Sid Meier goes old school..

[Jason Becker]

A interview with Sid Meier where he talks about getting access to Microproses legacy titles...


Pirates! ,X-com, Master of Magic, Silent Service, Red Storm Rising, Covert Ops.


All I can say is HOT DAMN!!!! :o

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/august02/gencon/meier/index.shtml

[Anonymous]

Oh My Dear Lord in Heaven...

Yeah, part of me wants to see Sid break now ground and come up with new concepts...

BUT...

If he remakes any of those classics I will be the first to plunk down hard cash for my pre-order at EB.

F-15 Strike Eagle was the very first computer game I ever bought. I played the hell out of it. One of my childhood friends played the hell out of it, and now he's an F-18 pilot.

And even though Master of Magic and X-Com weren't his designs... I would LOVE to see what Sid could do with them... especially since those idiots at Hasbro just can't seem to understand that people have been yearning for a proper X-Com sequel for years. Tripe such as X-Com Interceptor and that X-Com arcade game were just retched.

[Anonymous]

Okay, Hasbro doesn't own MicroProse anymore... but it still counts. The idiots at MicroProse/Hasbro/Inforgrames just don't know what kind of gold mind they've been sitting on.

[Gordon Cameron]

Just what the world needs -- a brand new "Floyd of the Jungle" game! :D

It would be nice to see Pirates! updated properly, though, as the folks at Akela seem to have muffed it somewhat. (Pending Sea Dogs II, however.)

[Case]

I dunno. Yes, a new Sid Meier's Pirates would be great. But I lost a tremendous amount of sleep over Sea Dogs. Bugs and all, I played through all four character paths. I was completely obsessed for about four weeks.

As ever,

Loyd Case


It would be nice to see Pirates! updated properly, though, as the folks at Akela seem to have muffed it somewhat. (Pending Sea Dogs II, however.)

[wumpus]

I take it you're in the "Pirates" camp vis-a-vis the whole Pirates vs. Ninjas thing.

[Mark Asher]

I don't really care if Meier does it or not, but I'd love to see a remake of X-COM. Master of Magic would be cool, but we have AOW2 which is close.

[wumpus]

I don't really care if Meier does it or not, but I'd love to see a remake of X-COM.
We really should build a robot to post this sentence every month somewhere on the QT3 forums. It would save so much effort on your behalf.

[Bub, Andrew]

I don't really care if Meier does it or not, but I'd love to see a remake of X-COM. Master of Magic would be cool, but we have AOW2 which is close.

GameSpy: Would that include your old stuff? Like Pirates, F-15 Strike Eagle, Gunship…
Sid Meier: … Silent Service, Red Storm Rising, Covert Ops. And we're looking at the other games as well.
GameSpy: Like Master of Magic and X-Com?
Sid Meier: Yes.
GameSpy: You realize Usenet is going to go nuts over that answer.

During the presentation he pointedly name dropped Master of Magic and Pirates several times. He mentioned X-Com a bit too. The crowd clearly was asking him for Pirates though. I'm with them.

[Mike Cathcart]

From the article:
Soon I got the call: "This is Sid Meier's wife, we're here! Can you meet us on the show floor?"

I mean, Sid Meier's Civilization III I can understand. Even Sid Meier's SimGolf, but now he's gone too far...

[Bub, Andrew]

I'd also like to point out that Firaxis generally does two titles at once. Even if they tend to be staggered. Later in the interview Sid indicated that he's going to keep breaking new ground (and it won't be Dinos), but that the next announced game would be something legacy.

[Bub, Andrew]

From the article:
Soon I got the call: "This is Sid Meier's wife, we're here! Can you meet us on the show floor?"

I mean, Sid Meier's Civilization III I can understand. Even Sid Meier's SimGolf, but now he's gone too far...

Very funny!
True story. I was interviewing FASA's TJ Wagner at the time. He said to me "Gotta go huh? That your wife?"
"No," I said, "that was Sid Meier's wife."

[Qenan]

I don't really care if Meier does it or not, but I'd love to see a remake of X-COM. Master of Magic would be cool, but we have AOW2 which is close.

Huh. I played the demo and didn't find it very close at all; felt more like HOMM to me.

I don't think you can have MoM without random maps.

[Jason Lutes]

With all the X-Com talk, thought I'd post this quote from Julian Gollop (codeveloper of X-Com) about the plans for Laser Squad Nemesis:

"We are certainly planning to create a version of LSN that has a 'pseudo-realtime' option with
short times for turn orders, but this is just another way to play the same game. It doesn't alter the
fundamental way it works. We will also be creating a single-player campaign game, in which turn
orders are processed by an AI opponent on our game servers. Players will be able to progress
in this game, and get involved in the story line, in a similar manner to boxed retail games. The
difference is that you can't cheat, and the campaign game will have continuous story lines and
scenarios added as long as people want to play it. We will even produce a 'campaign editor' that
will allow players to create their own single-player campaign games with their own story lines.
And we will also have a massively multiplayer game which will have a brand new level of game
play, a meta-game if you like, that links individual battles to the progress of an ongoing galactic
war. We will also have new races, new environments and new scenario types. We will soon
begin developing a fully 3D version of the software, with realistic physics simulation, multiple
levels, and multiple viewpoints. We will continue developing the game as long as people want to
play it, and so far we have been very pleased with the response.

"When we first plannned LSN we wanted to do it because it was the kind of game we wanted to
play. We believed that other people would want to play it too. There is nothing else out there
like LSN, and there never will be. It is unique, and a very valuable contribution to the field of
genuine multiplayer strategy games, which has unfortunately become mired in a never ending
series of RTS clones. The future is definitely looking much more interesting from our point of
view."

If you haven't played LSN, do yourself a favor and check it out: http://www.lasersquadnemesis.com/

[jeep]

I don't really care if Meier does it or not, but I'd love to see a remake of X-COM. Master of Magic would be cool, but we have AOW2 which is close.

Huh. I played the demo and didn't find it very close at all; felt more like HOMM to me.

I don't think you can have MoM without random maps.

They're not the same type of game. The tactical combat is similar, but not being able to start your own cities and spread out your kingdom that way, plus the irritating nature of the mission-based play leaves MoM in the Civilization/Colonization camp (with the added element of tactical battles) and puts AoW2 in HoMM territory. Which is not to say both AoW games weren't kind of fun, but they're nothing to run around crowing about.

/jeep/

[Mark Asher]

You can build new cities in AOW2, though. In that regard, it's a bit closer to MOM. To me, the game falls inbetween HOMM and MOM.

[mtkafka]

Don't forget Covert Ops! That game was pretty cool. I'd like to see that redone. As with Xcom and Pirates!

etc

[Bub, Andrew]

"GameSpy: Would that include your old stuff? Like Pirates, F-15 Strike Eagle, Gunship…
Sid Meier: … Silent Service, Red Storm Rising, Covert Ops. And we're looking at the other games as well."

He didn't forget.
Uh-oh! I just realized something... his game was called Covert Action! Not ops. I just reviewed my tape, he's the one who made the mistake. Ah well, it was early in the morning and he had just spent an hour writing "You rock!" on stone paperweights bearing the Civ3 logo for Gen Con weirdos. I had spent an hour watching him do that. Mistakes were made.

[Anonymous]

Covert Action was seperate from Max Remington, wasn't it?

Frankly, any of those Golden Age MicroProse titles could be remade. Remember those signature boxes they had? And the thick manuals in each one? Good times, good times.

[JeffL]

No, I believe Max Remington was the character you played in Covert Action. I loved that game, still pull it out and install it every once in a while. Simple, but fun. I suppose that's the essence of a good Sid Meier game.

[Chris Floyd]

Hybrid games like Pirates and Covert Action just don't get made anymore. I'm sure it's because a single play mechanic takes enough art and programming time to make it work that six in one game is unreasonable... Anyone think of good examples of recent hybrid games?

[Ben Sones]

Sure. It's funny to hear someone say that there are no hybrids. Before I left CGM, we had many staff discussions about getting rid of genre classifications (especially with regard to game of the year awards) because so damn many of today's games are hybrids. Lots of them are action hybrids (people say the adventure genre is dead; I say it's just been replaced by the Action/adventure genre), but there are others as well:

Freedom Force: Action/strategy
Patrician 2: Strategy/role-playing (and well worth a look for anyone suffering from Pirates! withdrawl)
Sacrifice: Action/strategy
Warcraft III: strategy/role-playing
System Shock 2: Action/role-playing
The Sims: Strategy/role-playing
Master of Orion III: Strategy/spreadsheet

[Chris Floyd]

A good list, Ben, that illustrates how close today's games can come. I probably didn't define my terms well enough. A two-genre hybrid is one thing. But Covert Action had puzzles, action, and adventure and, more importantly, they weren't fused into a single gameplay system (like, I would say, System Shock 2 does with Action/Adventure/RPG) but each was separated out into its own mini-game of a sort. In fact, the only games I can think of that are like them now are games that focus on mini-games like Super Monkey Ball.

