Sid Meier's Pirates!

Sid Meier's Pirates!
IBM PC box art
DeveloperMicroProse
Publishers
DesignerSid Meier
ArtistMichael Haire
Composers
Platform
Commodore 64
Release
May 1987
  • C64
    • EU: May 1987
    • NA: June 1987
    CPC
    Apple II
    • NA: January 1988
    Apple IIGS
    • NA: August 1988
    Macintosh
    • NA: December 1988
    IBM PC
    • 1988
    PC-98
    • JP: February 10, 1989
    PC-88
    • JP: July 1989
    Atari ST
    • EU: October 1989
    • NA: November 1989
    Amiga
    • NA: June 1990
    NES
    • NA: October 1991
    • PAL: 1991
GenresAction-adventure, strategy
ModeSingle-player

Sid Meier's Pirates! is a 1987 action-adventure strategy video game developed and published by MicroProse for the Commodore 64. It was designed by Sid Meier, and was the first game to include his name in its title as an effort by MicroProse to attract fans of Meier's earlier games, most of which were combat vehicle simulation games. The game was later ported to several other platforms, including the Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Macintosh, IBM PC, Atari ST, Amiga and Nintendo Entertainment System.

Set in the Caribbean, the game is a simulation of the life of a pirate, a privateer, or a pirate hunter in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The Pirates! playing field includes the Spanish Main (namely the northern coast of South America), Central America and the Yucatán Peninsula, the entire Gulf of Mexico, Florida, and all Caribbean islands, plus Bermuda in the PC version. The player is free to sail to any part of the above-mentioned lands, stopped by an invisible barrier southeast of Trinidad, all the way north to just northeast of Bermuda.

The Pirates! Gold remake, with minor improvements and better graphics, was released in 1993. An enhanced remake, also named Sid Meier's Pirates!, was released in 2004. Versions for mobile devices have also been released.