About the game
From one settler in 4000 BC to a spaceship: found cities, research technologies, fight or make peace, and watch the map fill in over thousands of turns.
The game that made "one more turn" a thing.
Controls
- Arrows / numpad — move units
- Enter — end turn
- Mouse — menus
- F1…F12 — reports
The version in short
- Year: 1991
- Genre: Turn-based strategy
- Size: 1.6 MB, loaded once
- Controls: mouse, or your finger on a phone
How this runs
The game runs through a DOS emulator inside your browser: the emulator, the files and your saves all stay on your device and nothing reaches our server. The emulator, the licensing and what to do about a black screen are explained on the retro games section page.
FAQ
Is this the actual 1991 release?
Yes, these are the original Sid Meier's Civilization files, not a remake or a port. The emulator runs them the way they ran on a machine of that time.
How big is it and what loads?
The game archive is 1.6 MB plus about two megabytes of emulator. It loads once — after that the browser keeps the files cached and the next launch is instant.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. The game uses a mouse, so on a phone your finger is the cursor: drag to move it, tap to click.
Are my saves kept?
They are, but only in this browser on this device — they are written inside the emulator. A different browser or a cleared cache means starting over.
