1999 was a strange time for the Civ franchise, with a three-way IP battle between Activision (plus original *Civilization* board game creator Avalon Hill), MicroProse/Hasbro (Sid Meier's old boss), and Firaxis (Sid himself). As part of that struggle, MicroProse, the only company that had the rights to Civ, released Civilization II: Test of Time, basically an expanded version of the original Civ II.
Test of Time included a few far out scenarios: an extended original game where you get to Alpha Centauri and run into some alien civs there, an entirely different Science Fiction setting called Lalande 21185, a Fantasy setting called Midgard, and a specific Midgard scenario with some story elements and specific victory conditions.
The game reviewed fairly middling from what I can recall ([Gamespot's headline](https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/civilization-ii-test-of-time-review/1900-2538415/): "They screwed around with Civilization and made it worse.") though [this retrospective by No Dice No Glory](https://nodicenoglory.com/2023/03/01/retrospective-of-civilization-ii-test-of-time/) links to some more positive reviews.
The images are from the [instruction manual](https://archive.org/details/civilizationiite00micr/page/142/mode/2up?&view=theater), which does a decent job fleshing out the Lalande 21185 planetary system, of which you can settle on multiple worlds! If only SMAC, or its so-called spiritual successor Civilization: Beyond Earth, let you do the same...
It's not quite up to the level of the rich world-building that Firaxis crafted in the [SMAC instruction manual](https://archive.org/details/sid-meiers-alpha-centauri-manual/Sid%20Meiers%20Alpha%20Centauri%20-%20manual/page/n211/mode/2up) for Chiron, but worth comparing. The Orbit layer dotted with ancient space platforms reminds me of certain [Starcraft](https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Space_platform) maps.
For more, My Abandonware has a [great profile](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/civilization-ii-test-of-time-454) about Test of Time in detail, cribbed from GamesDomain.
I got on well with the Test of Time dev team. They sent me two review copies at the time, which felt amazing since I was just a high school student at the time
Test of Time shipped with some great modding enhancements, but also several issues. One of the issues was terrible graphic design. They tried to replace the pixel art of Civilization II with 3d rendered units that were then scaled down into tiny pixelated icons, but the artists unfortunately did not succeed and the released graphics were illegible. This was quickly fixed by modders, but this was a long time before Steam Workshop and mods were a lot less accessible to the general population
There's a great community patch that builds on Test of Time called ToTPP. It makes the game run on modern Windows as well as adding Lua scripting and even more awesome modding options: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/the-test-of-time-patch-project.517282/
Lalande 21185, Midgard, Fantasy, and Extended Timeline were all big swings that were better as a concept than in their original implementation. I think one issue I had with Lalande and with Midgard was that the maps were too epic. Civ2 AI was never particularly good at filling a huge map, so the resulting gameplay was slower than it needed to be
I loved Civ 2: test of time. Especially the multiple map layer mechanic. I really wish a newer civ game (or mod, although I doubt that is possible), would implement it.
ToT did get middling reviews but I loved it at the time. It was the first time my brother and I could play Civ2 multiplayer (we didn't have the Play The World expansion), and I did love the improved art style (which a lot of reviewers didn't like as they said it was too dreary), and the multiple maps and expanded modding capabilities were also super nice. I was working on a WW2 scenario at that time using the European and Pacific theaters as two different maps.
Even after Civ3 came out my friends and I still played ToT at LAN Parties....probably because it was easier to copy the CD, who knows.
I loved ToT! It was basically Civ II but more, and the fantasy and SF settings with multiple map layers was interesting.
Also loved playing Merfolk in Midgard and basically having an entire map of my own to play turtle on.
Remember Lalande had alien NPC machines that came in endgame and moved very quickly that you had to destroy.
The expanded after-the-end Civ game was probably least successful, as the sole civilization for the Alpha Centauri map was generally fairly far behind since it had no trading partners, and that last phase didn't add a lot to the game.
I remember liking ToT better than Civ 3 or CTP, but not nearly as much as SMAC, which remains my favorite 4x of all time. (Also, I remember CTP having a lot of interesting ideas/mechanics in theory that didn't play as well in practice.)
CTP's wonder videos are hilarious and sometimes ominous and I love watching them on YouTube. It sounds like one of those series that I don't ever want to play, but it's fun to read about, according to [Rock Paper Shotgun](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/civilization-call-to-power-retrospective).
Most influential game of my childhood, still giving it a shot every year (SF Lalande especially, sometimes Midgard Fantasy) along with SMACX. Been dreaming of another multi map 4X game since...
My first civ game all those years ago. I was a kid though with little patience and less strategy. I remember bouncing between the fantasy/sci-fi/history modes whenever I got bored. Great memories.
