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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,[1] but aside from removing LAN, the game has had reports of lower stability compared to prior releases.[2]
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
- 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.[5]
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[6]
|
- 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[7]
|
- 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[8]
|
- 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
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.[9][10] |
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.
- The diplomacy screen may at times be preceded by a brief garbled noise.
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[3] 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.[4]
- ↑ 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 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in
~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/3910/
in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (3910) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
References