Sid Meier's Civilization III

Sid Meier's Civilization III

Developers
	Firaxis Games
Conquests expansion	BreakAway Games
Mac OS (Classic)	Westlake Interactive
macOS (OS X)	Westlake Interactive
Publishers
2001-2003	Infogrames
2003-2005	Atari
2005-present	2K Games
Re-release	Sold Out Software
Mac OS	Aspyr Media
macOS (OS X)	Aspyr Media
Release dates
Windows	October 30, 2001
Mac OS (Classic)	October 30, 2001
macOS (OS X)	January 12, 2006
Reception
Metacritic	90
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Turn-based
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Isometric
Controls	Point and select
Genres	4X, TBS
Themes	Historical
Series	Civilization

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Sid Meier's Civilization III is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and isometric 4X and TBS game in the Civilization series.

The game received two expansion packs: Play the World in October 2002, and Conquests in November 2003. Play the World was the first iteration of the game which included multiplayer, while Conquests includes the former on its disc. Both expansions included a range of new units, game modes and scenarios. They were combined with the base game in the Complete edition as of September 2004, and this compilation is the only version of the games available on digital stores; however, in the mentioned digital releases, only the Conquests executable is present.

On March 16, 2015, the Steam release was updated to replace the GameSpy multiplayer infrastructure with that of Steamworks, but aside from removing LAN, the game has had reports of lower stability compared to prior releases.

Unofficial patches exist to resolve the game's inherent bugs. An audio glitch has been reported which mutes audio in the diplomacy screen (often with a garbled noise preceding it), which can be resolved by using IndirectSound to fix the underlying cause.

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

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM 4 DRM for North America. SafeDisc 2 DRM for Europe. Applies for the base game and the "Conquests" expansion. "Play the World" expansion uses SecuROM 4 DRM for all regions.
		Complete
GOG.com		Complete
Green Man Gaming		Complete
Steam		Complete
GamersGate (unavailable)		Complete

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.

Unofficial

C3X - multiple bugfixes and QoL improvements to v1.22 Conquests (tested only with digital versions). Later versions use changes from Antal's patch framework as well.

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
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.

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Civilization3.ini <path-to-game>\Civ3PTW\Civilization3X.ini <path-to-game>\Conquests\Conquests.ini
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/3910/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Saves <path-to-game>\Civ3PTW\Saves <path-to-game>\Conquests\Saves
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/3910/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game options menu.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor			See Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen			See Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD			See Widescreen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Enabled by default but low-resolution; see Widescreen resolution.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Widescreen resolution

Set KeepRes mode
Open the configuration file. Add the line KeepRes=1 Save the changes. The game will now run at the desktop resolution as borderless fullscreen.

Windowed

Set windowed mode

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, unless 1280 is entered, in which case it will use the 5:4 aspect ratio for 1280x1024. 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

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration		Uses OS cursor.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles		No spoken text.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French				Retail only; download for digital versions.
German				Retail only; download for digital versions
Hungarian				Fan translation, link #1, link #2.
Italian				Retail only.
Japanese				Retail only.
Spanish				Retail only, download.

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.
Asynchronous multiplayer		Simultaneous turns, "turnless" mode (default), play-by-email (PBEM).

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP		Removed from the Steam version.

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

Run the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP2.[citation needed]

No music or sound effects during diplomacy

This is an error caused by a Windows 10 update limiting sound to two channels.

The diplomacy screen may at times be preceded by a brief garbled noise.

Install IndirectSound
Download and extract IndirectSound. Copy the two files, dsound.dll and dsound.ini. Paste into <path-to-game>, <path-to-game>\Civ3PTW, <path-to-game>\Conquests.

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

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	GameSpy	Removed in Steam update.

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