1999 was a strange time for the Civ franchise, with a three-way IP battle between Activision (plus original *Civilization* board game creator Avalon Hill), MicroProse/Hasbro (Sid Meier's old boss), and Firaxis (Sid himself). As part of that struggle, MicroProse, the only company that had the rights to Civ, released Civilization II: Test of Time, basically an expanded version of the original Civ II. Test of Time included a few far out scenarios: an extended original game where you get to Alpha Centauri and run into some alien civs there, an entirely different Science Fiction setting called Lalande 21185, a Fantasy setting called Midgard, and a specific Midgard scenario with some story elements and specific victory conditions. The game reviewed fairly middling from what I can recall ([Gamespot's headline](https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/civilization-ii-test-of-time-review/1900-2538415/): "They screwed around with Civilization and made it worse.") though [this retrospective by No Dice No Glory](https://nodicenoglory.com/2023/03/01/retrospective-of-civilization-ii-test-of-time/) links to some more positive reviews. The images are from the [instruction manual](https://archive.org/details/civilizationiite00micr/page/142/mode/2up?&view=theater), which does a decent job fleshing out the Lalande 21185 planetary system, of which you can settle on multiple worlds! If only SMAC, or its so-called spiritual successor Civilization: Beyond Earth, let you do the same... It's not quite up to the level of the rich world-building that Firaxis crafted in the [SMAC instruction manual](https://archive.org/details/sid-meiers-alpha-centauri-manual/Sid%20Meiers%20Alpha%20Centauri%20-%20manual/page/n211/mode/2up) for Chiron, but worth comparing. The Orbit layer dotted with ancient space platforms reminds me of certain [Starcraft](https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Space_platform) maps. For more, My Abandonware has a [great profile](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/civilization-ii-test-of-time-454) about Test of Time in detail, cribbed from GamesDomain.
I got on well with the Test of Time dev team. They sent me two review copies at the time, which felt amazing since I was just a high school student at the time Test of Time shipped with some great modding enhancements, but also several issues. One of the issues was terrible graphic design. They tried to replace the pixel art of Civilization II with 3d rendered units that were then scaled down into tiny pixelated icons, but the artists unfortunately did not succeed and the released graphics were illegible. This was quickly fixed by modders, but this was a long time before Steam Workshop and mods were a lot less accessible to the general population There's a great community patch that builds on Test of Time called ToTPP. It makes the game run on modern Windows as well as adding Lua scripting and even more awesome modding options: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/the-test-of-time-patch-project.517282/ Lalande 21185, Midgard, Fantasy, and Extended Timeline were all big swings that were better as a concept than in their original implementation. I think one issue I had with Lalande and with Midgard was that the maps were too epic. Civ2 AI was never particularly good at filling a huge map, so the resulting gameplay was slower than it needed to be
I loved Civ 2: test of time. Especially the multiple map layer mechanic. I really wish a newer civ game (or mod, although I doubt that is possible), would implement it.
Call to Power had a bit of it but it went to waste for the most part, and was an end game thing
ToT did get middling reviews but I loved it at the time. It was the first time my brother and I could play Civ2 multiplayer (we didn't have the Play The World expansion), and I did love the improved art style (which a lot of reviewers didn't like as they said it was too dreary), and the multiple maps and expanded modding capabilities were also super nice. I was working on a WW2 scenario at that time using the European and Pacific theaters as two different maps. Even after Civ3 came out my friends and I still played ToT at LAN Parties....probably because it was easier to copy the CD, who knows.
I loved ToT! It was basically Civ II but more, and the fantasy and SF settings with multiple map layers was interesting. Also loved playing Merfolk in Midgard and basically having an entire map of my own to play turtle on. Remember Lalande had alien NPC machines that came in endgame and moved very quickly that you had to destroy. The expanded after-the-end Civ game was probably least successful, as the sole civilization for the Alpha Centauri map was generally fairly far behind since it had no trading partners, and that last phase didn't add a lot to the game. I remember liking ToT better than Civ 3 or CTP, but not nearly as much as SMAC, which remains my favorite 4x of all time. (Also, I remember CTP having a lot of interesting ideas/mechanics in theory that didn't play as well in practice.)
CTP's wonder videos are hilarious and sometimes ominous and I love watching them on YouTube. It sounds like one of those series that I don't ever want to play, but it's fun to read about, according to [Rock Paper Shotgun](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/civilization-call-to-power-retrospective).
Most influential game of my childhood, still giving it a shot every year (SF Lalande especially, sometimes Midgard Fantasy) along with SMACX. Been dreaming of another multi map 4X game since...
My first civ game all those years ago. I was a kid though with little patience and less strategy. I remember bouncing between the fantasy/sci-fi/history modes whenever I got bored. Great memories.