Alpha Centauri 2

Other Games => Other Games => Topic started by: Blake00 on February 06, 2022, 12:25:49 PM

Title: Civ Video Series Ep 02 - Colonization HD Tour + Col Fan Games, Mods & Scenarios
Post by: Blake00 on February 06, 2022, 12:25:49 PM

Civilization Genre HD Video Series:
Welcome to the second episode in a huge video series years in the making where I show you how to play each classic Civilization genre game (including spinoffs like Colonization) in 1080p HD, while showing off some of their best scenarios and mods along with their interesting and sometimes very different console conversions, plus also trying to play as the Barbarians in each game too. Naturally this second big main episode is about Sid Meier's Colonization! :) I'll also be looking at fan games and naturally at some point I'll get to the more modern Civ games that don't require any tricks to play in HD and will still tribute them too of course! In many cases there's simply too much to cover in one main episode so I'll also be making special extra bonus episodes to compliment the main episodes in the series, so stay tuned!

• Main Episode 01 - Civilization 1 (https://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21724)
  
• Main Episode 02 - Colonization (You are here!)
  
• Main Episode 03 - Master of Magic (Coming soon)
• Main Episode 04 - Civilization 2 (Coming soon)
• Main Episode 05 - Civ2 Test of Time (Coming less soon)
• Main Episode 06 - Alpha Centauri (Coming less soon)
• Main Episode 07 - Civ Call to Power (Coming next year)
• Main Episode 08 - Call to Power 2 (Coming next year)
• Main Episode 09 - Civilization 3 (Coming next year)
• Main Episode 10 - Civilization 4 (Coming next decade)
• Main Episode 11 - Civ4 Colonization (Coming next decade)
• Main Episode 12 - Civilization 5 (Coming next century)
• Main Episode 13 - Civ Beyond Earth (Coming next century)
• Main Episode 14 - Civilization 6 (Coming next lifetime)
• Main Episode 15 - Old World (Coming next lifetime)
• Main Episode 16 - Humankind (Coming next lifetime)
• Misc Episodes - Civ Fan Games - FreeCiv, FreeCol, FreeMars & More (Coming very soon)

Main Episode 02 - Colonization HD Tour:
Main video on playing Col in HD with mods & scenarios:
Years in the making this is a huge video tour showcasing the classic Sid Meier's Colonization in HD! This is the second main episode in a huge series showing people how you can play classic Civilization genre games in HD on modern systems using some of the best enhancement mods out there. I also take some time in this video (prob way too much sorry haha) to show Col fans what other cool options are out there these days such as similar games to Col, fan made Col games, some of the best Col mods for Civilization games, and finally I also show you our attempts to play as the normally unplayable Natives slot.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoAYn5LGq60&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoAYn5LGq60&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY)

(Make sure you expand video to play in full screen HD!)

Video Chapters:
00:00 Video Series Introduction
00:49 Colonization Tour Introduction
04:01 Colonization today & it's legacy via other games!
 - 04:11 Civ 4 Colonization sequel & it's mods (Future Ep Preview)
 - 04:56 Colonization fan communities
 - 05:23 FreeCol Colonization fan project (Bonus Ep Preview)
 - 06:42 Treasure Fleet fan game (Bonus Ep Preview)
 - 07:19 FreeMars Scifi Colonization (Bonus Ep Preview)
 - 07:42 Colonization mods for Civilization games (Bonus Ep Preview)
 - 08:28 Mods for Civ 4 Colonization (Future Ep Preview)
 - 08:42 Other games similar to Colonization
09:09 My attempts to play as natives (Bonus Ep Preview)
09:55 Sid Meier's Colonization in HD Tour
 - 10:59 Differences between DOS & Windows Colonization
 - 13:17 Early game example in HD
 - 15:38 Mid game example in HD
 - 17:02 How I'm playing in HD (full instructions below)
 - 17:50 Mid game example in HD continues
 - 18:32 Late game declaration example in HD
 - 20:06 End game victory example in HD
21:30 Final thoughts & future video series plans

Video Notes:

• If everything looks too small then you're probably viewing this video on a small screen or phone. Colonization has built in zoom controls you can use or you can lower the Windows XP resolution inside the Virtual Machine and the game will resize to fit.
• Sorry it takes so long to get to the actual game the video is about. I just really wanted to let Col fans know about all this other great similar stuff out there! Not to mention try to rebuild the community!
• If it feels a bit choppy and slightly schizophrenic that's because '3 different Blakes' worked on it haha! Basically I made the video in 2018, then came back to it in 2019 and added lots of stuff, and then came back to it again in 2021 and deleted a bunch of stuff & added even more new stuff lol! I tried to intermix and smooth out the transitions between old and new footage as best as I could so hopefully it's not too bad.

