal.

This lesson, as well as the love for Meier and Shelley trains, served as the basis for Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon, a real-time road construction game from the top, released in 1990. Tycoon was the first "game of God" Meier without violence and an important milestone in his design career. Almost all the games he created before Tycoon were combat flight simulators or military strategies that were consistent with the desires of the “militarist” president of MicroProse. However, the growing disagreements in the direction of development between the two founders - Meyer, as a designer, wanted to expand genres, while Styles was keen on combat simulators - led to major changes in the structure of the company they founded.

Breaking the connection

During the creation of Civilization, Meyer was no longer an employee of MicroProse. In fact, he became a private contractor.

In the early 90s, Bill Styles and other MicroProse executives brought the company to new risky markets, such as home gaming consoles and arcade machines. According to Shelley, Meyer did not like the course taken by the company at this time. He felt problems and wanted to leave. “We did not know that Sid was a contractor until the company went public,” Bruce Shelley wrote in a recent letter to the author of the article. “In the IPO documents, we learned that Bill Styles bought Sid’s stake.”

Under Meyer’s individual contract with a former employer, he received advance payments for game development, a large one-time payment upon release of the game, and a percentage for each copy sold. The new vice president of engineering has replaced Meyer for positions at MicroProse. Unfortunately, the new vice president did not receive personal awards for the release of Meyer games, so they had a low priority in the company. Despite the friction with MicroProse, Meyer retained warm feelings for the company he created. He continued to play for his team, even when MicroProse had difficulties.

Meyer-Shelley Design Process

Meyer began writing Civilization on the IBM PC in early 1990, right after MicroProse stabbed the sequel to Railroad Tycoon, which he worked with Shelley. His work was intense and almost all-consuming: he kept a notebook next to the bed in order to record the game ideas that had arisen at night for the implementation of the next day. Meyer almost completely engaged in programming Civilization, even created an early game graphics. (Part of the graphics survived to the final version). But Sid still needed help with the responsible part of the game design.

"Sid handed me the first playable prototype [Civilization] on a 5 1/4 ″ floppy disk in May 1990," recalls Shelley. In a two-year collaboration, Meyer and Shelly created a unique “iterative cycle” of software development. Meyer wrote a working prototype of the game and passed it to Shelly. After thorough testing, the partners discussed the shortcomings of the current prototype.

“After such discussions, Meyer edited the prototype after lunch and gave me a new version in the morning for testing,” recalls Shelley. “I usually did the testing and wrote a review ready for discussion.” They repeated this cycle, improving the game until it became almost perfect given the limited resources and time.

At the beginning of the development of Civilization, Meyer spoke little about the game to others. “He rarely let anyone play his games until he thought they were good enough,” says Shelley. For several months, Shelley was the only one who managed to see the existing prototypes of "Civilization". Other MicroProse employees often went to Shelley's office, bored with questions about the current project and persuading them to share Sid Meier’s new masterpiece. They could not wait to play it themselves.

But Meyer did not share the project with anyone until he was ready. He trusted only the critical remarks of Shelley and preferred to listen only to his comments. “He relied on me as the only reference group, on the average player,” adds Shelley. Meyer speaks well of their fruitful collaboration: "[Shelley] helped me a lot. He played the game and told me what worked and what didn't. He was an independent party for me."

Civilization development was carried out in two main stages. In the first version, created by Meyer, there was no step-by-step gameplay. The real-time game model borrowed a lot from its spiritual predecessor, Railroad Tycoon, and even more from SimCity. In the prototype, there was the principle of zoning from SimCity, when a player could mark areas of the world for agriculture or for obtaining resources that were gradually mined over time. In the end, Meyer found the real-time playing style not interesting enough. “It quickly became apparent that watching the development of civilization was just as exciting as watching the drying of the paint,” recalls Meyer. "The action of the game was so [boring] that after a while I wanted to do something else."

In an interview with Computer & Video Game Magazine in 1994, Sid Meier talked about delays in the development cycle:

“When the games were in development for six months, we sometimes said that they were not developing the way we wanted. With Civilization was the same story. We worked on it for a couple of months, and it was quite interesting, but then we did something else and then came back to it. ”
According to Shelley, not only boring gameplay forced them to postpone Civilization. The realities of the business world burst through their doors. During the recession of enthusiasm, MicroProse management found out about a fresh project that the creators of Tycoon were working on. They are not impressed.


Civilization II

Civilians-what?

