Pirates!
Pirates! (IBM-PC)

designed by Sid Meier with Arnold Hendrick (credits)

released 1987

genre pirate adventure
game size 738 kb
archive size 349 kb

related game Pirates! Gold

supports

CGA, Tandy 1000, EGA, PC Speaker, Joystick.

Note: The copy protection codes are needed to play this game seriously.

It debuted on the Commodore 64 and soon became one of the most popular games ever on the Macintosh. Sid Meier's Pirates! reached its creative peak, however, on the Amiga, where its sumptuous graphics and full stereo soundtrack - featuring a marvelous pirate soundtrack by Jeff Briggs - weren't surpassed on the PC for almost a decade. Ostensibly, it's an adventure/role-playing game, where you attempt to carve out a nefarious reputation for your pirate captain before retiring or meeting with an untimely end. But at times, Pirates! is also a fast-action game, where you engage in sword fights (with your choice of refined rapier, basic longsword, or bloody cutlass) and exchange broadsides between vessels on the high seas. There is a definite strategy element, as you explore the Caribbean, traveling from one port to another in search of gold to plunder and enemies to overcome. Pirates! is even a real-time wargame - several years before these surged in popularity - as you maneuver your scurvy dogs over grassland, hills, and even swamps to approach walled towns, fighting everyone from townspeople armed with farm implements to elite Spanish pikemen and cavalry. To this day, Pirates! is unique in offering the right balance of real-time and turn-based gaming. If you are into resource management, you can handle your ship's inventories and pore over virtual charts at leisure before leaving port, but once the anchor is raised, the game keeps moving as you meet one adventure after another. And as with any great Sid Meier game, there is always plenty to do. Buying pieces of obscure maps may lead you to your long-lost sister or even buried treasure. After meeting with the colony governor to negotiate a Letter of Marque, you can converse with his beautiful daughters, flirting or even proposing marriage via a multiple choice menu. It's hard to imagine a game more steeped in enjoyable period flavor - both historical and Hollywood - than Sid Meier's Pirates! It's unquestionably the best hybrid game ever designed for any platform, offering something for everyone, regardless of what gaming genre they usually prefer. Unless you're one of the few remaining Amiga faithful, pick up the Pirates! Gold version for the PC - just make sure to get the patch. -- © 1999 GameSpot


download (349 kb -- rename pir-rar.pdf to pir.rar)


. additional files
Screenshots
Pirates! Copy Protection Codes
Pirates! Manual
Pirates! Map


. related links

Gamecenter.com Top Ten Games - Pirates!
Sid Meier's thoughts on his game
Swashbuckling on the Internet!
The Lost Tavern


. other versions

Commodore 64
Commodore Amiga


. other games designed by Sid Meier

Civilization
Covert Action
F-15 Strike Eagle
F-15 Strike Eagle II
F-19 Stealth Fighter
Gunship
Railroad Tycoon
Red Storm Rising
Silent Service

MicroProse Abandonware Archive © 1999 point-two