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Sid Meier's Civilization II

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
(Redirected from Civilization II)

This page is for the original 1996 and expanded 1998 releases. For the separate 1999 version, see Civilization II: Test of Time.

Sid Meier's Civilization II
Sid Meier's Civilization II cover
Developers
Original MPS Labs
Multiplayer Gold MicroProse
Mac OS (Classic) Varcon Systems
Publishers
1996-1999 MicroProse
1999-2002 Infogrames
Retail re-release Sold Out Software
Chronicles release 2K Games
Mac OS MacSoft
Release dates
Windows 3.x March 15, 1996
Windows 1998
Mac OS (Classic) August 22, 1997
Reception
Metacritic 94
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Turn-based
Perspectives Isometric, Bird's-eye view
Controls Point and select
Genres 4X, TBS
Themes Historical
Series Civilization
Sid Meier's Civilization II on HowLongToBeat
Sid Meier's Civilization II on IGDB
Sid Meier's Civilization II guide on StrategyWiki
Sid Meier's Civilization II on MobyGames
Sid Meier's Civilization II on Wikipedia
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Freeciv (unofficial) 1996
Sid Meier's Civilization II 1996
Civilization II: Test of Time 1999
Sid Meier's Civilization III 2001
Sid Meier's Civilization IV 2005
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Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization 2008
Sid Meier's Civilization V 2010
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth 2014
Sid Meier's Civilization VI 2016

Sid Meier's Civilization II is a singleplayer and multiplayer isometric and bird's-eye view 4X and TBS game in the Civilization series.

The game received two expansion packs: Scenarios: Conflicts in Civilization in November 1996 and Fantastic Worlds in November 1997, both containing a variety of scenarios and settings.

The game was re-released in 1998 as a 32-bit Windows application as Multiplayer Gold Edition in North America and Ultimate Classic Collection in Europe, containing both expansion packs and native multiplayer capabilities. However, this version introduced a bug with AI players being in an uncooperative or worse attitude towards human players at all times.

All versions of the game have considerable issues running on modern systems. The original 1996 version is inherently impossible to run on 64-bit systems without an NTVDM emulator. The 32-bit Multiplayer Gold Edition requires unofficial patches to resolve compatibility issues such as crashes when a text box appears, and game bugs such as the aforementioned AI attitude bug.

General information

Civilization Wiki - A detailed wiki for all Civilization games and their spin offs
Apolyton Civilization Site's Civilization I & II section - A huge forum dedicated to all Civilization games and their spin offs.
Civilization Fanatics' Civilization II section
Civilization Fanatics' Civilization II Forums

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
DRM-free
Disc required only for music and videos in the original release. Otherwise, the game is fully playable without the disc.
Windows 3.x
Retail
DRM details are not known
Mac OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
Multiplayer Gold Edition
Windows

Version differences

The original version is simply called Sid Meier's Civilization II. The expansion packs Fantastic Worlds and Conflicts in Civilization were made for this version.
Civilization II: Multiplayer Gold Edition (also known as the Ultimate Classic Collection in Europe) is the original with all expansions, with a 32-bit executable and multiplayer options. A Summary of Civilization II Versions
The Civilization Chronicles box set includes Multiplayer Gold Edition and Test of Time.

Monetization

Type Notes
Expansion pack Expansion packs include new scenarios.
One-time game purchase The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Scenarios: Conflicts in Civilization Included in the Multiplayer Gold Edition.
Windows 3.x
Fantastic Worlds Included in the Multiplayer Gold Edition.
Windows 3.x

Essential improvements

Patches

Each version of Civilization II has its own patch.

Sid Meier's Civilization II

Civilization II: Multiplayer Gold Edition

Civilization Chronicles

The official patches do not work with the Civilization Chronicles versions of Multiplayer Gold Edition and Test of Time. Use this unofficial patch installer to install those patches.

Unofficial patches

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows
Mac OS (Classic)

Save game data location

System Location
Windows
Mac OS (Classic)

Video

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Uses OS cursor.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio
Red Book CD audio
On Windows, CD music might not play correctly; see the troubleshooting guide for solutions.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Local retail version only.
Traditional Chinese
Local retail version only.
French
German
Hungarian
Fan translation.
Italian
Japanese
Local retail version only.
Korean
Local retail version only.
Polish
Local retail version only.
Brazilian Portuguese
Retail: Byte & Brothers[1] and Infogrames.[2]
Russian
For the Multiplayer Gold Edition – download
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer modes require the Multiplayer Gold Edition.

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
8 Hot seat
LAN play
8 Multiplayer Gold Edition only.
Online play
8 Multiplayer Gold Edition only; the official multiplayer service was shut down.
Asynchronous multiplayer

Issues fixed

CPU runs at 100%

When Civilization II came out, computers had a lot less power than the ones today, so the game was programmed to take as much of the CPU as possible. On modern computers this can cause problems, such as the fans constantly being on full while playing the game. There are a couple of unofficial patches to be installed after the other ones. This patch fixes the issue for the original version and the Multiplayer Gold Edition. Some anti-virus programs may report that these patches are viruses, so you will need to add the .exe or the installation folder as an exception.[3]

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
WinG
[4]
ExecutablePPC16-bit 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
Original release is a 16-bit executable. Multiplayer Gold Edition is 32-bit.
Mac OS (Classic)

System requirements

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 3.1, 95
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM) 8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 10 MB
Video card (GPU) SVGA
Mac OS
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 7.5.3
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM) 8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 10 MB
Video card (GPU) SVGA


References

  1. Byte & Brothers (1999). - last accessed on May 2023
  2. Civilization II (archived) - last accessed on May 2023
  3. Catfish's Cave - FAQ (CPUFix) - last accessed on May 2023
  4. WinG - Wikipedia - last accessed on 2020-03-20