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Sid Meier's Pirates!

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Revision as of 03:43, 10 June 2023 by Dandelion Sprout (talk | contribs) (→‎top: General maintenance with AutoWikiBrowser in Bot mode)

This page is for the original release. For the enhanced version, see Pirates! Gold. For the remake, see Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004).

Sid Meier's Pirates!
Sid Meier's Pirates! cover
Developers
MPS Labs
Publishers
Retail MicroProse
Digital Retroism
Digital Nightdive Studios
Release dates
PC booter May 8, 1987
Mac OS (Classic) 1988
DOS 1994
Windows (DOSBox) July 17, 2012
macOS (OS X) (DOSBox) November 29, 2012[1]
Linux (DOSBox) July 24, 2014[2]
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer
Themes Piracy
Series Sid Meier's Pirates!
Sid Meier's Pirates! on HowLongToBeat
Sid Meier's Pirates! guide on StrategyWiki
Sid Meier's Pirates! on MobyGames
Sid Meier's Pirates! on Wikipedia
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Sid Meier's Pirates! 1987
Pirates! Gold 1993
Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004) 2004

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Prompts for answers from manual, code wheel, etc.
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
The PC Booter version does use besides questions from the book also use Laserlock copy protection. The original floppy disk does have a small hole burned with a laser and the game tries to write data to it and read it again. If that fails then the game knows, that floppy disk is an original one.
PC booter
Retail
Prompts for answers from manual, code wheel, etc.
DOS
Mac OS
GamersGate
Icon overlay.png
Gold Plus
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
GOG.com
Prompts for answers from manual, code wheel, etc.
Bundled with Pirates! Gold. DOS version pre-packaged with DOSBox.[3]
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Gold Plus
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Prompts for answers from manual, code wheel, etc.
Bundled with Pirates! Gold. DOS version pre-packaged with DOSBox.[4]
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
Custom DRM code increases the difficulty of the duel tutorial if the player incorrectly answers the manual lookup prompt. If the player loses that duel, they will receive a smaller crew and a pinnacle as the starting ship.

Version differences

The initial DOS release (version 432.02) is a modified version of the PC booter release (this is the version sold on GOG.com and Steam).[5]
The later DOS release (version 432.03) has improvements such as a revised save menu with an Exit to DOS option.[5]
Pirates! Gold is a redesigned version featuring new graphics and sound and some gameplay changes.

Game data

Save game data location

System Location
PC booter A:\
B:\
DOS <path-to-game>\disks
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.
The PC booter release saves to a dedicated floppy disk; for DOSBox mount a blank floppy image and switch to it when prompted (see BOOT for details).[5]
This game does not store any settings.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

General settings.
General settings.

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
For DOSBox toggle with Alt+ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS

Input

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Everything is text-based.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Spanish
Retail only. Download.

Issues unresolved

"Insert Save Disk" prompt when retiring (DOS)

The DOS version sold on GOG.com and Steam (version 432.02) prompts for a Save Disk when choosing to register in the Pirate Hall of Fame and will not continue[6] (mounting a drive A: or B: in DOSBox does not fix this).[5]
Full error message: "Insert Save Disk into Drive A: then press ENTER" or "Insert Save Disk into Drive B: then press ENTER".
This issue does not apply to the revised DOS version (version 432.03) or the PC booter version.[5]

PC Booter version requires Drive A: to be the first drive attached to the floppy disk bus cable

If the PC Booter doesn't boot, and if there are 2 floppy disks drives attached to the floppy bus cable, then it's required to switch the order of the floppy disk drives by disconnecting both of them from the floppy bus cable and attaching them again in the inverted order. Switching just the drive letters A: and B: by software or in the BIOS will not work.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes CGA, Tandy, EGA

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 3.1
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM) 2 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 20 MB
Video card (GPU) CGA


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to <path-to-game>/cloud_saves/ even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).

References