Around December of 2007, I was browsing Big Lots when I found a clearance CD of Sid Meier’s: Civilization 3. I had seen this game in action a year earlier, loving how the game played and never had gotten the chance to own it for myself. For $3, it was a bargain.

About two months later, I found the Gold edition in Target for $20. Nice cardboard box, 3 CD’s, even a manual. This had two expansion packs and even a map editor, something that my original game didn’t have.

That very night buying the Gold edition, a large scenario brewed in my head. Something I really didn’t act upon in writing, but certainly played out in Civ3. A large crossover of various nations on various tech levels, as if they had been mysteriously hurled upon an alien planet. I clearly remember I was in the back of the car with a notebook in my lap in a parking lot in Knoxville, writing down each civilization out of the game manual under a street lamp (these were the days without tablets and smartphones, folks).

This was a big game, all 30 something civilizations that had been included with the game thrown in. I had generated a huge map, creating two giant continents and a smaller set for my main civilization. Each were given various tech levels, up to the level of their special unit and/or standardly recognized race portrait.

Then the main race used the American civ, maxed out with tech and given a bunch of resources on the small islands. This represented their industrialism and ability to put out large amount of goods, having serviced their needs.

Then on another isolated island, I threw in a ton of barbarians. Lots of ships, 30+ barbarian camps and numerous barbarians to kill and to cause problems. I also scattered a lot more throughout the game too.
Oh, and of course there were resources. There were tons and tons of spices, silks, diamonds and who knows what else to trade with everyone else. Everyone (the CPU’s) were having a party.

With that, the game scenario was focused on making “peace” with all the other nations, having good treaties with people and defending the other nations from the barbarians. With the modern armor, fighter jets and marines, this was turning out to be a GATE-type of scenario.

There were lots of fun times. Like the time I had parked three carriers off the coast of the barbarian islands, mercilessly launching airstrikes until peace was restored. Or the time I accidentally left Stealth Bombers at an airbase and barbarians killed them (my brother refuses to let this one die). Even the time there were several volcanoes, shuttling workers to help do damage control and clean up the mess. I even made a “diplomat” unit that could move fast and make roads to connect all the civilizations together.

In 2009 there was a site I had found that people had made custom animations to make your own units. I had never been able to fulfill this part, but I wanted to make a custom Civ. I had amassed custom animations for Stargate ships, a Gundam and new current-generation fighter jets. I plotted on how it could’ve been a Stargate-esque kind of deal, the main nation being a futuristic nation with space-tech and tomorrow-tech civilization with things such as lasers, robotics, etc.

Sadly after transferring computers I lost the files, never allowing me to go to Phase 2 of the mod. They perhaps exist on a backup somewhere, but is not something readily accessible or something I’ve used in the last three years. This also is the reason of the lack of screenshots and pictures of the scenario.

I had only played this entire scenario about 4 or 5 times, eventually getting bored with the setup. However despite my interest having lacked in-game, it still was fueled outside the game. This “massive melting pot” Civ idea is something I shared with my cousin Medhavin and is pending a story one of these days. Here’s to it seeing the light of day now that I’m actually sitting down and writing things down. Sometimes I think I had a bit more freedom in those days then now, however…