Changes
Unlike several other famous Sid Meier games which were strongly influenced by—or one might even say ripped off—existing board games, ''Pirates!'' was a relatively novel concept for its time. Notable earlier computer games that feature some elements seen in ''Pirates!'' include ''[[Westward Ho!|Oregon Trail]]'' (1971), ''Taipan!'' (1982; ported to the CPC by Ocean as ''Tai-Pan'' in 1986), ''Broadsides'' (1983), ''Seven Cities of Gold'' (1984), and ''[[The Wild Bunch]]'' (1985, CPC-only). ''Seven Cities of Gold'' in particular is an influence Meier himself has acknowledged in interviews.
Perhaps the main problem of ''Pirates!'' was that its arcade sequences were a mixed bag: Battles at sea (both ship-to-ship and the captains dueling) were fun, but land battles were rather boring. Also, with land battles, the outcome seemed to be largely predetermined by the numbers on each side, so the exhilarating against-the-odds quality of sea battles—defeating a large, heavily armed galleon with a fast sloop and a much smaller crew—was largely absent with land battles. I.e., if you are go outgunned and outnumbered into in a land battle you will probably lose. The 2004 (and later) versions did not really solve this problem with land battles at all and in fact even added more boring arcade sequences like dancing and sneaking into/out of town.
Still, despite of its flaws, ''Pirates!'' with its groundbreaking, highly polished mix of action-adventure, RPG, and simulation is considered a major gaming classic and the CPC version does not disappoint either, at least in terms of playability (graphics are another matter).
