When Microprose greenlit Sid Meier's Pirates! in 1986, the company—founded by Meier and Bill Stealey in 1982—was known for vehicle sims and wargames. Pirates was different, defying genre classification even today. Released in 1987, it was called an "action adventure" but shared nothing with contemporaries like Castlevania or Zelda.

Its sword-fighting used an elaborate eight-direction joystick scheme mimicking Errol Flynn duels, feeling like a mutant fighting game. The 2004 remake simplified it, revealing a strange quasi-rhythm game underneath. Designer Nic Tringali noted Pirates feels "unstuck in genre," with peculiarities like the wind always blowing east and dueling a rival captain instantly winning a sea battle.

Meier worked when genre conventions were unsettled. In his 2020 memoir, he noted few preconceived notions about what a game should be. Pirates models silver mule trains from Potosí to Panama, a pirate's aging sword arm, and a randomized quest to rescue family. It's hewn from pirate tropes as grounding rules of a clockwork world.

This design style appeared in Microprose follow-ups like Covert Action and Sword of the Samurai. Yet the 1982-1990 PC gaming era remains a memory hole; for every Amiga 500 sold, Nintendo sold 23 NESs and 45 Game Boys. By 1993, Pirates competed with Wolfenstein 3D, and the era survives mainly through abandonware sites.