[nindalf]

For those not in the know, computer controlled Civs would be assigned behaviour attributes based on historical personality. Each attribute would be 1-10, stored in an 8 bit integer.

These attributes change in response to events in the game. When a civilization would reach the modern era, it's aggression attribute would be reduced by 2. Gandhi's aggression was reduced from 1 to 255 (underflow). He would rain down nukes on everything in sight, somewhat uncharacteristic of him.

Fans liked this so much that Firaxis maintained the same behaviour in later games.

[paavohtl]

It's a cool story, but I don't think there is evidence that it actually happened (in Civ 1, certainly in later games as a homage to this potentially urban legend). The YouTube channel People Make Games did an investigation[1] about this a year ago, including interviews with the original developers.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur3SdgkW8W4

[nindalf]

TIL that I am fake news.