<i>Call to Power</i> was the result of some fairly convoluted boardroom-slash-courtroom warfare conducted between 1995 and 1998.<p>In the mid-&#x27;90s, legendary boardgame publisher Avalon Hill noticed that MicroProse was doing well with computer games named <i>Civilization</i>, remembered that they had published a <i>board</i> game way back in 1980 with the same name (see <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Civilization_%28board_game%29" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Civilization_%28board_game%29</a>, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;boardgamegeek.com&#x2F;boardgame&#x2F;71&#x2F;civilization" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;boardgamegeek.com&#x2F;boardgame&#x2F;71&#x2F;civilization</a>), and observed that their board game and MicroProse&#x27;s computer games were, at least thematically, similar.<p>Based on that similarity, AH argued that MicroProse&#x27;s <i>Civilization</i> games had ripped off their IP. MicroProse and Sid Meier disputed this, with Meier saying he&#x27;d never played the board game before designing his <i>Civ</i>, but AH stuck to its guns. Since they&#x27;d published the board game, they argued, and since (they asserted) MicroProse&#x27;s computer game was just a derivative work based on it, all rights to the <i>Civilization</i> name <i>for both board and computer games</i> belonged rightfully to them.<p>They then licensed the name to Activision to use in developing its <i>own</i> computer <i>Civilization</i> games, to compete directly against MicroProse&#x27;s in the marketplace. MicroProse responded to this by buying the company owned by the original <i>designer</i> of the board game, Francis Tresham (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Francis_Tresham_%28game_designer%29" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Francis_Tresham_%28game_design...</a>), arguing that if the board game gave anyone claim on the <i>Civilization</i> name it was Tresham, not his publisher AH, and that in acquiring Tresham&#x27;s company they&#x27;d also acquired not just any computer-game rights the board game would confer, but the rights to <i>the board game itself</i> too.<p>AH was in pretty desperate financial straits by this time, so in 1998 they caved and paid MicroProse $411,000 to settle the dispute, yielding to them all rights to the name and stopping publication of the board game. (See <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;home.earthlink.net&#x2F;~pdr4455&#x2F;fah.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;home.earthlink.net&#x2F;~pdr4455&#x2F;fah.html</a>) MicroProse then gave Activision a limited license to the <i>Civilization</i> name so they could publish their work-in-progress game as <i>Civilization: Call to Power.</i><p><i>Call to Power</i> came out to mediocre-at-best reviews and sank like a stone, ending Activision&#x27;s dream of taking over the franchise. But MicroProse&#x27;s victory was short-lived, because their own financial situation by this time wasn&#x27;t great either; just a couple of months after the Avalon Hill settlement the company was sold to Hasbro, at which point it was more or less dismantled and became just another zombie brand.