Forty-four years ago, Sid Meier, a computer programmer, and Bruce Shelley, a military pilot, met in Las Vegas to discuss a potential partnership in the video-game business. They tested their wits in a game of Atari’s flight simulator, Red Baron, and when Meier's video game knowledge bested Stealey's real-world flight experience, the two knew exactly what kind of game their nascent studio would specialize in. Several years and military simulator games later, however, Meier itched to do something new.
He'd seen how players found joy in watching their decisions shape a simulation and, following the positive reception to Railroad Tycoon, had an instinct that history could capture people's imaginations. Thus was born Civilization and, equally important, the creative pattern that shaped the genre-defining series over the next 35 years. Even as the series changed hands over the years, each successive game came into existence facing the same challenges: tumultuous changes in leadership and vision, tension between tradition and innovation, and no shortage of doubt from backers and consumers.
And yet Civilization has endured, shaped as much by the people who play it as the ones who create it and etched into the video game landscape as one of the greats. To mark the 35th anniversary of Civilization, Polygon spoke with some of the people who created and stewarded the series over the decades. Below, they tell the story of how Civilization became the franchise we know today.
Rome, it seems, was not built in a day. Sid Meier (Creator of Civilization, co-founder of MicroProse and Firaxis): I was always playing with toys as a child. I remember spreading my blocks and soldiers and ships over the living room floor until my mom said, “Somebody’s coming over — you gotta clean up!” And I had an interest in history; I read about airplanes and ships, pirates, for example.
As I got a little older, I got into board games and strategy games. This was all before computers appeared. When computers appeared, my first computer was the Atari 800.
Whoa, I can make my own games. And, you know, the rest is history. Meier: The backstory of Civilization is kind of interesting.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