[Joe O'Malley]

It's too bad no one's willing to risk more development staff. Unless he recycles code (like Civ3 code for all the turn-based titled like MOM or X-Com) then we are looking at maybe a game a year coming out. Seems to me they could clean up pretty well releasing one every 3-6 months for the next few years. There are certainly enough strong legacy titles, and the ability to recycle engines (perhaps for Silent Service and Red Storm Rising) could help speed things along.

One thing I wonder about is how much those old titles are really worth now. When SS or MOM first came out a big game was a game that sold like 75,000-100,000 copies, right? Now you need to sell a lot more units to get ahead. How much impact will the old surviving hardcores have on these titles when they are re-introduced?

Another thing would be to keep them contemporary. One reason X-Com was so cool was that it hit just as X-Files was just really taking off. Is there a popular equivalent of X-Files out there now? What would draw in the next generation? Same with Red Storm. Simulated combat in a 30-year old submarine against a bunch of Soviet subs that rusted away to scrap a decade ago.

For MOM, I am an old fan. MOM and X-Com are 2 of my all-time favorites. AOW2 helps the jones, but it doesn't feed it right. I miss the old races, the two-sided universe, the sight of actual armies meeting instead of just representational single units. Also, making items and completely random maps made that game have big-stretchy long legs. I played it until...hmm...2000, at least. That's gotta be a record for me.

From the way Sid was quoted in the article, though, it sounds like MOM and X-Com are a ways off. They were never the titles he mentioned right off. Which means either a) they aren't at the top of his list or; b) they are at the very top of his list, and he doesn't feel the need to gague feedback on them.
Pray for b) Mark!

[Bub, Andrew]

1. I don't think Firaxis is going to simply remake the legacy games. I didn't get that impression. These would be new games with today's technology based on old games. Like Civ3 was to Civ2.

2. For the record, he was the one who brought up MoM and X-Com first. In the interview I asked about them but during the presentation at Eagle Games (see an upcoming CGM article for that info) it was Sid who brought those up. He mentioned MoM several times, even when he could tell the crowd there wasn't as interested in that one (they kept talking Pirates). That could be telling.

[Matthew Gallant]

I want a straight re-make of X-Com and a re-design.

And a pony.

[AIM]

Who is this Sid (?) character? Did he do Unreal Tournament? Or Solider of fortune?

Hmm.......

:D

[Joe O'Malley]

These would be new games with today's technology based on old games. Like Civ3 was to Civ2.

I was considering the ability to use modern technology in a time-economical way. There are good engines out there for this stuff already, like the Civ3 engine for MOM or X-Com. MOM started off as a basic Civ rip-off itself, but Steve Barcia and crew were able to really bring it alive.

The same engine could be used for both a WW2 sub sim or modern sub simulator, for instance.

[xahlt]

That's why I loved MoM, before I played it I thought "this looks like fantasy Civ rip-off" and afterwards I thought "man, that was an amazing fantasy Civ rip-off!!". Personally, I felt that the Civ empire building aspects were what was missing in the HoMM and AoW series, for those who were stating why those games didn't quite feel like MoM to them.

[DennyA]

What ever happened to Steve Barcia, anyway?

[Mark Asher]

Steve was working at Retro Studios last I heard. They're owned by Nintendo now and are working on the Metroid game for the Gamecube.

Retro's had a bit of a rocky go of it, dropping a game or two, getting some unpleasant visits from Nintendo who found development lacking it was rumored, and then eventually selling cheap to Nintendo, who probably gave them an either/or offer.

I tried to interview Barcia at Retro for a column I wrote for Gamecenter. The receptionist just laughed at my request. Damn arrogant console companies.

[Qenan]

Is Barcia still designing games, or just working as an executive?

[Mark Asher]

I dunno. Call up Retro and have the receptionist laugh at you.

[Lunch of Kong]

Got a photo of this Barcia guy? I can wait in ambush outside the building and shanghai him for you.

[Joe O'Malley]

Barcia always struck me as a pretty good guy that ended up in the wrong place. I like his PC titles, but ended up going down while making a superhero game. After that SimTex disappeared and he went into some sort of console job.

Is that about right?

[Rob_Merritt]

When I worked at Microprose, the heads of the Hunt Valley studio had nothing but bad things to say about Steve Barcia and the studio in Austin. To quote something Amy Boylan said in usenet "If my studio ran like Austin, I should be hauled out back and shot."