If it wasn't for his wife getting a Fullbright teaching scholarship, Civilization 2 -- or Civilization 2000, as it was called internally -- may never have seen the light of day. But that's what happened to Brian Reynolds, lead designer on the iconic game, who relocated from the United States to London to support his partner.

It's strange watching the games of your childhood given a fresh coat of paint and reimagined into something new. Sometimes they turn out as good (or better) and other times... well, let's not talk about them here. XCOM is a series that landed in the former category, but what was it about the franchise that made it good reboot material? Perhaps a history lesson will help.

When people hail the pioneering classics of the RTS genre, they go through a list of usual suspects. Games like Cytron Masters, Dune II, Command & Conquer, Sega's Herzog Zwei...but there's one I don't think ever gets enough due, and that's Spectrum Holobyte's Fields of Glory.

It's always nice when old games are re-released, and it's even better when those old games are made available for free. But due to new publisher arrangements, Dragonsphere won't be available for free any more. So get it while you can.

Video: Sid Meier's name is on the box, but Civilization was actually the brainchild of two designers. Bruce Shelley is the other, and here are both men giving a good talk on the history of the series.

It's been too long, old friend, too long. An extended edition of the fantastic (and weirdly forgotten) strategy classic is on its way to Steam.

My first experience with the X-COM franchise was Terror from the Deep, but once I'd finished it I went on to tackle UFO Defense and X-COM: Apocalypse. All brilliant games in their own way, they forever shaped my gaming tastes. So you can imagine how sick I felt when series creator Julian Gollop revealed the very first game dodged two giant bullets on its way to becoming a finished product.

No one was sure that XCOM: Enemy Unknown would please fans of the original X-Com. The remake's lead designer Jake Solomon counts himself amongst the devotees of Microprose's sci-fi strategy game and even he wasn't certain the team at Firaxis could recapture the appeal of the original.

I never saw this on a shelf as kid. I know this, because if I had, I'd have bought it.

I don't tend to truly miss many video game studios. Businesses come and go, their developers move on, make new stuff, the world keeps spinning.

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Due out this spring, H.A.W.X. 2 looks like a perfect fit for fans of aerial combat. The question is, are there still enough of those fans around to support a big series like this?

MicroProse co-founder J.W. 'Wild Bill' Stealey is part of the team of industry veterans behind Thriller New Media, a new company dedicated to creating online multiplayer games in the military/spy genre.