First released for the Commodore 64 by Microprose in 1987, Pirates! is a single-player, open world strategy/action game in which you play an adventurer, sailing the high seas, fighting, plundering, trading, and trying to survive the rigours of life as a seafaring captain during a brutal period of history.

Pirates! was the first game to bear Sid Meier‘s name on the box (which – believe it or not – came as a suggestion from actor/comedian Robin Williams), and many mis-concieve the game as a “pirate simulator“. While you’re not explicitly playing a pirate as such (or at least a romanticised version of one), you can become one if you like. You will definitely encounter pirates in the game, and it’s best not to run afoul of them! But you can also play passively and try to be a “good person” if you want. The game is open-ended in how you play it.

The opening screen gives you the option to start a new career, load a saved game, command a famous expedition*, or see the Pirates! Hall of Fame.

Upon starting a new career you can choose whether to play during a specific time period or not. If you do, you can choose between The Silver Empire (1560), Merchants and Smugglers (1600), The New Colonists (1620), War For Profit (1640), The Buccaneer Heroes (1660), or Pirates’ Sunset (1680).

You then choose whether to be English, French, Dutch or Spanish; you enter your family name; choose a difficulty level (Apprentice, Journeyman, Adventurer or Swashbuckler), and finally choose a special ability (fencing, navigation, gunnery, wit and charm, or medicine).

*= The famous expeditions include: The Battle of San Juan de Ulua (John Hawkins, 1569), The Silver Train Ambush (Francis Drake, 1573), The Treasure Fleet (Piet Heyn, 1628), The Sack of Maracaibo (L’Ollonais, 1666), The King’s Pirate (Henry Morgan, 1671), and The Last Expedition (Baron de Pointis, 1697).

The game itself takes the form of a realtime Role-Playing Game with action elements. In port you can visit the town’s governor (only really a good idea if friendly); visit a tavern (for recruiting crew or chance encounters to buy treasure maps or information); trade with a merchant (you always need to have food and other supplies on board, plus you can also sell captured ships here); divide up the plunder (a necessary task to help keep your crew happy), or check information.

At sea you control the ship’s direction, and must sail with the wind to different places on a scrolling seascape. You’ll often sight other ships and can investigate or sail away. If you do check them out and they turn out to be hostile you can engage them in battle, in which case the game switches to a battle screen where the two ships try to broadside each other with their on-board cannons, and at the right moment – if you ram the enemy ship – you’ll then board it and a close-quarters battle will ensue. This always results in a sword battle between you and the opposing captain. And if you win that fight (not easy) then you get to choose whether to capture the enemy ship or to plunder it and sink it.

You can also attack enemy ports with your ship’s cannons, to try to wear them down before attacking on land. In fact: seeking out and attacking enemy ships and ports should be your main preoccupation in Pirates!, and success in that field will see you promoted up the ranks by appreciative governors.

Regular news bulletins detail who’s at war with who, who’ve made peace treaties, and what’s been happening in general. It’s worth remembering what you’re told in these, because attacking the wrong side can really upset the applecart… You can of course turn to piracy at any time, but if you do that you’ll have all sides set against you with little hope of mercy, so it’s not a decision that should be taken lightly (unless you’re playing with cheats enabled and just fancy rampaging, looting and pillaging).

Pirates! is a classic C64 game that’s still worth playing today. An enhanced version of the game was released by Nostalgia in 2013. It features full documentation; a save game editor; extra graphics and sound; bug fixes; a trainer, and fast loading from an Easyflash cartridge file. If you’re going to play the game now, that’s the version I’d recommend you go for.

There have also been numerous enhanced ports and remakes over the years. Pirates! Gold is one such example, which was released for 16-bit systems and some consoles in 1993/1994. Pirates! was also re-made in 2004 by Firaxis Games (Sid Meier‘s own company) and is still available on Steam and GOG (at the time of writing).

More: Pirates! on Wikipedia
More: Pirates! on CSDb
Steam: Sid Meier’s Pirates! on Steam
GOG: Sid Meier’s Pirates! on GOG.com