If turn-based strategy has a cradle or a starting point, it is undoubtedly board games, and their transition to computers inevitably accompanied technological development. But in 1991 everything changed forever with the debut of Civilization, developed by Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley. Placing a player in command of a civilization from its very beginnings was completely revolutionary, setting a new quality bar for the genre that very few have managed to reach in recent decades.
The "4X" category assigned to a strategy game refers to "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate". In essence, if the player's goal is to create, develop, maintain, and defend an empire through the absolute destruction of their opponents one turn at a time, we are looking at a 4X with all the necessary letters. But the genre is nothing new, and to find its origins we must travel back to the early 1970s, with the development of prototypes like Stellar Conquest, a source of inspiration for the classic Reach for the Stars from 1983.
Many of these "ancestors" of 4X took elements from board games like Risk, and over time they adapted to the advantages and restrictions of digital platforms. Sid Meier's Civilization was no exception: both its name and the concept of the "tech tree" come from the board game Civilization created by Francis Tresham in 1980, but thanks to Meier's own vision and Bruce Shelley's natural talent, the "new" Civilization became something unique, a true "before and after" in the world of video games.
Civilization: One More Turn… Despite MicroProse
One of the most striking details in the development of Civilization is that MicroProse showed great resistance to the game. Long story short (the folks at Gamasutra tell it in detail), Sid Meier was one of the co-founders of MicroProse along with Bill Stealey. In 1990, Stealey's desire to turn to the arcade market led Meier to sell his share in the company, but he retained his creative position as a kind of independent contractor.
Up to that point, MicroProse had only released war titles and combat simulators. Some were very successful, like the F-15 Strike Eagle and F-19 Stealth Fighter series, but Meier had already shown with Pirates! (1987) and Railroad Tycoon (1990) that he had the potential to explore other genres. Stealey wanted to continue producing war games (after all, he had been an Air Force pilot), and even canceled a sequel to Railroad Tycoon.
Fortunately, Meier found a companion in Bruce Shelley, who had joined MicroProse in 1988. Shelley's previous experience designing "1830: The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons" under the wing of Avalon Hill (the American publisher of the 1980 Civilization) was essential to bringing Railroad Tycoon to fruition, and the programmer-tester dynamic between the two created a virtuous circle. Even so, they had to accept a compromise: Stealey asked them to finish Covert Action before continuing. MicroProse's management had reduced priority for Meier's games (the vice president did not receive bonuses for his titles), and they had trouble getting help from the art department.
Despite these difficulties and the lack of official promotion (once again, MicroProse allocated very little money to the advertising of Civilization), word of mouth among players and comments on BBS systems took care of the rest: Civilization became "Strategy Game of the Year", and received ports for multiple platforms. Even MicroProse managed to obtain a couple of awards for the game, however, its fate was sealed. The arcade adventure was a disaster, and it tried to cover its debt with a public offering, but in the end Stealey ended up selling the company to Spectrum Holobyte in 1993.
What if I want it on Windows?
Democracy, monarchy, despotism. Exploration, diplomacy, combat. From the Bronze Age to Atomic Theory, the paths to success in Civilization are many, but they always end in two ways: the destruction of all opponents in the world (something easier to achieve at basic difficulty levels), or space colonization with the arrival of a ship to Alpha Centauri. In case of any doubt, the official manual and the built-in Civilopedia (both developed by Shelley) are invaluable, but so many variables can arise in a game that it is difficult to imagine two identical games. The influence of SimCity on the development of Civilization was very important, and we find a lot of "god game" in it. Micro-management is the key to victory, and Civilization offers no mercy in that regard.
The real problem is... that you can't buy it. The first Civilization is not available in digital stores, and it has been on GOG's wishlist for over seven years, but it has never appeared there. In fact, neither its official page, nor the Firaxis Games page, nor the 2K store offer a viable solution. The only legal alternative is to search for an original copy on eBay, but we still dream of a source code release. Until that happens... you know what to do. All for one more turn.
