I Wish That More Game Companies Would Do Compilations

From Gamespot via the Civ Fanatics Forum comes the welcome news that 2K is releasing Windows XP versions of all four of the Microprose/Infocom/Atari/2K Civilization games (excluding the Activision Call to Power titles and the Civ IV:Warlords expansion) in a package along with a host of goodies, like DVDs and a Civilization card game. This is the prototypical Good Thing (although, I'm forced to point out, that both Sid Meier's Colonization and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri should by rights be in this compilation pack too...but I'll stop looking the gift horse in the mouth now). In a similar vein, EA recently released an XP/Vista compatible Command and Conquer compilation. I love when game companies do this, and I wish more game companies would release modern updates of their classic games. It shows they have a sense of and respect for history and that they're not afraid that the older games will be better than their big-budget but often inferior sequels. Off the top of my head, here's a quick list of other classic game series that really should be ported to Windows XP/Vista and released in compilations:

Wing Commander: Yeah, this one is obvious. Wing Commander can make a pretty good case for being the Best PC Game Ever, and the first four games are outright masterpieces in their own right. There was a Windows 95 port of Wing Commanders I, II, and III called The Kilrathi Saga, but it didn't sell well, and copies on eBay are prohibitively expensive. Origin kludged together a Win95 version of Wing IV, but I it didn't work very well. EA shortsightedly canceled further Wing Commander games, and the movie was a complete turkey, so this one might be a tough sell. But, there are lots of us with very, very fond memories of the Wing Commander of Ye Olde Tymes. If EA printed a Windows XP/Vista port of the six good Wing Commander games and their expansion packs, I guarantee you that it would sell really well--there's a lot of pent up demand out there for a sequel. The Wing Commander games are all masterpieces (well, maybe not the last one, but it's still pretty good). I can't imagine that it would take too many people to update the codebase, so the profit margin on this should be respectable.

Harpoon I and II: Well, with the on-again, off-again Harpoon 4 in a state of limbo, this would be the next best thing to a modern sequel. The first game is still one of the finest strategy games every produced and remains fun to play, if you're willing to fight with DosBOX. The expansion packs for the first game were hard to pick up at the time; there was something called the "Commander's Pack" which had the first two expansions but the last two were fairly hard to find. I never found the fourth one in a retail store near where I lived. Just a XP/Vista port of first game with all of the expansion packs would make a great compilation.

The Microprose Military Sims: This one is another no-brainer. Beginning with Sid Meier's classic F-15 Strike Eagle, Microprose produced a long and so far unequalled string of incredibly good military simulations, each one a classic: F-15 Strike Eagle, Silent Service, F-19 Stealth Fighter, M-1 Tank Platoon, Red Storm Rising, F-15 Strike Eagle II, Silent Service II, Knights of the Sky, F-117 Stealth Fighter 2.0, 1942: Pacific Air War, B-17 Flying Fortress, Gunship 2000, F-15 Strike Eagle III, F-14 Fleet Defender, and M-1 Tank Platoon II [I'm not including Falcon 4.0 on the list because an update apparently is, in fact, on the way.] Microprose is no more, but if I recall correctly Firaxis actively acquired the rights to most of these titles last year, so at least some hope exists. These games are truly great examples of fun, playable, yet accurate combat simulations, a type of game which is sorely missed at the moment (Jane's USAF was the last good example of a game of this type, and that needs a Windows XP update, too, now that I'm thinking of it...).

The Dune Games: This one is another no-brainer. Dune and Dune II were groundbreaking games; Dune 2000 and Emperor were also both pretty fun. A compilation would make another great XP/Vista port, especially with the recent resurgence of Dune popularity (two new miniseries, new books). Dune 2000 runs very well on XP, but none of the rest of them do. An XP/Vista port of the original Dune, especially, would be a great thing.

SimCities: Again, this one has been done, but I imagine we might see something like this in the run-up to Spore. An XP/Vista friendly compilation of all of the SimCity games, plus their expansion packs, would be both handy and fun.

Star Fleet: I'm not sure who owns the rights to these games, but Star Fleet I, Star Fleet II, and the space ground-war sequel Star Legions were all great strategy games in the 1980s from Interstel. Probably will never happen, but I'll put them on this list anyway.

LucasArts Sims and Adventures: Between the Larry Holland series of flight simulators (e.g., Battlehawks and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe) and the classic LucasArts SCUMM adventures (Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, the timeless masterpiece of The Dig) LucasArts has released some great games over the years. It would be great to see a big Windows XP/Vista-friendly reissue of the LucasArts Archives compilation of some of the more notable ones, like X-Wing, SWoTL, and Fate of Atlantis.

There's a few others that would rightfully be on this list, but enterprising fans have taken the initiative: Tierra Games has been updating the classic Sierra Adventures and letting folks download them for free (good for them!) and Toys for Bob has let the fan community port the timeless Star Control II to Windows XP as The Ur-Quan Masters. Here's hoping that the EA C & C compilation and the Firaxis Civilization Chronicles sell well enough to begat more releases of this sort.

Be sure to also check out Juliraptor's quick review of Civilization IV here; BNGPossum's comprehensive three-part review of Civilization IV ( here, here, and here); our report of a 3-day Civ IV multiplayer match; Juliraptor's discussion of how to mod Civ IV; and BNGPossum's discussion of other games he'd like to see remade.

Image credit: Firaxis via Gamespot.

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