New Pirates!

[SoulBlazer]

So, did anyone else get Sid Meier's Pirates today?

I had interviews all day and have'nt even installed it yet, but when I stopped at my local EB the woman there said she had about 50 preorders on the game at that location alone. :eek 2:

Curious to know if anyone else here is playing this.

[Atar1G1rl]

Not playing it yet, but will be by Christmas. I just ordered the Limited Edition version today for my husband as one of his presents. Looks to be some pretty fun stuff! :D

[Blendo75]

You a veteran of the C-64 version? I'd like to hear what you think of the new one.

[YoshiM]

I'm debating. My wife is usually the Pirates nut but she gets burned out using a computer at work and typically doesn't want to look at a monitor until the next morning. If anything I'll just wait for the price to drop and snag it when it's like $15 to $20.

[SoulBlazer]

Well, I just finished playing a few hours of the game. I'm in love all over again. :D

Yes, my first version of Pirates was for the C64, then I moved to the NES, and then Pirates Gold for the PC and finally for the Genesis.

Some people are reporting problems with the Limited Edition. See, the LE comes on a single DVD, where as the regular game comes with two CD's. Some DVD drives are having problems with the copy protect used in the game and are reporting that a CD can't be found when it's in there. Luckily, I did'nt have any such issues, but just wanted to report it.

The game itself is great. I'll link to a full review later rather then write one of my own, but if you enjoyed the original you'll love this.

The big changes -- ship vs fort combat is gone, instead you land your pirates and attack on land. You actually sneak into towns now to talk to the governor, avoiding lights. To win the heart of a governor's daughter, you need to do a dance scene at a ball, matching her moves. Special items can be bought, given and found. Pirate, Indian, and Monk ports exist. You can do new missions, such as escorting ships and telling pirates where to attack. Barmaids can be protected from guards now. And a mess of other small stuff.

The LE actually contains the Windows 3.11 version of Pirates Gold. It runs fine on Win XP if you use the compatibility feature and a program like MoSlo. Other bonus stuff includes a interview clip, a making off clip, original pirate drawings and other drawings, wallpapers, bonus flags and stuff you can use in the game, and a few other things.

GREAT fun all around. This is worth full price. If you don't have a computer that can run it, there will be a Xbox port eventuly as well.

[jerkov]

I picked this game up tonight as well. I consider the original Pirates! to be my favorite game of all time (although the new GTA is a serious contender), so I've been waiting about 12 years for this game. I started off on the NES version, but also played my friend's Apple version as well. I also have Pirates! Gold for the Genesis and the PC.

I've messed around with the new game a little bit, and luckily I haven't run into any of the Limited Edition problems either. Game installed fine and plays fine. I was dismayed to see that there were some scratches on the disc when I took it out of the box, but so far no problems. My impressions? I love it. I actually appreciate that Sid kept things relatively simple - I hate overblown, complicated games. I have Pirates of the Caribbean for Xbox and Sea Dogs for the PC, and although they seem like fine games in their own right, I haven't played much of either because there is just too much damn stuff to get used to (not to mention that POTC is buggy as all hell). This game feels very much like the original, and I actually like the swordfighting scheme better in the new game. I like the fact that I can dive right in and already be familiar with much of the game, and the updates that are in there are tasteful and add value to the game. I've only messed around with the game for 45 minutes and haven't even tried to invade a town yet (been sticking to ship battles); I'm curious to see how the land invasions work. I did try to attack Santiago by sailing in, but I noticed there was no option to attack, so without reading the instructions, I figured that I'd have to invade by land. I'll try that out tomorrow.

The only problem I'm having is that I can't get the Pirates! Gold to work on my machine. I've tried to set the Compatibility feature, but I still get an error message whenever I try to start the game. Any suggestions as to what is going wrong? It's not a huge deal, since I can always play my original Pirates! Gold on one of my older machines, but I'd like to have it on XP for the hell of it.

[DStriemer]

Just boot to dos, man. Leave the game in an easy to access directory.

[Nespit]

pirates rules.. I hope this new version has the same level of addiction as the old one had..

[ddockery]

I suspect that after Christmas, my wife will be angry that she never gets to see me because of this game.

[Zing]

The only problem I'm having is that I can't get the Pirates! Gold to work on my machine.

Are you using the Windows version of the game? If not, I have a zip file of the Pirates! Gold For Windows setup files I could send you. It is 10MB in size. PM me if interested.

[jerkov]

Yeah, it is supposed to be the Windows version. The readme file even has directions for it to run properly in XP, but I still can't get it to run. You're supposed to enable the compatibility mode, which I did, but no matter what version of Windows I try to make it compatible with, I get this error message:

"WINPIR caused an access violation in WP.EXE at 0x0000001a.

