Q&As with: Michael Haire - Former Art Director at Microprose

Michael Haire worked on classics such as Sid Meier’s Pirates!, Civilization and Alpha Centauri.

Michael Haire got into the games industry as early as 1981, doing cover artwork for a number of games for the 8-bit computer TRS-80. He quickly started making ingame art as well, and started working for legendary games publisher/developer MicroProse in the mid eighties. Here, he worked on a number of games that are now considered classics, including Sid Meier’s Pirates! and Sid Meier’s Civilization. We had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Haire about his experience as an artist in the games industry.

The early days

Sid Meier’s Colonization. Image: Michael Haire

How did you first get into the games industry?

I graduated college with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. I moved back to Chapel Hill, NC, after a short stay in Atlanta, Ga. I was working as a freelance designer when I encountered Mike Denman in the local print shop. His company, Med Systems (later Screenplay) was a small game company startup, creating games for the early home computers. I initially created packaging, documentation, and magazine ads for those early games.

The arrival of the Commodore 64 was the game changer. The enhanced graphics of the C-64 meant that a trained artist could make a difference in game graphics and I moved from packaging to games. The first big game was «Asylum». The player moved through vector hallways and when they entered various rooms they saw character-set screens that I created. I created these screens by filling in squares on custom-made graph paper and the programmers had to enter that data by hand. This motivated my friend Randall Masteller, designer and programmer of the «Warriors of RAS» series, to create «Magic Paint» one of the earliest, if not the first, PC art tools (joystick controlled).

The Screenplay teams incorporated game design, art, programming, and music, pretty uncommon at the time.

How did you end up at MicroProse?

Screenplay was sold to an outside investor who moved the operation to Nevada. I had no interest in moving to Nevada, fortunate since the company imploded within months of the move. Mike Denman, looking for new opportunities, spoke with Bill Stealey, co-founder of MicroProse. Seeing Mike’s work meant he saw my work, too.

«I was lead artist for the original Civilization game and for the sequel/overhaul, Civ II. I had more than twice the art team than on the first game but it was still a scramble to the end. We used 3D representatives (with motion capture) from over two dozen nationalities. I did the design and research for each character, some of which are shown here.» Image: Michael Haire.

I flew to Baltimore where I met Bill and Sid Meier, the creative genius behind most of our most successful games. Bill wanted to create a real studio, with an art department, a music department, multiple game designers and programmers. Sid was initially dubious about adding an artist to the mix but he finally agreed. I worked remotely for a year before making the move to Baltimore.

What was it like working with so many different platforms with varying features and capabilities?

I was not a fan of the early Atari and Apple II platforms. I found the graphics interfaces awkward and unwieldy. The PC platforms were fairly consistent after the advent of the Commodore 64, each iteration becoming more powerful and versatile than the one before.

It was only when we ventured into cartridge games that we had to rethink our approach. In some ways the Nintendo and Sega games were more similar to the old C-64 days.

You mentioned working remotely for a year before moving to Baltimore. Why did you eventually decide to move, and do you feel like you wereable to contribute more after relocating?

As I said, Bill Stealey was really determined to build a complete studio. If Microprose was going to build an art department they needed an on-site art director. I had worked in Baltimore (Hunt Valley) for several weeks at a time and liked the team. It seemed like a good opportunity (it was) and I was only 27, so I decided to make the leap.

Michael did most of the graphics for Sid Meier’s Pirates! on the Commodore 64. The pictures were not image files, but built up using redefined characters. Here is an example, created using CharPad on the PC. Note that the colours are not 100% correct.

The character set is to the right, the image is to the left.

The image as it looks in the actual game.

Working on hits like Civilization

How do you feel you were able to add your personal touch to the graphics in series’ such as Pirates and Civilization?

I did all the art for the original C-64 Pirates except for the map tiles. It was exciting to work on something more illustrative than our military sims but the C-64 came with a lot of restrictions – a palette of 16 so-so colors and character set graphics of only 126 distinct characters. Sid told me the components he wanted and it was up to me to design them.

