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Genesis Pirates Gold! Help!?

Posted: August 7th, 2018, 9:10 am
by matmico399
I remember having Sid Meier's Pirates back in my late teens on my Commodore 64. It was probably my favorite game on that old computer back in the day. Mainly because every adventure was new and never repeated, and the sky was the limit. Great memories.

A few years back I acquired a copy a Pirates Gold! on the Genesis. I tinkered around with it a bit but put off seriously playing it as I was in the middle of a slew of other games at that time. Well I recently fired it up again and wow what great memories. But I have a question. This game seems off the charts hard. No matter what I do I end up old and retired long before I am closing to completing most of my objectives. Can some people out there please give me some help on how to win at this? Is there a best era to be in, a certain nationality, a certain skill. Any advice would be helpful. I want to keep enjoying playing this but I am continually getting frustrated. Thanks!

Re: Genesis Pirates Gold! Help!?

Posted: August 7th, 2018, 10:04 am
by scotland
Its been years, but I enjoyed this game.

The only advice I have is that I used Gamefaqs to help. For instance, a guide there recommends 1660 or 1680 to play. There are also game genie codes for English Buccaneer to bump your initial working capital, cannons and crew size, so I would try 1660 as an English Buccaneer. There is other advice there as well, such as always accept a mission from a Governor, etc

Re: Genesis Pirates Gold! Help!?

Posted: August 11th, 2018, 11:38 am
by Breaker
Boy, I could talk for hours about this game. I'll try to keep this brief to get you started...

First, choose a time period of 1620 - 1660. Earlier than that, there aren't many towns to attack or land at; later than that there are very few wars making promotions hard to come by

Second, be any nationality but Spanish. Basically every other country will be at war with Spain at some point during the game. Plus, about 75% of the towns will be Spanish, so you have lots of targets to attack. And two career goals are to capture the Treasure Fleet and the Silver Train, and its FAR easier to capture them when they are in a Spanish town than luck into them on the open seas.

Third, pick a skill. Any skill. Navigation and gunnery are probably less useful, but have value. Medicine is usually my choice, as it helps you win duels later in your career when you are older.

Now, on to gameplay... your first order of business is to visit a town of your nationality and visit the governor. Pay attention to which countries you are at war with (usually Spain) and what countries you are allied with. Stop in the tavern and sign up sailors. Then visit towns of the other two nationalities (not Spain) and talk to their governors. Buy any Letters of Marque they offer, and again pay attention to whom they are at war with and allied with.

With any luck, a combination of the Dutch, French & English wil be at war with Spain. This means you attack every Spanish town and vessel you come across. Then regularly stop at towns of the other nationalities and talk to their governors. Having bought the LoM at the beginning will allow you to gain promotions from multiple countries.

Each promotion helps you: 1) find family members, which help you find Incan treasures (one for each family member, if you can figure out the maps); 2) gain land which increases your overall wealth (and score at the end of the game); and 3) improve your chances at marrying the "best" woman (because, of course, the beauty of the woman you marry increases your score at the end of the game).

Always accept missions, and remember to complete them before returning to the governor that assigned you the mission. These help your promotions as well. Save often, particularly before signing up a big crew of sailors... this can upset your existing crew, causing them to desert (and take much of your gold with them).

I probably have many more specific bits of advice, but this will get you going. Happy plundering!

Re: Genesis Pirates Gold! Help!?

Posted: August 12th, 2018, 8:22 am
by Luigi & Peach
Breaker wrote:Boy, I could talk for hours about this game. I'll try to keep this brief to get you started...

First, choose a time period of 1620 - 1660. Earlier than that, there aren't many towns to attack or land at; later than that there are very few wars making promotions hard to come by

Second, be any nationality but Spanish. Basically every other country will be at war with Spain at some point during the game. Plus, about 75% of the towns will be Spanish, so you have lots of targets to attack. And two career goals are to capture the Treasure Fleet and the Silver Train, and its FAR easier to capture them when they are in a Spanish town than luck into them on the open seas.

Third, pick a skill. Any skill. Navigation and gunnery are probably less useful, but have value. Medicine is usually my choice, as it helps you win duels later in your career when you are older.

