THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION

As the legendary 4X releases its seventh mainline instalment, PCG looks back at the games that made history

- By Ian Evenden

RELEASED 1991 DEVELOPER MicroProse

Sid Meier's Civilization

The dawning of a new age

1 The original. Developed for PCs running MS-DOS, but ported to other platforms such as the Amiga, SNES and PlayStation, Civilization came after SimCity, Railroad Tycoon and Populous but produced something arguably deeper and with longer- lasting influence. Designer Sid Meier was a co-founder of Microprose, and had been working on 2D action platformers and flight sims such as 1985's F-15 Strike Eagle, but felt that videogames didn't have to be wholly about destroying things.

So we got something that cast the player as a great historical leader, from a choice of 15 (largely a cosmetic choice in this game), starting in 4000BC and building toward win conditions including launching a voyage to Alpha Centauri (an idea that birthed spin-off Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri), scoring the most points before the year 2100, or destroying every other civilisation on the map.

Though crude by today's standards, these multiple victory conditions have become a hallmark of the series and the entire 4X genre, along with its turn-based nature, grid-delineated map, and micromanagement of cities and units to find the best path to success.

Civilization can also claim to have introduced the concept of the tech tree to games - and this is the primary way in which your civilisation can grow. Winning an arms race to get a new technology on the battlefield is a fast way to conquer more territory, but you can still defend using existing units dug into your cities - a bronze age phalanx fighting off a battleship may look comical, but it's effective.

PC Gamer didn't exist in 1991, but