Bill Styles, a US Air Force pilot and an Academy graduate, was an expert in flight simulators. He set up his company on such games as HellCat Ace, Solo Flight, F-15 Strike Eagle, AcroJet, Gunship and F-19 Stealth Fighter. This genre brought Styles profits in the past, and he saw no reason to change the winning strategy. “He wanted to release a new [flight simulator] every year,” recalls Shelley. But Meyer could not calm down and was tired of “baking” one after another military simulators at the request of his partner. It was then that Meyer resigned and broke the company's tradition with the release of the Railroad Tycoon. Meyer's move did not like Styles. The president was not interested in Tycoon as a game, and if it were not for good sales, the new "peaceful" games would not have got a chance to be released to Styles (even if Sid Meier created them).

Like the Railroad Tycoon, Civilization met with the same resistance of the MicroProse leadership.“I remember that Civ was not a game that interested Bill,” says Shelley. He believes that Civilization could simply be canceled if Meyer was an employee of the company. In this case, MicroProse would have full control over the project budget.

Despite the doubts of Styles, belief in his first partner prevailed. Shelley recalls: "I heard Bill say that he does not understand this game, but trusts Sid, so he will resolve it." But until “Team A” finished “Civilization”, they had to look for compromises: Styles wanted the Covert Action to be completed first. Earlier, two developers put off an action-packed spy game to work on Meyer’s unpredictable experiment - Railroad Tycoon. “I was very upset when management told to stop working on [Civilization] to complete the project they needed,” says Shelley. “I don’t think that the authorities understood that we were preparing until the game began to sell.”

Take two

After the completion of the Covert Action, Meyer and Shelley returned to their project. At the second stage of development, Civilization took Shelley’s “desktop” past: the game became step-wise, lost the zoning process and became more militaristic, similar to the Empire. Meyer invented separate units to control and move around the playing field. “We had settlers who cultivated the land, who could change the terrain and found cities,” says Meyer, “so we transferred the zoning functions to the settlers.” This more practical approach proved to be correct, and the base gameplay of Civilization was born.

At this stage, Meyer also created the famous "technology tree", which allowed civilizations to gradually develop, providing players with an interesting choice. "The development of technology began as a way to gradually open up opportunities during the game," says Meyer. Players had to choose technology and purposefully strive to open it. Later, they could return and develop outdated technologies or exchange them from civilizations under computer control.

You might think that it took Meyer hundreds of hours of historical research to create a game with such depth, but it’s not. “I tried to use fairly well-known concepts, well-known leaders and technology,” says Meyer. “The game was not conceived as a collection of interesting historical facts. Anyone could play it. ” Meyer was forced to admit that he sometimes looked for clues in books about historical development, just to make sure that the chronology of discovery was correct or to check the writing of the names of the leaders. But mostly well-read Meyer took historical facts from his knowledge of history. Shelley recalls how Meyer gave him an invaluable lesson about the design of historical games: in order for the game to be interesting, it shouldn’t go into detail or “get smart.” “Almost all the information we needed could be found in the children's department of the library,” says Shelley.

Problems before the finish line

When the game was almost released, Meyer and Shelly had to transfer the rest of their work to MicroProse in order to release Civilization on time. Basically, they needed the help of the art department, but this became a problem due to the low priority of Meyer’s games in the company. "Do not forget that the vice president of development did not receive an award for the release of Sid games," adds Shelley. “Therefore, he wanted to invest resources in what he was paid for. We had to fight to get people to complete the Civ. ” Finally, MicroProse reluctantly helped complete the game.

Meyer passed Civilization to the MicroProse testing department for final debugging of the gameplay. At this point, the biggest problem of the game was the huge size of the original map. Meyer recalls this: “I remember, I started a powerful blow across the continent. Against my tanks, the computer had only weak units. I captured the city outside the city and thought the map was too big. ” The huge map was too tiring for new players, and it significantly reduced the pace of the game. Reducing the size of the card, Meyer realized that you can get "the same fun in half the area." This lesson led to the creation of new projects.


Civilization III

For the sake of simplification, Shelley and Meyer cut out a whole branch of the technology tree with minor technologies. “Much of what we did was to reduce the game,” says Meyer. The irony is that Shelly regretted the lack of time to add and balance even more technology. However, Meyer felt that there was only as much technology as needed, and there was still room for future versions of Civilization, such as Civilization II, to expand and enhance the original. Most of the remaining development time, Meyer and Shelley, were devoted to further technology improvements. When adding or dropping new units or technologies at random, the game could turn into chaos. "We realized that the game is easy to break," adds Meyer. They were advancing slowly in order to preserve an individual and easy style of play.

