Description of Sid Meier's Civilization
Sid Meier's Civilization was a watershed for the 4x genre before the genre even had its present name. While there had been earlier games that incorporated many of the features, such as conquest, tech trees, and city management, Sid Meier's landmark game brought them all together and with the necessary oomph and flair to appeal to a large demographic beyond just wargamers that gave it a staying power as one of the most dominant and recognizable PC franchises in history.
The premise is simple but has become timeworn: you take a faction from Stone Age primitivism to either global conquest or interplanetary colonization. You research technologies, which allow you to build better units and new city improvements. You're presented with opportunities for peace and trade or war and conquest.
Advances are less linear than RTS games and improvements are permanent [unlike, say, Age of Empires, where you play multiple scenarios with your civilization and start essentially from scratch each time]. This gives you a bit of flexibility in your strategy, though there's only a limited amount of optimization—it's not rock-paper-scissors; units progress with each era in a straight-forward manner—it's more about when you get one of one type over one of the other. The biggest strategic factor is Civilization's signature “Wonders of the World” improvement; these unique city projects are as numerous as they are expensive, so building them all yourself is next to impossible on any reasonable challenge difficulty.
One of the notable aspects of Civilization was the rather motley and incongruous crew of historical figures used to represent each faction. Choices of leaders are less puzzling here than in later installments, perhaps, but it must have been a programmer's sick joke to make Mahatma Gandhi a bullying warmonger.
Civilization has some interesting world creation settings, which I strongly suggest you use, because the Earth map for it is absolutely terrible (crowded, poorly scaled, and god help you if you picked the English, who are stuck on an island).
Civilization is bright and colorful and is a fairly casual play compared to later installments. One can easily get an entire game in over the course of one late night or a lazy weekend.
Review By P. Alexander
The legendary game of the Civilization series, it defined a new genre of turn based strategy.
When Sid Meier's Civilization was released in 1991, it single-handedly changed the strategy video game market forever. Its format has since been copied by a number of 'turn-based' games, and the basic plot of the game was to build an empire. Once this had been successfully established, the aim of the game was to get your civilization to grow and flourish.
The game itself covered a wide period of history, stretching from the prehistoric ages to the futuristic development of Outer Space. This included an in-depth look into the Ancient Greeks, as well as detailed gameplay that covered the Roman Empire. This variety of content was enough to keep players hooked on this gaming classic for countless hours - the publisher was also ultimately responsible for the Sim City series of games across a number of different platforms.
Paradigm wrote:
One of the greatest games ever made for a computer, and also one of the most addicting. Civilization launched the entire franchise. It is, quite simply, a master work.
That said... Civilization 1 is brutal and broken. Expect no mercy as the computer flagrantly cheats to make up for AI limitations when playing on higher difficulty levels. There are also a great many events that happen in the game that lack explanation (in fact the game doesn't even tell you they are happening). One example of this is your civilizations production getting cut in half as soon as 1 A.D. hits.
Also, beware "stacks of doom", in which 20+ powerful units can occupy the same square, becoming neigh invincible. Unit strength is VERY relative... chariots can beat tanks. In Civ 1 these things do happen....
External links
How to play Sid Meier's Civilization
Patches
- Patch 474.03 (01.04.1992) : several errors are fixed, the balance has been corrected, the ability to rename cities, etc. has been added
- Patch 474.04 (21.07.1992) : install after patch 3.0
- Patch 474.05 (13.10.1992) : fix bug when hovering advisors. Beta version of the patch, the final version did not work
Captures and Snapshots
Comments and reviews
s 2018-12-07 0 point
I'm playing this currently online, here on this abondonware site, on a mac laptop, no mouse. I've figured out all the commands, except how to go into a city and change what I'm building (say, for example, off of militias and onto choosing to build settlers). I simply cannot figure out the commands. I found cheat sheets/keyboard shortcut lists online and studied them for ages but still nothing....can anybody help me? cheers! x
Nickname 2018-11-18 0 point DOS version
Is there command arguments for selecting graphics, sound and control choices ?
If possible, I'd like to avoid the "1 4 1" every time.
Bonus if there is an argument to load menu right away instead of waiting for input. Without input it shows an how-earth-came-to-be animation first, and only at its end does the menu load.
nickname 2018-09-14 0 point
just to let you know there is a problem with the browser version of this game after a few hours it just freezes up right after a city upgrade i dont know if its the browser version of the dosbox the browser itself or the game but i cant complete game if can please fix thank you
Civgamer 2018-08-12 -1 point DOS version
Hi!
How can I get all the available nations? I can not find americans, english, egyptian, greek, aztec and chinese in the list...
