Sid Meier's Pirates! Gets Board Game, Previews

Thanks to Firaxis for its press release announcing that Eagle Games are making a board game version of forthcoming PC remake Sid Meier's Pirates!, following Eagle's earlier release of a Sid Meier's Civilization board game, as well a previously mentioned Age Of Mythology tabletop title. The official Eagle Games site hints at "Other [Boardgame] Projects in the Works", including "A Railroad Game" - possibly Railroad Tycoon, another Sid Meier-created videogame classic? Elsewhere, there was GameSpy coverage and a GameSpot preview of the Pirates! videogame itself at E3, with GameSpy noting: "It's an easy game to jump right into: heavy on action and big on pirate", and the Firaxis site also mentions another Meier-related story, the announcement of Civilization for the Nokia N-Gage.

Pirates 2...

[byolinux]

Can be downloaded here [the-underdogs.org] from The-Underdogs. You should only download it if you actually owned it of course.

Can't say I've tried it, but I'd imagine it'll work to some degree under DOSbox [sf.net] - Debian, Windows, OS X, RedHat, SuSE, FreeBSD, Be and MorphOS versions are available. The new version can run Windows 3.1!

Re:Pirates 2...

[beders]

Pirates 2 is a freeware fan-made sequel and as such people are unlikely to own it.

Home site:

http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/Stage/7473/pi ra t2pg.htm

without the space, obviously

Re:Pirates 2...

[DrMorris]

The new version can run Windows 3.1

Take into account that this announcment was made on April 1st... :-)

All just re-makes of Settlers of Catan.

[Domini]

I've also tried Warcraft Board Game [amazon.com], and it was fun up to a point. Just seem to be a re-hash of existing games... a bit of Magic the Gathering with some Risk, with a whole lot of Settlers. I got bored quickly.

Would rather play Settlers or Seafarers of Catan. :)

Boardgames with railroad theme

[neglige]

There are already quiet a number of boardgames which have a railroad theme. Here is a list [uni-kl.de]. The text is in German, but if you check the titles at your local store you should be lucky.

Most games deal with building an efficient railroad network, so the typical RRT train management and station building is not always included.

But check them out anyway, at least you can play those with your kids (yeah, I know, you don't have kids and I'm an insensitive clod...) because the rules are simpler.

Re:Hardly the first

[wcbarksdale]

Actually, the board game Civilization [boardgamegeek.com] dates to 1981 and was a source of inspiration for the computer game.

Re:Hardly the first

[KevinKnSC]

We're talking about two different games here. The first, Civilization (later augmented by Advanced Civilization) is the classic from Avalon Hill that you played twenty years ago (and that everyone ought to try, it's a pretty good game).

The one mentioned in the article is properly titled Sid Meier's Civilization, and includes a lot of the concepts found in the computer game.

Re:Hardly the first

[Daetrin]

So it's Civilization, the board game based on the computer game based on the board game.

It's things like this that give me faint hope that someday we'll see Firefly, the tv series based on the movie based on the tv series.

Combos

[keoghp]

What would be really nice to see would be games that use a combination of a board game and a pc/pda/handheld etc.

Its not a new idea either. I have still got some old stuff that runs on a PET (Dneiper River Line - I think they called it)

Good nostalgic stuff - can we have some more please.

Re:Combos

[Robmonster]

I'd like to see a pirate based AAAaarrrr-PG.

Re:Combos

[DigitalDemon617]

While not exactly what you are looking for, Skies of Arcadia for the Dreamcast and Skies of Arcadia Legends, its remake on the Gamecube are about a group of pirates. Granted they aren't sea pirates, they have airships, but it captures a lot of the pirate appeal. Great game. Probably my favorite console RPG.

Re:Combos

[dtolman]

It can be done now with some games - when I play 18xx boardgames, which have a lot of logistics to track, someone brings in their laptop to keep track of stock purchases, available trains, etc.

It really speeds gameplay up immensely - since the computer can figure out things that normally we would need to consult tables to determine...

Jack Valenti's Pirates!

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps the MPAA and RIAA should make a board game.

For educational purposes only, of course.

Boardgames? they still sell?

[RoderickMcDougall]

I had no idea that boardgames actually still were purchased. Granted, I have not walked into a toy store in many years (or spawned any children) but I thought they were finished. I mean as child why play board games when you can listen to eminem and smoke crack right?

Re:Boardgames? they still sell?

[will_die]

Local newspaper(no web) had an article around 4 months ago that boardgames are having a huge regrowth in sales.
For a while they died but an increasing amount of parents are conserened about the large of time spent on playing video games(grouping it with TV) so that has lead to the increase in boardgames.

Re:Boardgames? they still sell?

[LordJezo]

http://www.boardgamegeek.com Boardgames are HUGE buisness.

Railroad game: another game going full circle!

[dtolman]

Can't Eagle come up with any original games? They put out Civilization - which is a board game based on a computer game, which was inspired itself by another boardgame - all going by the same name.

Now they are considering putting out a railroad game, based off Railroad Tycoon, which was inspired by the original 18xx boardgame series?!?!

Well - guess I have to wish them the best of luck - their are a lot of good new railroad games on the market right now (Union Pacific, Ticket to Ride) - so there game is go

Updating old PC games

[eyepeepackets]

Never played Pirates, but I can list a number of old PC games I'd repurchase if they had their graphics modernized, their A.I. beefed up, etcetera:

Battlezone: Truely great game from Activision.

Jane's: I liked their Fighter Anthology and the WWII flight sim was slick too (period music was seriously cool.)

Panzer Commander: Really enjoyed the first person view standing up in the turret checking out the terrain with field glasses. This one also had a great editor which was most useful in making really hard-to-beat scenarios, possibly the best part of the game in some ways.

Dungeon Master: Okay, this one really dates me, but on the Atari ST this one creeped me out more than a few times and was a challenge. Loved the first person view too.

Anyone else think there's money to be made by brushing up old favorites/best sellers and putting them back on the shelves?

Re:Updating old PC games

[neglige]

There was a sequel to Battlezone a few years back: Battlezone 2 [pandemicstudios.com]. Improved graphics, slightly different gameplay, fun to play. Unfortunately, it didn't sell. Just like the first part. A real pity :( Cinemaware [cinemaware.com] re-released a fews classics (Defender of the Crown, Wings, The Three Stooges). DotC was stunning back in the old days, mostly due to the graphics. But today...

Personally I nonetheless think that brushed up classics could sell. It just has to be done right, not 'simply' transferring the game to curre

No subject.

[sICE]

This game is all my childhood, i played it for month, and if there's someone around here that knows the carribean sea better than me, he'll taste my sword for sure. But for /. readers it's perhaps out of sight, i played it on the C=64 last century, then on the amiga, and got it on the PC for a birthday. Anyway, i hope the "remake" will keep the promises of the first game.

Other games i like: "Soul reaver [eidosinteractive.com]", "Black & White [game-revolution.com]", "Trick Style [acclaim.com]", Tibia [tibia.com], Nomad Soul [mobygames.com], and of course all the Lucas Art [lucasarts.com] Series [scummvm.org]..

High Seas

[wikthemighty]

If you can find it, there is a boardgame called High Seas [spotlightongames.com] that is a multiplayer game that captures the feel of Pirates! very well.