Pharaoh makes me giddy

[Afterburner]

Seriously.

I started the City Builders with C2, but never really got very far into it. It was much more my wife's game. I can remember sitting in our old apartment, playing my own computer in the living room, while from the bedroom I heard constant cries of "PLEBES ARE NEEDED!"

Since she liked C2 so much, I bought her C3 for her birthday the year it came out. She liked it, and so did I. She just did the City Construction Kit, but I did the career missions.

Naturally, after C3, I picked up Pharaoh. And...

Well, I dunno. There's something ineffable about Pharaoh. I can't explain it or put my finger on what it is, but Pharaoh is evocative to me in a way that none of the other City Builder games are.

I'll play C3, Zeus, or Emperor for a bit, and then put them aside for a while. I eventually return to them, because they're fun games. But when I return (sometimes after a year or two since the last time I played), it's not anything special. They're fun, and I enjoy them, and I'm glad to have resumed playing them, but that's all. (And, granted, that's pretty good.)

When I come back to Pharaoh after a lengthy break, however, it's special. I become suffused with joy the minute I start that first mission and hear the music and see the stylized faux-Egyptian font and so forth. I can only think of a couple of other games that have affected me that way.

And it's not like I was some Egypt-ophile prior to playing the game. Most of my knowledge of Ancient Egypt comes from the game of Pharaoh.

Just wanted to throw those kudos out there to the folks who were involved. :D

[Niempie]

I have the same, Afterburner.
Right now I'm playing Emperor, just fun to do.
But when I play Pharaoh every minute I have I want to play the game some more. I stopped playing Pharaoh and began with Emperor because I don't have so much time to play right now (My baby daughter asks for a lot of time and I have to get used to this..) But when I do have extra time on my hands I will play Pharaoh again (and again and again..) :D

[Ammurit]

Pharaoh introduced me to the city-building genre. The moment I heard "Welcome to Ancient Egypt!", I knew I was in for something great. I suck at Pharaoh, and I probably always will, but it's a great game. When I first started playing, I hadn't taken the time to learn the rules, so I would lay my cities out in blocks, like a real city, and then wonder like a fool why houses weren't evolving. :) But I had fun anyway. The scenery is great, the buildings are great, the Nile and its hippos and crocodiles are great, the music is great, and looking back nearly three years to my introduction to the game I'm glad I chose Pharaoh over the other game that I was torn between...whatever it was called... ;)

[Ineti]

Heh. I share the sentiments. My wife (fiancee at the time) saw me playing Pharaoh one day and sat down next to me to watch. After about half an hour, she asked if she could have a go with it, and I turned it over. Three hours later, she was still at it. :D

Then we had to pull out the kitchen timer so we'd each be able to get time in on our dynasties. We've split it pretty evenly since then.

Not sure what we'll do once COTN comes out. Maybe we'll have to get two copies so she can run it on her laptop while I use the tower...

[Nefermenu]

Count me in. Pharaoh has always been THE game for me. All the beautiful colours, very beautiful graphics, absolutely great music. The game engine is good, I mean the mechanics, lots of little things to do but you can also just admire your beautiful city.

I too can't explain it any better but it just has that "something". Thank you so much to all that have been involved in making it. Good job, well done. :)

[Uatch-Khepheru]

Yeah, Pharaoh was the first CB game I ever played as well. After that, I tried Caeser, it was okay but I don't think I will be returning to it anytime soon, or ever, that is if I can get it out from behind my tv stand (don't ask how it got there...just don't). I kept returning to Pharaoh, even though I sucked at it. Its been over 2 years I think, and I still haven't beat it, yet I still return to it. The reason for that is simple, the atmosphere. Everything, from the art to the animations, the cutscenes, and especially, the music. One of these days, when I am nothing but a glorified porch honkey whose seen his pathetic offspring leave their home sometime in their late twenties, I will beat the game. At first my life's goal was to be "successful", now its simply "beat Pharaoh".