As a final touch, Bruce Shelley wrote a comprehensive and unparalleled “Civilopedia”, a reference game encyclopedia about each unit, technology, building, resource, type of relief and form of government. Shelley also wrote a large and detailed guide supplied with each game box. He and Meyer are still proud of this. “At that time, MicroProse game guides were 200 pages long,” Meyer recalls, “and I think they added a special quality to games. The player felt that the game is meaningful and worth playing. ”

To freedom

“I remember a lot of meetings in which I said that we wouldn’t meet the development schedule without help,” says Shelley. "The game was released late due in part because other projects were given higher priority."

MicroProse’s refusal of full support for Civilization incredibly frustrated Meyer and Shelley. “I thought it was crazy to postpone the game that the entire development department considered a future hit,” adds Shelley. "I was greatly outraged when our premiums were significantly reduced due to the delay in terms, which I thought was the decision of the authorities." Fortunately for us, the game was released. Despite the serious obstacles she encountered during the development process, Civilization was released for sale in 1991.

Civilization MicroProse allocated little money for advertising, so the popularity of the game on the market and for consumers was highly dependent on word of mouth and fans (on the streets and electronic bulletin boards). Fortunately, Civilization has proved so irresistible that it perfectly fits into the conversations of the players. It was long before the gaming press called it the “strategic game of the year” in popular computer magazines in Europe and the USA. As rumors spread, sales of “Civilization” soared, surprising not only the MicroProse management, but also the authors themselves. “At the time, I didn’t think that it would become known as one of the best PC games of all time and survive many editions, perhaps endless ones,” recalls Shelley.

MicroProse was forced to admit her mistake when she saw the phenomenal success of the game, which she consistently put off. “A couple of months after the release of [Civilization], Bill Steele called me home,” Meyer says. “He was at some award, I don’t remember exactly which one, I drank a little there, and said:“ We were rewarded for your game! ””.

Epilogue: life after MicroProse

MicroProse released two more games for slot machines in the early 90s, but they did not gain popularity in the market. One of them was a completely three-dimensional, coin-operated adaptation of Sid Meier's F-15 Strike Eagle. The unsuccessful attack on the market of arcade machines sank MicroProse in debt, of which she could not get out, which resulted in a desperate IPO attempt to receive funds, but they were not enough either. In a final attempt to save the company, Styles made a deal in 1993 to sell MicroProse to Spectrum Holobyte, a competitor in game development. Sudden surprise: Sid Meier had already left the sinking ship and was in free swimming. Soon he was joined by Bruce Shelley.

Sid Meier's Civilization lives in three successful sequels - Civilization II-IV - and in the hearts of millions of players whose fate has touched (or completely captured it) Meyer's greatest work. After the failure and reorganization of his former company, Sid began working at Firaxis Games (founded by his MicroProse friend Jeff Briggs). He continued to create exciting innovative games, including Sid Meier's Pirates 3D remakes! and Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon.

Bruce Shelley achieved success at Ensemble Studios, a new game design firm. Ensemble is now best known for the Shelley Age of Empires series, which has received phenomenal success, inspired by Civilization. “Working on Civilization in particular and working with Syd as a whole became a chance of my life. She opened the door for me and led to new opportunities, for which I will always be grateful, ”says Shelley, who is undoubtedly proud of her role in the history of computer games.

Meyer is completely satisfied with his fate, which is inseparably linked with “Civilization”: “I think that if my epitaph is“ Created a Civilization, ”this will be enough.” Reflecting on his favorite series of games, Meyer is pleased that the future can bring a franchise: “Perhaps today's child, preparing for his first day in college, will contribute to Civilization in ten or fifteen years. I think she will be with us for quite some time. ”

Interview with Sid Meier

Which computer was your first?

Sid Meier : Well, I guess I was in college then. It was an IBM 360 mainframe . We passed task packages to the mainframe and studied FORTRAN programming. It was in the early 70s.

What was your first personal computer?

Sid : My first personal computer was the Atari 800 with 16K of memory.

Do you remember the first game you played on the computer?

Sid : I guess it was an arcade game Pong.

In the days of the mainframe, did you play something like Hunt the Wumpus?

