Warnings
- GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).
General information
- Civilization Wiki - A detailed wiki for all Civilization games and their spin offs
- Apolyton Civilization Site's Civ III section - A huge forum dedicated to all Civilization games and their spin offs. Modifications for the game can be found here
- Civilization Fanatics Center's Civilization III Page
- GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
- GOG.com Support Page
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
- A free trial version of the Gold Edition is available from GameFront.
Version differences
- The Game of the Year Edition contains the base game with a bonus CD containing additional maps and behind-the-scenes videos.
- The Gold Edition contains the base game and Play The World.
- Civilization III Complete is a complete version with both expansion packs.
- Digital releases omit the executables for the base game and Play the World, leaving only the Conquests executable with a Complete-themed menu and icon. The base game and Play the World can, however, be played by including no-CD versions of their respective fully patched executables, as no other assets are missing.
Monetization
Type |
Notes |
Expansion pack
| Expansion packs include multiple civilizations, scenarios, and secondary game modes. Unlike the base game, they include multiplayer support. |
One-time game purchase
| The game requires an upfront purchase to access. |
DLC and expansion packs
Name |
Notes |
|
Play the World |
|
|
Conquests |
Contains all content from Play the World. |
|
Essential improvements
Patches
- v1.29f (base game), v1.27f (Play the World), v1.22 (Conquests) are available here.
- Patch v1.22 Rev A is the latest patch for the OS X version.[3]
Unofficial
- fan patch v8 - Multiple fixes to v1.22 Conquests.
- flintlock's patch - Multiple bugfixes and QoL improvements to v1.22 Conquests (GOG/Steam version only), more stable than the fan patch above.
- Fitted Irrigation with Farm Houses - Makes irrigation look more natural and not jut out into the water.
- River Deltas - Covers up the problem where some deltas are too far out to sea and others are too recessed
- Fixed Transport Window Leftovers - Fixes left over artifacts from the transport window
Skip intro videos
Edit configuration file[4]
|
- Open the configuration file.
- Add the following line at the end of the file:
PlayIntro=0 .
- Save the changes.
|
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
- The configuration file is generated only after the first time the game is started.
Save game data location
Video
Set KeepRes mode[5]
|
- Open the configuration file.
- Add the line
KeepRes=1
- Save the changes. The game will now run at the desktop resolution as borderless fullscreen.
|
Set windowed mode[6]
|
- Open the configuration file.
- Add the line
KeepRes=1
- Add the line
Video Mode=1152
- Save the changes.
-
Video Mode is the horizontal window size, with the vertical height calculated based on the 4:3 aspect ratio.
- The game window will have no border.
- The game area can not be resized after the game is launched - doing so causes graphic corruption and may crash the game.
|
Input
Audio
Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
Separate volume controls |
|
|
Surround sound |
|
|
Subtitles |
|
No spoken text. |
Closed captions |
|
|
Mute on focus lost |
|
|
Royalty free audio |
|
|
Localizations
Network
- Either expansion pack is required, as the base game does not have multiplayer support.
Multiplayer types
Type |
Native |
Players |
Notes |
Local play |
|
8 |
Hot seat
|
LAN play |
| 8 |
Versus Removed from Steam version after the Steamworks update. |
Online play |
| 8 |
Versus The official GameSpy service has been shut down; Steam version has been updated with Steamworks support.[7][8] |
Asynchronous multiplayer |
|
Simultaneous turns, "turnless" mode (default), play-by-email (PBEM). |
Connection types
Ports
Protocol |
Port(s) and/or port range(s) |
TCP |
3783, 6500, 6667, 28900, 29900, 29901 |
UDP |
2302-2400, 6500, 6515, 13139, 27900 |
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.
Issues fixed
Compatibility settings for Steam version
No music or sound effects during diplomacy
This is an error caused by a Windows 10 update limiting sound to two channels.
Other information
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
OpenGL |
1 |
|
Executable | PPC | 16-bit |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows | | |
|
|
|
macOS (OS X) | | | |
|
Install the version 1.22 Rev A patch for Intel support. |
Mac OS (Classic) | | | |
|
|
Middleware
System requirements
Windows | Mac OS (Classic) | macOS (OS X) |
Windows |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
98 |
ME, 2000, XP |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel Pentium II 400 MHz | |
System memory (RAM) |
32 MB (base game), 128 MB (Conquests) |
256 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
1.8 GB | |
Video card (GPU) |
DirectX 8.0a (base game), 9.0b (Conquests) compatible | |
Notes
- ↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[2]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%
, %PROGRAMDATA%
, or %WINDIR%
might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore
on Windows Vista and later (more details).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
References