I enjoyed expanding on my original concepts on the relatively upgraded IBM PC platform. The color palette was still limited but I was able to ditch character sets and work with a somewhat higher screen resolution. The PC graphics were the basis for the Amiga version and I created all new graphics for the Macintosh version. My favorite version artistically is Pirates Gold where I was able to style the graphics after classic illustrators like N.C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle. I was lead artist and producer on that one. Sid always said his favorite version was the original C-64 with its bright colors and simple graphics.

Civilization was a huge leap for Microprose and for the art department. Prior to Civ most of our games were created with only one, maybe two, artists. The broad scope of Civilization meant a much larger art team. There are nine credited artists, including me, on the game. That’s a tiny number by today’s standards but it was a lot for that time. I’d hired many of the artists right out of art school; experienced computer artists were still few and far between, especially on the East Coast. There was a learning curve in getting proficient with the tools and working as part of cohesive team. Sid determined the basic formats: dealing with foreign leaders, the Wonders of the World, castles as markers of progress, etc., and we created the graphics. The kings and queens were all done by me and the remaining art was done under my direction.

When we did Civilization II years later, we had a more powerful platform, sixteen (!) artists, and we had a roadmap to follow from the original game. Our unofficial sequel, Alpha Centauri, put a science fiction spin to things which was really exciting.

Michael did the graphics for the leaders in Sid Meier’s Civilization (these are sprite sheets from Civilization AGA):

How was working with Sid Meier like? And Bill Stealey?

Working on Sid’s games was a highlight of my gaming career. He’s obviously brilliant at what he does but also fun to work with and with a wry sense of humor. He wasn’t immediately convinced that adding an artist was such a great idea but (I think) I eventually convinced him. It was really exciting to branch out from our military sims to topics that lent themselves to more illustrative possibilities: Pirates, Samurai, and especially Civilization. The PC’s graphic capabilities kept expanding and improving which allowed us to add more detail to the games. I enjoyed doing the research into the historical characters and topics in the games. Sid had very definite ideas for his games but he rarely micromanaged the details of the art. He was always adamant that the graphics had to serve the game.

«For the CIV 2 screenshots I designed the backgrounds and logos and I did all the research and character designs for the «heralds». The in-game 3D characters were created by Barb Bents, Murray Taylor, and Frank Vivirito. The rulers’ portraits were created by Jerome Atherholt.» Image: Michael Haire.

Bill Stealey was really different from Sid. Very boisterous and outgoing, a salesman to the core. It was Bill’s drive, and Sid’s talent, that made Microprose happen. He was determined to build a studio and for many years the talent he and Sid assembled was as good or better than any other gaming studio.

After MicroProse, you moved to Firaxis and worked on Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. Can you tell us about that?

Microprose financial troubles in the mid 90s led to it being acquired by Robert Maxwell’s group, having previously acquired Spectrum Holobyte, a longtime rival in military simulations. It was not a very happy partnership. SH was very dismissive of the «CIV 2» project, being much more excited about the licenses they bought for Top Gun and Star Trek. This echoed Microprose management’s lack of enthusiasm for the first «Civilization» game.

When Sid left Microprose to form his own company I was asked to join Firaxis. «Gettysburg» was Sid’s first scheduled release. Research for»Gettysburg» was particularly interesting since the actual battlefield was a short drive away and we had access to a great deal of historical reference materials.

In the meantime, Brian Reynolds and a small support team were developing «Alpha Centauri». We had the familiar structure of previous CIV games but not the foundation of existing history to work with. It was challenging and exciting to create new protagonists/antagonists for AC’s futuristic world. I did initial work on the different factions, creating the character designs and the faction logos along with many ancillary graphics and icons. We were a small team with a limited timeline but I was proud of the final product.

Thank you so much Michael for taking the time to answer our questions.

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