Sid Meier's Pirates! - In-depth Written Amiga Review With Pics

Sid Meier's Pirates!

MicroProse Software Inc.

Amiga, 1990 (Original C64 1987)
$44.95

My video review for Pirates! on the Amiga

My friend Gaming Jay's video for Pirates!
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*Game best played in NTSC mode with 4:3 aspect ratio

While there may be many games that we love and come back to time and again, how often do we appreciate the different versions of a game? We usually find ourselves playing the version we grew up with, perhaps even ignoring the best version in favor of nostalgia. If we had no prior experience with said game, we'll ignore the lesser looking versions, even if that might be the original, completely missing out on their charm. How often do we love a game so much that we want to experience as many versions as possible? Sid Meier's Pirates! (referred hereafter as Pirates) is a game I have to have for every system it supports, and I truly love all of the many ports and remakes of this game.

^Starting up the game and some options

The original Pirates came out in 1987, written by Sid Meier for the Commodore 64, using the BASIC programing language. The game received ports for just about every system imaginable at the time, and I could not characterize any of them as "straight ports". They were all quite unique for each system, and indeed this Amiga version, released a few years later in 1990, is an obvious loving port. It was rewritten for the Amiga in-house at MicroProse USA, another example of a fine American Amiga product that the European Amiga scene these days almost refuse to acknowledge.

The ports based off the original Pirates peek with this Amiga version. The game is so beautiful that some magazines falsely claimed the game used 64 color Extra Half Bright Mode. I tested this out by taking actual screen captures from my Amiga, and found the game was always in a 320x200 32 color mode. However, there are certain screens like the title that do not capture quite right using my screen capture program, seemingly missing colors. Rather than use EHB mode I believe they were manipulating certain areas of the screen in order for some areas to get a fresh 32 color palette, a practice used in several games to pull off hundreds of colors on the Amiga. When the game was remade in the mid-90's as Pirates! Gold for several platforms, it could be debated on if even that version looked better than this.

^Descriptions of various time periods from the manual

Upon loading, the game offers you several choices of play. You can dive straight into the game, which will automatically put you into the 1660's, the most prosperous pirating period. You can select from several other periods of time as well, offering a range of different challenges and situations. Finally you can partake in several special scenarios involving historical events with actual pirates. The manual is a tremendous resource for information regarding these time periods,  and an overall excellent read at nearly 100 pages. While the game is fairly intuitive on its own, I do believe people will be missing out if they ignore the top notch manual.

^The game usually starts you off at a "lovely seaside town"

Pirates was made during a time when a game could defy characterization. This is a truly unique game in its own genre. The cover of the manual describes it as the "action adventure simulation" and the worlds first swashbuckling simulation. Microprose was already famous for their simulations at this point. While the game successfully combines quite a few categories together, simulation might be the least of these. The manual itself more than makes up for a game that is largely the Hollywood tale of the pirating life, but indeed the game itself is taking you on an adventure of the best movie elements of that life, not simulating the actual truth of the life. There's plenty of action elements here, including a very fun sword fighting sequence, but there's even strategy elements during the various ship and town attack sequences.
^The Caribbean, finding our way using the sun, and attacking a ship

It's an open ended game during a time when those games did not exist, originally being released before SimCity had been. You decide your goals with this game. There is eventually an ending in retirement, which age will force upon you at some point, and even a high score, but there's nothing but personal goals for you to achieve before you reach that ending. Retire in the first town you come across if you want, game over. The later Pirates Gold remake would attempt to steer you toward some goals in the form of listed quests, but all of those quests can be completed (or not) right here in the original game. You decide how to have your fun with Pirates.

^Swordplay on ship and sinking one

During the 1660's you could have quite a successful career privateering for various countries against Spanish ships. Perhaps during the 1640's nations might find peace with each other, necessitating a strategy of trade. Start in the 1680's and might choose to side with the Spanish and hunt down every last pirate. Events in the game are completely random, making every playthrough unique. You can use knowledge collected to find and attack the Spanish treasure fleet or silver train, filling your hold with many riches. Hunt down  nobles who know the whereabouts of your long lost family members. Search for some buried treasure with pieces of a map bought from a bar. Abandon your ship all-together in favor of stealthy movement on land, attacking a rich inland city. Or just sail around and take in the beauty of the sea. If you're having fun then you're doing it right. ^So powerful they surrender, and attacking a town by ship

