Sid Meier's Pirates!
Description official descriptions
Take on the life of a buccaneer in the golden age of Caribbean Piracy! This game lets you choose from 6 different "ages" (for example, "The Silver Empire" from 1560-1600, "War For Profit" from 1640-1660, etc.), one of 4 nationalities (English, French, Dutch, Spanish), 4 difficulty levels, and one of 5 special abilities (skill at fencing, skill at navigation, etc.). Nine different types of ships were represented.
The goal of the game is to retire with as much gold and land as possible, as many ranks/titles as possible (Colonel, Admiral, Marquis, Duke), and a wife. Finding long lost relatives helps too. You accomplish these goals by plundering cities, capturing and sinking enemy ships, getting in good with governors to receive titles, learn news of "evil Spaniards" holding your relatives, capturing evil pirates, etc.
The game is educational, as you will learn about piracy through the thoroughly researched manual. You'll smell the sea salt as you participate in wild sword fights, desperate sea battles, and daring attacks by land.
Spellings
- 席德梅尔的海盗 - Simplified Chinese spelling
Groups +
- Games with game-altering copy protection
- Games with nobility titles
- Games with the creator's name
- Merchant / Trade-oriented games
- Physical Bonus Content: World Map
- Setting: Caribbean
- Setting: Ship / Boat
- Sid Meier's licensees
- Sid Meier's Pirates! series
- Theme: Sea pirates
- Video games turned into board / card games
Screenshots
Promos
Credits (PC Booter version)
24 People · View all
Design | |
Conversion / Porting | |
Level / Scenario Design | |
Graphics / Artwork | |
Music | |
Sound | |
Documentation | |
Quality Assurance | |
Software Development (C64) | |
Playtesting | |
[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 82% (based on 39 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 208 ratings with 9 reviews)
This game needs a 21st century update NOW!
The Good
Always different, captivating, challenging, teaches while you play
The Bad
Hey Moby,
Is there any way you could release Pirates! in a version which could be played on one of today's PC's? I loved the old Pirates! Gold game which was playable in Windows with a patch, but now I own Windows XP. I'd love to purchase this game but why bother if it doesn't work in my current format? Pirates! Gold was by far the best game of its genre in the late 80's- early 90's, and it's a shame to just let it fall into oblivion because nobody with an updated PC can play it.
The Bottom Line
If you like adventure- strategy- role playing games, you'll like this.
PC Booter · by J Cavender (1) · 2003
My second best game of all time!
The Good
Everything! Well not everything, but this game is superb, and is guaranteed to take those days away from your life. You can spend hours hunting down other ships, attacking towns, finding members of your family, finding the Silver Train ... the list goes on and on. This has got to be one of the deepest games ever ...
The Bad
The land battles are a pain, MUCH easier to attack by boat. Also the wind always blows west so its annoying to sail right.
The Bottom Line
A brilliant pirate adventure with plenty to keep you occupied.
PC Booter · by ^^Snoop^^ (36) · 2002
The Good
I know it has a lot of rivals (the Zork series, Balance Of Power, BattleHawk's 42, and Silent Service to name a few), but to me this was probably the best PC game of the '80's. So much quality was crammed into those two 5.25" 360K floppy disks it's unbelievable. Today's games are so bloated and require hundreds of Megs of hard drive space and come on 4 CDs... ugh. Back in the 80's games were so much better.
Pirates! was simple, yet so fun. It was also educational... I learned more about real Pirates and general life in the 1600's from this game (and the manual) than I did in all my years in school.
I loved the graphics, all the action (sword fights, ship-to-ship battles, land battles), all the options (different time periods, each one with a unique map, goals, and roles to choose from), and just the whole role-playing aspect. You actually became a pirate! You rescued your ancestors, you kept the crew happy, you decided where to sail... you were the captain.
I know people have said the music wasn't good, but don't judge it by today's standards. Back then, the PC Speaker was pretty much the standard, and they did a good job with it. I know it sounded like a synthetic Casio accordian, but hey, I think the accordian was used in Carribbean music back then. :)
The Bad
The one thing I never liked about Pirates was the 8-ship limit. I always wished I could've had a larger fleet.
The Bottom Line
Pirates! was a game which has never been equaled: no game this small has been this much fun and full of so many options. This is an example of why Windoze was so bad for games... you can't find a commercial game nowadays under 1 MB, much less under 50 or 100MB. If you can only play one game from the '80's, this should be it.
PC Booter · by Raphael (1245) · 1999
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
Is the listed DOS CD-ROM version really Pirates? | Silvano Ciccioli (158) | Oct 28, 2017 |
Trivia
1001 Video Games
Sid Meier's Pirates! appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
Amstrad CPC version
Amstrad CPC version of the game was advertised as "The World's First Swashbuckling Simulation" and was only for CPC 6128.