Rouge 2018-04-08 0 point
First, thank you to the person who gave me the way to take DOSbox full screen.
II started playing it on my sister's computer and liked it. She went shopping for a copy for me. After failing to find it at halk-a-dozen stores, she finally found one last copy. Have I really been playing it for some 25 years?
She also had Civilization 2 but I didn't like it as well.
My hard drive failed recently and my Windows 10 computer is running it in DOSbox. I've saved a game but the computer can't find it. It looks on the C: drive and brings up a series of .
I'm beginning to wonder if the wrong version was put onto this new computer because I was running the same version under Windows 3.1 on, I think, a 286. put it onto a 386, and a Pentium. Will it run on Windows 10? Hope so.
I noticed that I can download that version here. How long should it take at 48.0 or 49.2 dial-up?
Also, Oregon Trail sounds interesting.Can I run that?
Thanks.
libertarian 2018-03-27 -8 points
I hit download and all I get is a copy of the manual. What am I doing wrong?
nickname 2018-03-18 -1 point
i cannot for the life of me get this game to work.
ive managed to do other dos game but for some reason this one hates me
Akari-Kion6 2018-01-18 -3 points
Isn't that bad actually for a '91 game. Probably the better of out Sid Meier's Civilization 2.
Space man 100789 2018-01-04 -2 points
This Game Is Amazing, It Is The First strategy game I have ever played, it also is the game that made me love the strategy genre of games
Ruan 2018-01-02 -3 points DOS version
Can anyone please email me the manual for the first DOS Civilization? vanheerdenruan@gmail.com
PCB 2017-12-05 -2 points DOS version
It doesn't help when you give the manual and the game the same exact zip file name.
They are both "sid-meiers-civilization.zip"
.
Other than that thanks for all the work.
Just User 2017-12-01 -3 points
OMG I never managed to pass middle ages... however, my friends used to go to space =)
lawlesslars 2017-10-28 0 point DOS version
I am trying the early version on a samsung chromebook cursor doesn't seem to work
try keyboard only and can't find command to get into my city to change or buy something in queue Spilling out Militia until 1500AD before my city is reduced and the program goes into city. The whole point of the game seems unobtainble. I think I have tried all combinations of keyboard commands but not from every menu
Bietro 2017-08-30 0 point DOS version
And also implementing functional roland soundcard emulation,sound works only by choosing 4* in the time back then adlib was king so no wonder.
Bietro 2017-08-30 3 points DOS version
This Game Is Great ! 2
I Still Play It Every Day But I Noticed A Minor "Bug" , It Goes As Follows , When You Are In Game Thats Advanced "Probably Beyond 0AD" And You go to Your Town and Click On "Change" Button It Can Dissapear In Matter Of Seconds And Youre Stuck With "Not Responding Game *Tested on both browser version here and DOS (DOSBOX)(0.7.4) version* I Would Really Appreciate If Someone Can Release Patch For This It Would Be Really Helpful, Oh also i hate the slow movin around map *haha* so speeding the movement of cursor on the map would be nice too.
Thanks For Reading ! :)
DPH 2017-06-20 3 points DOS version
There's lots of text files in the main folder - by changing the text in them you can mess around with loads of the stuff the people say in the game.
DoctorEvo 2016-10-21 3 points DOS version
Love this game! It really passes the time while I'm on airplanes and in airports. I use DosBox on Android.
PelleK 2016-06-25 3 points
To abandonware: this is awesome, thanks a lot!
To ME: I got the same problem, but solved it by changing the keyboardlayout in the DOSbox Options File from auto to keyboardlayout=gr (German QWERTZ Keyboard). This solved the problem for me. The Mouse can be locked in and out the DOSbox with CTRL+F10.
ME Wrote 2016-03-28:
every time I load civ, I get to select what screen, sound, mouse and keyboard options then immediately I'm dropped back to A:\ after it says integer div=a
Guy 2016-06-21 -1 point
Dear, Libertarian: not sure if you will read this but try downloading an original dos.
Libertarian 2016-06-19 2 points
For some reason it only works on Internet Explorer and not very good on it either. It used to work good on Chrome but doesn't anymore. Any suggestions?
tntlyz 2016-06-14 0 point DOS version
I still have the 5 1/2 inch floppies in the original box. Too bad the manual is missing
chizzy 2016-05-12 0 point DOS version
i created a custom keyboard for playing this on my android using freebox.
youll need muliling o keyboard, then add this custom layout.
http://goo.gl/8XQiAa
me 2016-03-28 0 point DOS version
every time I load civ, I get to select what screen, sound, mouse and keyboard options then immediately I'm dropped back to A:\ after it says integer div=a
MS-DOS 2015-12-15 3 points DOS version
Hi Gabek,
To run games such as Civilization, you get the application called DOSBOX (http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1). Use the wiki (http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Basic_Setup_and_Installation_of_DosBox) to help you mount games like Civ. Hopes this helps! :)
MS-DOS
gabeh 2015-12-12 0 point
I tried to download civ on my Windows 7/64 laptop. I got an error message that civ was for 32 bit machine. Any suggestions?
