Funatics Culture Series - Adventure & village building

This game was developed by a German group called Funatics. It was a series of four games based on the Vikings. The people are more Hagar the Horrible comic strip people than resembling real people. The first game in the series takes you to the New World. It did not go over well in the United States. We are not a patient people and the game required a great deal of micro-management. It was a cute game and had things I liked that were lost in later games. You build settlements, meet friends and enemies, marry off your citizens, arrange for them to have children.

The second game of the series, Gates of Asgard, follows the same routine but did require a little less micro-management. Despite this I was never able to persuade reviewers who had tried the first game to give it a second chance. The third game was called Northland. I found it a bit buggy but still enjoyable to play. It had an assistant to help you with the management of your people. The last game in the series, 8th Wonder of the World, was in my opinion more an adventure game than a village builder. It went smoothly and all too quickly.

My main complaints about the game were that the women were barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen when they wern't standing around talking. Which they did a great deal. Viking women had rights, owned property, did things. My other complaint was that the Vikings were vikings because of their ships and ships played little importance in the game. Northland and 8th Wonder had a map and scenario editor. You could make some nice maps although the scenario making was rather limited.

It was a fun game and I got many hours of enjoyment from it.

WOW! thank you for sharing. i too would not be happy about a viking game with not many boats in it. the woman thing is also odd. but the game sounds fun!

It was both fun and frustrating. I made some really good maps that were destroyed when my computer was demolished by that awful virus. I tried getting the original editor but was lacking some important component. I was going to try and get it from the German company but got involved in something else.

i tried to play a game called Pharaoh(sp?) once. oh man i wanted to play it so bad and we ended up getting a 2nd copy and i was able to. i had my huts(houses or whatever) and some hops in my farms.. i was asked to make a bridge across one part of water and for the life of me i could not get it to allow me to place it. i tried for 45 min and never touched the game again. i pick up the game once and a while and yell " darn you!! why cant i place a bridge" at it.

black and white 2.. kinda the same story. i finally beat a map i was working on forever... and i started the next map... FORGETTING that the game is old enough that it does not auto save... my pc crashes i LOSE everything i did!! I have never even tried the game again.

I have a game called Pharoah but I think it is a different game. It has an expansion called Cleopatra which I liked. You get to build some Interesting tombs.

Another one is Children of the Nile by Tilted Mill. One of my favorites. I used Gimp to do a bit of re-texturing with that one. Made the better huts white and some of the Nobles houses a brighter color. Changed the tiles to make them more interesting. Things like that.

You can end up with a really bright and shiney city.

yup that is the one. i think i played just Pharaoh well about 25 min of it until i gave up. i should try it again. i have a few texture changes i made for oblivion, minecraft,sims 2 and a few other games.