[Cironir]

I concur. :) Pharaoh is the best of the "series", in my opinion. I also quite liked the Caesar trilogy (the first being my favourite for completely sentimental reasons), and Zeus, but Pharaoh has the special "something". Like you, I can't really put the finger on what exactly it was/is that made the game stand out. Perhaps just the theme, but I don't think that's it -- it's just one of those rare, magical games that "grab" you and never let you go. I believe my love for Pharaoh is the reason why I'm looking forward to CotN so much. :)

[Atihotep]

Speaking of the Caesar trilogy, I recall that on the Impressions website you could download Caesar I free. Now that Impressions is no more and its website is down, is there any way to get the game (without paying) or is the offer gone forever?

[Pecunia]

Speaking of the Caesar trilogy, I recall that on the Impressions website you could download Caesar I free. Now that Impressions is no more and its website is down, is there any way to get the game (without paying) or is the offer gone forever?
Quite some abandonware sites still have the game for download. This site (http://www.bhlegend.com/php/show.php3?game=38) also has the manual, and I'm sure you will need that!
Be aware that the game may not run under winXP or win2k, and that it might be unplayable because computers are way faster than they were back in 1993.

[Azeem]

Indeed. "Pharaoh" had its unique 'magic.' It grabs your attention and whisks you away into some other place and some other time (though the labor walker becomes an annoyance every now and then :D ).

[Cironir]

Just spent three hours playing Pharaoh, trying to figure out what makes it different from Zeus. Had lots of fun, but didn't obtain any new insights. ;) In several ways, Zeus is more advanced, even "prettier", but Pharaoh just seems to be more accessible. Maybe it's just because I've played it longer, I don't know. Or perhaps the balance is just right, not too much of anything, not too little of something else. It could merely be the setting that appeals more to me. While Iäm quite fascinated by Greek mythology, it's not quite as interesting and mysterious as the Egyptian culture. The ancient Greeks, perhaps, were just closer to us, which makes their history a little less attractive. In any way, Pharaoh was "my" game in more than one way -- one of those "blue moon" games that you fall in love with and always remember fondly. Kind of like the first woman. ;) CotN promises to become a game like this, too, perhaps even more so (I really like the idea of virtual individuals, each with separate needs and wants -- I waited for a game like this for a long time).

[Eddy]

For me, the difference is the attitude. In Pharaoh, it was serious with a light touch of humor here and there. Zeus went over the top and to me it is cartoonish. The levity broke the immersion for me and I just couldn't get into it. I am a person who gets immersed in a game and for the time I am playing, I truly am Pharaoh Eddy-Ra. My people are important to me and I wish to provide for them. In Zeus I felt like a spectator watching a three stooges episode.

[NeilV]

Like a lot of people i started with Pharaoh after a long term playing sim games (CITY and tower etc. not The sims) i just never got on with Zeus there was something about the game i did not like my partner was the same. We then got Emperor and it was much beter i moved on to other games sim city 4 and some of the giant games but after joining this site i decided to install parahaoh again ..... and now its monday where did the weekend go and im only half way throught (not counting the add on) i forgot how right thay did it with this game that there is a lot of game play unlike othe types of game that you finish in 8 hours

[Bugsy]

Yeah, Pharaoh was the first CB game I ever played as well. After that, I tried Caeser, it was okay but I don't think I will be returning to it anytime soon, or ever, that is if I can get it out from behind my tv stand (don't ask how it got there...just don't). I kept returning to Pharaoh, even though I sucked at it. Its been over 2 years I think, and I still haven't beat it, yet I still return to it. The reason for that is simple, the atmosphere. Everything, from the art to the animations, the cutscenes, and especially, the music. One of these days, when I am nothing but a glorified porch honkey whose seen his pathetic offspring leave their home sometime in their late twenties, I will beat the game. At first my life's goal was to be "successful", now its simply "beat Pharaoh".
LOL!! I did beat it, and then was disappointed it was over! When I bought Pharaoh, it came with Cleopatra. So I started on it. WOW!! It wasn't "just an exapansion" of the same old game. There were new industries, the tombs, you can WATCH them paint the heiroglyphs on the wall!! That to me was just awesome! I love both dearly.

