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Is this a replica? Sid Meier's Pirates! game in ebay

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First post, by NightShadowPT

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Hi,

I recently purchased a copy of Sid Meier's Pirates! on ebay and there is something that has been eating at my brain... the floppy that the game comes in is an HD floppy.

The problem is that the game came out in 1987, the same year high density floppies did.
At this time, HD floppies where significantly more expensive (and rare) than their double density counterparts and there was no good reason to ship a game with these, unless the game was big enough (and Pirates! isn't)

Logically, it makes little sense the game was ever shipped on a HD floppy disk, but maybe it's a later release?

Any thoughts?

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NightShadowPT
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Reply 2 of 10, by BloodyCactus

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I dont recall anyone doing commercial releases on HD 1.44mb disks in 1986/1987.. but that disk might be from the Kixx re-release (I know they did a cdrom release but probably also a 3.5" disk release as well).

you can see the original edition release disk is a 720kb on the right!

71O1MvTMPIL._SL1018_.jpg

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Reply 3 of 10, by konc

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There is absolutely no way that the 1987 release was on a HD disk. I don't know and can't tell if this is an original disk from some other release, but it's not from 1987.
What's the formatted capacity? If it's 1.44 computers listed as compatible wouldn't even be able to read it. Also did you buy just the disk or the whole box? If so pictures of the rest would help.

Reply 4 of 10, by cyclone3d

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I wonder if that came in a bundle with Pirates! Gold.

Looking on eBay, there was a Triple Pack that came with Pirates! On an HD disk. The label is not exactly the same though.

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Reply 5 of 10, by NightShadowPT

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The item came with the box.

Here are a couple of pictures from the Ebay listing if it helps.

The back mentions some accolades, so this may be a later release...

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  • Pirates3.png
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    Pirates3.png
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    824 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

NightShadowPT
----------------
Compaq Deskpro M 486/66 - 64MB Ram - Compaq QVision 1MB - Orpheus II Sound
Card - 4GB SCSI HDD + 4GB CF Card - SCSI CD-ROM Plextor PX-32TSi - Adaptec WideSCSI AHA-2740W - 3COM Etherlink III Card

Reply 7 of 10, by NightShadowPT

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konc wrote on 2023-07-19, 06:33:

...and that's why posting good photos is important and can get answers 😉

🤣... I must go and get my eyesight checked... I looked for the year in the box pictures, and couldn't find it 😀

Mystery solved... having an HD floppy in 1993 is not that weird.
Nonetheless, it is interesting that most photos of this game online have either a 5 1/4 inch disk or a 3 1/2 Inch DD disk.

Cheers,

NightShadowPT
----------------
Compaq Deskpro M 486/66 - 64MB Ram - Compaq QVision 1MB - Orpheus II Sound
Card - 4GB SCSI HDD + 4GB CF Card - SCSI CD-ROM Plextor PX-32TSi - Adaptec WideSCSI AHA-2740W - 3COM Etherlink III Card

Reply 8 of 10, by Sombrero

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NightShadowPT wrote on 2023-07-19, 06:56:

Mystery solved... having an HD floppy in 1993 is not that weird.
Nonetheless, it is interesting that most photos of this game online have either a 5 1/4 inch disk or a 3 1/2 Inch DD disk.

Not too surprising, yours is an oddly late release. Pirates Gold was released the same year. The version you have might not be all that common.

Reply 9 of 10, by ldeveraux

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Sombrero wrote on 2023-07-19, 07:09:
NightShadowPT wrote on 2023-07-19, 06:56:

Mystery solved... having an HD floppy in 1993 is not that weird.
Nonetheless, it is interesting that most photos of this game online have either a 5 1/4 inch disk or a 3 1/2 Inch DD disk.

Not too surprising, yours is an oddly late release. Pirates Gold was released the same year. The version you have might not be all that common.

Strange that I couldn't find this release on Mobygames though...

Reply 10 of 10, by konc

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ldeveraux wrote on 2023-07-19, 12:42:

Strange that I couldn't find this release on Mobygames though...

Not really, mobygames still has a lot of things missing and some errors too. I don't complain, it may not be perfect but it's the best reference I know.

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