I loved Pirates! Gold, the 1993 release with improved graphics. Unfortunately, it’s way too buggy to play on any of the last few computers I’ve had.
Am I the only one who used to assemble a giant crew then get most of them killed just before heading back to port so I wouldn’t have to divide the plunder with them? It’s kind of funny that I had no problems doing that, but wasn’t willing to get Letters of Marque from all the nations at the same time 
I did, though not on purpose. Most of my crews were usually wiped out during raids.
I’m nobly keeping myself away from buying this until tomorrow. My evil evil Neurobiology professor scheduled a test the day before Thanksgiving. If it’s a choice between plundering the Spanish Main and studying the CNS, I’d take plunder any day. I used to love Pirates! Gold. I also had a game called Cutthroats that was very similar, basically a Pirates knockoff. I could play it for hours.
-Lil
I have that, never got very far though. Maybe I should install the patch and take up where I left off.
Oh, wait a minute, Corsairs is what I was thinking of. I’m not sure if I even have Cutthroats.
Well, Gamestop got their arses in gear, and were selling both the limited edition DVD and the CD at the same price, so I picked up the DVD.
First impressions:
It’s Pirates! with better graphics and more options and missions. You can improve your ships. As usual, my flagship is a sloop.
The dancing takes some getting used to. I always mess up when I have to go forward. Pretty girls won’t dance unless you are a Baron of the town’s country.
All you need is the number pad. Only a few places where you need to click with the mouse.
Slower ships can lag behind your fleet and be attacked. Happens a lot in escort missions, as you don’t control the escort ship, which doesn’t always seem to realize that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and there is nowhere safer than in the middle of my fleet.
The Spanish have a bounty on my head. 3000 gold. I’m insulted.
Sailing against the wind is still a pain in the ass.
I wanted to call in sick today, and prop myself in front of the game. Darn mortgage!
D_Odds thanks for the info. What’s with the dancing?
I can’t believe I couldn’t secure a copy of this yesterday. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll be able to get it today.
I never played the original Pirates, but I’m a big fan of Sid Meier (Civilization 1-3, Colonization, Alpha Centauri). Will I like this game? Tell me more about the gameplay!
Capn Pitt, now, in order to woo the Governor’s daughter (sorry, Pleonast, only male pirates), now you must dance with her. Her hand movements guide you as you press the numbers pad.
Pleonast, think of it as a pirate sim. You are Captain Incognito (default name, you can change), out to free your family from servitude in the Caribbean and get revenge on the evil Marquis who sold them into slavery. You commandeer a boat from one of the three / four nations (depending upon which time period). From here, you can choose your method of achieving your goal.
You can build a massive fleet, take sides in the many shifting alliances and wars, and raid opponsing ships and plunder opposing towns.
You can become a merchant, buying low and selling high elsewhere.
You can stay out of local politics, instead hunting pirates and searching for treasure.
You can serve as an escort to mayors and abbots and immigrants.
You can search for your family, following up clues and rumors.
You can woo the daughters of Governor’s throughout the Caribbean.
In the end, when you are too old and battered to command yet another mission, you will retire, and the total of your deeds will afford you a rank.
The controls are simple; number pad only. At the beginner and intermediate levels, they are displayed on the screen (don’t know if that goes away as the game gets harder). You set the option for how difficult you want it to be, and each time you divy up the spoils with your crew, you have the option of moving up in difficulty. Swordfighting is a little twitchy, dancing a little more, but nothing like a FPS. One difference I noticed between apprentice and journeyman is that in apprentice, in addition to visual cues, the numpad key lights up on the display. As a journeyman, you is no longer does so.
I was nearly finished with college when the original came out (yes, I’m that old). It was, quite literally, the first PC game I played. I consider it still one of the most fun games I have ever played.
I had just finished high school and still have mine somewhere. I wonder if it’ll work on my P-233.