My first CB game was Sim City, many moons ago LOL I was in awe when I played the first Caesar, it was so different from the Sim City type of games, which I wasn't too impressed with. So I had to buy the new ones too! I just recently got Poseidon, the expansion for Zeus.

I had finished most of the scenarios in Zeus, what I didn't like about it was that it wasn't really a career like in Caesar and Pharoah. That was the only part. I loved building colonies and returning to the main city. I wish we could also have returned to our colonies later to build them up more, that would have been nice! Poseidon is just like Cleopatra in that it changed quite a bit about the game. Instead of culture, you have the Sciences! You also get a whole new set of scenery! I really enjoyed so far how you get new pieces of scenery at different levels of acheivement in the game!

I really cannot wait for this latest, the entire line these developers have made has wowed me, so I know this one should knock my socks off! ;)

[Cironir]

In Pharaoh, it was serious with a light touch of humor here and there. Zeus went over the top and to me it is cartoonish. The levity broke the immersion for me and I just couldn't get into it.

That's it! :) In Pharaoh, the "mimesis" of the game was really "there", and Zeus was just weighened down with clichees, which made it "feel" much more like a game than Pharaoh. It's probably just a matter of preference, though. Zeus introduced a number of interesting features (going back to your main city, elite housing without the "start with a hut" tedium), but yes, it didn't have the same level of immersion as Pharaoh.

[tobing]

Well, I have played all of the City Building Games quite extensively. Some time ago somebody at www.staedtebauen.de brought up the idea to do some programming ourselves, because we are all loving city building but the old path of 2D seems to be abandoned... So actually I have started thinking about some of the basic concepts of the games, and what I like or dislike and also what other liked and what they liked not.

To me it seems that there are 2 types of players: Some who want an immersive simulation, and some who want just a game and fun and all that not too complicated.

So for the Builders (the first type) Pharaoh/Cleopatra and Caesar 3 are the most challenging and vivid games, with greatest immersion. Especially Pharaoh has the touch, being accessible but really deep in its gameplay. The labour walkers and only one type of housing which has to evolve have an important part in that, and also the fact that distribution of goods is closely mixed with living. And living is mixed with production, at least if you play without these little huts aside from the living area.

The second type of players needs some simpler game mechanics, and the agoras, as well as the distinction of two different types of housing, make things simpler. On the other side, the introduction of Gods and Monsters added some element of adventure, also the possibility to have earthquakes, floods and similar to add adventure and randomness to the game.

I have been thinking about housing for the programming idea, and found that the game design has to decide between the two ways, and that's a question about what the central element of the game should be: economics and military tactics, or adventure and economics to survie the adventure. Well, maybe this is not the best wording for what I mean to say, but maybe you get the idea.

As for CotN I'm really curious about this question: What will the central point be? Building? People? Monuments? Military?

[Eddy]

I'm not bashing Zeus, because I think as the series went on, each made improvements to the way the cities were made.

Caesar III was pretty spiffy, but Pharaoh fixed the market lady problem that was so vexing. Cleopatra added lots of industry and improved the gameplay I felt. Zeus made several improvements. One I really loved was that you didn't have to have the industrial slums to draw your rating down. I hated having to have a dumpy little hut when the rest of my housing was gleaming in the desert sun. The removal of the annoying little 1x1 huts was a welcome addition. They caused no end of trouble when it came to supplying them with goods beyond food. Having the elite housing was a major improvement. I hated having to either deny my people the lovely jewelry they craved or to artificially stymie demand for higher class housing by creative statue placement. Finally, the addition of the monuments for achievements added a sense of thrill, especially when it was because of your planning. I didn't really play Emperor much as a demo, but I loved the addition of different wall types. I may have mentioned before that I am into aesthetics and I like having a pretty city as opposed to a big sprawling one.

