The following game is an ongoing project which aims to release a game that surpasses the quality of the commercial version of this game which is called colonization. I have that game and can say it’s an excellent strategy game. If you like civilization games you’ll love this one. The graphics are a cut above most other freeware games of this genre. You can find some similar games that I posted several months ago HERE and included Freeciv and Outpost. reverseOrder posted also posted a game from this genre of games yesterday (Week 55), called SimCity 2000, which you can access HERE.
Free Col v0.8.4 (22.6Mb)
The FreeCol team aims to create an Open Source version of Colonization (released under the GPL). At first we'll try to make an exact clone of Colonization. The visuals will be brought up to date with more recent standards but will remain clean, simple and functional. Certain new 'features' will be implemented but the game play and the rules will be exactly the same as the original game. Examples of modern features are: an isometric map and multiplayer support.This clone will be developed incrementally and result in FreeCol 1.0.0 which will be an almost exact Colonization clone. Incremental development basically means that we'll add features one at a time. This allows us to have a running program at all times and also to release an unfinished but working game once in a while.
Once FreeCol 1.0.0 is finished we'll start working towards FreeCol 2.0.0. FreeCol 2 will go beyond the original Colonization and will have many new features, it will be an implementation of our (and our users') image of what Colonization 2 would have been.
The Original Colonization
The original Colonization, which you’ll find on most abandonware sites and can be found HERE and HERE ((less than 4Mb), was released in 1994 by Microprose and previous to that in 1982 by Intellivision. Colonization is heavily based on Civilization which is generally considered to be the best turn-based strategy game for the PC in the history of mankind. You can see You tube videos of the original HERE, and HERE is a video of the latest colonization video that FreeCol is trying to emulate and then surpass.
In Civilization the objective was to build a nation that could stand the test of times and that could also do one of the following: conquer the world or be the first to launch a spaceship. you can find free copies of Civilization 1 and 2 in the game discussion forums, HERE or via the sites I've linked to for Colonization. All the games from the original series are now freely available from many sites on the net. In Colonization things are a bit different ...
A Colonization game starts in 1492 and the objective is to colonize America. You begin the game with one vessel and two colonists.
As in Civilization you need to build a powerful nation, but fortunately in the early part of the game you'll be able to send ships back to Europe in order to sell the goods you've produced or to bring back some colonists. Getting colonists into the new world is a very important aspect of the game as one game turn takes one year and later on even one season and as a result colonies don't grow as rapidly as they do in Civilization. You can pay colonists to come to the new world or you can show off with the religious freedom of your people in which case they will hop on your vessels for no money at all.
Another important aspect is trade: the source of all income (apart from Inca and Aztec gold). In a land filled with precious resources it is important to build your colonies at the right location and to place craftsmen where they belong. This is not only to have an income but also to be able to live off the land when you can no longer count on the support of Europe.
Through all this you'll have to decide whether or not you want to live next to the native Americans peacefully. They can teach your colonists new skills that cannot be tought anywhere else and they will offer you goods in case you choose to treat them as your friends. On the other hand, their villages can be attacked and their valuable goods can be taken from them and sold in Europe.
Other European forces are also busy occupying their piece of the new world. Should their borders go too far then take over some of their colonies by force because they wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing to you.
The object of Colonization is to declare your independence and survive an attack of the King's forces. Before declaring your independence you need to have the majority of the people behind you. This can be done by promoting free speech and by providing a strong governmental system.
The above quote was taken from FreeCols home site and can be accessed HERE
Useful information:
You can find FreeCols home site HERE, where you can find details of all the different units available in game HERE, the types of goods that can be used as income HERE and details of the different types of colonies HERE. You can download a user manual either in HTML or a PDF document HERE
You can download FreeCol from Gamershell, which has been given a red light from McAfee’s site advisor, but only because somewhere amongst the mass of download links there’s a link to a bed site. I’ve personally never ever had any problems with Gamershell, and recommend you download from them. The file has been checked for viri’ and it’s clean. You can download it from HERE . There’s an alternate download site with four mirrors HERE, which has a green rating from site Advisor, but the download speeds are much slower. You can also download the latest version from Freecols home site HERE
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Just in case you’re not into sim games here’s a couple more games, the first one is a traditional game called Yahtzee123 and the second a great looking space invaders clone called Demon Attack, which I later discovered has been released by two different developers, both of which were inspired by the original game that was released back in the early 80's by Intellivision and then by Microprose in 1994........
Demon Attack ( both games are just under 7Mb)
You have to fight of waves of demons and destroy demon bases to save the Earth.
The foul Demons scream earthwards from mute space, intent on conquest. Only your lone laser cannon stands between them and their prize, the Earth itself! Steel yourself, strap on you’re race balls and take them on as they pound your lunar base. Then blast off and deal with the demonic space armada and after that the first of the six demon bases. Should you destroy the base, its back to the moon to repeat the mission again, with more and tougher demons.Destroy all six Demon Bases and Save Earth….
The above quote can be found in the games instructions by pressing 3 from the main menu.
To use the laser cannon use the left and right arrow keys to move the cannon and to fire it use space. In the moon and space stages it fires one regular shot. In the demon base stage you can press and hold the space key to charge up your gun. When it is fully charged, release space to fire a super blast. It’s the only way you can hope to destroy the demon base.
Press Esc to quit the game at any time. You can cheat by pressing C. this stops you losing your cannon, but will reset your score to zero.. To remove the cheat press C again.
Demon Attack has six levels, and each consists of three stages, the moon stage, space Stage and Demon Base stage. All enemies in each stage must be eliminated before you can advance to the next stage/level.
When you start up the first version it starts in a window. If you want to play it in full screen close the game down then right click on the games executable and select properties, then click on the compatibility tab and select the run in 640 x 480 screen resolution. This will enable full screen mode and forces your screen resolution to the above resolution; however once you escape from the game your screen resolution will revert back to normal.
I didn’t realize when I downloaded a second version that it was a different version of the game. (I was just checking to compare the download speeds) I’ve included both versions in the download section below. You can see the differences between each game via the images I’ve posted. Neither game has an installer so you’ll need to unzip the games from the zip files then manually place them wherever you put your games (usually they go in C:/Program Files/, though I have a dedicated hard drive for my games and they go into a games folder which is sub divided into genres).
Controls for the first version :
Space = Fire or start game from opening page
1 = regular game
2 = Bases only
3 = instructions
Arrow keys = move
Controls for the second version:
Menu = Key-up, Key-down, Enter, Esc.
Game = Key-left, Key-right, Ctrl
(these can be re-assigned), Esc.
[i]Here’s some images of the second version of the game. It’s not as visually stunning, but just as good w.r.t. game play.
You can download the first version from HERE and the second version from HERE
Here's a video of the original game which was released over 25 years ago, and Here's a 1994 version that the first of the ones I've posted has tried to emulate. You'll see some of the demons in the 1994 video are similar to the tentacled terrorist in the second 'in game' image above; i.e... the sixth image down in the Demon Attack section.
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Yahtzee 123 (8.37Mb)
This is the well known dice game - the Yahtzee computer version. It has decent graphics and has easy to use menus and if you know all rules you should enjoy it.
The aim is to get the highest score by rolling combinations of dice. At the start of each round, five dice are rolled. You may 'hold' however many dice you want. Once you have chosen which dice (If any) you want to hold, the dice are rolled again. If you have held a die, this die is not rolled again. After the third roll, you have to choose one of the score slots which you are going to use.
System Requirements:
1 Ghz or faster
128MB or more
Graphics Card: 16MB or more
Direct X: 9.0c or higher
You can download Yahtzee123 from HERE
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