Bonus Video Episodes for Colonization:
Colonization Bonus Ep - How to play as Natives:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMh1vzXFzps&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMh1vzXFzps&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY)

Colonization Bonus Ep - FreeCol HD Tour:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSfj_G4kA9g&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSfj_G4kA9g&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY)

Colonization Bonus Ep - FreeMars HD Tour:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuUMmh82ROo&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuUMmh82ROo&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY)

Colonization Bonus Ep - Treasure Fleet HD Tour:
COMING SOON!

Colonization Bonus Ep - Civilization 2 Colonization Scenarios:
COMING SOON!

Colonization Bonus Ep - Civilization 3 Colonization Scenarios:
COMING LESS SOON

Colonization Bonus Ep - Civilization 4-5-6 Colonization Scenarios:
COMING NOT SO SOON

Colonization Downloads & Guides:
Links for all games, mods, scenarios, editors & other stuff mentioned in videos:
If you've seen some of my other threads then you'll know I've been working tirelessly to find and rescue old scenarios & mods (including Col themed ones) (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/scenario-hunt-mars-alphac-c-c-ra-dune-mom-col-moo-doom-b5-strek-swars-sgate-homm-more.657278/) for Civ games and arrange hosting on multiple sites (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ2-mge-tot-scenario-mod-preservation-project-log-161-processed-5-collections.671035/) to ensure they're preserved. So hopefully in the years to come when people watch my videos and come to this place none of these cool creations below will have disappeared!

(click to show/hide)

Colonization Communities:

• Colonization & Civ4Col Facebook Groups - Colonization Games Fans Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/ColonizationGame)
  
• Colonization & Civ4Col Reddit Groups - Colonization Games Fans Reddit Group (https://www.reddit.com/r/ColonizationGame/)
  
• Colonization & Civ4Col Discord Groups - Colonization Games Fans Discord Group (https://discord.gg/CHcH75s) / We The People Mod Group (https://discord.gg/UWSw2x5wqh)
  
• Colonization Forums - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/forums/other-sid-meier-games.533/) / Apolyton (https://apolyton.net/forum/other-games/alternative-civs) / CivForumDE (https://www.civforum.de/forumdisplay.php?273-Sid-Meier-s-Colonization) / CivFanaticsRU (http://www.civfanatics.ru/forums/23-Civilization-Colonization-%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%8F) / GoG (https://www.gog.com/forum/colonization_sid_meiers) / Steam (https://steamcommunity.com/app/327400/discussions/)
  
• Civ4 Colonization Forums - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/forums/civ4-colonization.213/) / Apolyton (https://apolyton.net/forum/civilization-iv/civilization-iv-colonization) / CivForumDE (https://www.civforum.de/forumdisplay.php?273-Sid-Meier-s-Colonization) / CivFanaticsRU (http://www.civfanatics.ru/forums/23-Civilization-Colonization-%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%8F) / 2KForum (https://forums.2k.com/forumdisplay.php?52-Civilization-IV-Colonization) / GoG (https://www.gog.com/forum/sid_meiers_civilization_series#1635900870) / Steam (https://steamcommunity.com/app/16810/discussions/)
  

Colonization Games:

• Colonization DOS (Can NOT do HD) - Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/327400/Sid_Meiers_Colonization_Classic/) / GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/sid_meiers_colonization)
  
• Colonization for Windows (Can do HD in VM) - Ebay or Google search
• Civ4 Colonization - Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/16810/Sid_Meiers_Civilization_IV_Colonization/) / GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/sid_meiers_civilization_iv_the_complete_edition)
  

Colonization Fan Games:
(In order of appearance)

• FreeCol - SourceForge (https://sourceforge.net/p/freecol/discussion/719661/thread/2d0063a3bc/)
  
  • FreeCol Extra Playable Nations Modpack - SourceForge Thread (https://sourceforge.net/p/freecol/discussion/141200/thread/658935e76f/)
    
  • FreeCol Extra Natives Modpack - SourceForge Thread (https://sourceforge.net/p/freecol/discussion/141200/thread/1867174bf2/)
    
  • FreeCol Extra Maps Modpack - SourceForge Thread (https://sourceforge.net/p/freecol/discussion/141200/thread/9eb4fbdf/)
    
• Treasure Fleet - Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1120280/Treasure_Fleet/)
  
• FreeMars - SourceForge (https://sourceforge.net/projects/freemars/)
  

Colonization Scenarios & Mods for Civilization Games:
(In order of appearance)