Sid : I'll try to remember. Actually, I wrote games. I created the Star Trek space and, it seems, tic-tac-toe. In the era of mainframes, I had fun with games, even when I had to do a real job.

What was the first game you created for personal computers?

Sid : When I bought 800, probably my first game was something like Space Invaders. The little creatures went down and the player shot them from the bottom of the screen. It was written in assembly language. I did not have a disk drive, so I stored it on tape and manually assembled it in an assembler.

Did you distribute or publish it?

Sid : It seems to have sold about five copies. I brought it to a local computer store, they had very little software for sale. I recorded the game on a cassette and put it in a plastic box. I remember they bought five to ten copies.

What was the name of the game?

Sid : Good question. I do not remember its name, probably it was something like Alien Invasion.


Sid Meier

What is your first game became widely published and distributed?

Sid : Almost immediately after that, I and Bill Styles founded MicroProse Software, and the first game I wrote was Chopper Rescue. It was a side scroller. The player had a helicopter, he had to save people, and other people shot him. This was the first game I published. She worked for the Atari 800.

I think I played it, I'm a big 800 fan. Have you ever played MULE?

Sid : Yes, I played MULE, Seven Cities of Gold, Archon and the early games of Chris Crawford, the Eastern Front and the atomic energy game. I played a lot in the early games. Jawbreaker - remember this? It was a game like Pac-Man.

I remember her well. Do you think these games on the Atari 800 then greatly influenced you as a game designer?

Sid : I think it was interesting to play all these games. We always looked at their technology and thought: “How did they do it?” And “How can we use it? How did they manage to create such graphics? ” Therefore, we studied technology, because they were one of the important limitations. I have always been less interested in arcade games, I loved games of a strategic type. It was interesting to play and watch what games can do with technology. But I think that in game design we wanted to go our own way.

When did you first get the idea to create a Civilization?

Sid : I think two things led to the idea of ​​“Civilization”. Before Civilization, I worked on Railroad Tycoon. It was my first game, which can be attributed to the genre of "the game of God", and not to move on an airplane, tank or submarine. She was more creative: I created something, took a map and did something on it. And it partially inspired me.

It was an interesting game in the development and I was looking for an even more interesting topic for the game of the “divine” genre. At that time I played quite a bit in SimCity. And it was also a very good example of how interesting it is to build something yourself. I think that I was also inspired by the board game “Risk”, which I played in my childhood. There, too, was the conquest of the world.

Clear.

Sid : So these two sources mixed together. There was already a board game Civilization, but I did not play it. It had a different approach. [My Civilization] was like the epitome of "Risk" on a computer. That was my initial intention. And then we added technology and general historicity. Putting it all together, I was inspired to create Civilization.

So, after starting work, the game began to live its own life.

Sid : Yes, it was. Puzzle pieces fit together perfectly. I think we were impressed with the Railroad Tycoon that the game could have an economic component — you can really build something, manage trains, and compete with other railway tycoons. We were ready to try to create a game, interestingly combining many elements: diplomacy, economy, war and construction. Probably, combining all this together, we got such an interesting civilization gameplay. The player dealt with all these aspects and felt like a great leader.

I heard about Francis Tresham's Civilization game. Have you played it before? Or maybe they saw her?

Sid : I did not play it before creating Civilization. I played it later. I remember there were cards and trade. The action took place in more ancient times, it did not reach the Middle Ages or modernity. Rather, it was a game about early history.

This is interesting because Tresham also created “1829”, a game about railways. We played its American version of "1830" before creating the Railroad Tycoon. Therefore, there is definitely a link between the theme of board and computer games. But on Civilization I was inspired mainly by SimCity, our game about trains and Risk. Most children played Risk, and the idea of ​​capturing the world is very attractive.

Did Trash know then that you were creating a computer game called Civilization?

Sid : I do not know. We did not know that the game would be called Civilization when we started it. Then it turned out that this is the appropriate name. We settled matters with Avalon Hill, which owned the rights to this name in the USA, because they published a board game. Therefore, we did not communicate with Francis Tresham or anyone else from England. We agreed directly with Avalon Hill to obtain rights to the title and other issues.


Francis Tresham's Civilization Board Game

So, with this, MicroProse had no legal problems?

Sid : No, we agreed with Avalon Hill. They owned an American license for the name. And there were no legal issues. I know that later there were some strange legal problems with Activision and ... something else like that, but that was later.

