Sid Meier's Pirates! (called Pirates! for short) is a pirate-themed action-adventure and strategy game by Sid Meier. It was published by MicroProse and originally released for the Commodore 64 in 1987, with releases for other systems in the following years.
Pirates! is set in the Caribbean and begins with the player character receiving a letter of marque that authorizes them to serve as a privateer for the Spanish Empire, the Dutch Republic, the Kingdom of England, or the French colonial empire (though the player can shift loyalties and hold rank with multiple nations throughout the course of the game). The start year can be as early as 1560 or as late as 1680, with later starts reducing Spanish dominance and increasing the prominence of other nations in the region, increasing seafaring traffic, and determining which sorts of ships are most commonly seen. In spite of the game's name, it is an open-world game that allows the player to attack enemy settlements, hunt pirates, search for buried treasure, rescue long-lost family members, or amass wealth through trade in addition to turning to piracy.
Many of the important factors in Pirates! are randomized at the beginning of the game and continue to shift throughout, including diplomatic relations between the four nations. Cities are also dynamic, and keeping track of fluctuations in a city's wealth and population can help the player plan ahead.
As the game continues, crew members become more difficult to recruit, and it ends when the player character's health forces them to retire. At that point, they are given a post-retirement profession ranging from Beggar to King's Advisor, which depends on their accumulated wealth, land, rank, marital status, and other accomplishments.
A remake of Pirates! called Pirates! Gold was released for DOS and the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1993, and for the Amiga 32X and Windows 3.x in 1994. It featured SVGA graphics, 3-D modeled ship and flag animations, and graphic depictions of items that were originally menu choices, but the gameplay was practically identical. Another remake called Pirates!: Live the Life followed in 2004.
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