Sid Meier's Colonization (Classic)

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Used to play this game 20 years ago. Today this is still a great game

Best Graphics ever.
Best old school gameplay ever

It is a Classic and one of my all time favorites. I like it better than the CIV 4 Remake. This is the game that made me fall in love with Sid Meier's games 30 years ago... now working with Windows 11.

A nostalgic little morsel of historical gaming, "Colonization" can be summarized as an improved version of Sid Meier's celebrated "Civilization" title. It is a much better economy simulator and features improved Quality-of-Life features compared to the earlier title. Today, there are even remakes and mods available which reinforces just how beloved that the title was and is.

Any objective reviewer will have to admit that some of the values and motivations have been simplified - criminals and indentured servants and natives did not exist symbiotically in the same way that the title presents. But if you can forgive a slightly unhistoric read of history, there's a great economy manager here and decent story engine with generous replayability.

“Sid Meier’s Colonization” is an aging classic that could use an update but will never get one. This game reminds me of a quote from the show “Lessons in Chemistry”. One chemist asks another chemist why he keeps re-reading the same book when the book never changes. Ah, says the other, the book never changes but the reader does.

Back in the 1990s, “Colonization” was the successor to “Civilization”, the most popular strategy game series of all time. “Colonization” was different. You needed to trade with your rivals. You needed to prepare for independence from foreign powers. Concepts were not all presented in abstractions. Each game took hours and days to play, which was perfect at a time when I was young and poor and cable TV was luxury.

The meat of the game still works today. You take the poor and discarded members of European society and train them to work jobs in your colony. It’s this planning and the fruition of those plans that feels so good. Eventually, you stop relying on Europe and build your own arms industry to fight them. Along the way, you can trade with the indigenous people or cruelly destroy them. This is what brings people back to this old game. It’s fun.

Nowadays, I see that a lot of the game was powered by my own imagination. The combat, for instance, uses a non-functioning random number generator that results in off balance battle results. Loading save games is a standard method of play. Almost every mechanic requires player action, including moving ships or wagon trains one tile at a time. You can set up trade routes, for example to move raw sugar to your rum distillers, but these routes all too often don’t work. Later in the game, units will disappear because this game was written on the assumption that your late 1980s and 1990s computer would lack enough RAM yo handle more units. It is up to the player to deal with these issues and fill in the gaps, making the game an elaborate version of solitaire.

This is where I have changed. In the last 31 years (how old am I?), my knowledge of the colonial period and the original American cultures has grown and changed. I’ve also become accustomed to more complicated strategy games. I’m sure Sid Meier would have added more to “Colonization” if file sizes weren’t limited by floppy discs. By the time Sid Meier released “Civilization II”, CD-ROMs became standard and that game was packed with voice lines, full motion videos of advisors, and mini movies about world wonders. Would an expanded story include small pox outbreaks, slavery, or any acknowledgment of the great loss of life and culture? This game is trapped in a time capsule, and the the best the player can do to rewrite history is to play as France and try set up cities amongst existing settlements. There is no real option to play with history.

Lastly, the game has no port for modern hardware. It has to be run using emulation, and that emulator, DosBox keeps crashing in late game. Even a controversial classic needs a little love.

One of the best games i've ever played, especially because of all the nostalgia this brings to you. I used to play this as a child with my dad (My dad did all the thinking, and i just moved the units). It was some of the most amazing father-son moments i've ever had.
What a timeless masterpiece

It's so remarkable how such an old game with so simple mechanics stood tbe test of time.

I come back to this game quite often to play. Usually when I'm fed up in more modern civ builder games of their overcomplex mechanics and attempts to mirror real life.

Colonization is simple, has depth, you understand at all times exactly how you're doing and is just SO MUCH FUN!

classic throwback

Great classic TBS in the Sid Meier's collection. Fun trip down nostalgia lane playing this game over again.

They say you can't go home again. But playing this after nearly 30 years from when I originally booted it up in DOS on our first 386 PC, hearing the MIDI soundtrack that will live rent free in my brain forever, and happily exploiting the New World without the slightest pretense of morality or not committing crimes against humanity or ignoring slavery....this felt pretty close to coming home. As basic as the experience ultimately becomes, as broken and cheating as the AI can be, this game is foundational for a whole genre of 4x and did survival strategy and trading games well before Banished or Anno. I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone that doesn't already have fnd memories of it, but this DOSbox version---though not perfect---runs pretty well. I probably won't return to it for another decade, but it sure was a good reunion.

oh nostalgia

Genuinely one of the best sid meier games, despite its racist charactures and rose-tinting of the triangle trade and colonialism... Best graphics, good midi tracks, and engaging little economic simulator. but I can't stop getting curb-stomped by every other european colonizer.

