Microprose Colonization Published: 1994
Site launched:
4th July 1998
Site Updated
Oct06, Jan06-Aug06, Dec05, Nov05, Mar05, Feb05

The Unofficial Microprose Colonization Home Page

Microprose's Colonization

Colonists

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The March of Liberty
Legal and Revolutionary Texts including the Declaration of Independence.
City Crest "Heaven's light
our guide"
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 Civ Fanatics Colonization Forum
 Buy Colonization  here.
It works under XP.
gametalk Colonization Forum
  • Abandonia Download Colonization Manual here! A great help in learning the game, and the history of the time.

  • http://www.ebay.co.uk eBay UK or http://www.ebay.com eBay US where you can buy a Second Hand Copy of Colonization for peanuts using paypal. You might be lucky and get one with a Manual, just get an old Amiga Version. Type 'colonization' in the Search Box.
Aside: Christopher Columbus, Genoese Explorer, discovered some of the Islands in the West Indies in 1492. So named because he thought he had gone all the way around the World to some outlieing Islands off India, not realising there was a continent in between. Financed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain (Aragon and Castile). He died in 1506 in Valladolid, Spain - never seeing the American Continental mainland.

VHS Video: The Last of the Mohicans (£2) from Charity Shop. Set in 1757. During the on going 7 Years War between France and Great Britain in the Wilderness of Upstate New York. Both with Indian Allies (Huron, Ottawa, and Mohican), and Colonial Militia. Fighting for control of the Continent, and the lucrative Fur Trade. Probably available on eBay or Amazon. See also: My Favourite Videos.

Colonization Start Screen

The March of Liberty:
From Absolute Rule by One to Universal Suffrage for All.
Colonization Game Cover

http://www.freecol.org/  Aiming to become Colonization 2.0.0
Freecol site about a clone of Colonization currently at Version 0.7.2

Freecol Version 0.5.1 : Released 2006/09/22

  • The installer now adds a shortcut for starting the game in windowed mode.
  • New graphics for displaying unit paths.
  • Borders for the main menu.
  • Some of the panels have been improved.
  • Tons of bugfixes.
FreeCol Version 0.5.0 : Released 2006/07/23
New features in this release include:
  • Tax.
  • The custom house.
  • Capturing of goods.
  • Lost city rumours.
  • AI for the european players and the royal expeditionary force.
  • Fight the war of independence.
  • Separate graphics for each type of forest.
  • Get a list of public game servers on the Internet.
  • Join a running multiplayer game (if not all of the four european powers are controlled by humans).
  • A user friendly installer.
Additionally, this release includes many bugfixes as well.

Freecol Version 0.4.0 :

  • Has the following menus:
    • Game: With new preferences option.
    • View
    • Order
    • Report: with Religious, Labour, Foreign Affairs and Indians advisors options.
    • Colonizopedia: with Terrain Type, Units, Goods, Skills, Buildings and Founding Fathers options. Only the later two work in detail.
  • Has improvements of the artificial intelligence and the addition of new features that allow the player to interact with the natives.
  • Has the following new features:
    • AI for Indian players
    • Visiting Indian villages (colonist, missionary and scout)
    • Trade with Indians.
    • Graphical updates and Colonizopedia framework
    • Tons of bug fixes
  • To install:
    • Download freecol-0.4.0.zip from the download section of the above freecol site.
    • Open a MS-DOS prompt (START -> RUN -> "cmd") and move to the directory freecol (using cd .. command).
    • Make sure that java.exe (START -> SEARCH "java.exe" and copy into the freecol directory) is in your PATH and enter the following command to run the client:
      java -Xmx128M -jar FreeCol.jar
Freecol Version 0.3.0 :
  • Lots of pictures and info., download a copy.
  • The game's very professional. So far they have the Europe screen, map, units and you can build a colony.
  • The current unit doesn't flash so you don't know who you're dealing with. After playing the game for a while I got the hang of moving the ships although the colonist I landed didn't always seem to want to move after a while.
  • Doing the AI will be the real test.
  • Also for some reason you get two ships and a pile of money to buy colonists, professionals, artillery and ships with.
  • I hope they have a least 5 slots for European Powers so we can play as the Portuguese.
  • It also appears to support network gaming, as a future option anyway.
  • It has 'Dress' as Missionaries not 'Bless' as Missionaries in a Church. I don't like this. Having to build a Church in the New World before blessing Missionaries there makes the game more challenging. Anyway you don't have enough Colonists in the beginning to make lots of Missionaries or the Indian unrest due to large Colonies and Troop build ups. May be this is only temporary, I hope so.
  • Also for choice of first founding fathers you get Adam Smith, Henry Hudson, Francis Drake, Thomas Jefferson and William Brewster. I know for a fact you can't get Smith or Jefferson as first choices they arrive later in the game as they are so useful. I'm not sure about Drake either. names.txt appears to show the game mechanics behind this. Maybe they haven't implemented the text file yet and just want to show all the Founding Fathers description windows.

