February 4, 2008 6:00 AMApple Games recently added a history section to the site, giving readers a chance to review the beginnings of some of the most popular game franchises currently available. Some of the game series featured include Blizzard's popular offerings, The Sims series, and Sid Meier's Civilization empire.“You are challenged to build an empire that stands the test of time,” says the manual for the first entry in the Civilization series of games, which debuted in 1991. Legendary developer Sid Meier created the game for MicroProse, the company he co-founded in 1982. As in its sequels, a Civilization session begins with each player in control of a single settler but gradually grows more complex as the participants acquire more territory, develop their technology, and eventually bump into the neighbors. Players do not have to engage in warfare to win the game. That basic template has served the series well, through Civilization III and its Conquests and Play the World expansion packs, as well as Civilization IV and its Warlords expansion pack. However, each edition features tweaks to the gameplay, such as Civilization III’s bargaining table for crafting diplomatic agreements and Civilization IV’s Great People, who confer a variety of powerful bonuses. Civilization IV also guided the series into the realm of 3D graphics. Civilization the turn-based computer strategy game bears some resemblance to Civilization the board game, which Avalon Hill published in 1981, although Meier has said that he had only passing familiarity with it. While both games emphasized building an empire from nothing and advancing through a technology tree along the way, the board version didn’t progress into the modern age (one way to win the videogame is to build a spaceship and blast off for Alpha Centauri, which is a nod to another Meier game) and featured more linear gameplay.To read more follow the link provided below.Apple Games: Game Histories

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