SID MEIER: THE FATHER OF COMPUTER GAMING

Sid Meier is one of the top and well known game designers of all time. He is considered as the “Father of Computer Gaming.” Through out his career he has won almost every award in the gaming world for his achievements and contributions to the industry. Games he created during his career are some of the greatest ever made.

He started his career in computer gaming when he co-founded MicroProse in 1982. What inspired Sid to create the company with Bill Stealey is a very enjoyable tale. Bill Stealey and Sid Meier, who were co-workers, were playing an arcade flight combat game. Sid was better at the game than Bill, who was a former U.S. Air Force pilot, and the reason for this, as told by Sid, was that Sid was able to predict the movements of the computer generated player (fighter plane). Further into the story when Sid told Bill that he is capable of creating a better computer player than the one they were playing; they decided to start a business. During the beginning MicroProse was a ‘garage' project and both Sid and Bill still kept their day jobs. Sid and Bill developed and sold their early games using Sid's creativity and Bill's sales and marketing skills. It took sometime for this project to become a big force in the computer gaming industry.

At MicroProse Sid created some of the most popular and ground-breaking computer games of all time such as F-15 Strike Eagle , Silent Service , Pirates! , and F- 19 Stealth Fighter. F-15 Strike Eagle was one of the first successful flight simulations with generating revenues from over a million sold products. On the other hand Silent Service was a revolutionary submarine simulation game which was also very successful.

Sid Meier's Pirates! reached it success through PC's such as Commodore 64 , Macintosh and Amiga . Pirates! was an adventure/role-playing game , which followed a pirate captain through his adventures. The game provided the gamers with good graphics and soundtracks. This was a real-time and turn-bases game that gave the gamers ample strategies which they were able to use in the game. This game was a really successful and popular that it caused Sid Meier to develop a new version of the game Sid Meier's Pirates! in 2004. F-19 Stealth Fighter was a very well designed game that was superior to many flight simulation games that were in the market. F-19 Stealth Fighter game was published before the real-life F-117 was announced and the stealth element in the game made it very popular. These two games fueled the emergence of computer gaming industry and they provided a standard through out the industry.

Another product line of games which gave Sid Meier the fame was the Civilization sequels. Civilization came out in 1991 followed by Civilization II in 1996 then in 2001 Civilization III and finally Civilization IV in 2005. Several expansion packs were also released based after many Civilization lines of games. Civilization and Sim City were a few titles that actually broke into the mainstream. After Sid Meier's association with Civilization games he was typecast as turn based game designer, even thought during the same time he was developing other genre computer games. Civilization was a very detailed game in which it included detailed information about civilizations, economics, military actions, education, city planning, government dealings, long term planning, scientific-research development and diplomacy. First II civilization games weren't very graphically detailed, comparing to other 3D games, and for that reason the system requirements for playing Civilization world of games weren't that high. Gamers weren't forced to spend their cash on video cards to be able to play Civ world of games and they were just as addicted to the games as to any other expensive popular games. Civilization III and IV had improved graphical details than its predecessors as it was a standard in the computing game industry at that time. However Sid and its developers were still able to maintain the system requirements low.

Sid Meier has a very creative formula for the success of Civilization games. In the game, civilizations discovered technology throughout their course of history, which stared from 4000B.C. and ended at 2050 A.D., and each discovery was also associated with new decisions which affected game play. This cycle along with game play pressure from the computer generated players by no means made the game boring or tiring to any one. Civ games gave player a very sense of freedom; they were able to play the game according to their personality. As players were in control of their civilization, they had choices to have war with other civilization instead of negotiations or concentrate on your civilization's cultural development rather than their economic or military development. These offered elements put the players in a hot seat were they were always required to make decisions. All these features made Civilization games not just any regular computer game where players stare at the keyboard and click, it made the game an experience; an alternate universe if you ask enthusiasts. Civilization games were also used for “stealth teaching,” where educators around the world have been using the great elements in Civilization to educate students in subjects such as history, science and politics. These are only a few reasons why for 15 years, now in the fourth version, Civilization games are still considered as one of the greatest gaming series ever developed.

Sid Meier's creativity and imagination played a huge role in making Civ games as well as many Sid Meier developed a success story. It is no secret in the Gaming industry why Sid is only the second person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science's Hall of Fame in 1999. He is also inducted into the Computer Museum of America's Hall of Fame joining many other computer pioneers such as Bill Gates. Game fans are very glad that Sid is still employing his creativity in developing games rather than retiring like many others would retire.

Credits:

Garret Epps, “Civilization and its Discontents,” The American Prospect vol, 13no. 10, June 3,2002.

http://www.walkofgame.com/inductees/inductees.html

http://www.firaxis.com/company/legacy.php

http://www.gameshout.com/news/102005/images/102005_1273.jpg

http://www.gamespot.com/features/sidlegacy/

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0009XH4CK.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

http://www.firaxis.com/company/bios.php?bioid=56

Roney George

Stony Brook University

CSE 301 History of Computing

Spring 2006