* Civilization Series *

You select the subfolder for the CIVILIZATION series, with titles ranging from the very early nineties up to the present, and changing a great deal along the way. “Civilization”, published in 1991 broke new ground and catapulted Microprose software to a position of great acclaim. “Civilization II”, especially the “Multiplayer Gold Edition” was arguably the greatest flower of the series, with dozens of finely crafted scenarios that pushed the limits of what the platform was capable of, including derivatives of a half-dozen other Microprose titles into Civilization format.

Then came the fracture, the creator, Sid Meyer, had a falling out with Microprose over the direction of the series, and left to found his own company, Firaxis Games, creating the award-winning “Alpha Centauri” title and it's one expansion pack.

The Civilization design team now leaderless, Microprose forged ahead, resulting in the titles ‘Civilization: Call to Power’, and ‘Civilization: Test of Time’, both beautiful games in their own right but dogged and overshadowed by the mounting court battle between Sid and the current owners of the ‘Civilization’ title.

In the end, Sid and company won. Microprose lost the rights to the ‘Civilization’ title and never really recovered, while Firaxis Games took the game in new directions of their own, creating Civilization III, IV, V, “After Earth” (Their new version of the award-winning Alpha Centauri franchise.) And Civilization VI.

With the departure from MICROPROSE, the games became ever more sophisticated and nuanced as simulations and in terms of graphics but weaker in terms of creating scenarios: a trend also reflected in the general gaming market...