This has not affected you; businessmen have been dealing with such issues.

Sid : [laughs] Right.

Before we end up with Tresham and board games, I want to ask - I read in Wikipedia, the source of extremely accurate information (of course, I say this sarcastically) that advertising for a board game was put into the box with your Civilization. Is it true?

Sid : I do not know. I would not be surprised that there was some kind of agreement with Avalon Hill about linking our computer game with their desktop, and that they wrote something about our game in their desktop. This is not unusual, but I can only guess what Avalon Hill was doing. I was not particularly interested in this.

How old were you when you created the first "Civilization"?

Sid : Just a second ... let's count. This is 1989, so I was 35.

Can you briefly tell what your life was like at the time?

Sid : Of course. I had a great job as a game designer in MicroProse, my dream job. It was really what I liked and loved, and I still continue to love. At that time I got married. My son was born in 1990, so we were just waiting for his appearance. I lived in Baltimore, worked at MicroProse and enjoyed making games. In general, nothing unusual.

By that time, MicroProse had existed for eight or nine years. We had a great team of designers, programmers and artists. This was the “golden time” of MicroProse: we created good games and felt that we could explore new topics and experiment. It was a time of creativity for both the gaming industry and MicroProse.

Probably, you remember that time with love?

Sid : Of course. It was always interesting to create computer games, but in those days there were no game genres yet, so we could say “Let's write a game about pirates!”, “Yes! There will be sword fights and ships! ”Or“ Let's make a game about civilization. ”“ Aha! Create an economy and diplomacy there. And then there will be military forces ... ”We didn’t reason“ In which category will we write the game? ”Then there were a lot more experiments. The graphics and sound were weak, so not much money was needed for the game.

It was enough to make more or less good graphics and sound. We did not need to spend many millions of dollars, as we have today. The work was a little less risky, so you could try your luck with the games, because they were not worth so much. It was interesting and exciting.

You collected everything into the game, rather than trying to shrink within the framework of "first-person shooters" or "real-time strategies."

Sid : Exactly. We started not with a genre, but with a theme. We said “Pirates!” Or “Railways!” Or “Civilization” or “Civil War”, and so on. It was like this: “Good idea. How do we make it interesting? ” Basically, this is where we started.

For which computer platform was the first Civilization originally created?

Sid : It was written on the IBM PC. Studying the system was a real esoteric, but I remember how I found a way to create overlays. At that time, the PC was limited to 640 kilobytes of memory. I found a way to create overlays in order to write to memory additional code from the disk, replacing the code in memory.

So I was able to create all of these reports by writing code to memory, which was not needed all the time. This opened up new possibilities - it allowed us to create a game, add code, and do other things. We also went from 16 ‑ color EGA graphics to 256 ‑ color VGA, and it was awesome! [Civilization] supported both EGA and VGA. This is where the limit on 16 civilizations came from: after all, there were only 16 colors in the EGA. [laughs] It was definitely the game from which to start work on the IBM PC.

What part of the Civilization code did you write personally?

Sid : Almost all the code was written by me. I was helped a little with tools and the like. But I must say that I created most of the code. And some of the graphics.

Did you draw little settlers and things like that?

Sid : In the beginning I created versions of graphics. Not sure what part of it survived to release. I think that some of the units in the original were mine, at least in the EGA version.

How much were you involved in the work on Civilization ports to other platforms, such as Amiga or Mac?

Sid : Pretty weak. We created the source code, the original code, but often the work was done on the side. I know that there are several versions for Japanese consoles, but they were very strange. We participated in their development, but rather indirectly.

I have a version of Civilization for Super Nintendo. She's pretty decent. Did you play it?

Sid : I remember the version where an angel appeared at the beginning and said something like “Once upon a time, in a distant galaxy,” and so on.

Yes, I think it is she .

Sid : She?

She is very "Japanese."

Sid : Yes, I was just amazed. [laughs] So I didn’t go further than that moment in it. But I'm glad this is a good version.


Super Nintendo Civilization Version

Have you played other versions and have they disappointed you?

Sid : I played little in them. I did not spend much time on other versions.

Probably the PC version for you was canonical.

Sid : Yes, I think the PC version is the main one. I spent a year and a half on it, so I was ready to move on.

How deeply did you explore world civilization while creating Civilization?

