The player is free to sail to any part of the above-mentioned lands, stopped by an invisible barrier southeast of Trinidad, all the way north to just northeast of Bermuda.

The player's loyalties may change over the course of the game; they may also hold rank with multiple countries and may turn to piracy at any time.

The game ends when the player retires, at which point they are given a position in their future life, from beggar to King's advisor, based on accumulated wealth, land, rank, marital status, and other accomplishments.

The other choices include 1600, 1620, 1640, and 1660, with the progressive effect of reducing Spanish dominance in favor of the other nations, while increasing seafaring traffic.

The game tests a wide range of skills: hand-eye coordination during the fencing sections, tactical ability during the land and sea combat phases, and strategic thinking, for everything from choosing a wife to deciding when to divide up the plunder.

In the course of the game a player may try to tack in a frigate in order to run down a smaller and faster pinnace, but must be fortunate enough to have the weather gage.

many of the most important factors which affect player decisions are randomized at the beginning of the game and continue to shift during gameplay.

This not only creates a new experience each time the game is played, but also requires the player to remain flexible, and be ready to exploit possibilities when they occur.

The most important random factor in the game lies in the diplomatic relations between the four nations laying claim to the Caribbean.

During peacetime, the player can only benefit from the capture of pirates on the high seas, which is seen as favorable by all nations, but is a rare occurrence.

[2] With five successful years behind him, Microprose considered star designer Sid Meier a selling point and chose to put his name on the box of his next game, despite a shift away from combat simulators he had become known for.

Comments in the source code indicate that Meier originally intended to call it Pirates of the Spanish Main!!.

A version for MS-DOS compatible operating systems was released in 1994 on CD-ROM in Europe, edited by Kixx.

Its puzzles appealed more to female gamers than previous products from MicroProse, a company known for military simulations like F-15 Strike Eagle.

's Gazette in 1987 praised the detailed gameplay with arcade and strategic aspects, stating that "the designers of Pirates!

[19] Computer Gaming World said that although reminiscent of The Seven Cities of Gold or Broadsides, "Pirates will prove to be a design with fresh approaches and much historical depth ... intriguing and addicting".

[20] Matthew J. Costello for Asimov's Science Fiction said that "[Arnold] Hendrick seemed to have helped supply the indefinable quality of fun and purpose that fills Pirates!.

[22] The Australian Commodore and Amiga Review noted excellent manual, educational and historical aspects.

in 1989 that Pirates' use of an unusually strict copy protection was understandable because "the game is so good that even people who drive 55 mph might consider stealing it".

received the tenth-highest number of votes in a survey of Computer Gaming World readers' "All-Time Favorites".

[31] In 2011, Polish web portal Wirtualna Polska ranked it as the fifth most addictive classic game "that stole our childhood".

Gold remake[34] was released for Windows 3.1x, DOS compatible operating systems, Macintosh, and Sega Genesis in 1993.

The MS-DOS version includes VGA graphics, a MIDI score, mouse support, and a copy protection scheme requiring the player to identify the flag of a pirate ship sighted on the horizon.