Click on CLOSE to terminate the application
Click on IGNORE to continue, you should save your work in a new file."

No matter which option I choose the program just shuts down. I appreciate the offer, but I actually do have the original Pirates! Gold PC CD Rom release laying around that I used to run on my Windows 95 & 98 machines. I just wanted to get the one on my Limited Edition DVD running, but I don't know what the problem is.

Additionally, I can't view some of the wallpapers included with the Limited Edition (they don't show up as picture files, they show up as TGA files, which I'm unfamiliar with), and what exactly is the Special Theme Pack and what are the contents of the file supposed to be used for?

[SoulBlazer]

jerkov, I have'nt tried to get Pirates Gold working yet. I'll fool with it later and see what I can find.

Are you having any 'delays' in the game now and then? I've noticed that when doing certain things -- when the map is brought up, or when I click the Attack button to attack a ship at sea -- it takes about 15-20 seconds for it to 'come up' on the screen. I wonder if it's due to my old DVD drive. I may call tech support to see what they say.

Pirates Gold for Windows is a very good version of the game -- far better then the original bug ridden DOS version of the game -- and it MUST work or they would'nt have included it on the DVD.

As for the Special Theme Pack -- look at the readme file. :) I thought it explained what they were for in there.

Awsome game all around, folks!

[Trellisaze]

Gonna be waiting another couple of weeks at least for my order ... just got an email yesterday that it won't be shipped out till Monday at the earliest. :(

[jerkov]

jerkov, I have'nt tried to get Pirates Gold working yet. I'll fool with it later and see what I can find.

Are you having any 'delays' in the game now and then? I've noticed that when doing certain things -- when the map is brought up, or when I click the Attack button to attack a ship at sea -- it takes about 15-20 seconds for it to 'come up' on the screen. I wonder if it's due to my old DVD drive. I may call tech support to see what they say.

Pirates Gold for Windows is a very good version of the game -- far better then the original bug ridden DOS version of the game -- and it MUST work or they would'nt have included it on the DVD.

As for the Special Theme Pack -- look at the readme file. I thought it explained what they were for in there.

Awsome game all around, folks!

I have not experienced any delays like that. What speed is your drive? I'll take a look through the readme to see what the Theme Pack is all about.

I've tried a couple of land attacks on towns, and they are rather tough. It looks like you'd need a lot of men to successfully take over a town. I guess I can't recreate the types of battles I'm used to in the NES version of the game (taking down 450 town soldiers with 30-40 pirates).

If you figure out Pirates! Gold, please post about it here, because I still can't get it to work.

[SoulBlazer]

I've even tried reducing the speed of the drive. No luck with the delays. I just finsihed a few more hours of game play (got my sister back and wooing up a wife!) so it's not critical. Hope a patch helps.

Have you noticed there's a easy way to tell the value of a daughter? There are plain ones, attractive ones, and beautiful ones. It's better to marry the higher status ones, but they are harder to get. But an easy way to tell them apart is to look at their cup size. No, seriously! :D The plain ones are B cup, the attractive ones are C cup, and the beautiful ones are DD cup. LOL

Yeah, attacking towns is a bit harder. If the town has a fort, fire at the fort with the Spacebar a couple times. That will make sure you can attack. If they shoot back, you're in business. Then charge in. I can win land battles if I'm about equal numbers, but don't push your luck. If you have any kind of edge at all, rout the defenders to see if you can install a governor. So far I've turned 3 towns English and one French. You CAN take towns where you're badly outnumbered, but it's a lot harder -- got to try to sneak around the sides and get to the town gate. Also, if there are too few defenders, you'll just storm in and fight the guard captain.

[Jred]

I've actually kept my c=64 around for this game alone.. so I've been waiting on this for a long time. I stood in line at 9:30 am with all the World of Warcraft crowd, and actually kinda confused the cashier when he handed me the WoW collectors edition and I said I didn't want it. He had to go dig around in the back to find it, but I went home happy. Watched the "Making of" movie and then loaded the game up. 3.5 hours later my fiance called me up asking why I wasn't there to eat lunch.. doh! I completely lost track of time.. first game in a long time to pull me in like that. It's good enough I haven't even gotten around to loading up the new version of Pirates! Gold yet. So far it's amazing.. the only thing I hated in the old one was land battles, and they fixed them for this version.. My only complaint is for Limited Edition at least, they could have done a cloth map. Then again I'm a sucker for cloth maps.