NES

Sid Meier's Pirates!

Trivia

Unlike other versions of Pirates!, the NES port lacks "tobacco" as a trade item for the 1600-1640 time period. In its place? An item simply labelled "crops."

Contributed by PCGamer77 (3025) on Apr 02, 2009.

Sid Meier's Pirates! was named #18 overall among the “150 Best Games of All Time” by Computer Gaming World Magazine (15th Anniversary Issue--November 1996).

Contributed by PCGamer77 (3025) on May 01, 2008.

If you run Sid Meier's Pirates! on a Tandy machine, you will find snippets of 3-voice music throughout the game.

From the May 2001 issue of Computer Gaming World:

"We have a joke that we only do the research after the game is finished. If I read too many books, I will create a game based on the books."

"Pirates! was about pirate movies, not the period."

--Sid Meier on his design philosophy and how he applied it to his favorite game.

Contributed by PCGamer77 (3025) on Jun 16, 2001.

I'm not sure about the Apple II version of the game, but there was a version specific to the IIgs that included special missions, similar to other platform conversions.

The PC version of this game included a few features not included in versions for some other platforms. Unlike the Apple II version, the PC version often lets governors offer you special "missions" to accept or reject in return for potential rewards.

Contributed by PCGamer77 (3025) on Jan 21, 2001.

The original box came with a map of the entire Caribbean, with each of the cities noted with their founding date (so you'd know when NOT to visit them!)

This game is a member of Computer Gaming World magazine's Hall of Fame.

This was probably one of the earliest strategy/RPG games to feature "real time strategy" battles, which occurred when you attacked a city by land.

Each of the 6 "ages" you could choose from were historically accurate. Some examples: Some ages featured cities that others didn't (the cities historically hadn't been settled yet), the four different European powers gained and lost power as they did in history, and different types of ships were more common in different eras.