Pirates! - Retrospective Review @ Indie Retro News

Indie Retro News looks back at one of the best games ever made: Prirates!

Pirates! - DarkwyndPT's BIGGEST retro gaming review yet!

Ahoy there mateys! Welcome back to Retro Freak Reviews. And before ye all send me down to Davy Jones' locker for not posting a review during the entire summer, let me redeem my sinner soul by offering ye this fine review in this finest of International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I'm talking about Pirates! (the game, not in general…)

Pirates! (aka Sid Meier's Pirates!) is an action-strategy game made by Microprose and originally released in 1987 for the Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Commodore 64 and the PC Booter. It was re-released the following year for the Apple IIgs and the Macintosh. In 1989, it was again re-released for the Atari ST, PC-89 and the PC-98. In 1990, it was ported for the Amiga, in 1991, it was ported to the NES and in 1994, the PC Booter version was officially ported to DOS (earlier DOS versions were actually the PC Booter version modified and/or hacked to play on DOS).

Pirates! came to be when famous game designer Sid Meier along with fellow designer Arnold Hendrick wanted to make a roleplaying adventure game but Bill Stealey, Microprose's co-founder, was skeptical because Microprose was only known back then by their vehicle simulations. Still, Meier and Hendrick were able to convince Stealey to take a chance at different genres and inspired by pirate novels, they created Pirates!

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the game i played the most, ever. (back when i was 12).
What a joy it was

My brother was obsessed with this. That and railroad tycoon. Good times.

Played the '87 version as a kid, it was a hard game, but I still loved it.

I played the eighties version as well, it was tough as heck, and I enjoyed every single second of it.

Played it endlessly as a kid as well. I couldn't quite recapture the magic when I tried a remastered version later, but at the time it was one of my top games.

I never got why people liked this game. It seems like the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and …..

Played the original version and Pirates! Gold version. This, Seven Cities of Gold and Heart of Africa were my gaming trifecta WAY back in the day. Add Legacy of the Ancients/Legend of Blacksilver and the Questrons too and this was a good portion of my gaming for years.

Originally Posted by you
I never got why people liked this game. It seems like the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and …..

yes it is like…sex

Probably because we weren't exactly drowning in new releases when I played this game. Nowadays, I'm a bit more finicky.

My last partner was slightly obsessed with this game. She used to play it quite a lot when she was pissed off, which was much of the time. I think I have it on Steam, I should really take a look at it and try and figure out what was is about… maybe I might discover why she was so pissed all of the time.

She probably failed the dances with the governor's daughter

All time classic!!