PCGamer gives away Colonization for free

[Bigfoot3814]

The September issue of PCGamer magazine's demo disk includes the complete original Colonization, in order to promote the new one. Well, that was nice of them. It also has demos for some other great games too, so it might really be worth checking out.

 

[jediliz]

how long until it comes to news stands? I don't want to miss out. I want it on my laptop.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

I put it on my laptop as well. I don't know for sure, but I think the demo disks go only to subscribers. Do you know someone who might let you borrow it?

 

[magikarcher]

Old news. Read about it here

Edit: I got the demo disk from a PC Gamer in the magazine aisle in some store one time. That was before I subscribed, so it goes to non-subscribers.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

Yeah, yours was actually before mine. Sorry!

 

[jediliz]

I got it on the news stand today @ Walmart. The magazine cost $8.99, but its an okay price to pay to get the game on CD so I can install it on my laptop.

 

[dalgo]

You did say the September issue? Available mid-July???

If someone has tried it out, what version is it? Can it run under XP or does it need an emulator such as Dosbox?

 

[dalgo]

To answer my own questions - yes it is the September edition of PC Gamer and it is the DOS version 2.25 of Colonization. It comes embedded with DOSBox 0.72 and ran straight from the install (on my Windows XP system) with no problems.

There are three runtime options - Full screen, Windowed 3X and Windowed. The readme recommends choosing a windowed option if graphic problems are encountered but it runs fine on my LCD monitor in full screen.

This is an excellent adaption of Colonization for modern PC's and I recommend it to anyone who has had trouble running the game previously. The full manual is also available on the disk.

 

[De Lorimier]

Bought the magazine, installed the game and dosbox, watch it lags in the opening sequences and when a pop-up screen happens (discover new world, meet natives, meet fellow europeans, ect. I'll play with my screen resolution to try and make it better. Any recomandations?

Edit: yeah, 800x600 was the key, everything works fine.

 

[dalgo]

I'm glad that you have got it working OK. If anyone else has problems there is a comprehensive readme in the DOSBox folder detailing game options such as Ctrl/F12 to speed up the emulation (or Ctrl/F11 to slow it down).

 

[player1 fanatic]

To answer my own questions - yes it is the September edition of PC Gamer and it is the DOS version 2.25 of Colonization. It comes embedded with DOSBox 0.72 and ran straight from the install (on my Windows XP system) with no problems.

Personally, I would advise anyone who got this to find and update Colonization to v3.0.

Patched is better then unpatched.

 

[ScottishCivFan]

Has anyone got a copy of the pc gamer disc with colonization to upload as I have been unable to find a back issue of this.

Apologies if this is against the rules.

 

[MXB]

Well I found a ISO file (burns to CD) of Colonization as a Torrent. It is also v2.25 but isn't auto setup to run DOSBOX or whatever that thing is. It's just a standard DOS/Windows install (both versions on disk). It has the manual as PDF also. It might be the same disk come to think of it, there may have been some autorun files (like I'd touch those with a 10 foot pole!) to set it up for computers which don't meet the system req. The file is about 30 MB and doesn't include the Windows CD audio tracks. There's one of those as a torrent as well (300 MB) but it is on Demonoid which is closed to outsiders like me and you (probably).

 

[ScottishCivFan]

I have the windows one legit version, but looking for the full dos one with cd audio.

I uploaded the demonoid one btw might put it on "public" trackers if theres demand.

 

[MXB]

Well there's a demand of 1 minimum I guess.

As for the DOS with CD audio... are you sure there is such a beast? The DOS version I have uses MIDI and WAV files for music and sound effects. There's even a addon Colonization Jukebox program from MPS to let one play the tunes outside of the game.

 

[ScottishCivFan]

Just downloaded DOS colonziation from an abandonware site, and your right it is built in and not CD audio based.

 

[MXB]

I've looked into the Col music a fair bit (love it) and have downloaded 23 .MOD tunes originally from the Amiga and 28 .MID tunes from the DOS-PC version.
The Windows README.TXT lists the CD audio tracks and there are apparently 26. So there's 3 different subsets of the music it seems.
The Windows version will in fact play ANY CD you put in although I presume if it has less than 26 tracks some will be played more often as it probably "wraps" around if it doesn't find a high enough track number when playing event music.
N.B. Some events play .WAV files off the HD (e.g. meeting Europeans - plays their anthem)