pirates

I just caught the review of the new Sid Meier’s Pirates! over on Ars Technica. I played the original of the game as obsessively as I was able when I was in, er, high school. On my Apple II, um, gs. Anyway, reading the review both summoned long lost memories and made me realize that this new version is that rarest of beasts: an updated video game that really is just an update and not a “re-invention”. The game itself sounds almost exactly like the the Pirates! of old, and that, my friends, is awesome. The only thing from the old game that I remember sucking was the sword fighting. At that point, the old Pirates! firmly reminded you that it was not a fighting game. I barely remember any major quests. I do remember the treasure hunting, the courting of governor’s daughters, the storming of towns, and the general piracy. It is enough to make me want to build a Windows gaming machine. A task made harder today when I had to raid my erstwhile Windows box for its power supply.