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In a nutshell: The Civilization games have been around since the start of the 1990s, entertaining millions of people. The launch date of the series' seventh numbered title has just been announced, but where did it all start? With a 386 PC in 1991 that packs 16MB of RAM, cost $10,000 at the time, and still works today.
Firaxis Games has announced that the next installment of the Civilization series, Civilization 7, will land on PC and console on February 11, 2025.
The studio invited members of the gaming press to try Civilization 7 at its Maryland offices. PC Gamer's Editor-in-Chief, Tyler Wilde, writes that an old leather desk chair and a similarly aged PC and CRT monitor are on display in the building, looking slightly out of place.
The reason for the reverence is that Sid Meier, the man who created Civilization over three decades ago, did so sitting in that chair and using that computer.
Firaxis learning and development manager Pete Murray told Wilde that the PC is a Compaq Deskpro 386. Incredibly, it cost $10,000 at the time, which would be more than $23,000 today.
The machine contains 640 KB of usable RAM, an architectural limitation of IBM-compatible PCs at the time. There's also expanded memory, and Murray said it contains "16 MB of memory," which appears to be the model's upper limit. There's also a Sound Blaster audio card, naturally, though the specific model is not mentioned.
What's surprising is that the PC was still bootable as of last year, though it did require buying some parts from eBay and "creative salvage" from Firaxis' IT department. The hard drive is almost dead, but Murray said there's a pre-release version of the original Civilization on the PC that's still playable.
MicroProse, formed by Meier, Bill Stealey, and Andy Hollis in 1982, was the original developer of Civilization. Meier left the company and formed Firaxis with two others in 1996, apparently taking the PC and chair with him.
In a 2019 Ars Technica documentary video, Meier said he'd saved two of the Compaq Deskpro 386 computers, but one of them exploded when he tried to boot it up due to the dust in the power supply.
Thanks, PC Gamer