Thanks
praforplagues 2015-10-26 -3 points
To get DOSbox to go fullscreen, press alt enter. Press alt enter again to exit fullscreen.
xander10 2015-10-10 -3 points DOS version
Civ ran fine and i really only can complain that i couldn't get DOSbox into fullscreen mode, any suggestions?
Gato 2015-08-15 1 point DOS version
Two teenage years of my life were ruled by Civ on the old Commode Amiga 64. I wasn't always the best player, I liked to avoid conflict and grow cities - so my games tended end close and exciting and often involve nuclear wars.
My brother edited many of the text boxes in the game with a textfile editor, including changing "In the beginning story" to a humorous warped storyline. So if it was possible to customise then, it must be so now.
I will be downloading it again because years later I miss its simple yet engrossing fun. The later Civs just don't compare for me. And after reflection, instead of building perfect & populous cities, trying to live in peace and waiting until the Zulus rudely drop Armor units onto my turf in 1700 AD demanding dosh, I want to go and crush all rivals as soon as I can build my first chariot!
Shame I need Dosbox to run it in Windows 7, but oh well so be it.
civfan 2015-06-03 2 points DOS version
the true test of this game series will be when the original players are eligible to run for office.
syntotic 2015-05-24 -2 points DOS version
What happened to the Windows version of Civilization (I)? It was more playable than the DOS version and probably had some betterments.
EDO 2015-01-10 15 points DOS version
98% games works perfectly with dosbox. So does civ1. Yes even on windows on the year 3000. Just install dos box.
If you don't know how for each game here is how it goes the most simple way:
Make a folder on c:\ named DOSGames so you got c:\dosgames\
unrar/zip each game in its OWN folder inside the c:\dosgames\
E.G this game will be c:\dosgames\civ1\and doom will be c:\dosgames\doom1\
Now start dosbox. type: " Mount c: c:\dosgames\
type "c:"
Type "dir" for your list of games (shows the folders)
Now if you want to play civ
You type: "cd civ' ( or what ever you named you folder for civ 1)
Followed by "civ"
For e.g doom its "cd doom" then "doom"
Very easy.
NeptunesNookGames 2014-12-18 1 point DOS version
I recently finished a let's play of Civ 1 on my YouTube channel, here's a link --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVDdlFy-Cu0&list=PL3Hfqo2_KOlcxDxyljLv3CwKfEy67IcTe
Chizzard 2014-08-08 0 point DOS version
Arvin. You can play Civilization 1 (DOS mode) by using a simple software called DOSbox. Its free. Just download DOSbox and dragon the civilization .exe to the DOSbox icon and youre good to go.
arvin 2014-07-25 1 point DOS version
I have never seen such as this game in my life!
It was great.
Unbelievable
Design and Development and implementation of your strategy
By a simple game in DOS mode ! Almost 22 years ago !
Does anyone knows if it works in windows 7 ?
I wish I can play again !
Help me please. ..
TheOlderGamePlay 2014-06-18 -2 points DOS version
7:Is one of the most awesome strategy game I have played.
Agentwindex 2014-05-20 0 point DOS version
I loved this game... Played it on Dos when Windows 98 was just starting... I have the disk... But was wondering will this download work on Windows 8 64 bit? Would love to play it again
BrennenderStahl 2014-03-14 0 point DOS version
now i'm playing freeciv - because its free software (free as in freedom)
Kal 2014-02-13 0 point DOS version
After I select audio/graphic/keyboard options the game will not start and then opens up dos under the A: heading...
Sir Smith 2014-01-28 1 point DOS version
This guide works for me. :)
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Basic_Setup_and_Installation_of_DosBox
lawlcakes 2014-01-24 0 point DOS version
@chris, Macedonia was to the north of Greece, but he did CONQUER Greece and almost the whole known world at the time, so both of you are right.
chris 2013-08-01 0 point DOS version
@macedon
Yeah... right... pity for you, but Alexander was Greek and he united all Greeks against the Persians. Go cry more now.
jamesfrizzle 2013-07-16 0 point DOS version
i downloaded dosbox 0.74 and when i open it there is 2 screens one of which is supposed to have a blue box in it, but that one is blank. What should I do?
Jules 2013-07-11 0 point DOS version
Im running on windows xp, and when i open the downloaded file theres nothing there to click to start it. Any help?