Sid : Very little. I read a little, from here came the idea of ​​the city as the basic element of the game. It struck me: “The first city was founded 4000 years BC”. I thought, "Oh, and this is a good starting point for the start of the game." But mostly I tried to connect well-known concepts, leaders and technology. I did not seek to surprise the player with historical facts. The approach was rather like this: “We all know a little history, but now you can change it, invent gunpowder and a wheel, electricity and all that.” But the player did not need to learn something new, everything was familiar to him.

So you were based on your personal knowledge and education?

Sid : True, the game was conceived so that everyone could play it. She did not require a degree in history in order to understand it.

Have you used special sources to test your knowledge? Encyclopedias or other books?

Sid : I had a couple of historical books, so I checked when the printing press was invented and other discoveries were made, making sure that we did not get too far and found out how the names of the leaders are spelled correctly. I climbed into books several times, but it was quite rare ...

You did not have a strong desire to make the game very accurate?

Sid : Yes, the idea of ​​the game was that you can change the story. We did not try to recreate it exactly. Bruce Shelley, with whom I worked on the project, conducted research to write "Civilopedia" and a guide to the game. He studied sources a lot to describe the real facts. But this was not part of the design of the game itself.

Bruce Shelley worked with you on Civilization. How big is his role in creating the design of the game?

Sid : He was extremely helpful. Bruce played the game, and then we discussed her strengths and weaknesses. Then I changed something or tried something else and gave it to him. He again played and said: “Oh, and it works” or “It will not work.” So he was the reference group, the person who created the ideas. He was an independent party in everything. We really worked closely together. We worked for months, playing the game, comparing ideas and creating new ones.

You said he was working on Civilopedia ...

Sid : He wrote the text of "Civilopedia" and the manual for the game.

Can we say that it was his most important contribution to the game? Or is testing and feedback?

Sid : Rather testing. The manual and "Civilopedia" are written closer to the end of the development, when the game has already taken shape. I think the guide was great. In those days, MicroProse game guides covered 200 pages, and it seems to me that they added a special quality to the game. The player felt its solidity and value.

But I think that his early contribution to the design of the game was most useful: finding working and non-working ideas, finding the weak aspects of the game.


Railroad tycoon

How did Bruce Shelley start participating in the project?

Sid : That was the business at MicroProse. I was a programmer and designer, and I needed to work with someone I would call a producer now — I'm not sure that they were called like that then. Bruce’s job was to monitor the project, work on the game’s handbook and participate in the design process.

He worked with me on Railroad Tycoon, which aroused his particular interest. He adapted the game of Francis Tresham "1829" and turned it into "1830" for Avalon Hill. He liked the railways. We worked together on Railroad Tycoon, so when we moved on to “Civilization”, he just finished the project and was ready to go. Before that, we did a Covert Action together. We sought to work together as a programmer-designer and producer.

So he was a regular MicroProse employee?

Sid : Yes. I do not know exactly when he was hired, but he worked there for a couple of years. At that time in MicroProse, we had a couple of people from Avalon Hill who wanted to leave the world of board games to the world of computer games. So at least two or three people from Avalon Hill then worked for us and came up with a lot of design and game ideas.

Civilization is almost like an educational Trojan horse: it is extremely interesting, and can also inadvertently teach you something from world history or systems of government. Was the educational aspect of Civilization intentional?

Sid : Not really, we share education and training. We have never sought to educate people, but we believe that part of the interest in the game is in the element of learning. Even when you play first-person shooter, you learn to find good shelter or choose the right weapon. Training is a part of entertainment: the feeling that you are playing a game better than yesterday, and if you play more, you will play even better.

While playing Civilization, people will learn about history, various technologies, management principles, the importance of research and historical facts. We truly believe that learning adds interest to games. In Civilization, a lot of interesting solutions that you need to think about. You are trying to do something new, and the game becomes even more interesting.

I recently read an interesting article about how some teachers used Civilization III as a teaching tool in class. Do you approve of using Civilization III as a training product?

Sid : In this game there is nothing that can be called completely wrong. I think Civilization is a good way to learn the basic concepts of history, to become a part of it and to make decisions. The game is great that you are a "star" in it. It is you who make the decisions. Yes, it was often used in education, and if you manage to interest your child in history through the game ... We will acquaint him with “Civilopedia”. We will let him know that there is even more information if he wants to study it.

I heard about a lot of people who played games with children and got a lot of useful information from them, which was useful to them in life. Therefore, I recommend using Civilization as an exciting way to learn about history.

