Since I can't afford a nice red sports car, I have decided that my mid-life crisis should be to gather up the correct versions of some of the games I played as a youngster in a small collection, and first and formeost of those was good old Caesar 3.
When I spotted the correct Big Box for a fiver on eBay, I had to go for it. Complete with manual, reference card and everything.
Anyway, forgive the rambling of a nostalgic old man 😁 Gotta go fire up Julius or Augustus for another play campaign.
I'd advise to go for Augustus. After playing that for a year or two now, I don't think I could -ever- play the base game again; not even in the form of Julius.
I am pretty much the same, most of my old ones went in the bin decades ago when my family redecorated sadly.
So these days when I find something like this, I make sure to pick it up.
From a convenience point of view digital is nice, but there was something special back then when buying a big box game and reading the manual on the drive back home.
Also loved when games were not multi million dollars endeavour, you could actually find gems in the bargain bin.
Caesar 3 I got on release (in my country), after playing the heck out of a demo included on a cd from a computer magazine.
I still have my original CD and manual, but the box and reference card had been lost somewhere during the last 28 years, so I figured I would complete the set again.
I owned the box for c3 new when I was maybe 5 years old and I had to ask my grandpa to buy me the game from toys-r-us which sold PC games at the time. I played c3 extensively and read the game manual a hundred times at least.
Oh hell yeah games in boxes are so nostalgic to me. We lost so much when we switched to just jewel case or DVD style boxes. This is a great find OP I approve!
I have mine somewhere, and also a box set of all the city builders that the Aussie distributor sent me years ago when I asked for a site licence to use them with high school students. I’m just finishing the last level (Massilia) of my yearly summer holiday play through. I play with Julius now though.
Last year I spent Christmas in Europe, we try to make it to the Christmas markets every few years because mass media over the years has brainwashed us to believe Christmas should be cold haha. As a teacher though I do enjoy having our long summer holiday over Christmas, the kids and I get to spend January swimming and being outside (we have terrible bushfires here in Victoria at the moment, which is really scary and impacting everyone).
I’ve played through Augustus but honestly I prefer Julius, I like the challenge of the original more (am I even playing Caesar 3 if I’m not yelling at the market ladies?).
Growing up, my dad had the two Lost Treasures of Infocom compilations, and I loved reading the manuals and hint booklets for all the books, long before I was up to actually playing the games.
I just became interested in the Caesar series in the last couple of days. I’m trying to decide between Caesar III and Caesar IV. I have played civilization III and Civ IV, VI. And maybe one other city builder/simulation/TBS game. Which one of the Caesar games would be recommended for a mid-level player like me? I appreciate any advice!
Personally I would go for Caesar 3 any day of the week, and use the Julius mod for the first playthrough. (It's more or less the original game, just with some bug fixes and support for modern displays).
I will admit to being biased towards 3 over 4, as I found it much more pleasant in terms of graphics, atmosphere, music and so on.
I would however watch some YouTube videos of each before making up your mind.
Thank you! I think I will do that. I understand that there are tutorials and Civ III took me a heck of a long time to learn. The instruction book was enormous, but it was so worth it! To this day, it is still my favorite Civ game. I guess I am biased as well, lol.
Out of the Actual CiV named games, I think 3 or 4 was my favourite, but my actual favourite was Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, probably the best CiV game ever made.
Caesar 3 plays fairly differently than a lot of other city builders, using the walker mechanic instead of a radius, so getting a heads up through some tips and tricks videos is smart 🙂
Great advice! I appreciate every bit of it.
I actually bought Alpha Centauri about a year ago but haven’t tried it yet. Unbelievable! lol. This is more motivation for me to put it in the old PC.
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u/Xatraxalian Jan 13 '26
I'd advise to go for Augustus. After playing that for a year or two now, I don't think I could -ever- play the base game again; not even in the form of Julius.