Sid Meier's Colonization

This is definitely worth your time, however be prepared to work around the problem with combat, which is severe enough that it can ruin in minutes a well-played game that you spent many hours putting together. The combat problem is that the actual odds in combat bear no resemblance to the odds given by the game. You'll commonly encounter astronomically-improbable battle outcomes, and mostly these will be quite bad for you. At times, the game seems to decide that certain units will not be defeated, and anything you send against them will fail, no matter how many units you have at your command. My experience is that this can be worked around to some degree by choosing different attack squares or changing to a different attack then changing back (things that may give you a new roll of the random number generator), but probably you'll need to resort to save-scumming when this happens. Five stars as a simulation, minus one for a crippling problem with a key game element.

I recently discovered Colonization, and found it to be a really good game that does not feel aged. Of course the graphics are simple, but they could just as well be from a modern retro-style game.

I got tired of that depressing image, of the native kids waving at the cannons rolling in to kill them. And the game's more interesting without it. On medium difficulty, it's not easy to find free territory but it is possible. (This part actually reminds me of Machiavelli: The Prince, where the initial fun is simply scooting around the map, lighting it up.) It's more challenging to develop resource chains without driving out the natives, and at revolution-time, you can shut down all your temporary, raw-material cities and force the King to conquer one or two superforts. Plays faster, too.

Excellent game and super nice GOG release that can be played on all new systems. I test it on both Windows 7 and 10 and I love it!

...nostalgia plays indeed a major role. This game was so great despite its obvious limits. Let me say that the biggest flaw is the scarce AI of the opponents (three that sonn will be two after an ingame event). If you are an experimented player you will find yourself toying with the AI opponents. That said, the game is great for a gentle, nice playing experience, not as time consuming as the Civ games. I have been playing this game almost since it came out and it still gives me good times. A lot of exploring, many Indian tribes, trade, lot of buildings, founding fathers that will provide bonus or traits, military units (mounted or not) that can be promoted like this: petty criminal-indentured servant-free colonist-veteran, missionaries intriguing with indians or just doing gods work and a king taxing you more and more, ultimately pushing the player into the ultimate goal: independence. And that is not as easy as toyng with your fellow europeans. Also, a rating sistem of your performance rather interesting considering the time: score plus something your name is given to, might be a serpent, a continent,... The sistem goes if I recall correctly from my younger days until 200% score: getting there IS a challenge. I dare you.