r/todayilearned • u/DueNeedleworker5036 • 4h ago

TIL that the Civilizations games (and others) include creator Sid Meier's name in the title because Robin Williams joked that it would help sell more copies of 1987's Sid Meier's Pirates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier#MicroProse
• Upvotes

98% Upvoted

443 comments sorted by

View all comments

•

u/krazeekcee 4h ago

Alpha Centauri was my favorite game of all time. I spent so much time perfecting my colony it’s not even funny. Although arguably Civ 2 was probably the better game.

•

u/Lespaul42 4h ago

Nah Alpha Centauri is the greatest game to bear his name. I can't think of another 4x game with so much character and plot in it.

•

u/Daniel_The_Thinker 4h ago

Literally no other 4X game immerses you in its world to that extent.

•

u/Elite_AI 52m ago

Solium Infernum, Dominions, Endless Legend...there's some contenders out there. In terms of character though it's pretty unique.

•

u/thewalex 4h ago

I still go back and watch the Wonder videos for the lore! I appreciated all the care that went into it. Civ Beyond Earth was so disappointing in comparison.

•

u/lessfrictionless 2h ago

"Penicillin is what people took when they got sick."

"What's sick?"

•

u/Seyvenus 3h ago

You mean Secret Projects right? ;)

•

u/Stouts 3h ago

Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.

•

u/h-ugo 3h ago

I think of that whenever a good boss leaves.

Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you

•

u/Stouts 2h ago

And then the new guy invariably starts in with the nerve stapling.

•

u/aldeayeah 1h ago

Straight to the punishment sphere with you.

•

u/WendellSchadenfreude 1h ago

The first time I heard that, I was so surprised I actually closed the dialogue window immediately and wondered if I had done something wrong.
I then ended the game by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete just to avoid hearing that plea again.

•

u/dynamic_caste 2h ago

"What actually transpires beneath the veil of an event horizon? Decent people shouldn't think too much about that."

-- Academician Prokhor Zakharov, “For I Have Tasted The Fruit”

•

u/GuyWithLag 2h ago

Beware of him who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.

-- Commissioner Pravin Lal, U.N. Declaration of Rights

I quote this to this day, as it's becoming more and more relevant.

•

u/n0respect_ 1h ago

The full quote hits hard, its precisely relevant!!

As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny...Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.

•

u/HandBananaHeartCarl 2h ago

Don't forget to add the demonic distortion at the end

•

u/Cabamacadaf 3h ago

I wish they would make a remake with updated UI, it's very difficult to get into.

•

u/hagamablabla 1h ago

We are no longer particularly in the business of writing software to perform specific tasks. We now teach the software how to learn, and in the primary bonding process it molds itself around the task to be performed. The feedback loop never really ends, so a tenth year polysentience can be a priceless jewel or a psychotic wreck, but it is the primary bonding process--the childhood, if you will--that has the most far-reaching repercussions.

- Bad'l Ron, Wakener, Morgan Polysoft

- Accompanies the Digital Sentience technology

The writers of this game were pretty damn smart.

•

u/synexo 4h ago

Agreed been chasing that high for over 20 years. There are way more complex and even deeper ones since but none tell a story as well.

•

u/Cornelius_Wangenheim 2h ago

The Endless Legend and Endless Space games come close. I particularly like The Horatio, a faction of clones created by a trillionaire that so self-obsessed that he wants to fill the universe with obedient copies of himself.

•

u/hex4def6 4h ago

Ah, the interludes and lore in that game...

"I sit in my cubicle, here on the motherworld. When I die, they will put my body in a box and dispose of it in the cold ground. And in the million ages to come, I will never breathe, or laugh, or twitch again. So won't you run and play with me here among the teeming mass of humanity? The universe has spared us this moment."

Anonymous; Datalinks

•

u/theinspectorst 1h ago

'We sit together,  the mountain and I, until only the mountain remains.'

•

u/Bloodless10 4h ago

Yeah but you can’t play as piles of worms in civ. Check and mate my friend.

•

u/GisterMizard 1h ago

Would you still love me if I was a mind worm?

•

u/Siludin 4h ago

Civ 2 Gold runs so smoothly - it's one of the big things holding the later games back despite their insane popularity regardless.

•

u/goodnames679 2h ago

I’ve played every Civ since Civ II, but to me Civ V Gold is still the greatest. Too bad it runs awfully in the ultra lategame on giant maps

•

u/JonatasA 1h ago

Civ V used to run horribly but the patches fixed that. Unless the expansions made it slow again.

•

u/Smashego 3h ago

Alpha Centauri was the best. I’d pay full price for an updated but not ruined Alpha Centauri modernization. I still end every game with a planet buster blitz.

•

u/krazeekcee 2h ago

Oh that’ll be an easy purchase, as long as they capture the spirit of the first. Discovery of a new planet, design of units etc, uniqueness of the various factions.

•

u/dynamic_caste 2h ago

I usually just flood the map with locusts of chiron

•

u/GrossenCharakter 4h ago

Credit for that one largely goes to Brian Reynolds.

•

u/graison 3h ago

What I wouldn't give for alpha centauri 2.

•

u/ElectricSpock 4h ago

Don’t you mean Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri?

His book is a very good read.

•

u/Joke_of_a_Name 3h ago

I enjoyed Civ 2, Call to Power.

•

u/dan_dirik 1h ago

Alpha Centauri is the best, but it's Brian Reynolds' child

•

u/Berloxx 3h ago

What do you mean was, what is you current one?

•

u/krazeekcee 3h ago

Ok bad phrasing, SMAC is my all time favorite. Mostly into Stellaris and Satisfactory now. The new Civs became too complex and lost a bit of that wonder of Civ 2.

•

u/bokmcdok 2h ago

Superman 64

•

u/dauysc 4m ago

Don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you