Overview
Beginning in 4000 BC with a single band of nomadic settlers, you are tasked with building an empire to stand the test of time. Players must explore the map, found cities, manage resources, and engage in diplomacy or war with rival historical leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Genghis Khan, and Abraham Lincoln.
The core loop revolves around scientific discovery. You guide your civilization from the discovery of the wheel and the alphabet all the way to the invention of gunpowder, electricity, and nuclear fission. The game ends when you either conquer every other civilization on the planet or successfully launch a colonization ship to Alpha Centauri.
Visual Archive
Behind The Scenes
The Birth of the 4X Genre
After the success of Railroad Tycoon, Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley wanted to scale up their simulation systems. Inspired by the board game of the same name and the empire-building mechanics of SimCity, they created the definitive "4X" game (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate).
The Nuclear Gandhi Bug
The original game contained one of the most famous (and hilarious) coding quirks in gaming history. Mahatma Gandhi's aggression level was set to the lowest possible rating (1). However, if a player adopted Democracy, it lowered aggression by 2 points. This caused Gandhi's aggression variable to "underflow" from 1 to 255, instantly turning the peaceful leader into a nuclear warmonger—a trait that became so beloved it was kept as an inside joke in future sequels.