It took six years for Impressions' first three Caesar games to make their mark on the city-building genre (from 1992-1998), and after another six years, the historic series is being brought back to life by Tilted Mill Entertainment - a studio founded by veterans from Sierra's now defunct Impressions Games studio. Now, as the release of Caesar IV draws near, Sierra saw fit to release the playable demo that they promised last week:

"Hail Caesar! The Conqueror has returned with the world premiere of the Caesar IV demo. The demo includes both a tutorial and scenario level. Download the demo today and build the glory for yourself. Caesar IV will be instore September 2006 complete with over 30 scenarios, over 75 buildings, and online multiplay."

The single-player demo, which tasks you with building a small city in in the "timber rich province of Narbonensis", can be downloaded straight from Sierra's website, or you can find a list of additional mirrors over on Blue's.

On a related note, GameSpy published an interview with Tilted Mill Entertainment. They talk about unique features, the design behind the game, lessons learned from Tilted Mill's previous game Children of the Nile, the citizen simulation part, micromanagement, building cities, available regions, historical events and then some.

While downloading the 446 MB demo, you can check out some new Caesar IV screenshots in our gallery. Caesar IV should be marching to stores at the end of September.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)