Development
The original Commodore 64 version is written in large part in BASIC with certain parts written in assembler for speed, such as the sailing around the map.
Extras
The original box came with a map of the entire Caribbean, with each of the cities noted with their founding date.
Game Art Beyond
In 2018, Pirates! was selected as one of the biggest classics on the Commodore 64 by the creators of the C64 graphics collection Game Art Beyond. Pirates! was honored with a high resolution title picture (based on the title screen made for the Amiga version) in a special C64 graphics format called NUFLI. While all other game screens in Game Art Beyond featured a remix of their respective title music, there really was no compelling theme in the original C64 version except for a few jingles, so instead you'll hear a C64 SID remix of Bach Prelude C Minor, which later suddenly turns into Pirates of the Carribbean.
Historical accuracy
Sid Meier on his design philosophy and how he applied it to his favorite 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.
However, each of the six "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.
Missions
Unlike the early versions such as the C64 and Apple II, some following versions often let governors offer the player special missions to accept or reject in return for potential rewards.
Music
If the player runs Sid Meier's Pirates! on a Tandy machine, snippets of 3-voice music can be heard throughout the game.
NES version
Unlike other versions of Pirates!, the NES port lacks "tobacco" as a trade item for the 1600-1640 time period. In its place there is an item simply labelled "crops".
Awards
- Amiga Joker
- Issue 01/1991 - Best Adventure Game in 1990
- Computer Gaming World
- Hall of Fame member
- October 1988 (Issue #52) - Action Game of the Year
- November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) - #18 overall among the "150 Best Games of All Time"
- November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) - #6 Most Rewarding Ending of All Time
- GameStar (Germany)
- Issue 03/2013 - One of the "Ten Best C64 Games"
- Retro Gamer
- September 2004 (Issue #8) - #84 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)
Information also contributed by Andrew Grasmeder, Indra was here, JubalHarshaw, Kasey Chang, Nathan Jedinak and PCGamer77
Analytics
Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings and price history! (when applicable)
Related Sites +
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AtariMania (Kixx XL, UK, Atari ST)
For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material. -
AtariMania (MicroProse Software UK, France, Atari ST)
For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material. -
AtariMania (MicroProse Software UK, UK, Atari ST)
For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material. -
AtariMania (MicroProse Software UK, USA, Atari ST)
For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material. -
AtariMania (MicroProse Software UK; AU, DE, CH; Atari ST)
For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material. -
CPC-Power (in French)
For Amstrad CPC: game database entry; game packaging; manual digitalizations; goodies; advertisement; magazine reviews; downloadable releases; additional material. -
CPCRrulez (in French)
For Amstrad CPC: game database entry; advertisement; game packaging; downloadable releases; additional material. -
Cambridge Centre for Computing History (Microprose, Atari ST)
For Atari STE compatible: exhibit reference ID CH8011; additional material. -
Cambridge Centre for Computing History (Microprose, C64)
For Commodore 64, 5.25" Floppy disk: exhibit reference ID CH31381; additional material. -
Commodore 64 Boxed Sets
For C64: game packaging digitalisations. Include box, manual, brochure, additional material. -
DOSBox Wiki
The encyclopaedic page of the DOSBox project. -
DOSBox, an x86 emulator with DOS
Compatibility information page about the original game and its DOSBox versions. -
Hall of Light
For Amiga: game database entry; digitalised manuals; game packaging; screenshots; additional material. -
Hooked on Pirates
Information and forum on the Pirates! series -
Lemon 64
For Commodore 64: game entry database; advertisement; magazine reviews; music; documentation; cover art; additional material. -
Macintosh Garden, an abandonware games archive
For Macintosh: reviews; game packaging; downloadable releases; manual; screenshots; additional material. -
Museum of Computer Adventure Game History (Microprose, Apple II)
For Apple II: game packaging; manuals; media; additional material. -
Replacementdocs (C64, Manual in German)
Documentation for Commodore 64. -
The Lost Tavern
Dedicated to Pirates!
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Raphael.
PC-88 added by Trypticon. Commodore 64, Apple II, NES added by PCGamer77. Atari ST, Amiga added by Rebound Boy. Amstrad CPC added by Martin Smith. PC-98 added by Terok Nor. Apple IIgs added by Scaryfun. DOS added by formercontrib. Macintosh added by Garcia.
Additional contributors: Trixter, Unicorn Lynx, Sergio Brinkhuis, BdR, formercontrib, Patrick Bregger, mailmanppa, Plok, S Olafsson, Malte Mundt, FatherJack, ZeTomes.
Game added August 14, 1999. Last modified November 5, 2024.