Originally my father had the game for the Commodore 64, liked it enough to seek out the Amiga version later on. He would go on to buy the Sega Genesis Pirates Gold at my behest, and even I would chip in to buy in the late 90's the heavily discounted DOS version of Pirates Gold. A game quite loved by us. I'd watch in a chair next to my dad as he maneuvered his ship for an attack on a town. When he crashed into the fort initiating the sword fighting sequence, I'd run to our basement's stairs. There was no wall on one side of the stairs, so I'd go up and down them pretending to sword fight, I'd then jump out the side of the stairs and into the "water". The stairs were the pirate ship in my imagination, the Amiga the wondrous creator of worlds. ^Abandon ship and use your feet, men! Attacking on land and a promotion

While perhaps not educational in its portrayal of the pirating life, it does accurately represent the geography of South America, the Caribbean, Cuba, Florida, and others. Other than my hometown and state, I'm sure I know more about the exact locations of the cities and areas in this game than I do about American cities. I memorized the geography here to such a degree that my father would use me to decipher the locations of maps he received in the game. Most of the time with but one corner of a map, I instantly know where to start digging. It's not the maps themselves that I know, they are randomly generated and they do look slightly different to the main game screen. I just know the area that well. I find the feeling amazing when, no matter how long it has been since I last played, I get one corner of a treasure map only to get a big smile on my face because I know exactly where to find it. ^Hello ladies, may I marry you all???

Doing favors for a nation or governor may result in various titles being bestowed upon you. Rights to land may be given as well, mostly resulting in an increased score at the end of the game, but also helping you be recognized on high seas. We do need plenty of would be pirates to sacrifice on our adventures, after all. You might be introduced to the governors daughter, which you can try to charm into marrying you or giving you information. The game has everything. Adventures on the high seas, cannons exploding into enemy ships, sword fighting, strategic attacks on well fortified cities, ranks, treasures, you can even get the girl. ^Finding members of your family results in a map to a very special treasure

I don't feel the love for this game is confined to just myself. In 1988 Computer Gaming World named it the action game of the year. In 1990 Amiga World placed it 10th (calling it a graphic adventure) in the top 10 games of the year. Later in 1996 Computer Gaming World came back to Pirates, placing it 18th in their 150 greatest games of all time list, taking time to note the greatness of the Amiga version in particular. A couple of European magazines decided to make fun of what they couldn't understand, but for the most part they thought it was a special game as well.
^A washed up pirate, a prisoner, retirement

The game spawned an incredible amount of ports of the original, even making it to the Nintendo Entertainment System. No need for a sequel when the original is so good you can just keep remaking it. Pirates Gold came out in 1993, even receiving a port to the CD32, and in 2004 Sid Meier himself took the reins again and updated it with 3D graphics. While the other Pirates games are all quite good, I feel the newer versions are different than some of Sid's other works. As legendary as Civilization was, who's playing the original anymore when so many have come after it? Now those are all games that actually changed quite a bit from version to version, yet for the most part people are sticking with what's new. From what I've gathered over the years the fans of this game keep going back to the original, and I can't say I blame them. As a kid I played Pirates Gold for the Genesis far more, yet these days I'm pulled toward the originals. Not just this incredible Amiga version, I love playing them all.
^Retiring at various ranks and making the hall of fame

If I could rewrite gaming history I'd actually place Pirates in the adventure game genre. On computers adventure games were a specific type of game involving collecting inventory, puzzles, and story. On consoles adventure games were much different, often times being given to side scrolling games.  To me this game right here, Pirates, this is a real "adventure". You have free rein to do what you wish on many a sea. Pirate, search for treasure, find a wife, or do none of those things. Trade and be respectful, challenge yourself with your own goals and timelines. Put yourself in another time period, perhaps a romantic version of that time period, but hey, it is a game. In this game you are on a true adventure, and when you're on an adventure, you're the one that shapes it, as it should be. Therefore I'd actually strip the title of adventure game from a great many other games, and give it to games like Pirates. It is indeed one of the greatest games of all time. Great on all systems but perhaps most special here on the Amiga. It's in my top 5 favorites as a matter of fact. It is a game I believe you should play before you die. Now given its style perhaps you won't happen to like it, and that's fine. But you owe it to yourself to give it a proper in-depth look, this is a certainty.

Please check out my video review for Pirates on the Amiga, in which I read off several magazine reviews to make a point on history, go into a few great stories from my past involving the game, and even spreading some love in the form of a shoutout for my friend Gaming Jay, who did his own video for the game, which I also hope you'll check out. My video (as well as this article) were released on December 13th of 2017, the 3 year anniversary of my first ever YouTube video, and I do believe this video is quite special because of it... They all are though. Love in words here, love in pure emotion there. Please check out the video.

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