You know (Hey Tilted Mill!), I would pay money for a reissue of the older games with all of the new improvements. I won't pretend to know the difficulties this would present, but seeing Caesar and Pharaoh with the new improvements would be a good deal.

[Azeem]

You know (Hey Tilted Mill!), I would pay money for a reissue of the older games with all of the new improvements. I won't pretend to know the difficulties this would present, but seeing Caesar and Pharaoh with the new improvements would be a good deal.

I've been thinking the same thing myself. :)

Lucas Arts did that with the classic "TIE Fighter" games. It was quite old, but they released a Windows 95 version with completely new graphics and soundtrack. :)

[tobing]

That's right - I think I would also pay for the old games being refreshed with new graphics and so. Great idea, btw and maybe in some sense CotN is a refresh of old Pharaoh?

About the games series I would not say that the changes were always improvements, they are changes that shifted the games' focus to something different. As for Zeus the city building was simplified by 2x2 housing and separate elite housing, so the focus of the game could move to incorporate more adventure, which is slighty more a 'game' - I think Pharaoh is more of the simulation type. Would Pharaoh be a little bit more complicated, I suspect playing Pharaoh would be more work than fun :D.

One thing I missed in Zeus is variations of the buildings. All housing looks nice, but all to similar. As well as the statues, the rewards and even the temples, they all look the same (essentially). So I prefer the vivid look of a Pharaoh-city instead of the slighty boring look of a Zeus-City. And this applies to Emperor, as housing is all the same there, just the style changed to be more detailed and just nice to look at. But all heavenly compounds look identical... (side remark: this is one of the great strengths on Anno1503, they have lots of different graphics for their houses, with lots of detail...). Well, the monuments in Emperor are great.

I'm not trying to provide a ranking between the games, that does not make sense, as individual players have different preferences about what they like about a game. I just want to understand what the difference between the games really is, and what features make the difference and what features don't.

[Ken Parker]

As for CotN I'm really curious about this question: What will the central point be? Building? People? Monuments? Military?The emphasis is definitely on people, within the context of those other elements.

[tobing]

Ah, People. The thinking-bubbles I have seen on the recent screenshots remind me on Tropico, this is also about people in the context of building, somehow. Is there more similarity with Tropico? Of course Tropico is 2D, but I'm only wondering about the game mechanics.

Oh, I should say that I liked Tropico a lot, because it's a deep game and it's fun to replay with different political and personal settings...

[Cironir]

The "thinking bubbles" became popular with The Sims, I believe. I've also seen them in Gost Master and, to a lesser degree, in Sacred, as well as in a number of other games. It's a transparent, intuitive concept. I like it. :)

[EmperorJay]

I do hope thought that those thinking bubbles will only be visible when you have selected a certain person. I'd go nuts if I'd see a street full of those little icons.

[tobing]

Or it would be like in Tropico, where you see all the more important thoughts in little bubbles, say half of the people thinking important things like sleep, eat, buy or such, all the bubbles being tiny small at the usual zoom level, they grow larger when you zoom in. For me these bubbles were not much help, the overall statistics are more important. A single person which is not content does not matter at all, but when it comes to a significant percentage of persons which want to eat and can't find food, this indicates a problem.

But anyway, I hope they provide a switch to turn the bubbles off, for those who respect the privacy of the citizens ;)

[Keith]

Ah, People. The thinking-bubbles I have seen on the recent screenshots remind me on Tropico, this is also about people in the context of building, somehow. Is there more similarity with Tropico? Of course Tropico is 2D, but I'm only wondering about the game mechanics.

Oh, I should say that I liked Tropico a lot, because it's a deep game and it's fun to replay with different political and personal settings...
Rollercoaster Tycoon has this sort of function too. BUt all the thinking bubbles are listed on a menu and don't appear on the screen over the character.

Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis (excellent game by the way) has thinking bubbles that appear over the heads of the park visitors when you depress the spacebar, even the dinosaurs have them! :cool: