God Games

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

First let me be absolutely clear–I have no experience with computer games (unless you count Hoyle’s Card Games), I’m an absolute novice. I’m from the generation of Pong, and I never made it much past Space Invaders and Tempest, hell, I was a pin-ball junkie at the age most of you were learning these multi-level, multi-player, graphics heavy games. I’m an old dog, but I may be interested in learning a new trick. Have pity on my ignorance.

That being said, I just read about Peter Molyneux’s new game * Black & White*, a so-called “god game”. Now this genre of games sounds cool. Here’s where I need your help. Keeping in mind my total lack of experience with computer games, and the fact that I use a Mac (OS 8.6, lots of memory), is there a game of this type that you could recommend I try? Are there different types of these games (set in fantasy worlds, set in historical periods)? I remember a friend telling me that I might enjoy a game called Civilization, is that a similar concept? I’d like something that I could get into easily, I have a fairly low level of frustration for computer stuff, so do I need to cut my teeth on something that I’ll get bored with as I get the hang of it, or is there something that might keep my interest for a while, without driving me crazy figuring out how to play?

Thanks all.

2

Well, there’s all the Sim games from Maxis:

SimCity, SimEarth, SimLife, SimAnt, SimFarm, The Sims,…

Presumably there are more, but I can’t remember them. I’ve only ever played the first two, but they’re really great.

3

Look for a copy of Lucas Arts Afterlife - a god game for sure.

Another option is Age of Empires… though that goes a bit into strategy.

One of the older ones is Outpost, though I recall having some trouble with it once I got OS 8.6, and it’s no better on 9 or 9.1.
As for being a pinball junkie… you do know they make very realistic pinball simulation games for the Mac, right?

4

Megolomania was tres cool - but that’s from my Amiga days. Not sure if it’s still available.

If not, check out Age of Empires II. It’s fantastic although as LS says it’s more strategy and can involve battle tactics (and the higher the level the more complicated they become). Even Starcraft would be worth a look mate.

If you do, let us know - there are junkies here on the board willing to play alongside or against you over the net.

5

I’d recomend against Afterlife and Outpost. Afterlife had an interesting concept, but the gameplay was really unbalanced…there was basically only one strategy you could use to succeed. Outpost was very buggy and had way too much micromanagement involved.

Civilization is a damn good strategy game, and it kinda fits as a god-game. I wouldn’t say that about RTS games like AoE2 and Starcraft - you really have no longterm effect on the world. If you don’t mind playing a pretty dated game, if you can find a copy of Populous (the first one, some of the sequels were pretty iffy though I thing Populous 2 was supposed to be alright) you might give it a try. It was made by the same guy who did Black and White, and I played the hell out of it on my old Sega Genesis. The Sim games are pretty good too, except for SimFarm and SimAnt (and maybe some of the others I haven’t tried).

I got Black and White yesterday, and I am loving it, though I think I’m going to have to start over and pay more attention to my titan, that tiger is downright psychotic - tortures the villagers, eats it’s own excrement, kicks over trees…

6

I don’t know which ones have been Macified, but Impressions Games’ Caesar III, Pharaoh, and Zeus are excellent.

7

I am a major CIVII junkie. It also has a tutorial, online help, and several levels of difficulty. There is supposed to be a Net version, that I’ve heard was Due Real Soon.

 That said, I don't think the documentation is very good. It pretty much assumes you bought and are experienced with the original Civilization. If you can get the original documentation or a friend who knows it, do so.

Good point: they have relatively low hardware requirements.
8

I see most of the popular ones have been mentioned. If you like “god games”, you might be interested in the more general “strategy” genre, which is why Civilization and Age of Empires were mentioned (incidently, I read Sid Meier is working on his version of Civ III).

I suggest you take a look at this page. The site (www.gamespot.com) concentrates mostly on PC games, but there are write ups on many of the games mentioned here.

9

I’d also advise against playing Afterlife. I bought it because it was a LucasArts product (after Monkey Island, they could do no wrong in my eyes) and was disappointed.

Right now I’m watching the clock tick away until I can go home from work and play again. I had to start over a few times until I got the proper feel for how to be a god - I think I got too much into the mentality of it when one of my villagers made a demand of me, and I shouted “Do not put the lord your god to the test!” at the screen, picked up the villager, and threw him against a mountain.

Yes, I felt bad afterwards.

10

I think I phrased that poorly. I should say that most of the games mentioned in this thread are probably available on both Mac and PC (if they are still available, some are pretty old). That particular page I linked to will likely list mostly PC titles; Mac versions may or may not exist. Under normal circumstances, there shouldn’t be too much difference between PC and Mac titles of the same name (though no doubt there have been exceptions).

11

Funny, this thread…

I pulled Sid Meier’s Civ2 out of the drawer and have been plugged in for about the last week…

Good God game. Very good. Educational too.

The Maxis collection is also quite excellent, with the possible exception of SimEarth… which I think you need a geology degree to even begin playing. As for the SimCity games, go with the most recent that your computer can handle.

12

I have most of of the Sim games from Maxis, Civ I & II, Populous I, Master of Magic, Age of Empires II, and others. I like these because they are capable of generating random maps. Random map generation is always a plus in any game! Kallessa, see if you can get a demo to any of the games mentioned in this thread before purchasing the full version.

I’m glad I tried the demos for games like Mob Rule, Gangsters and 1602 A.D. I discovered that Mob Rule and 1602 A.D. would be too difficult for me, and Gangsters was too boring.