This is a great hint for first-timers:
When your crew starts to :mad: and it is time to pay them, always always always raid at least one town first, to “trim” crew size. Also, always empty your cargo holds and sell all but one your ships. The more gold (the only thing divvied) the crew gets, the happier they are. The happier they are, the more your reputation grows. So, max out your gold and minimize your crew. Surprisingly, they don’t mind near suicidal runs on heavily fortified towns, because they know the survivors will get a big payday. Selling ships now is even more important, as you can enhance ships. You don’t want to customize your dreaded pirate sloop, only to start your next sail with a garbage scow…excuse me, cargo fluyt.
D_Odds so you’re saying that the woman leads when dancing? How progressive for colonial society!
Anyhow, thanks for the tips. Now if only I can get out of work and find a store that actually has the game…
I think your description of the game as a pirate sim is spot on. The best part is the open ended nature of the story…you make of it what you wish.
I never played the original Pirates or Pirates Gold, but it sounds like fun.
Is much speed and manual dexterity required, or is it more like Civ? I suck royally at pretty much any game requiring significant hand-eye coordination or fast moves, and find them very frustrating. Am I likely to have a problem with the new Pirates?
Just the dancing, and maybe the swordfights at higher levels.
When dancing, there are 8 possible directions to go, corresponding to keys on the number pad (5 is left out). The governor’s daughter will gesture with her hands which way to go, and you must follow. If you don’t, she won’t give you any good gossip. So far, it seems that there is usually one point during a song where she’ll string a few moves together. Once she likes you, it doesn’t appear you have to dance with her again.
Swordfights are slower. I still use the same tactic I used in Pirates; attack low. In the original, the got harder as you raised in level and aged. I expect the same.
I always used the ‘baseball bat’ approach to swordfighting.
Ready to be jealous, children?
Ready?
I was at a party following the Academy for Interactive Arts and Sciences several years ago when Sid Meier was being awarded a ‘Lifetime Acheivement’ award.
I got to spend a good bit of time discussing games (and Pirates specifically) with Sid. We were sitting on a coach sipping some drinks (free…I love being media). Sid’s biggest question was always 'what platform did you play XXX on?
Anytime I answers ‘Commodore 64’ he’d get all dreamy-eyed and say something like ‘Man, we did a great job on those C-64 games.’
Nice guy. Shorter than you might imagine. And a complete apostate in the world of violent games. Hell of a piano player, too.
And I loved going after the big ships with a sloop. Sure it couldn’t hold many men but it was so fast and agile that no one could hit me (usually…when they did I was simply dead).
Where is the envious green smilie???!!! You sat with Sid. Just trying to get my head around that. Can one sit with Zeus? And Sid surely ranks higher than Zeus (even if he’s shorter). OK, I’m jealous.
Swordfighting method of the past was:
Just for the record, I played on the Amiga 500 way back when having 1 Meg made you super cool (in geekdom, anyhow).
So I finally get the game from Game Stop…But there’s no DVD in it!!! Map and rulebook yes…no damn dvd :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
I’ve never had this happen before. And of all the games! Any advice? Atari’s help page just says to take it back.
DVD isn’t in a case, it’s in a cardboard sleeve. Double-check your box. Otherwise, yell like hell to the store.
I just double checked and no. I’ve got a cardboard thingy that looks like it’s protection for the stuff inside the box (actually like a liner for the box) but no DVD. There’s a perforated section that wasn’t punched out…I’m starting to suspect that this is where the DVD was supposed to be held. Does that sound right?
I just got the game. Well, I got it several hours ago, after driving to one of the only Best Buys in the area that seemed to have it, but it seems like I just got the game. It’s fun.
Anyhow, my box had the following in it: A cardboard box, inside of which was a map, a spiral-bound manual, a DVD-sized cardboard sleeve containing the DVD, a rebate card for a Radeon X800 video card, and an Atari catalog. If yours doesn’t have those in it, scream at the store. Loud.