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Sid Meier Classics Released on Steam

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A couple of old Sid Meier classics were released on Steam, more precisely Sid Meier's Colonization, Pirates! Gold Plus and Sid Meier's Covert Action.

The titles have been made to work with Linux using emulation (DOSBox) by Tommo Inc. and Night Dive Studios. These classics have been available on GOG for Linux for a while already but now they've made their way onto Steam. Instead of reporting all of them separately, I figured I might bundle them together into a longer article.

Official About

Pirates! Gold Plus

You'll criss-cross your way along the 17th century Spanish Main in search of all-new adventures.

You'll lead a crew of hot-blooded buccaneers into rollicking harbour towns. And risk your booty and your life plundering enemy ships!

Hunt for magnificent treasures! Unravel the mysteries and clues of your adventure! Even battle your way through enemy waters on grueling rescue missions!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyM_7YGofEI

Will you win your rightful place in history? Or will you end up shipwrecked on a distant island? The answer can only be found in the swashbuckling Pirates! Gold.
  • Experience the untamed era of piracy through stunning new VGA/Super VGA art and graphics!
  • Feel the ring of crossing swords and the boom of mighty cannon with enhanced sound features!
  • Skewer scurvy rogues with enhanced sword-fighting capabilities!
  • Gain power, prestige or even the hand of the governor’s daughter!
  • Bombard enemy ships!
  • Explore more coastal towns, each with it's own dangers
  • Includes the original Sid Meier's Pirates! game!



Sid Meier's Covert Action

In the 1990's our national nightmares are haunted by wild-eyed political extremists, greedy and ruthless drug lords, and lunatic military dictators. For too long we have felt powerless to stop them.
But now, award-winning game designer Sid Meier takes us around the globe with super-spy Max Remington to challenge these threats and neutralize their shadowy schemes of terrorism, smuggling and extortion. A seasoned veteran of modern, hi-tech undercover operations, Remington always obeys the two main rules of Covert Action: 1. Use your intelligence. 2. If Rule one fails, use your other weapons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxXCk3zHAas

Game Features:
  • Intelligence: Recognize Faces, Break Codes, Unravel plots and sub-plots to determine how sub-plots fit together in the larger scheme, Decide which leads to follow, witch to ignore
  • Weapons: Guns, Fragmentation grenades, Stun grenades, Remote-control bombs, Tear gas
  • World travel: 3 Continents, 50 cities
  • Variety: Work for CIA, Mossad (Israeli), MI5 (British), Unlimited number of cases to solve
  • Realism: Crucial decisions international agents face every day, cases based on today's headlines.



Sid Meier's Colonization

The New World lies before you with all its peril, promise and infinite possibility. Your colonists anxiously follow you to shore. The treasures of an entire continent await you.

Finally, the much-anticipated follow-up to Civilization is here! Sid Meier's Colonization takes you into the Colonial Era to discover, explore and colonize vast territories that promise both danger and reward.

Play one of four colonial powers as you set sail to discover the New World. Explore new lands and strategically plant your first colony. Direct its growth, manage its resources and establish lucrative trade routes. Balance economics, political and military strategy to create your own powerful nation.

But beware of your enemies! Angry natives and rival powers can encroach upon your territory. You'll have to overcome your foes with superior military strategy and wily diplomacy. Only then can you launch your revolution and declare your independence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_sXwtmVY3w

Colonization, The newest strategy game from Sid Meier continues the great tradition of Civilization.
  • Manage your growth, development and trade to create a powerful nation.
  • Pit your strategic skills against Colonization's advanced artificial intelligence.
  • Play either the French, English, Dutch or Spanish colonial powers each with distinct characteristics and political situations.
  • Customize your games and choose your own level of difficulty so you never play the same game twice.
  • Discover and explore the Americas or create your own scenario with a random map generator.
  • Same design principles and interface as award-winning Civilization, making game play easy and fun.



This is not the first time old games have shipped on Steam using DOSBox. For example, we've seen Wizardry 6 and 7 and the original Wasteland use DOSBox to work on modern operating systems. I'm quite happy to see that these old games are still being made available to us easily and that we don't have to go through abandonware websites to find these gems. I'd especially like to see the original Sid Meier's Civilization DOSBoxed and shipped for Linux on either GOG or Steam.

What are your thoughts on “ports” like these that use emulation software (i.e. not compatibility layers)? What other retro games would you like to see made available to us? Discuss in the comments!

Pirates! Gold Plus: http://store.steampowered.com/app/327380/
Sid Meier's Covert Action: http://store.steampowered.com/app/327390/
Sid Meier's Colonization: http://store.steampowered.com/app/327400/ Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I'm a Linux gamer from Finland. I like reading, long walks on the beach, dying repeatedly in roguelikes and ripping and tearing in FPS games. I also sometimes write code and sometimes that includes hobbyist game development.
See more from me
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19 comments
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Sabun Oct 11, 2014
Has anyone bought them? Care to let us know if they feel native?
chrisq Oct 11, 2014
DOSBox is perfectly fine for old titles.
I wouldn't mind scummvm or even wine as long as the games are old.

Having them in a convenient updater/launcher/library like steam is making the gaming experience on linux better than having to emulate yourself.
flesk Oct 11, 2014
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Nice. I was thinking about covering this tonight but I'm glad you beat me to it.
GoCorinthians Oct 11, 2014
As said often: Steam FTW!

WorMzy Oct 11, 2014
Oh wow, the original Colonization was one of my favourite games on the Amiga! Pirates was a bit buggy, but still hella fun. Never played Covert Action.
Beamboom Oct 11, 2014
To be honest I think these games belong to smartphones and tablets nowadays.

That said, I had the pleasure of revisiting Pirates on the PSP some years ago and while it most definitely is outdated in most ways it still has that little extra "something" that makes you just want to keep playing. It's a fantastic game.
jordicoma Oct 11, 2014
I have sid mayer's pirates from a bundle, and doesn't install/suport on linux. It's only the "gold" version? It's unfair.
jordicoma Oct 11, 2014
Sorry. Now I see it's a different game from the same developer.
oldrocker99 Oct 11, 2014
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I got Covert Action, because I'd played the other two back in the day, and I was looking for a new experience. Runs with DOSBox, which is to be expected, and it is a new experience.
Segata Sanshiro Oct 11, 2014
If I had played the originals, I would be more tempted to play them. I find that often with old games, I can only really get into them if I played that before. I really like SimCity 2000, but I guess most people who haven't played it would go for 3000 or 4 because of the graphics, better features, etc.

That said, I think there was a Colonization released at the time of Civ 4 using that engine, so would be nice to either see a port of that (unlikely) or see a release of a new Colonization after Beyond Earth, which would be pretty awesome because it's a game I've always wanted to play.
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