13

BTW: there’s also a God Game of sorts for Star Trek fans: Star Trek: New Worlds.

14

I’m a Sim addict. Sim City, Sim Tower, Sim Life, The Sims…

Sim Life was my favorite concept, and I’d love to see it re-done for more powerful systems. The Sims is my current addiction. mmmm…Micromanagement…

15

Run, do not walk, to your nearest dispenser of all thing Macintosh and purchase Civilization II. Let nothing stay your hand. You may find yourself loosing hours, days, perhaps even weeks playing this game.

16

Well, I’m leaning towards Civilization II, based on what I’ve read here and my friend’s recommendation. I’m quite fond of history, so this appeals to me. **lurkernomore[i/b] though, said the documentation was bad (I assume it’s like picking up the second book in the series when you haven’t read the first), so do you think I should try to find a copy of the first game? Is it even possible to find old copies, or do they disappear? (the way the first book in a trilogy disappears when book three comes out and you finally can read the series because it’s complete).

Somehow, the stuff I’ve read about Sims doesn’t interest me, but I’ll take another look since so many of you find them to be fun.

Thanks All!

More suggestions welcome.

17

Darn, another example of why previewing your post is a good idea! At least I stand out in a crowd.

18

Don’t bother getting Civ1. Civ2 has an excellent ‘Civilopedia’ (pronounced sivv-lee-o-peedia [sub]heh-heh[/sub]) which you can easily access while playing.

re: the OP

The premise of Civ2 is this;

You start off the game as a nomadic tribe. (There are many choices, Romans, Celts, Sioux, Carthaginian, Japanese, etc) You’ve basically just discovered the benifits of irrigation, maybe some rudimentary road making and decide to settle down. So you start up a little town.

Life is pretty simple. If the spot you choose for your town was fertile, there’s plenty of food and your town starts to grow. Once the demands of feeding and housing have been seen to, you find you have some extra resources on hand, so you start exploring that big mysterious world around you and fixing up your place.

You find that you are not alone. Your neighbours, the Celts, are always sending raiding parties into your lands. Warriors and horsemen refuse to listen to reason and insist on wrecking your irrigation and trying to sack your town.

Fortunately, your other neighbours, the Egyptians, are more reasonable.

One day, Bob from down the road invents the wheel.

The wheel is a civilization advancement, one of the lower rungs on the technology tree. It may be low, but from where you are standing, it looks pretty damn good. It allows you to build chariots which effectively solves the problem of the now pathetic Celtic warriors.

Not only that, but the Egyptians are so impressed with the wheel that in exchange for the knowledge, they teach you all about masonry which leads to large scale constuction (aqueducts, coliseums). When you combine the concepts of the wheel with construction, the secrets of Engineering are opened for exploration. And so it goes up the tech tree. You explore the branches and choose the direction of your expanding knowledge through the ages and thus the nature of your civ.

Civilization advances allow you not only to produce new units (warriors, chariots, stealth fighters) but also city improvements (temple, barracks, supermarket, mass transit) and wonders (pyramids, hanging gardens, statue of liberty) all of which have an effect on your cities some of which have an overall effect on your whole civilization.

The game ‘ends’ when you build a spaceship and send a colony to Alpha Centauri.

It’s a great game, combining aspects of military strategy, civil engineering, economics, philosophy, science, industy and polution, politics and trickier-than-you-might-think diplomacy. The game itself is very intuitive and has a great tutorial for new players.

The other thing that makes this probably my overall most respected game of all time, is that you can approach these aspects with as much or as little attention as you wish. ie; you can sweep through your turns with broad orders, or nit-pick the hell out of every little thing.

Beware your marriage.

Being a turn based, it has the advantage over realtime in that you can leave the action at any time to take a leak. On the other hand, the hours still fly by.

Once you’ve played it to death (which will take you 2 years of solid playing ~4hrs a day - I’ve checked) you can get into the games guts and reprogram it.

Yes indeed.

All the graphics are .gif files that you can modify or change completely. The units are .txt files and are at your mercy. Even the terrain is yours to define. The game can be virtually remade into any theme. There are hundreds of these ‘mod packs’ available for download. Making them is almost more fun than playing them, though it’s a lot of work.

So if you are looking for a god game, this would be my recomendation. There are a few cool ‘sequels’ (Noteably, you guessed it, Alpha Centauri)already out, but the enjoyment will be multiplied if you play this one first.

Otherwise, go realtime and check out SimCity 2000 or Ceasar III.

-Oh yeah… …and after the Celts realized they couldn’t pick on you anymore (you overran Cardiff with vengeful chariots) they gave you some money and over the years even became close allies. They were especially helpful when in the year 1937, the treacherous Egyptians stabbed you in the back and dropped a nuke on Rome.

19

Man o Man, I ** got ** to get me one of these!
I have played Civ 1 and found it only slightly less addictive than Girl Scout Thin Mints dusted with nicotine and crack, so be warned.

20

Civ2 got a little old for me. It got to the point where on the hardest difficulty level I could manage, I ended up getting nuclear weapons while everybody else was just getting gunpowder, while if I moved it up to the next difficulty level I would be overrun very early in the game.

Not that it’s a bad game. It got old after weeks of playing it up to 10 hours a day. 8^) I’d play it today if I wasn’t so involved in Black and White.

I have to agree that Master of Magic is VERY good. It’s pretty hard to find now, though, I got a copy at an abandonware site but they have since shut down. Even when you get really good at it, you can just switch to a different magic specialty or try out some new combination of advantages and it’s challenging again.