Now, on to gameplay... your first order of business is to visit a town of your nationality and visit the governor. Pay attention to which countries you are at war with (usually Spain) and what countries you are allied with. Stop in the tavern and sign up sailors. Then visit towns of the other two nationalities (not Spain) and talk to their governors. Buy any Letters of Marque they offer, and again pay attention to whom they are at war with and allied with.

With any luck, a combination of the Dutch, French & English wil be at war with Spain. This means you attack every Spanish town and vessel you come across. Then regularly stop at towns of the other nationalities and talk to their governors. Having bought the LoM at the beginning will allow you to gain promotions from multiple countries.

Each promotion helps you: 1) find family members, which help you find Incan treasures (one for each family member, if you can figure out the maps); 2) gain land which increases your overall wealth (and score at the end of the game); and 3) improve your chances at marrying the "best" woman (because, of course, the beauty of the woman you marry increases your score at the end of the game).

Always accept missions, and remember to complete them before returning to the governor that assigned you the mission. These help your promotions as well. Save often, particularly before signing up a big crew of sailors... this can upset your existing crew, causing them to desert (and take much of your gold with them).

I probably have many more specific bits of advice, but this will get you going. Happy plundering!


We had this game on our home PC in the 90's and I had the same problem as the original poster. I would have loved this advice at the time! :)

Re: Genesis Pirates Gold! Help!?

Posted: March 10th, 2020, 2:31 pm
by Breaker
My buddy and I were talking about this game yesterday, and he stated that he wondered how our top scores compared with others. I thought of this website's forums immediately, though I had forgotten about this specific topic.

We swapped screen shots of our high scores (the top scores on both our cartridges are "joint" scores - games that we played while together and would take turns). I have attempted to attach pictures previously and failed...and I have once again proven my father's technological deficiencies as he ages are indeed hereditary.

Anyway, our top scores across our two cartridges are:
147
144
136
135
134
131
129
128
126
125

I love how the games scores "out of 100," so it will show scores as 147/100. We have been curious how the scores are actually tallied - we *think* each of the 10 quests are worth 10 points each, and then you can get additional points for doing better than the minimum. For instance, getting married is worth 10, but there are 4 "levels" of potential mates, so maybe an extra point for each step up? Or, you get a title of nobility at Baron, but you can still be promoted to Count, Marquis, or Duke after that. And you can get promoted (including titles of nobility) from more than one country.

Anyway, I would love to hear what the high scores are on anyone else's cartridges!

Re: Genesis Pirates Gold! Help!?

Posted: March 10th, 2020, 8:37 pm
by VideoGameCritic
These scores don't surprise me. After all, athletes give 110% ALL THE TIME!

Re: Genesis Pirates Gold! Help!?

Posted: March 11th, 2020, 12:19 am
by Alucard1191
I have very little to add to this, except that I absolutely loved this game growing up and once I figure out how to add things to my Genesis Mini without hurting it in anyway, (someone linked something called project lunar awhile back?) this is high on the list. I played this on the NES and the Genesis, much preferring the genesis version. I was honestly never very good at it. Never beat it, the game is really hard. But so much fun you just keep coming back. Man... I miss this game.

Re: Genesis Pirates Gold! Help!?

Posted: March 11th, 2020, 8:22 am
by MSR1701
Always wanted to play this...

The Genesis did have a fair selection of computer ports (PC, Amiga, etc.), many of which were very good (Starflight). Safe guess this is one of those?

Re: Genesis Pirates Gold! Help!?

Posted: March 11th, 2020, 11:09 am
by Breaker
MSR1701 wrote:The Genesis did have a fair selection of computer ports (PC, Amiga, etc.), many of which were very good (Starflight). Safe guess this is one of those?


Hard yes.

Re: Genesis Pirates Gold! Help!?

Posted: March 11th, 2020, 11:12 am
by MSR1701
Breaker wrote:
MSR1701 wrote:The Genesis did have a fair selection of computer ports (PC, Amiga, etc.), many of which were very good (Starflight). Safe guess this is one of those?


Hard yes.

Excellent; will have to look into this one... :-D