What would you like to see in freecol Version 2.0.0 / Colonization II ?
Promoting Colonists:
An Expert Teacher that can train up Indians, Servants and Criminals to be Free Colonists at twice the speed.
Have a Preacher promote Petty Criminals to Indentured Servants after sufficient Cross production through ‘repention of sins’.
Train appropriate pupil e.g. an Expert Lumberjack in a Schoolhouse should teach a colonist cutting wood.

view results
What would you like to see in freecol Version 2.0.0 / Colonization II ?
Powers:
50% less migration for the Dutch to compensate for their Merchantman and high Commodity Prices.
Have a Portuguese Power.
Have Portuguese special advantage of increased conversion of Indians.
Have Portuguese special advantage of peace between Spain and Portugal until set year.
Confine Portuguese to East of certain longitude line and Spanish West of certain longitude line until set year by order of the Pope!
Have a Swedish Power.
Have a Russian Power on the West Coast.
Have the Chinese and Japanese on the West Coast.
Have an Islamic Power of Granada.

view results
What would you like to see in freecol Version 2.0.0 / Colonization II ?
Indians:
Indians come to you to trade.
Indian v. Indian wars, especially if allied to European Powers at war.
Name Indian Villages when visited e.g. Tenochitilan.
Extend the GO command to go to specific locations like Indian villages.
Capture big Indian cities, then maintain population and 2 MP colony radius.
Click on village to get report on trade and skills after Scout has visited.
Missionary report on trade and skills in village.

view results
What would you like to see in freecol Version 2.0.0 / Colonization II ?
War:
Captured Soldiers that become POW's especially Veterans.
Colonists, Infantry and Cavalry should sometimes surrender especially petty criminals. Tools, Muskets and Horses can remain with them.
Colonies should sometimes Surrender when food runs out.
Soldiers should sometimes die.
Have Mercenaries e.g. Hessians in different uniforms only available from Europe.
Other powers should have to fight for independence.
Ghost workers displaced by siege instead of putting them all in the Carpenters Shop so when the enemy is destroyed they can go straight back to work.
Boarders like in Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri i.e. land closest to your colony is yours. Enemies can’t cross or build in your territory during peace.
Auto-fire artillery on land units.

view results
What would you like to see in freecol Version 2.0.0 / Colonization II ?
Ships:
Name ships.
Build ships on lakes.
Have Caravels, Merchantmen and Frigates sail up major rivers.
Capture enemy ships.
Marines to capture other ships, fight off boarders and captures coastal and island Colonies.
10% ship insurance ‘tax’ for ships lost on high seas at higher game levels.

view results
What would you like to see in freecol Version 2.0.0 / Colonization II ?
General:
Random events like fires and hurricanes.
De la Salle should halve the lumber cost for a Stockade instead of building a Stockade in every 3+ colony.
Sell Salted Fish to Europe for a tidy profit.
Have higher prices for Silver.
Production Queue.
More cut scenes (first dry-dock - first cathedral).
Storage capacity visible on the map screen.
Add more storage extensions or abolish the limit!!!
Implement upkeep cost. But reduce tax rate increase to compensate.

view results
Others on the Web have been petitioning for a remake of Colonization. This poll is an effort to help them out. Do you think Colonization should be remade and updated?

72% 	Yes, Definitely remake it. I would pay up to £40 ($66)
16%	Yes, remake it. I would pay up to £30 ($50)
4%	Yes, remake it. I would pay up to £20 ($33)
5%	Yes, remake it, but make it as cheap as you can! I don't need it that much.
3%	Don't bother remaking it - it's great as a 
1%	Colonization? RIP.
Vote and Current Results

Suggested Improvements for the future Freecol Version 2.0.0 / Colonization II
General Improvements.
The Teacher should train up Indian Converts, Indentured Servants and Petty Criminals to become Free Colonists.
The Portuguese should be added. May be other Powers should be added.
The Indians should be improved. Slaves and Plantations should be added.
The Computer A.I. should be improved.
Army tactics should be improved. The Naval tactics should be improved.
The Commodity Prices should be made more realistic, and you should be able to sell Fish.
Have the Preacher promote Pretty Criminals by allowing them to 'repent'.
For some reason Microprose never made Colonization II. Probably because it was not as popular as Civ. and because they didn't know what to do about the glaring absence of slaves. They're damned if they do and they're damned if they don't. If they put them in they're racist's. If they didn’t 90% of fans spew saying it isn't historically accurate. In England at least trade ships sailed from Europe (with trade goods) to Africa (for Slaves) to America (for Tobacco etc...). There is no Africa docks screen. At one point 50% of the population of the English Colonies were Slaves. There is very little scope for adding new features too. Sid had very little input into the game, and it was rushed out, an extra months work and play testing might have improved it greatly.

