Sometimes, I buy stuff that's not from Nintendo. Generally, I hide it, for fear the Nintendo gods will come after me, but in this case, I think I'm safe, since I'm sure they recognize what a great series Civilization is.
Anywhoo, I've always liked the original Civilization and Civ 2. Never had the chance to really get into 3/4.
Well, with the announcement of Civ 4 Complete, I got to thinking about the fun I had with my old Civ games - so I dug out my bastardized 6-Disc Jewel Case that holds my collection (The Explorer Disc - Civ 1 and Colonization, Civ 2, Civ 2 Gold, Civ 2 Test of Time, Civilization: Call to Power and Alpha Centauri) and got all nostalgic. I figured I'd see what I could get to finish my set (Civ 3/4 and expansions, the Alpha Centauri Expansion, Call to Power II - maybe - and, my most wanted title, CivNet).
First thing I did was look on eBay. Found a copy of CivNet - still in the box, for about $15 shipped. Yay.
Then, started looking for Civ 3/4. Discovered the Civilization Chronicles - a collection of pretty much every Civ game released at the time (it's missing one Civ 4 expansion, Civ 4: Colonization and, for some reason or another CivNet. Also doesn't have the two Call to Powers, since they don't really count or Alpha Centauri, since it's not part of the Civ series). It's over $100 on Amazon. Over $70 on GoGamer and CDUniverse.
It's frickin' $27.99 on NewEgg.
Grabbed it. Gonna wait on a copy of Civ4: Complete for the other Civ4 Expansion and the new Colonization. Figure in a year or so, it should be down around $20-ish.
Gonna wait on Call to Power II. Not really *that* interested.
Might snatch up one of the cheap copies of Alpha Centauri with the expansion pack that are all over eBay right now...
But the prize of my collection?
Back when I first played Civ, it was in my Middle School (God, I'm old)... As far as I know, we had no manual. This is a big deal, because Civ did not have any kind of Copyright protection in it, short of a quiz that would pop up every so often. Answering it wrong would cause you to lose in-game progress. Now, keeping in mind that this was before the internet was in every home (our school didn't even have it at the time), you couldn't just go online and get the answers to the quiz - you needed the manual (or a good memory of the full tech tree... bleh...)
The CD I have came with no paper manual - only a digital version. It has the quiz answers, but that's so lame.
I found, at a used book/junk store - an original - first printing - Civilization 1 manual (in "decent" condition). Yay!
Also found Prima's official Strategy Guide for Alpha Centauri. That was neat.
