OpenCol 0.3.0

OpenCol 0.3.0 brings the 1994 map editor into the game.

OpenCol is Sid Meier's Colonization for DOS (version 3.0, February 1995), decompiled and rebuilt as a modern program that plays exactly like the original. You need your own copy of the DOS game (as sold by GOG and Steam): OpenCol contains nothing of the game.

What's new #

• The map editor, built in. The main menu has a new last item, Open the MAP EDITOR. The original's own editor (MAPEDIT.EXE, rebuilt as OpenCol/mapedit) opens in the game's window; leave it and you are back at the menu. No second program, no second window.
• The editor reads and saves maps in your game's folder, as the original did. Saving AMER2.MP changes the map Start a Game in AMERICA plays on; to keep the original, give your map a new name (Escape on the editor's first screen makes a new map).

Play #

1. Download the zip for your system below and unpack it.
2. Put what it contains into the folder of your copy of the game, the one with VICEROY.EXE (in the GOG version, the COLONIZE folder):
   • Windows: opencol.exe and SDL2.dll (windows-x64 for 64-bit Windows, windows-x86 for 32-bit).
   • macOS: opencol and SDL2.framework.
3. Start opencol.

macOS asks first, because OpenCol is not signed by Apple: right-click opencol and choose Open, or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine . in the folder.

F11 or Alt+Enter switches to full screen; --no-sound plays without sound. On Linux, build from source (see the README).

Still exactly the original #

The 71 recorded scenarios (51,711 checkpoints: the whole game state, every screen, every saved game) are still identical with the original, and 495 functions still match its machine code one by one. The editor's item is OpenCol's only addition to the menus.

Limits of this release #

• Sound Blaster and AdLib sound only, as in 0.2.0: the Roland MT-32 and General MIDI drivers are not supported.
• No changes to the game's rules yet. Fixes and new features come next; open an issue for the ones you want.