Colonization Authors. Game Published 1994.
Sid Meier co-author of Colonization. '[Colonization] was based, in some philosophical way, on Civilization, although it added a lot of new things.'
 Interview with Sid Meier
about Colonization		 Brian Reynolds co-author of Colonization Douglas Caspian-Kaufman co-author of Colonization Jeff Briggs co-author and composer for Colonization
Piece about
Sid and Colonization
Sid Meier co-author of Colonization. '[Colonization] was based, in some philosophical way, on Civilization, although it added a lot of new things.' Foreword from the Official Colonization Strategy Guide by Sid Meier and Jeff Briggs. Brian Reynolds
co-author of Colonization 		Douglas Caspian-Kaufman co-author of Colonization Jeff Briggs co-author and composer for Colonization

Edited highlights of the now deceased Colonization listbot mailing list.

Store and Major Links
www.mobygames.com Massive site about games for all console types and platforms including Colonization reviews with lots of screenshots. Covers EVERYTHING.
Chips&Bits Online Game Superstore
Order $5.95 - Search 'Colonization'
Colonization Jewel Case Only W95 Compatible CD.
Info Screen shots for Colonization
http://www.ebay.co.uk eBay UK or http://www.ebay.com eBay US.
Where you can buy a second hand copy of Colonization for peanuts using paypal.
You might be lucky and get one with a manual. Just type 'colonization' in the search box.
http://gametz.com Game Trading Zone.
Where you can buy a second hand copy of Colonization. You might be lucky and get one with a manual.
  • Colonization Wikipedia Encyclopedia Entry.

  • German Colonization Site Don't worry there are a lot of pictures to look at and there is an on-line translation service so you don't have to know German. Germany may not have had any Colonies of its own in the Americas (since it was only a collection of competing kingdoms during the duration of the game 1492-1800) but a lot of German Colonists went to America plus the Hessian Soldiers.
    Martin Falbe of Berlin writes: "The South American city of Coro (you perhaps know it as part of Sid Meier's Pirates! :-) ) was a Brandenburg-Prussian foundation."
    He continues:
    • Concerning the Coro-history: so far I refreshed my memory with the English version of the official city webportal (http://coroweb.com/history.htm). There I've learned that the city was established by the Spanish (ruled by the "western branch" of the Hapsburg family which also ruled Austria which was also part of the German Empire, just to complicate things a bit), but the settlements in that area were financed by German merchants including experienced personal for the city - 55 men that would have been called 'experienced ore miners' by Sid.....
    • The Brandenburg-Prussian colonial ambitions I had originally in mind were not directed towards the Caribbean or North/South America but towards West Africa - although they leased a Danish island in the Caribbean for a couple of years.
    • The concluding remark thus could be: The German Empire and its kingdoms had no stakes in American colonies, although indirectly several mostly financial German interests were involved.

    Other Websites by Webmaster with FREE Games

  • British Unit Microprose Civilization II Historical Scenarios and Maps: Spy Unit
    BoerWar.scn, alt_ww1.scn, thereich.scn, alt_ww79.scn, alt_rules.txt, europe_s.mp, Southafr.mp, tips

  • Microprose Master of Orion II Home Page - Space resource management game.

  • Infoscripts: Free Text Adventures
    based on sample transcripts from Infocom Games plus Planetfall and Stationfall Maps.

Other material by Webmaster
Articles from the now defunct British Amateur Electronics Club, which may be of some interest:
  • The proposed BAEC Computer with Core Memory and Tele-printer.
  • [JUN99] 25 Years since the first Microcomputer
    1974: the MITS Altair. With Intel 8080 processor (8-bit), 256 bytes of memory, and a toggle-switch-and-LED front panel.
  • Plus: Commodore PET Corner - about one of the first Microcomputers that was produced.
  • Free Doctor Who Games, and quotes from Genesis of the Daleks.
  • Webmaster pictured with Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2, at the Science Museum, London. A primitive Victorian Mechanical Computer made to calculate logarithms for navigation. It never worked as Victorian Engineering wasn't precise and cheap enough but the design was sound and has been proved to be correct.
    Read On with Photos.
Email Webmaster with questions, material, and comments. About Webmaster.
David Ledgard, Colonization Webmaster
God save the KING!
The Webmaster outside Buckingham Palace, London.

Main Menu
Type in www.colonization.biz/col.htm to get the site without the menu frame, allows you to save pages by going to File/Save as...
Go to the main menu below to navigate.
Introduction Interview with Sid Meier - about Colonization Downloads - Upgrades, Scenarios, Maps, FAQ, Translations and Utilities. Hacking the .SAV File
Customising the Game Choosing a European Power Choosing a Good Colony Site Choosing what to Build in a Colony
Military Strategy Training Colonists Advisers Text Files Trade Routes
Continental Congress High Scores - of Fans. Declaring Independence Screen Shots and Pictures of Buildings
Email Webmaster your Tips and Comments Suggested Improvements and Game Errors - many sent in by Fans. On-line Games Store - buy Colonization for $9.95 + shipping here using your Credit Card. Moonbase - construct a self sufficient base on the Moon, similarities to Colonization, free Download.
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