I'm currently having a problem with this game, namely that I'm stuck in "tutorial mode". Every time I start a new game, I am only given the opportunity to choose my name; I can't select a skill, difficulty level, or starting date. I've started about half a dozen new games, and I'm stuck like this every time. I 'm starting to think that this is a bug/glitch. Can anyone show my a way to finally end this, even if it means I have to manually edit files?

Anybody?

Sounds strange. My only idea is to play a game and retire entirely, with the biography screen. Then try starting a new game. Maybe divvy the plunder and move to the next highest difficulty first. Some way of kicking it out of thinking you're only just playing for the first time. Those are my guesses.

press enter when you wrote your name and then choose all that other stuff.Or just choose the right bottom little sword and press it with your mouse and then you can select all those options.
You are talking about sid meier's pirates from 2004 right?

Yes, I am talking about the 2004 version. The problem isn't that other options are greyed out, its that they are not even displayed.

OK, I finally seem to have fixed the problem. I reinstalled the game, finished the tutorial, and now the game works normally. The only thing I have found regarding this glitch is that it seems that altering certain configuration files might throw the game back into tutorial mode, but I'm not completely sure of this.

BTW, just so everyone is clear, I'm the same person as zazu49. When I first signed up for GOG I wasn't old enough to have my own account, so zazu49 was technically my parents. I made this current account when I was old enough to register myself.