Great game

USE CALL IN SICK TO WORK TO PLAY THIS GAME IN 90'S... This version is as close to the original I use to play on my Commodore Amiga... Great adventure game, great mood music and still really like playing this game 30 years after it was made...!

This was the very first game I played as a kid back in 2003 (I was 3), still have great memories playing on that old school style PC (same with space pin ball). got great features for a pretty old game and endless replayability.

It is fun to play while watching a movie.

Colonize the Colonizers... 10/10

I played this game when it first came out. Truly booting it up in MS-DOS. This game still has a great formula!

Harika bir oyun. Tam bir klasik. Herkese tavsiye ederim.

It is a really old game so keep that in mind. But it has good game play. But you do have to remember this is a very old game so the graphics make super Mario brothers look high tech. We are talking maybe 16 bit graphics.

One of the greatest games of all time. You can pick it up for free as abandonware, and it would be amazing if the dev would release the source code so we could fix the few problems it does have, but this is seriously one of the most fun strategy games ever made.

The game was fun and promising until the combat system showed its ugly face. The combat is beyond frustrating and it turns the game experience sour. Too bad.

I'm gen Z, this is sick

Great game!!

Fun historical based game that allows for a variety of scenarios, never the same game twice and is fun to play as the different european countries.

This game was a childhood favorite! Love it

Maybe it's the nostalgia talking, but I still really enjoy this game. I loved Civ II when I was young and discovered this at a friend's house and we would stay up all night building our colonies. Much less combat focused than Civilization, you instead focus on trade and building cities. It gets somewhat tedious when you have a machine going, as it was mostly me trying to remember where all my wagon trains were supposed to go with different resources so my manufacturing towns had enough supplies.

It's extremely euro-centric, which is what you would expect in a game named Colonization but the depiction of Native Americans isn't as terrible as I would have expected in a game of this age.

Excellent historically set strategy game with nostalgic graphics. I played this for hours in the mid-90's and still just as fun today. This was a game changer for its time. Once you master the basics, see how long it takes to accumulate 1,000,000 in gold.

a very old classic-- very nostalgic

It is simply too buggy to play.

Picked it up during the Steam sale for old times sake. I probably spent a 1000 hours already playing this game since its original release. But it is just too buggy, even more than I remembered,

I started 5 games and spent 40 hours across the 4. Each time my game broke.

There are some small ones, but the biggest issues are that at-peace nations can randomly attack your towns and units without breaking the peace. The other are attacking units that are not being demoted but just vanish into thin air.

I truly hope someone returns to this franchise to make something worth playing (Freeciv just looks horrible, Civ IV Colonization is decent but has its own issues). But this version of the game should just be given away for free. Taking money for this broken thing is criminal.

old school classic. this version has original features that do not exist in the Civ 4 remake

ist ein super spiel

gooooo0ooooooood gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

This is a slow burner. Gather resources and prepare for the coming storm. A game will take between 15 and 50 hours.
Build you colonies slowly, right man right job, its all about the liberty bells.

Just gotta love these civ like games and their simplicity, yet generous challening gaming stratagy!

Love this game.

The obviously dated graphics and UI really grew on me and believe it ties the whole colonial theme together. This sid meier's iteration focuses a lot on worker management/placement which I found quite enjoyable and rewarding. Things get quite interesting when you get your settlements up and running while transitioning towards specialization. There's an air of urgency behind every turn as you optimise towards your struggle to declare and defend your independance.

The only things that are meh is the music. While fitting, upbeat and catchy at first it can be very reptitive.

Combat resembles that of a crap shoot (despite offensive/defensive modifiers) but you cant dog it too much considering this was made in 1994. Its kinda funny witnessing a dragoon lose a round to an unarmed colonist or wagon from time to time.

Honestly, if I wasn't a literal baby at the time of its release, I would have played this game religiously.

A shorewhile roundbased game, remember to tthe chidlhood.... Highly recommended

A nostalgic comfort blanket.

It's a timeless classic! Must try!

I find it relaxing and very good for teaching children reading skills

I can't believe I did not buy this in the 90's

Buy it!

I have played this game for nearly 1000 hours on steam plus the original. For me this is a game that just clicks with me. Sword of the Samurai is another of Sid's.

i love doing dutch colonization and slaughtering natives

very nice