Pharaoh (1999)

Impressions Games took the refined scheme of their Roman city-building games and transferred it to Ancient Egypt — and it turned out that the Nile changes everything. The city here lives by the flood calendar: once a year the river overflows its banks, covers the floodplain with silt, and makes the fields fertile, but building on this land is not allowed, so the planning is tightly bound to water. The economy is built from chains: clay is transported to the potter, papyrus to the scribes, flax to the weavers, and each warehouse with a trading post must be arranged so that the porters do not run across half the city. Housing grows on its own if the houses receive water, food, a healer, a temple of the right deity, and entertainment — and the gods in Pharaoh are not just decoration: an offended deity brings misfortune to the city, while a pleased one helps. The climax of it all is construction: pyramids and sphinxes are built stone by stone, by a separate crew, over years of in-game time. A classic of the genre that is still being replayed.

Watch the trailer and gameplay on YouTube

Game card in the MegaInet.art catalog — reference information. Files are not distributed. Actual data: Wikidata (CC0).