• Civ2 - The Age of Discovery Scenario by Allard Höfelt - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/the-age-of-discovery-scenarios-fw.29402/) / ModDB (https://www.moddb.com/games/civilization-ii/downloads/the-age-of-discovery-civ2-scenario) / Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/the-age-of-discovery-civ2-scenario)
  
• Civ2 - Colonies III: The Struggle for Empire Scenario by John Ellis - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/colonies-iii-the-struggle-for-empire-scenario-fw.28962/) / ModDB (https://www.moddb.com/games/civilization-ii/downloads/colonies3-scenario) / Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/colonies3-scenario)
  
• Civ2 - Colonialism: The Age of Discovery Scenario by Eivind IV - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/colonialism-the-age-of-discovery-scenario-mge.28953/) / ModDB (https://www.moddb.com/games/civilization-ii/downloads/colonialism-scenario) / Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/colonialism-scenario)
  
• Civ2 - The R*** of Nations Scenario by Kobayashi - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/the-rape-of-nations-ver-1-1.12556/) / ModDB (https://www.moddb.com/downloads/the-ruin-of-nations-civ2-scenario) / Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/the-rape-of-nations-civ2-scenario)
  
• Civ2 - Colonialism Scenario by Jamestout - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/colonialism-scenario-mge.29462/) / ModDB (https://www.moddb.com/games/civilization-ii/downloads/colonialism-civ2-scenario) / Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/colonialism-civ2-scenario)
  
• Civ3 - The Age of Discovery Scenario by Firaxis - Included in Civilization 3 Complete
• Civ3 - Age of Colonization scenario by Imperirator1961 - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/age-of-colonisation.240776/)
  
• Civ3 - Colonize! scenario by GRM7584 - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/colonize.112368/)
  
• Civ4Col - The Authentic Colonization Modpack - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/mod-the-authentic-colonization-tac.440319/)
  
• Civ4Col - Dawn of a New Era Modpack - ModDB (https://www.moddb.com/mods/dawn-of-a-new-era)
  
• Civ4Col - Religion And Revolution Modpack - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/religion-and-revolution-welcome-read-first-please.473251/)
  
• Civ4Col - We The People Modpack - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/forums/civ4col-we-the-people.591/)
  
• Civ5 - Conquest of the New World Deluxe Scenario by Firaxis - Included in Civilization 5 Complete
• MANY MORE TO COME once I get into the bonus episodes!

Games similar to Colonization:
(In order of appearance)

• Exploration: Voyages of Discovery - Ebay or Google search
• Conquest of the New World Deluxe - Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/674190/Conquest_of_the_New_World/) / GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/conquest_of_the_new_world)
  
• Anno Series (1404, 1701, 1503, 1602, 1800) - Ubisoft Store - Anno History Collection (https://store.ubi.com/anz/anno-history-collection/5ebc0d1e0d253c242044526b.html) / Ubisoft Store - Anno 1800 (https://store.ubi.com/anz/anno-1800/5b647010ef3aa548048c5958.html)
  
• Imperialism Series - Imperialism 1 GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/imperialism) / Imperialism 2 GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/imperialism_2_the_age_of_exploration)
  
• Port Royale Series - PR1 GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/port_royale) / PR2 Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/12470/Port_Royale_2/) / PR2 GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/port_royale_2) / PR3 Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/205610/Port_Royale_3/) / PR3 GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/port_royale_3) / PR4 Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1024650/Port_Royale_4/) / PR4 GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/port_royale_4_extended_edition)
  
• Age Of Empires III - Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/105450/Age_of_Empires_III_2007/)
  
• Europa Universalis Series - EU1 GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/europa_universalis) / EU2 GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/europa_universalis_ii) / EU3 Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/25800/Europa_Universalis_III_Complete/) / EU3 GoG (https://www.gog.com/game/europa_universalis_iii_complete) / EU4 Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/236850/Europa_Universalis_IV/)
  

Other cool stuff:

• Blake's play as Natives thread - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/colonization-playing-as-indians.632905/)
  
• Blake's Civ series scenario/mod (includes Col themed ones) search & rescue project - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/scenario-hunt-mars-alphac-c-c-ra-dune-mom-col-moo-doom-b5-strek-swars-sgate-homm-more.657278/)
  
• Blake's lost Civ2 scenario/mod (includes Col themed ones) preservation project - CivFanatics (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/civ1-scenario-mod-preservation-project-log.672488/)
  
• Backup of old Colonization Fans resource website - Internet Archive (https://web.archive.org/web/20161026010604/http://www.colonizationfans.com/)
  
• Backup of old Unofficial Col Homepage resource website - Internet Archive (https://web.archive.org/web/20210414081058/http://www.colonization.biz/)
  

How to play in HD on modern systems guide:
Now you can see below how I did it and play Col in HD yourselves!

