Sid Meier

Often called the "Father of Computer Gaming", Sid Meier has been honored with virtually every major award in the gaming industry and in 1999, was the second person ever to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science's "Hall of Fame."

His career in the industry started in 1982, when he founded MicroProse together with Bill Stealey. The first game he wrote for the company was Chopper Rescue. After initially working on combat flight simulator and military strategy games, he achieved his real fame with his Civilization game (1991). Before the release of the game, he had already been bought out of the company by Stealey, and Meier had become a private contractor, working seemingly exclusively for the company. He received money up front, more when the game delivered and royalties on each sold copy. The Vice President that replaced Meier at the company did not receive any bonuses on the Meier titles sold and therefore gave them low priority at the company.

In 1996, he left MicroProse to join the newly-founded Firaxis Games by Jeff Briggs. In 1997, the company’s first release was Sid Meier's Gettysburg!, followed by Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri in 1999, which was enhanced later in the year with Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire.

Firaxis then released two more games, Sid Meier's Civilization III and Sid Meier's SimGolf. In 2004 and 2005, his original Pirates! game was remade as Sid Meier's Pirates! and the Civilization series was continued with Civilization IV.