NOTE: This is The Column, a regular feature on Apolyton where anyone can write about anything to do with Civilization or the gaming industry as a whole. If you feel like writing, please visit the article submission page.

PREVIOUS ARTICLES

#128 MY LONG TERM LOVE AFFAIR WITH CIVILIZATION Father Beast fondly remembers of a unnamed game he, his older brother and stepfather played long ago. #127 THE "REAL" CIVILIZATION II Christantine The Great is appalled with what he saw as MicroPROSE milking off of the success of CivII. #126 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADDICTION Kent Wang divulges in his receipe on the elements needed for a truly addictive gaming experience. #125 CIV TO CIVII: LESSONS OF THE PAST FOR CIVIII Father Beast examines three key points that he feels are a must for inclusion in Civilization III. #124 CIVILIZATION III Tim Bromige gets right to his point: what was wrong in CivII can be fixed in CivIII. COLUMN ARCHIVE

There has been a thought going around in my head for the past few months. It came about when I read that one of my old favorites, Quake, would have it's source code released to the general public.

What's a source code, do you ask? Well the source is (to my best knowledge here :)) the coding behind the game engine. The programming language (or jargon if you prefer) that makes the sprites run around on the screen, the Imps eat humans, the Mongolians attack the Chinese over nothing, and other inner-workings of the program. Usually the .exe file that comes with your game is the compiled (encoded and executable) version of the source code. The source code also includes the .dll (library files) that run the game. Of course, in most consumer products this is comepletely unreadable. Releasing the source allows third party programmers to transform the game as they see fit (release 3rd-party patches, mods, etc.)

Unloading the Source code on the public seems to be a new trend in the gaming world, especially over at iD software. Titles like Wolfenstein, DooM, Quake, and others have been available for re-working and re-programming by the general public for months now. I've heard of several new incarnations of DooM, for example, DooM that runs with graphics accelerators, and many new features that have been added to the early 1990's game.

More to the point, though, is the fact that Microprose has not released even *one* of their titles to the public. I have never seen a Civilization, Colonization, Pirates!, X-Com, etc. source code for download.

Perhaps their reasoning is sinister? Let's play Devil's advocate for a bit. Unleashing the code to these games would put them at odds with a gaming public that would dramatically increase the life of these games (intruding on sales of their recent add-on perhaps). Releasing the source would close the door on the chance of an add-on pack (the users would handle that themselves). Noting the tenacity of Civ2 players and the strong cult following, these may be some of the reasons Microprose has (maybe). Another possibility why MPS hasn't done this is that much of the code is proprietary, that is, belongs to somebody else, possibly Briggs, Sid, or some third party.

"So what if they haven't released the code to their games yet? What good would it do us?"

Most notably, it would allow 3rd-party programmers to fix certain annoying bugs that MPS has left us to sit with. Another advantage is that it would allow Scenario creators to make scenarios that entirely alter certain parts of civ2 (introduce new trade features, borders, whatever). The source would be beneficial, though, to only those who know the language it was programmed in, and could sift through the lines and lines of un-documented coding.

I think it would be nice if Microprose finally gave something back to the civ community for all we've done for them. Releasing the source to some of their popular games (Civ2, Civ, Colonization, whatever) would be a good way to make (at least) my day. Paying out close to $180 for all the add-ons, I think they owe me at least that.

---------
About the author (self-quote): "Civ2 is my middle name (Sievetoo)... j/k :)"

Want to comment on this article?

The opinions expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of Apolyton CS or GameStats. They are just the personal opinions of the writer.