It was over 20 years ago when my father brought me the PC version of Sid Meier’s Pirates! and, despite despising the huge manual, I’ve absolutely loved the game (or should I say franchise?) ever since. Looking at a CGA sky and using a paper map to navigate, raiding towns and sinking ships, freely deciding what to do and where to sail, juggling politics and cannonballs while looking for lost family members and a beautiful island to retire on, all sounded like computer magic. These boasts, you see, the game’s boasts, impressive even by todays standards, were almost unthinkable in the late 80s. And of course innovative beyond measure. A programming feat too. Yet, Pirates! offered all that and more, and I was thoroughly obsessed with the game, playing it for what must have been hundreds of hours. Then I pointlessly sought to improve the experience.

After spending a few years trying the rather more colourful EGA version of Pirates, dabbling with the smart CPC port, the vastly updated Amiga version and growing older, I was thoroughly dissapointed by 1993’s Pirates! Gold, but still cared for more of my swashbuckling entertainment. The original was still the best, yet returning to it wasn’t as easy as it is today. We didn’t have no emulators back then, you know. Regardless. I even kept my 5.25″ inch drive and tried to run the bloody thing of the ancient self-booting floppy again. Not much fun was to be had, not on the high seas at least, but when the glitzy 3D Sid Meier’s Pirates! 2004 remake finally hit the shelves I was more than skeptical. Happily, I was also wrong. The game was brilliant. Deeper even. And then they remade it once more for the PSP. As you can see for yourselves it looks more than pleasing…

Sid Meier’s Pirates! for the Sony PSP though has more than looks to it. First of all, it proves that the Pirates! games are far from dead, that there’s still room for improvement and that good games never die. They simply raise from their graves and discipline their boring spawn. Secondly, Pirates! PSP with it’s short, varied and numerous missions is brilliantly suited for short bursts of play and thus a truly handheld game, and thirdly, Pirates! -admittedly along with Football Manager- are the only games that would convince me to grab one of Sony’s shiny new handhelds.

Then again this is neither the time nor the place for this conversation. 2008 is almost upon us and I haven’t even managed to finish buying presents. Oh dear…

Have a happy new year everyone!

Posted on December 31st, 2007 by konstantinos