OpenCol 0.5.1

OpenCol 0.5.1: the Windows version no longer freezes on the Colonopedia's terrain pages, and a copy of OpenCol can keep its own settings.

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. Start the program from anywhere:
   • 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. The first time, OpenCol asks for the folder of your copy of the game: the one with VICEROY.EXE (in the GOG version, the COLONIZE folder), or any folder above it. It remembers it.

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.

Fixed #

• Windows: the game froze on a terrain's page in the Colonopedia (F1 on the map, for one), and had to be closed. The Windows programs are built with another compiler than the macOS one, and it read one of the game's tables, declared shorter than the game uses it, as a loop without an end. The table has its full length now, and the tests run every game and session on a build by that compiler too, so this kind of difference is caught before a release.

What's new #

• An OPENCOL.CFG beside the program is used first, before the one in OpenCol's own folder: a copy of OpenCol, on a USB stick say, can keep its settings and its game of its own.
• For contributors: the code is easier to read and change. The longest functions of the game (the computer players' moves and colonies, combat, the natives, diplomacy) read as named steps; the game's memory has a typed layout; every part has its own header; and the code builds without warnings. None of it changes the game: the tests compare every step with the original.

The rules stay the original's. The tests replay the computer-only games, the War of Independence and the scripted sessions, and every turn and every saved game is identical to the original's.

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.
• On Linux (built from source), choosing the folder needs xdg-desktop-portal or zenity; without them, start OpenCol in the game's folder or with --game FOLDER.
• No changes to the game's rules yet. Fixes and new features come next; open an issue for the ones you want.