Have you ever heard of political or world leaders who have become Civilization fans?

Sid : [laughs] No, I have not heard of any world leaders. I remember calling me from the Wall Street Journal a couple of years ago. They were delighted with how Civilization illustrates the taxation policy, which was not in the game ... It's amazing how people think the game. And I think that this is great: they play, the game captures them, people start to think out and find in the game what they find interesting.

Speaking of speculation: I read the criticism of “Civilization”, of which she is accused of “Western-Centrism” and a predilection for America. What do you think of it?

Sid : I think it's true. In those days, our way of thinking was affected by the Cold War. The world was divided into the West and the communist countries, and we tried to present the most famous leaders, familiar technologies and ideas. And at that time the world of computer games was more American. Today it has become a bit more global. PC games were mostly played in western countries. Therefore, I believe that Civilization to some extent reflects the Western view of the world. The very concept that technology moves progress is not as intrinsic to the East as it is to the West. So I think this is true.

Have you tried to solve these problems in new versions of “Civilization”?

Sid: We tried. In the new versions of Civilization, we moved in a couple of other directions. The game was criticized for being too militaristic, that it was basically a war game. We tried to create different conditions for victory, but in many cases the military aspect of the game was more interesting and exciting. Therefore, it often becomes a war game. I do not think this is necessarily bad.

But in the new parts of Civilization, we tried to create more interesting alternative ways to victory. We tried to add more Third World and Orient countries, lesser known leaders and other civilizations from around the world. We have created a greater variety of civilizations and nations.

"Civilization" is known for its addictiveness: sure, you know about the famous phenomenon of "one more move". Do you know where the phrase “one more move” came from?

Sid : I think from a magazine review. But I do not remember exactly when and from whom I first heard the term. Civilization had this property - you were always in anticipation of something. You had to wait for something: to build a building, to get a new unit or technology. Therefore, simply was not the right time to interrupt the game.

Have you ever been very keen on Civilization?

Sid : [laughs] Often I played, and then I remembered that I was late for a meeting or I forgot to do something. So yes, I am also subject to this phenomenon.

Can you yourself explain why Civilization is so attractive for re-passing and why is it still loved?

Sid: There are many elements in the game that motivate to replay: sixteen civilizations, different starting points and each time a new map. Each new game will be different. In it there are different ways to win. The player constantly makes important decisions. Often he must choose: “Should I build a new unit, or create this building?” There are all reasons to return to the game and decide: “So, next time I will try to go the other way.” In fact, there are so many ways to play, and they all look interesting and exciting that you want to play again after passing the game. I think this leads to a long replayability.

Compared to Civilization II, Civilization III has more units and ways to win. Civilization IV further expanded their choices. Do you think you will be able to constantly improve the sequels of Civilization, avoiding excessive complexity?

Sid : It worries us too. In Civilization IV, we tried to add something new. We felt we were increasing the limit of difficulty for players in Civilization. We had new ideas, but for each new aspect we used a simple approach. With the introduction of more complex aspects, we either simplified them or removed something old. This is a very broad topic: we can invest so much in the game that it simply tires the player. We catch it.

If you could change one thing in the first Civilization, what would it be?

Sid: Probably the control zone. There were many ideas that I considered necessary, but they added more complexity than game interest. Aspects such as control areas or maintenance costs. Looking at them now, I could try to improve the game a little more and make the rules not as detailed or confusing as they were in the original game. In general, I am very pleased with the original design, but something can always be improved.

Are you still playing the first part of the game?

Sid : I have not played the original “Civilization” for a long time, but I have fond memories of it. I remember playing in it during development, and it was very interesting.

Do you think that because of the success of Civilization, your other games remained in the shadows?

Sid: Actually, no. Honestly, Civilization in many ways allowed me to create other games. So I can't complain about it. I think that if someone likes Civilization, then he can try to play Pirates or my other games.

Especially when your name is written on them. It helps.

Sid : Exactly. And if Civilization remains my most famous game, I will be completely happy. I am really proud of this game.

What game are you more proud of: Civilization or Pirates?

Sid : Well, it's like asking: “Which of the children do you like more?” [Laughs]

I think Civilization is a more complete game, but there are some interesting moments in the Pirates. I must say that Civilization remains the game with the best ideas.

This is your business card.

Sid : Yes, I think she touched the hearts of the players. We made a good choice and released it at the right moment. There are still people who remember her, play her, and they like her.

