It is very hard to imagine how it was done. That is what makes this version of Civilization for the Commodore 64 so interesting. Not only does it seem like a technical impossibility, but also a design one. As a strategy game of empire building and resource management, Sid Meier's classic demands significant processing power and a friendly graphical interface to navigate all the variables at play. But Fabian Hertel took on the challenge, and the result is more than worthy. Discover it!
"We all love Civilization. But it has a considerable flaw. It is a 16-bit era game and it came to the Commodore Amiga, but not to the C64. We cannot tolerate this", says Fabian Hertel on his official site. And indeed, Civilization is a massive game. A game of empire building so complex, with so many variables in play, that it could only be realized when computers reached 16-bit power. It seemed impossible to condense that complexity into an 8-bit chip, but here it is: 8-bit Civilizations, ready to download in DEMO version (fairly complete). The C64 remake of the best 4X game on Earth (4X for eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate).
Of course, along the way, many things were left out. Only four civilizations can compete at the same time (including the player's). The barbarians without a flag that roam the map can be activated, but at the expense of one fewer civilization. It makes sense, as the complex calculations of four civilizations at once already strain the MOS 6510 processor of the C64, let alone a fifth in the form of barbarians. There are 15 civilizations to play, each with two different flavors: female leader or male leader. For example, if you choose to play as the Greeks, you can choose between Hippolyta and Alexander the Great, and so on. Each civilization starts with some specific technological advance, but they differ only slightly.
The graphics are in isometric perspective and, for C64 standards, they are impeccable. The interface is navigated with the gamepad (which moves an arrow, mouse-style) and, although it can be quite cryptic at first (mainly for those who never played any game in the series), over time you learn all the tricks needed to move forward. The tech tree is also considerably smaller than in 16-bit versions and beyond. Only 6 branches of study, with six advances per branch. It's not a lot, but it's enough. Also, as expected, each menu requires an additional loading time, interrupting the action quite a bit.
Nevertheless, keep in mind that this is only a demo and the game will continue in development. Among the missing features is the diplomacy system, essential in the series. Want to play 8-bit Civilizations? If you have a C64, you can copy the ".d64" file to a disk and run it natively. If you don't have a working Commodore 64 at home, you can download the VICE emulator and play it from there, which works wonderfully. And since you downloaded the emulator, consider playing with Covert Bitops, the crazy developers who keep releasing C64 games to this day. Long live the C64!