StrateJay 2013-06-02 0 point DOS version
Civ runs great I would say everyone into turn based strategy has to play it atleast once.
Fred 2013-04-21 0 point DOS version
The game randomly crashes when I attempt to change what a city is working on. It doesn't always, but, when it crashes, it's when I am changing city production.
Shuuriken 2013-04-12 0 point DOS version
helpp....why i cant tun on the sound??? if i tun it on, it goes to error
se 2013-03-16 1 point DOS version
Even better, just use this link to get the answers to all of the quiz questions.
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ1/manual/civ1_man.htm
Northern Watch 2012-12-04 0 point DOS version
You guys have to install dosbox (search google for it)
Open Dosbox
Type in mount c c:\games\civ (This is a example of where i put my game folder)
Type in C:
Type civ
And your playing the game now.
so long as they are in a Folder youll be able to play them through the dosbox
asdfq34598745 2012-11-20 0 point DOS version
Civilization has the weakest copy protection I've ever seen. It gives you the answers to its own doc check, and the doc check always occurs at 3000 BC, so you could just save the turn before that (3020 BC), and load if you fail the doc check. So easy.
S3nd41 2012-11-12 0 point DOS version
Does this have the security protection? It destroys all my units.
jibba 2012-08-30 0 point DOS version
excellent game..thank you..ONE QUESTION..
How do you bypass the security check questions that randomly appear without having the original instructions manual?
MegaZero 2012-08-09 0 point DOS version
Guys above, please look on youtube for a Dosbox tutorial
Tekdude 2012-08-04 0 point DOS version
Working ok for me on Windows 7(64 bit) using DOSBox0.74.
I extracted it to a folder I named DOS on my "D:" drive. It created a folder called CIV in it.
In DOSBox, at the "Z:\" prompt, I mounted the folder as my "C:" drive by entering this command: mount c d:\dos\civ
After, I changed to my newly mounted "C:" drive by entering: C: at the
"Z:\" prompt.
Lastly, at the "C:" prompt, I entered CIV (that is the executable file). You go through the SETUP and then INTRO and I was in.
Fun stuff. Hope this helps.
Confused Person 2012-06-15 0 point DOS version
When I downloaded it, it was just a bunch of different files that I couldn't use. Help!
admin 2012-05-04 2 points DOS version
"this download seems to be missing the executable file"
?? Double check this ;)
stasis06 2012-05-03 0 point DOS version
I've never plaid a game so much without getting bored of it. That being said, my Super Nintendo copy finally stopped working (NOOOOOO) and this download seems to be missing the executable file. I already have DOSBox and it won't open without the correct file. Any suggestions?
Satanicus 2011-06-02 0 point DOS version
Catdog@ None of Dos games works in Win7.. Get DosBox to run it.
Annie 2011-03-17 0 point DOS version
Having trouble running this game on your OS? Try DosBox, or if it's not a dos game, take a look at the file extension and do a search for a like emulator.
vantaran 2010-05-24 1 point DOS version
Civilization is one of the classics that defined PC gaming for the '90s. I spent whole days and nights playing the game, and it still has a firm lock on me today.
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DOS Version
2 MB
Download
2 MB
DownloadISO Version 474.03 18 MB
DownloadInstall DisksVersion 474.01
4 MB
Manual 9 MB
Game Extras
Various files to help you run Sid Meier's Civilization, apply patchs, fixes, maps or miscellaneous utilities.
23 MB
PatchSound updatesupport for OPL-3 FM and General MIDI
59 KB
PatchOfficial Sound PatchAdds Sound Blasters Pro & Pro Audio Spectrum Plus / 16
18 KB
PatchPatch 3.0Version 474.03
276 KB
PatchPatch 3.0Version 474.04
157 KB
PatchPatch 5.0Version 474.05 beta
137 KB
MiscTech Tree 997 KB
MiscTechnical Addendum 3 MB
MiscTechnical Supplement 10 MB
MiscCivilization JukeboxPlay sounds from CIV
7 KB
Mac Version
- Year: 1993
- Publisher: MicroProse Software, Inc.
- Developer: MicroProse Software, Inc.
Windows 3.x Version
- Year: 1993
- Publisher: MicroProse Software, Inc.
- Developer: MPS Labs
Game Extras
Various files to help you run Sid Meier's Civilization, apply patchs, fixes, maps or miscellaneous utilities.
Amiga ROM
- Year: 1992
- Publisher: MicroProse Software, Inc.
- Developer: MPS Labs
Atari ST ROM
- Year: 1993
- Publisher: MicroProse Ltd.
- Developer: MPS Labs
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