I was just reminded about this game. I bought it as a budget game when I was in college. I must have spent so much of my life playing this game after getting it. I remember spending days and days on end progressing my civilisation, over and over. I can't remember if you can "win", maybe getting into space, but I never got that far!
There have been countless sequels, the spin off "Call to Power" & sequels and the open source Freeciv game, too!
It's old enough that most people consider it abandonware and you might find it here