Pharaoh

I had gotten this game a few years ago as a present. I lost it and came back to it. It is awesome. It came in perfect condition and it's very good for strategy.

I purchased this game because it is one of the favorites of a friend of mine and I thought I would try it out. This game works flawlessly in Windows 7 Professional and I love it! I believe this to be one of the best purchases that I have ever made online!

I love this game and have been trying to find it for years after my old CD shattered in the drive. I was very happy with the purchase. It came with both Pharaoh and the Cleopatra expansion. It shipped fast and works on my computer!

Love it! Best city building game out there

I've owned and played this game for a number of years, and it still holds up. This is the best of the "city builder" games I've played. I loved Ceasar III, but it was plagued with some annoying bugs. Pharoah has solved those bugs. There are still some issues remaining, but this is the best even pushing 10 years later.The graphics are only 2D and compared to the new games, it is lacking.. but it still is visually appealing and lovely to see.I can verify that this works at least up to Win 7 64bit.. I haven't tried it on Win 8.This game is a "nit picker" .. or perhaps more correctly a game requiring a lot of micro-management. This leads to both the charm and addiction of the game. If you want to sit down, play a 30 min-1 hr game and be done, this isn't it :)The game requires the establishment of a "city environment" involving laying out the city "foundations", establishing the taxes, wages, providing military protection, food, finances, health, water supply, etc.. in other words all those things which will attract and hold your population at an appropriate level of happiness.If you live in a rough and ready town on the military frontier, you may be near "forced labor". In a religious and cultural center you may have scribes and palaces with a population of "elites" served by the labor of a large population of workers and farmers.At the same time you must hold the respect of your countrymen, the fear and conquest of foreign and domestic enemies with their eye on your land and goods. This is done by your military accomplishments, your charitable contributions to countrymen, tributes to the crown, etc.To the game's credit they do provide both "military" and "cultural" paths to completing your ascension to Pharoah. This allows you to be a GREAT GENERAL (military) or a RENOWNED CITY BUILDER (mostly peaceful) and still achive the game's goals.You must carefully manage trade too.. it is KEY to the financial success of every city. You have a number of choices of goods, production, and trade partners, so choose carefully.. :)And you must please the gods.. They can be demanding and vengeful or friendly and beneficent depending on how you manage their attitudes.On top of all that, you often must construct "wonders" of various sorts.. Preparing the materials, sacrifices, and labor to build pyramids, monuments, temples, etc according to the "success criteria" provided by the scenerio you are doing.. There are a LOT of them to allow for extended play. You can also adjust play difficulty over 5 levels and you can add the Cleopatra expansion to give even more options. (I recommend the GOLD editoin as it cost-effectively gives you both ..  PHARAOH GOLD - (PHARAOH+CLEOPATRA, 2CDS) )The major shortcoming of the game (which was carried through the Sierra linage) is the mechanics of accumulation, distribution, trading, and collection of goods. This can be rather "artificial" and tedious.. but if you accept the concept, you can be philosophical about it and simply accept it as just another challenge all players must solve.The implementation of the STOREHOUSES are the key to this.. you have to learn this as the key to game enjoyment.. it isn't well explained in the instructions, so I suggest a bit of research before you start serious play. It is the weakest part of the game, but its workable enough to allow a TON OF FUN!There are several excellent websites (free) that can help out in many ways and provides a TON of helpful information on all aspects of the game. This gives you a resouce if you feel you've come up against a "dead-end" This is good as the game hasn't been supported by the publisher for many years.As another reported, one can find that you have achieved the goals of the scenerio, but haven't got the "wonder" built. The solution to this is the analysis and early planning for labor and material accumulation to coordinate your objestives.. A lot of pleasure can be had, after you see what's required to get everything done, by going back over a scenerio and trying to beat your old performance.. this is easily done via the "replay scenerio" menu on the game.The game also allows you to establish several "families", each establishing the linage of a player, to play through the scenerios. This allows several players to play the same game without "stepping on the toes" of other players. Each player can even have different levels of difficulty, etc.This game is old and past it's support period, but there are some "enthusiast" support sites located by search (free) which are of great help. This item should be readily available through "clearance" or "junk trays" at retailers or via mail. It should be available in the under $15 price range shipped free. Though its far from perfect, I heartily recommend it if you can find it at reasonable prices... BUY IT, ENJOY IT!

A combination of Caesar III, Sid Miers Civilizations and Maxis' Sim City games from the late nineties, Pharaoh takes a lot of what made those games best sellers and combines it into a pretty entertaining, if at this point dated, game. Back in the 90s, "God" style games in which you care for and manage a teeming world of buildings and their denizens were having their hay-day.While Maxis continued to churn out the Sim City franchise, and Civilizations and it's many spin offs have become legend, most games are not either FPS (First Person Shooters) or RTS (Real Time Strategy). The 90s produced some exceptional top-down city management games, and Pharaoh is a good example. Unfortunately, just like the Egyptian empire that you play in the game, poised at its height of glory, this style of game has fallen largely to the wayside. That's unfortunate.A city management game at heart, Pharaoh gives you much more control over what you build and where you build it than Sim City games. You choose which buildings you want, and where they will be built, allowing you to create a city to your exact design.War making does come into play, but it is secondary to city building. Many of the missions will require you to create an army and lead them to victory, but this feels largely anticlimactic compared to the fast paced city management that requires 80 percent of your time.This game is quite complex, entertaining, and truly a classic of the genre. If you're considering buying it, there are other options like Caeser III, but I think this is a superior game. If you like strategy games from the 90s, this ones definitely for you.

And I've been doing it ever since. My dad bought me this in the spring of 2000. To cut to the chase, this game is about building cities in ancient Egypt. In my opinion, the fun in playing games is about doing things that you can't do in real life, and city-building in ancient Egypt is a good example of one of those things. You will start by building some humble cottages and maybe even a well for your people. You will have to provide food, water, entertainment, health care etc., and as you do so, your city will evolve. If you need more money, you can build a tax collectors office. You decide how much tax the people are going to pay. Low tax will make you poor but popular (at least for a while), and high tax will make you richer but less popular. But then again, money is needed to make the city better. As your city gets bigger and better, you might even consider building the ultimate construction in the game: The Pyramid(!) If you're not interested in history now, I almost guarantee you will be after playing this game. I can't think of a game that has given me more hours of fun than this. Oh wait, the other games in Sierra's City Building series actually have: "Caesar", "Caesar II", "Caesar III", "Caesar IV", "Master of Olympus - Zeus", "Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom" are all made with this same great city-building-recipe as Pharaoh. All highly recommended (including expansions). The other games I listed are set in Rome (Roman Empire), Greece and China respectively.