Sid Meier’s Pirates: FAQ

BY Songbird

PUBLISHED:

UPDATED:

Where can I find my Sid Meier's Pirates! save games?

 Saved games are stored in a special folder within the current user's My Documents folder. This folder can be located by navigating to "My Documents", then selecting "My Games", and finally selecting "Sid Meier's Pirates!".

Pirates! saved games have the extension ".pirates_savegame". You may copy or delete these files as you would any other files. Renaming saved games is not recommended, as the game will only recognize specific filenames as valid for loading.

Double-clicking a saved game will launch the game and load that saved game.


When trying to uninstall or reinstall the game, I receive an error message, or it tells me the game is already installed.

  1. Insert the game's install CD in the drive

  2. Double click on my computer

  3. Right click on the CD drive containing the game and choose explore

  4. Check the disc for a setup.exe file and double click on it

  5. This should start the install wizard and prompt you to uninstall the game. 

If you continue to experience issues

  1. Open My Computer then open the Local Disk (C:)

  2. Open the program files folder. 

  3. Click on the tools menu then choose folder options

  4. Click on the view tab and tick the box labelled "show hidden files and folders".  Press OK

  5. Open the installshield installation information folder

  6. Search for a folder named {1632FD86-1BA4-4FC4-8B25-A8C655D63F68}

  7. Right click on the folder and choose rename.  Press the End key on the keyboard and type the word OLD. 

  8. Press the enter key

  9. At this point, refer to the manual for installation instructions

This will replace and overwrite any missing components that were preventing the game from being uninstalled or reinstalled normally


I am encountering performance issues while playing Sid Meier's Pirates!

From the games Main menu select Change your system options then Video settings and set the following:

  • Water detail - Minimum (completely to the left)

  • Object detail - Minimum

  • World detail - Minimum

  • Change video resolution - 800 x 600

  • Enable shadows - Off

  • Enable advanced lighting - Off

  • Enable trilinear filtering - Off

  • Disable Shaders - On

Now try launching the game again.


When playing Sid Meier's Pirates! it crashes to the desktop when I am at sea.

Ensure that your system meets or exceeds all the listed requirements for the game.  This problem most commonly occurs if one of the system requirements is not met, this is particularly important when looking at the video card.  Your video card must have Hardware Transform & Lighting for the game to run correctly, this is available on the GeForce2 / Radeon 7500 and upwards.

If your video card meets the requirements and you are still encountering the problem please ensure you have the latest video card drivers installed from the manufacturers website.