OpenCol 0.4.0

OpenCol 0.4.0: more of the map on a larger screen, and Settings in the game's menus.

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, with the 1994 map editor built in. You need your own copy of the DOS game (as sold by GOG and Steam): OpenCol contains nothing of the game.

Play #

1. Download the zip for your system below and unpack it.
2. Put the program into the folder of your copy of the game, the one with VICEROY.EXE (in the GOG version, the COLONIZE folder):
   • Windows 10 or later: opencol.exe (windows-x64; windows-x86 is the 32-bit one).
   • macOS 11 or later, Apple silicon and Intel: opencol.
3. Start it there. The game saves its games in that folder, as the original does.

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.

What's new #

Settings, in the main menu and in the GAME menu while you play:

• Display, Screen Size: how much of the map you see. The original's 320 x 200 shows 15 x 12 squares; 640 x 400 shows 35 x 24, 800 x 600 shows 45 x 37, and 1280 x 800 the map's whole width, or choose Fill the window. The menu bar and the sidebar fill the screen, and the sidebar lists more of a stack.
• Display, UI Scale: how big it all is on your screen, 1x to 6x. A larger Screen Size keeps everything the same size and shows more map; a larger UI Scale makes everything bigger. Full screen keeps the size you chose.
• Display, Screens: the colony, Europe, the reports and the Colonopedia open in a window over the map, which stays visible around them, dimmed; or on their own.
• Display, Pixels: square, or as tall as a 1994 monitor showed them (4:3).
• Game Options, Colony Report Options, Sound Options: the original's, moved here from the GAME menu. In the main menu they set the options every new game starts with.

OpenCol starts at 320 x 200 and 2x, and remembers your choices in OPENCOL.CFG, beside your saved games. On the command line: --resolution 800x600, --fit, --scale 3, --aspect 4:3.

The rules stay the original's at every size. The tests replay 52 computer-only games, the War of Independence and the scripted sessions with the larger map, and with its size changed every turn, and every turn and every saved game is identical to the original's.

Fixed since 0.3.1 #

• On a larger screen, a full-screen picture (a woodcut, a report) could draw the mouse pointer outside the screen and spoil the palette: wrong colours from then on.
• Alt on its own opens the GAME menu again, instead of crashing.

Limits of this release #

• Sound Blaster and AdLib sound only: the Roland MT-32 and General MIDI drivers are not supported.
• The colony screen, Europe and the reports keep the original's 320 x 200: their pictures were drawn at that size.
• No changes to the game's rules yet. Fixes and new features come next; open an issue for the ones you want.