(click to show/hide)

1. Setup a Windows XP VM using VirtualBox. Below is a video guide on how to do that:
youtu.be/7RQyhgvbqKY (https://youtu.be/7RQyhgvbqKY)
(NO I will not illegally give you a copy of Windows XP, use google search lol)

2. Download a copy of Colonization for Windows (NOT DOS), copy it's files into a folder in the XP VM, and test it to make sure it works.
(NO I will not illegally give you a copy of ColWin, use google search lol)

3. If you want music you will need the original Colonization for Windows CD or a iso/bin/img cd image file of the CD (although I think iso files are pure data and do NOT contain CD music tracks so the game CD rip needs to be a bin or img or similar possibly with a cue file listing track positions) which you can mount to the VirtualBox VM virtual CD drive. I had some weird troubles with this part (VirtualBox ignored both my real cd and bin image music when I mounted them) so in the end I usually just played a youtube video of the soundtrack in the background.
Col Windows CD Soundtrack Youtube Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLcPetHV4Hs)
Col DOS Midi Roland-MT32 Soundtrack Youtube Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9F0ydAGuyE)

4. Pressing right ALT+F should resize your Windows XP virtual machine to your native Windows resolution (eg on my Windows 7 machine its 1920x1080). If you then start the game it should resize to the new high resolution of the virtual machine and Colonization will be in HD! :)

Example shot of how things should look!
(https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/col1hdtour-png.613382/) (https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/col1hdtour-png.613382/)

Colonization Website Tribute Page:
As part of this huge series I'm also making tribute pages with HD pictures and extra info for each game in a big new WIP Civilization & Colonization series section on my retro gaming website Blake's Sanctum (be warned - the sites navigation is full 90s retro too lol).
http://blakessanctum.x10.mx/Games/CivColSeries/ (http://blakessanctum.x10.mx/Games/CivColSeries/)

Main page screenshot:
(https://forums.civfanatics.com/data/attachments/440/440227-c0d9ceea9b18f9cd3dee298d8bfd063b.jpg) (https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/_website-png.609300/)

Colonization Tribute screenshot:
(https://forums.civfanatics.com/data/attachments/444/444300-4ef41749b17706a4ad8af6add70e4288.jpg) (https://forums.civfanatics.com/attachments/webpage-png.613381/)

Title: Re: Civ Video Series Ep 02 - Colonization HD Tour + Col Fan Games, Mods & Scenarios
Post by: Blake00 on February 13, 2022, 11:34:21 AM

Here is my first bonus episode release! This one is nothing special as compared to my very successful 'Play as Barbarian in Civ games' series, success in Col was limited. I mostly just talk about whats happened and pay tribute to the excellent discoveries AyCe made when he recently took some limited control of a Native faction proving that EdBigHead wasn't lying to us all those years ago haha. Kinda of a invitation for others to try and see if they can do better (which I don't expect to happen). The next few bonus episodes will be far more interesting I assure you all haha!

Colonization Bonus Ep - How to play as Natives:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMh1vzXFzps&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMh1vzXFzps&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY)

Title: Re: Civ Video Series Ep 02 - Colonization HD Tour + Col Fan Games, Mods & Scenarios
Post by: Blake00 on February 20, 2022, 11:58:43 AM

Okay the next bonus episode is ready to be shown to the community! :) This time I take an extended look at the excellent Colonization fan remake called FreeCol! Over the last few years there's been some great 3rd party addons to FreeCol that add more maps, more nations (allowing huge 8, 12 or 16 nation super games), and more natives. The project is in a fully playable state (try the nightly release, not the old stable release as its too old) and I was able to finish the game back in 2018 and win the war of Independence without hitting many bugs and it's been improved quite a bit since then. Shortly after I posted this video they released a new build with animating oceans and clouds (grrr great timing lol) which adds a lot more life to the game, however be warned that they're currently beta testing/experimenting with different types of 3D converted artwork so you may see some funny looking test graphics here and there. If you don't like something then just download a nightly build from last year as that still had all the original terrain art!

Colonization Bonus Ep - FreeCol HD Tour:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSfj_G4kA9g&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSfj_G4kA9g&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY)

Title: Re: Civ Video Series Ep 02 - Colonization HD Tour + Col Fan Games, Mods & Scenarios
Post by: Blake00 on March 27, 2022, 02:00:49 PM

Time for another bonus episode! This time I take a look at at not so commonly known fan game that merges the awesomeness of Sid Meier's Colonization with Civilization Mars scenarios.

Colonization Bonus Ep - FreeMars HD Tour:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuUMmh82ROo&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuUMmh82ROo&list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY)