I remember my first games of Civ1 and Civ3, not really of Civ2...
Civ1 : Got the game on our Atari 1040 STE for Christmas '93, and was impressed by the scope of the game (build a civilization, etc...). Can't remember how I had heard of it, maybe my father told me about it. So I started a game, and there was this settler thingie on the screen, and lots of black fog. Guess what, I must clear this fog !! So I moved it endlessly around the map, perfectly knowing that there was surely something better to do, but hey, I'll try to figure that out in a future game... On some turn an AI didn't like it and killed my unit, GAME OVER.
Civ2 : Got the game for my birthday in April '97, I'd say (though I find it a bit late today
). I remember a few months before someone telling me about the game being out and I wasn't aware of it ! I surely played as the French, as usual, but I can't remember the game, maybe that other small continent with many wheat plains and no river ?
I had purchased a box with Civ2 + the 2 XP packs (historical and fictional scenarios).
Civ3 : The game I played most, without any doubt. This time, I closely followed its creation on the Internet. I remember answering to that Civ Trivia thingie on the official website. But because of the lack of a decent computer, I had to wait for more than a year before getting both Civ3 and PTW for Christmas '02. That was a bit after I got me my 1st very own PC. I played as the French, and of course I irrigated most grasslands... That was on Chieftain with Vanilla only. I didn't finish it, and started one on Warlord, and same thing, I didn't finish it (boredom and time). Then I started on Regent with my PC this time and with PTW, and I registered at CFC, etc... A few months later I reached Deity and eventually beat it (after crying at CFC that it was too hard !
), and I started to lurk CDZ from time to time (summer '03). I had to wait for a DSL connection at home (January '04) before really entering the PBEM arena and registering at CDZ.
Civ4 : Don't know when/if I'll buy it. See, I still have the guts to say "if" !
What first game ? Probably an SP game with the French as Louis XIV on a middle level (like Regent in Civ3 : no bonus to the AIs nor to the human player).