Sid Meier, MicroProse, and the Making of Civilization | Kim Justice

[@Kim_Justice]

If you liked this then think about having a gander through my social media, and get yourself on my Patreon: www.patreon.com/KimbleJustice

[@GarethMckittrick1980]

I said elite was a masterpiece. This is too. Amazing. Love to Soph

[@terraspent]

i do adore your documentaries, Kim

[@50factsabout]

Iv'e watched most of your videos but only just noticed this one. How did I miss it??

[@TheRetroArchive]

I bought a big box railroad tycoon for the Amiga in Penzance while on holiday, when I got home disk 1 didn't work. I sent the it back to Micropose (uk) with my receipt. They sent me a new disk and a 'with compliments' slip which I still have. I spent many an hour on that game, there was nothing like buying out all of the competition and taking control of their railroads - then linking them to your existing network.

[@timtrzepacz3452]

Hey, great video as always! As a fellow who actually worked at MicroProse around '92-'95, I've a few notes: Microprose's console games division was started well after the release of Civilization, and I believe at that time the folks in charge felt like they were flush with cash and tried to expand in every direction, which included the arcade games and a line of Sierra-style adventure games. When everything failed to be as big a hit as Civilization, that's when they started to have problems. The video makes it sound like things were failing before Civ, and I don't think that was the case. The console games were not a complete flop. The SNES version of F-15 was heavily SNES-ized and did ok, while the Genesis version was a faithful 3D simulator and did not. The version of Pirates'! Gold that I worked on did well, but the company only ordered 50,000 cartridges, and did not reorder once those were sold out, as that was a capital outlay of about a million USD (carts had to be ordered in 40-50,000 quantity at about $20 each.) Many other titles were developed that did not get released, including a licensed port of Impossible Mission 2025 (SNES & Genesis), Ancient Art of War in the Skies (Genesis), Airborne Ranger (SNES, which they wanted to put a GI Joe license on), and Tinhead (Genesis, which was later released by Ballistic). The reason for developing those games to completion and then not releasing them was partly due to questions about the quality of the games, but mostly due to the cost of manufacturing cartridges. So, not our fault! The company already couldn't afford to manufacture cartridges before most of the console efforts could make it to market!

[@worldofthought8352]

Mind if I ask a question; Was Birth of the federation viewed as a success within Microprose, and also in regards to that game, did voice actors come over to the studio to record lines or did send their recordings via a file attachment on email.

[@AKsevenFOUR]

The research and detail captured in your videos is second to none.

[@DaveMcGarry]

Sid's Colonisation, I spent so many hours on that game on my A1200HD.. Loved the 90s!

[@firebladex8586]

If only I knew about it when I had an A1200

[@drunkensailor112]

Amiga version had AMAZING music. Still play it

[@AudieHolland]

*Sid Meier's Colonization* I bought it on CD-rom. The game was a whopping 5 Megabytes.

[@EvansdiAl]

Best journalist on the history of videogames? possibly.

[@KuraIthys]

I think it's a reference to how Kim says things, since wording something like that is pretty common in documentaries...

[@Morbos1000]

At around 24:45 you say "Microsoft" instead of "Microprose". It is no big deal but I thought I'd mention it on the chance that you'd need to make other edits to the video and could throw that in as well.

[@EGOS42]

Easy slip of the tongue there.

[@stevec00ps]

It's Micros...prose at 26:28 :)

[@Chazza534]

it's a fucking crime that you don't have AT LEAST 100k subs already, you should be getting way more recognition. Keep it up :)

[@spaceknight1982]

I got Sid Meier's Pirates for C64 while on an extended trip to the States, which meant I had months to ogle the box and manual and dream of the possibilities I would experience when I finally got home to my computer. Then I finally went home and the damn thing didn't work! >:(

[@markwillis7140]

Your videos are great they are better content then what they put on netflix. Your channel is one of the biggest hidden gems on KZbin.

[@drunkensailor112]

Sid meiers pirates! Was my favorite game for 10 years.

