Every Sid Meier Game That Is Not Civilization Explained

Highlights

• Sid Meier’s legacy extends beyond Civilization, with titles like Railroad Tycoon and Pirates! showcasing his diverse game design talents.
• Meier’s collaboration with MicroProse and later Firaxis led to the creation of iconic games that shaped the strategy genre.
• From historical simulations like Colonization to real-time strategy games like Gettysburg!, Meier’s works continue to captivate players.

A name that just about any strategy video game fan will recognize but not know a whole lot about, Sid Meier has been a lead figure in the strategy genre since the early 1980s. Of course, nowadays, Sid Meier is best known for the Civilization franchise, being credited as the programmer, designer, and producer for the first 1991 Civilization, and then continuing to work on the series in various ways throughout the next three decades. But there’s far more to Sid Meier than many fans might know.

Born in Ontario, Canada, Sid Meier studied history and computer science at the University of Michigan, and in 1982, after trying out an Atari 800 for the first time, Meier decided to team up with co-worker Bill Stealey to forge their own video game development company, MicroProse. For a decade, Meier worked with MicroProse, and when the company merged with Spectrum HoloByte he left to form Firaxis, a studio that still works on Civilization all these years later. But Civilization is far from the only game Sid Meier has lent his name to over the years.

Every Sid Meier Game (Except Civilization) Ever Made

Technically speaking, Sid Meier worked on 20 games before the year 1987, but none of those titles bear his name. This list focuses solely on games that use the title “Sid Meier’s.”

While Civilization is undeniably the most successful franchise under Sid Meier’s name, Sid Meier’s Pirates and Railroad series are still beloved by many. The first game to use Meier’s name as a selling point, 1987’s Sid Meier’s Pirates! sees players take control of a privateer for one of the ruling empires of the 16th, 17th, or 18th centuries, where they can hunt down pirates or become one themselves. Pirates! proved to be an incredibly groundbreaking game, especially for the simulation genre, and it even received a remake of sorts in 2004 that earned a lot of critical praise.

Then there’s Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon, a game that was originally released all the way back in 1990 and began a multi-decade-spanning series of its own. After three numbered sequels, the Railroad Tycoon series took a bit of a break, eventually returning in 2006 with the release of Sid Meier’s Railroads! which was the first game in the series since the original to feature Meier’s direct involvement.

Over the last few decades, Sid Meier has also developed a number of subtle spin-offs from the Civilization series, ones that technically don’t feature the Civ name, but feature similar gameplay mechanics. Sid Meier’s Colonization is the perfect example of this. Releasing just three years after the first Civilization, Colonization plays very similarly to that first entry, but rather than build a nation from scratch players begin the game by working for the Crown. As they continue to build up their own colony’s infrastructure and defenses players can fight for independence.

In 1997, Sid Meier released his first real-time tactical strategy game. Titled Sid Meier’s Gettysburg!, this real-time strategy military sim puts players in the boots of either the Confederate or Union army as they attempt to win the titular Battle of Gettysburg. A sequel titled Sid Meier’s Antietam! released in 1999, once again focusing on the American Civil War.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Sid Meier has always put experimentation at the forefront of his game design, and that’s resulted in some intriguing one-off releases over the years. 2002’s Sid Meier’s SimGolf is a good example of this, pairing EA’s Sims license with Meier’s penchant for simulation and creativity to deliver a surprisingly great golfing sim that lets players build their own courses and play on them.