Have you heard of the FreeCiv open source civilization clone?

Sid : I heard, but I know little about it.

You did not play it?

Sid : No, I did not play.

Have you purposely avoided this?

Sid : No. There are so many good games in the world, and I have played a lot in Civilization, and I still like it. I have ideas, I am working on new elements, but the first game came out a long time ago. We look forward, not back.

You were flattered when the game was cloned, or maybe it was unpleasant for you?

Sid : No, flattered. I read forums, Apolyton , other sites. I saw how people support it, put energy into the game, create fashion. I think this is great. The very spirit of the community supports life in the game. A community can do a lot more than yourself. We plant seed, create tools and let people do something more.

Each version of Civilization, from first to fourth, seems to have its own character and charm. Sequels add new features, but do not discount previous games. They are still fun to play. I will ask this question: which version of "Civilization" do you like more: I, II, III or IV?

Sid: [laughs] Well, they are all something special. I have sentimental feelings for Civilization I, because she was the first. She, I think, has discovered a completely new territory. I think that Civilization IV is a great version. There are a lot of new things in it, a good interface and there is the best support for a multiplayer game, of all that I have seen. And there appeared new ideas about religion and all that. Therefore, I think that I like Civilization I and Civilization IV the most.

Did you work on building Civilization II?

Sid : Basically it was developed by Brian Reynolds (Brian Reynolds). We discussed ideas, I played it, but for the most part it's his job. I was there to help and play the game. But the main designer was Brian.

Did you like what Civilization II became?

Sid : Yes, I think she was very good. It fixes some elements that did not work in Civilization I, and the game itself has become more. We were afraid to make the first part too big, and Civilization II, I think, said: “Okay, you know how to play Civilization. Now here you have more units, more technology and opportunities. ” That is, it became an evolutionary development of the first game. I think that if we did it first, it would be a bust. But people mastered the game, so Civilization II appeared at the right time.

How quickly did you manage to fly to Alpha Centauri?

Sid: [Laughs] In fact, I don’t often play games before a devastating victory, I’m more interested in: “What happens if I do this?” Or “I guess you shouldn’t, but what happens if I try?” I do not play for points, or score, or a quick victory. I'm trying to get into the game more and think: “How can I make the feeling of the game more interesting?”, Trying something new. I do not track statistics.

So you do not perpetuate your records in the table? "Passed the game in 800 BC." [laughs]

Sid : No, I know that this is just a number that I can easily correct in the code, so it does not bother me. It would be too easy to cheat. [laughs]

Can you briefly tell why, do you think, “Civilization” has remained popular for the past sixteen years?

Sid : I think that Civilization is based on good, solid, fundamental principles of game design: it gives the player to do interesting things and immerses him in the familiar world, but with many possibilities. And although technology has changed over the past fifteen years, these key gameplay elements, it seems to me, have passed the test of time.

And finally, can you tell something else about “Civilization”? Wrong judgments or rumors that need to dispel?

Sid: No, I can only repeat that it was a great experience for me. Civilization is a game I'm proud of, and I am very happy to be part of it. I am grateful to all its players, those who sent us interesting ideas and participated in the creation of its success.


Civilization IV

Chronicles of "Civilization"

1957 : The Albert Lamorisse Risk board game, La Conquête du Monde (Conquest of the World), was released in France.

1959 : Parker Brothers first publishes Risk in the United States.

Approx. 1973 : Students at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. Create the HP2000C computer game for the mainframe, later known as Empire, based on Risk.

1980 : Hartland Trefoil published Civilization, a strategic board game developed in Britain by Francis Tresham.

1981 : Avalon Hill launched the Hartland Trefoil Civilization board game in the United States.

1982 : Cyd Meier and Bill Styles founded MicroProse Software.

1984 : Avalon Hill published Incunabula, a computer game for MS-DOS based on its board game Civilization.

1989 : Broderbund released SimCity, created by Will Wright and developed by Maxis.

1989 : Electronic Arts published Populous, created by Peter Molyneux and developed by Bullfrog.

1990 : MicroProse publishes Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon.

1990 : MicroProse publishes Sid Meier's Covert Action.

1991 : MicroProse released Sid Meier's Civilization.

1993 : Spectrum Holobyte bought MicroProse Software, Inc.

1995 : Avalon Hill has released Advanced Civilization, the official computer version of the Hartland Trefoil Civilization board game.