Retrospectively Speaking: Colonisation

It has always puzzled me why games companies don’t follow the lead of their cinematic counterparts and remake older games.

Think about it, you have these classic games, with hundreds of thousands of people looking back and going “ah, those were the days”. So, why not tap into that?

Games take longer and longer to make nowadays, some costing an absolute fortune in the process.

Yet a lot of the bigger companies have these great licenses (LucasArts, I’m looking at you) wallowing in their digital dungeons, cruelly unused.

Why not, instead of paying loads of money to make Generic World War II Shooter 5, just recreate one of these classic titles using today’s graphics?

Thankfully, it is beginning to happen (a little) with games like 1942: Joint Strike and Bionic Commando.

And, of course, it is happening with Sid Meier’s Colonisation. Sid has always been pretty damn great and he has also not felt ashamed to revisit the past and use it in the future.

Pirates! was remade twice, after all (Pirates! Gold and the more recent terpsichory-infused remake) and there have also been new versions of Railroad Tycoon and the brilliant Civilisation.

But we are here to see what all the fuss was about with the original game, so join me on a trip back to 1994 and the halcyon days of the 3.5” floppy (disk, in case you were wondering).

The original Colonisation was made by Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier, with a little help from some other people at the sadly departed Microprose.

The aim of the game was to take your group of hardy colonists, starting in 1492 (see Colon, Cristobal) and mercilessly brutalise/peacefully coexist with Native Americans in the New World.

Differing from its predecessor, Civilisation, players wouldn’t be building their forces up from nothing, instead having a symbiotic relationship with a Father/Motherland in the Old World.

Interestingly, in order to win, players had to cast off the eventually restrictive bond with the old country and defeat a powerful military force sent over to subdue the rebel scum.

The new version will be faithful to the old in a number of ways – the initial choice of European ‘sponsor’ will affect the way players approach the game.

So, we know it will be faithful, but will it be better? I always remember the original Colonisation as being great on paper, but never having the same spark that drew me so deeply into Civilisation.

Certainly, it will be interesting to see whether the now-familiar Civilisation IV engine will make the game more accessible to the likes of me, who weren’t able to fully appreciate the original.

Next stop Alpha Centauri?