NewCol is a free, volunteer-run spin-off of Col1, developed in France from January 2007, which has progressed remarkably fast for games of its type. Main developer is Frederic Vernier, a "Professor Assistant and researcher in Computer Science teaching at South-Paris University".

"Version 0.3.1 : Win32-MinGW[zip 17.9 MB] and MacOsX[dmg 19.4 MB] (october the 26th 2008)"; "XCode for Mac OS X, CodeBlocks-MinGW and VisualC++ for Windows". (That was still the latest downloadable version in mid-January 2012.) It is in translated English. The website gives no indication of how anyone may help to put it into proper English or may even communicate with the developer. Players may be a little amused at the idea of using a Stateman or a Fur Tradder.

It acknowledges that some of its graphics have been reworked from other "free" games, notably FreeCol.

The website seems to give no UI guidance. The "Rules" page tells you to move your ship to the New World, but there is no hint of how.

The project is presumed to be continuing. In January 2012 the latest group of "news" items was a year old, but the previous item was 15 months earlier, so the 12-month gap cannot be taken as a period of no development.

DifferencesEdit

The game differs from the original in many ways.

There are 90 different buildings (though some are just stages 2 and 3 of basic buildings, as in Col1). They include a Well and a Town Statue.

There are more types of unit (and the mounted ones are recognizable instead of being just "scout" or "dragoon"). Examples are Tailor, Alchemist, and Cowboy. Being a specialist in one field gives you great advantage in that activity, as in Col1, but also some advantage in related activities

Products and industries are more diverse. For example, cotton becomes cloth as in Col1 but can then become a garment; gold and silver can be turned into Jewelry.

External linksEdit

• Home page