[@Blackadder75]

same here, I even bought a c64 in the 21st century just for that one game because no emulator or conversion was as good as that game on a c64 with a big eighties TV

[@drunkensailor112]

@@Blackadder75 wow I also love Blackadder. My favorite piraten! Version is the amiga 500 version. I also grew up with that one the most.

[@markusk6609]

On C64 it was number one game (best selling) for unbelievable 5 years! And yes: still playing it from time to time

[@GloopSerious-nt9dv]

Yours and everyone else's :D For 10 years Civilization and Pirates! competed for the top spot on every list

[@voltron983]

As much as I loved (and still love) Civ. Alpha Centauri will always be my favourite game of Meier's.

[@stevec00ps]

Loved this game - pretty much moved into a school friend's house to play this on his Amiga 500 for a whole school summer holiday!

[@remowhat3879]

Civ Revolution for the Xbox 360 was my first Civ game and it's crazy how obsessed I became with that game. I've never been one to be interested in turn based strategy games, but here I was wasting entire days trying to beat the game. Now it's one of my favorite franchises.

[@Tubeite]

Can't believe they haven't released a proper sequel for CivRev. Civilization Revolution 2 doesn't count as it was just a carbon copy of the first game but released for iOS and Android.

[@bojovic78]

I've been subscribed here for a year or so, always happy to see new content... why the hell are there so few subscribers ? This is one of the best channels out there. Can it be made more popular ?

[@YouTube-Grifter]

Civ 2 on ps1 is one of my favourite games of all time and easily my most played game. Literally thousands of hours put into it!!

[@orbitingdecay6797]

Same

[@TheRetroPerspective]

Civ 2 will always be my fav, love this series! Great video. =)

[@-hiphopanonymous-7093]

The Retro Perspective That was my first introduction into civ games too 🍻 cheers

[@mentalphilanthropist35]

I still pop my ps1 version in every once in a while. Good times, good times.

[@TheRetroPerspective]

@@mentalphilanthropist35 Yeah, I used to struggle through on the PS1 version I loved it so much, even though it would get to the point where ending turns would take like 10 minutes before you could actually do anything again! haha

[@mentalphilanthropist35]

@@TheRetroPerspective Watching the enemy troop movements, the barbarian movements, the threats from ai and those awesome clips when you build wonders. Ya, just one more round my a$$! 😂

[@ebuzzmiller34]

I love the series just because the bug of trigger happy nuke Gandhi has been retained as an ongoing joke.

[@akalyx]

kim justice vids are my rainy sunday afternoon

[@GazzJ82]

Great video Kim, and nice to have something on my shelf from one of your videos, the tech tree with the taped up rip is a scan from my own boxed Amiga version of Civ ;)

[@DunkzGam1ng]

Remember civ on the Amiga. Was a great game that blew my mind

[@vanderaj]

I've been playing Civ since the early Civ II days. Civ (5 & 6) and Elite (Dangerous) are the two games that are still on my personal computer to this day - others come and go, but only true masterpieces last more than a quarter of a century. Sadly, Civ 6 is not as engaging as previous versions. I have many fond memories of playing Civilization II with friends (i.e. LAN parties). Good memories.

[@Djformula]

1000x times yes Kim. This is a stunning video thoroughly entertaining :)

[@bojankotur4613]

Very informative and well made. Keep up the good work, Kim :-)

[@Bangkokian1967]

This was a very enjoyable video on one of my all time favourite game devs! Thanks so much for making this

[@BobBob-vc4bt]

'Fly Fishing' by J R Hartley

[@8-bitsteve500]

Microprose are still my fave game developers ever. I cannot even begin to guess how many thousands of hours I've spent playing games like: Pirates, Red Storm Rising, Railroad Tycoon, Covert Action, F-19 Stealth Fighter, UFO Enemy Unknown, Gunship, Gunship 2000, Silent Service, Rollercoaster Tycoon, F1GP, Grand Prix 2-4 etc etc.. Microprose/Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix 4 is still a better F1 game than the modern Codemasters games. The only disappointment I ever had was Railroad Tycoon 2, although it looked nicer than 1 it was not as good and lacked key features of 1.

[@AxelQC]

This was a turning point in my gaming life. I was a history major and ate up this game even though I typically dislike war games.

[@davidwatson1912]

Warning. Do not watch this at work as the amount of people who came over asking what I was watching then asking for the link wasted most of my lunchtime

[@Mintcar923]

Put me on a desert island with all of Sids titles.. That’s all I want! No pun intended as far as Pirates.. Great subject matter Kim

[@aidandegg4176]

One of my favourite series of all time Alpha Centauri might actually be my favourite game of all time period. This is gonna be great!

[@electricdreams8237]

Kim, you're on fire! More such documentaries please!

[@vix_in_japan]

So epic, great documentary Kim. I still play this on my Amiga 1200 (I bought that AGA enhanced version) love it!

[@Teeveepicksures]

I remember as a kid wandering the halls of microprose playing the hundreds of games in the library, clearing out the vending machine, and "reading" japanese game magazines. They even had one of those afterburner cabinets that moved waaaaay back in the warehouse that i had to get an extension cord because nobody played it. MicroProse was juuuuust about to really explode with great product, a rabid fanbase, and flush with cash. Then it all went to hell. As all good breakups there are a number of factors as to why but Ive always felt theres a great story in there waiting to be told.

[@domicius]

A Microprose video? Yes please! A Sid Meier video? Yes please! The whole strategy and MMO genres are ripe for a business style analysis. Great work as usual, so chuffed to be a patron.

[@scarboroughyork]

A good documentary! Thank you! Good detail and with a sense of humour!

[@RobotsPajamas]

Civilization on the Playstation 1 was one reason why I got bad grades in college. I couldn't stop playing it.

[@spaceknight1982]

Civilization is based loosely on a 1980 Avalon Hill board game of the same name. I have a copy - it doesn't get as much play as the video game, mainly because it takes 15 to 20 hours to get through a game!

[@rolingthunder8612]

sometime after the first legal battle between Micropros and avalon hill, the ladder would release direct computer adaptations of both Advanced civilizations and 1830, the ladder cubtitled "a game of railroads and robber berrens" (though that part is sometimes shortened to "railroads and robber berrens" by the press).

[@KK-wt1te]

Yes!!!!! Haven't even watched this yet. However I know the quality of your vids and I'm sure I will not be dissapointed. Been waiting for you to do this series for so long! And my wish is granted!!!

[@cherylfollows7093]

Absolutely love civilisation! Really enjoying you're informative videos you must put alot of effort into the research, great stuff

[@funnylookingfoetus]

Always love your videos Kim. Great work!

[@spart361]

Have you played this game Fire Pro Wrestling World? is it any good?

[@DrJReefer]

It's fun. VERY Japanese

[@dangerotterisrea]

I've bought at least 3 boxed versions of the first civilisation over the years....bloody brilliant game, the second one was a beautiful beast as well but there's something quite wonderful about this first one!

[@DTM-Books]

I have great affection for the early Microprose air combat games Hellcat Ace, Spitfire Ace and Mig Alley Ace. Even today, I think Sid Meier successfully captured the experience very nicely. Oh, and don't get me started on F15 Strike Eagle and Silent Service, which consumed whole chunks of my teenage years.

[@gamingtonight1526]

For all the politics and problems, Microprose is still my favourite publisher of all time!

[@Monkey_SK]

Great video Kim, we'll done. Any plans to cover Microprose in more depth in a future video?

[@fatherjack636]

Love the videos. If you are looking for suggestions for new videos, how about programmer Geoff Crammond. Some great games was created by the guy.

[@doodemog]

Still got it stashed away somewhere on cd, plus loads of Microprose games on floppy for my Atari 800

[@RJRC_105]

That being said, the best Microprose game in my opinion was Darklands. Without it, there'd be no Elder Scrolls, no Witcher, no Kingdom Come Deliverance...

[@rabidfurify]

IMO still the best open world RPG ever made, and the game that I always think of first when I think of Microprose. I'd love for a new take on the same concept (King of Dragon Pass and the newer Glorantha games being the only other games I know of which use an even vaguely similar format)

[@danielr.golightly38]

My favourite computer game of all time. Still have it in my computer.

[@jrherita]

Awesome research Kim! I might buy the board game now..

[@georgor1980]

"I have spent ages on this..." I am sure you did and I see what you did there! from 4000BC.... Excellent review btw!

[@PATTHECATMCD]

30:07 Neil Jackson had to fly to the US HQ to get his hands on a review copy. Microprose seemed very wary of posting any for some reason.

[@RJRC_105]

Ahhh yes. The feeling when you successfully send your colonists off to Alpha Centauri and win... AND THEY ARE ALL EATEN BY MIND WORMS! Speaking of which, how about a history of SMAC next up?

[@optiquemusic6204]

Is that what it takes to "win" this? We can't let those motherfuckers get to space!

[@freakishuproar1168]

Funnily enough I was just playing Civ III just last week.

[@CDOODY1999]

where do you even get your sources and research for this stuff kim?

[@cloudtx]

Another excellent video Kim. Personally, the Civ I'm familiar with and love is Civ III. I remember being obsessed as a kid with AoE II and thinking that no other PC game would consume my time like it did, until I got Civ III that is. Suffice to say, I rarely play AoE nowdays and Civ III gets a few games a month at the very least. I think it's not as liked as the other in the series but it's one of my favorite games of all time. Also, it's funny to hear that the Germans have been banning video games all the way back to the West/East days, lol.

[@pappachook]

As always outstanding vid. Played a lot of civ back in the day. Graphics weren't a concern back then.

[@beasty5811]

I think the graphics let the imagination run wild. At least it did for myself as a kid.

[@grantrencourt]

Nice video Kim. I remember playing a lot of the original Civ and Civ 2 back in the day. I remember all night sessions on the first game and watching the sun come up the next day. Just. One. More. Turn.. I actually went for a job interview with the UK branch of Microprose in Chipping Sodbury nr Bristol. It was back in 1994 and they were advertising for someone to write their software manuals. (Yeah, remember them?). I didn't get the job but I did get given a big box of free Microprose games, including XCom. I remember being pretty impressed with the huge campus they had at the time. I was fresh out of college with no experience so didn't expect to land the job although I felt pleased just to get an interview as apparently I was told over 250 people applied for the job!

[@willeysingleton3057]

Thanks for the entertaining lunch break kim

[@DiggerjohnKansas]

Quiet, innovative Canadian and brash and bold American; a formula that still works.

[@jamesheyworth3566]

I don't know really why, but I loved solo flight.

[@anonarchist1936]

Woo sid meier's pirates! Only discovered that a few years ago (thanks to a humble bundle featuring the 2004 remake). Played it through countless times, with the HD mods, 'challenge mode', and sea vixen mod (pirate women ftw) to keep it fresh. Hope it gets a sequel some time, it and Black Flag are the only games i've found to really capture the golden age of piracy in game, and the latter keeps interrupting you to walk round an office.

[@JohnnyReb1976]

There is an almost unknown win3.1 version of Civilisation 1, it's my favorite one of the lot.

[@KillerBill1953]

I first played it on Amiga 500 and eventually managed to beat it on Emperor level. Then the new version came out and even the easiest level wasn't much easier than Emperor level on the first iteration.

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

I loved the palace on Civilisation. Shame they didn't keep it. It was lovely building a hodge-podge of styles! I had Project: Stealth Fighter from Microprose. That was good fun. I'm still hoping to see Gandhi and his NUCLEAR WEAPONS. I enjoyed Civ and Civ 2. Darwin's Voyage was a lovely little film. My sister is sad because her computer won't play her version as it's Windows 10. Watched/enjoyed/shared on Facebook.

[@corneliussmiff2773]

I still play this. :)

[@shinvelcro]

Nice vid as always. Can some one PLEASE as him to update simgolf though?

[@davecampbell539]

Great work as always

[@petertr2000]

Pleased you pointed out the slight disconnect - 400 years to build a library. It never really made sense. I wish they'd come up with a better way, even today!

[@GloopSerious-nt9dv]

Why is MicroProse still so underrated? Why did it never get the praise it deserved?

[@slopesgameroom]

That's my plane journey home sorted!

[@martinjmcc1981]

Fantastic video as always.

[@Xlanzilla]

Kim keep up the good work excellent content.

[@babylonastronaut]

Also to be fair to the graphics, there were still sim-games using ASCII characters for graphics. It wasn't good or bad at the time.

[@stickershock66]

I wish Covert Action would get a modern reboot!

[@Owyn_Merrilin]

TIL my favorite civ games are the only ones that Sid Meier actually worked on. No wonder the CivRev games reminded me so much of the original.

[@MarJay1980]

Sorry to be that guy... 24:47 Microsoft instead of Microprose...

[@Midekai]

This was something surprisingly interesting to me

[@EvansdiAl]

PART 2 ??????????????

[@aflockofseacowsesquire]

sid Meier's SimGolf is by far his best. I've never seen such game.

[@krugec23]

I still sometimes pickup sid meiers pirates (amiga) and play it,to me its the best game ever made,on par with world of warcraft

[@rolingthunder8612]

the only good thing that came out of micropros Uk was a lable called microplay. esencially the inverse of brittish stollwardt U.S. gold (who, coincidentally, was the former UK distributer), this lable would primarily release imported brittish games in the US. they are best known as the US distributer for rick dangerous.

[@TheIndulged1]

Lol Black Wednesday happens to be my 10 birthday, who would have funked it.

[@KuraIthys]

Truly an unlikely pairing. And now Microprose's bizarre split of flight sims and strategy games starts to make sense... XD To be fair, it's hard to know what kind of person someone is based solely on what they do. But I guess fighter pilot is pretty out there on some level. I have pilot training. I'm also a coder and nerdy as all hell... But then, I'm still not a fighter pilot, so what would I know about what it means to be one? XD Also I pretty much only know of two people that have put their own name on games... Sid Meier, and Chris Sawyer Both of which, funnily enough, have to some extent made similar kinds of games...

[@thetreblerebel]

Great video

[@petertr2000]

Funny, my first 2 PC games were RT and Civ!

[@killmouseky4740]

Why can’t GOG release railroad tycoon, Civilization and Civilization 2?

[@lekcjeradosci1083]

the greatest game ever - even though it's part 4 which the best in all series

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

Wild that I played the first professional games made by a kid in an Atari club while I was a kid in an Atari club around the same age. Would never have guessed he was that young at the time based on his creative output.

[@RabidRat88]

Civ and Pirates are Sid Meier's greatest achievements in gaming. True masterpieces that will be played and remade forever. That being said the graphics in Civ are, apart from the map and tiles, as ugly as can be. They still are to a great extent in the all the following versions, which is kind of odd. And one can note Sid's wisdom of removing himself from the company, very smart. If you want someting done properly do it yourself and don't let clueless managers interfere. The proof is shown right here.

[@Diarmuhnd]

I absolutely LOVED the Civ games, i grew up on ALL of them. *But Civ, Beyond Earth was horrible and then Civ 6 's broken AI and other problems just ruined it for me.*

[@C0deC0w]

Beyond Earth is a great game. Now. After the expansion. But it was not great when it came out.

[@comentedonakeyboard]

In the eighties Germany deemed flight simulators as unfit for minors if they did not offer a option for peacefull solutions

[@henrygerard2315]

Gandhi disliked this video

[@waltherstolzing9719]

Gandhi would've straight up nuked it; that dislike is more like the work of a roving band of barbarians.

[@robinbrowne5419]

luv yu vids girl..

[@M0LHA]

Kim looks suspiciously like Sid #kimspiracy

[@MrKenichi22]

Excellent 😃😁🥰😍🥰😁😃

[@sircliff323]

enjoyed

[@thechurchofsupersampling]

Ahhh civ 1