Exploration

The Good
I have played this game since it was released and have not stopped. Played last week in fact. The graphics are really dated and seem to have been colorized with unusual color choices but the basic game is really interesting. You chose to play one or more of 5 European countries which engaged in the exploration and colonization of the world. You play against an AI. You start with a small ship (a caravel) and loot Aztec and Inca cities by transporting your sailors to them. You use the proceeds of this loot to build colonies with mines and plantations and then transport the products back to your home port to sell. You uncover the world by sailing around it until you reveal all.

The Bad
The graphics, though the ship graphics aren't too bad. Also, the land battles are quick and lack detail. If you plan carefully, you can capture enemy ships, though this works primarily with caravels and carracks, and only rarely with more advanced ships like galleons and others as the years progress. Only ran it on Windows 95 and 98 with a command prompt, but was not able to figure out how to use it in DOSbox on a Windows 7 machine, though it is possible if you understand DOSbox, which I am too lazy to learn properly.

The Bottom Line
An exploration and colonization game with includes ships, economic management (easy) and building colony production farms and mines like tobacco, cotton, sugar, gold, silver and iron ore. You can leave the native villages alone (stupid) or buy them with trade goods and then either use the population for emigration to your towns or convert the villages to your towns. You could also attack them (you should if Inca and Aztec for loot.) It is like a more ship-building/sailing/exploration game than Colonization, Civilization or FreeCol, but less stressful and in general easier.