mapedit-port

The Colonization Map Editor (MAPEDIT.EXE, MicroProse 1994) running natively on Windows, macOS and Linux. It is built from mapedit-decomp, the editor's source recovered from the shipped program, compiled with modern compilers, and it runs on SDL3 instead of DOS.

Status: 0.1.0, faithful. The editor runs natively on macOS (Apple silicon and Intel) and Windows (64-bit), and Linux builds from source. Given the same keys, it writes .MP files byte-identical to the original's running under DOSBox-X (tools/m4.py, six sessions: open and save, paint, undo, fill, Find Continents, a new map). Improvements come next, each behind an option. docs/plan.md has the milestones.

Download

Releases: mapedit-<version>-macos.zip (an application, "Colonization Map Editor.app") and mapedit-<version>-windows-x64.zip (mapedit.exe and SDL3.dll). Each has a README.txt on starting it. You need your own copy of Colonization for DOS (GOG or Steam): the editor asks for its folder the first time and remembers it.

On macOS the app is not notarized: the first time, right-click it and choose Open.

The code

Four layers -- src/sys, src/core, src/ui, src/editor -- each using only those below it, with one header per subsystem in src/include; docs/architecture.md has the map and the checks that keep it so.

What you need

• your own copy of Colonization for DOS (GOG or Steam). The editor reads the game's art, fonts and palette from it, and none of that is in this repository;
• CMake 3.16 or later, a C99 compiler, and SDL3.

cmake -B build && cmake --build build
ctest --test-dir build                      # self-tests; the oracle with MAPEDIT_EXE set

Run it on a copy of your game directory -- the editor writes its maps there, as it did:

build/mapedit --game /path/to/COLONIZE
build/mapedit --game /path/to/COLONIZE --headless --script session.txt

Without --game (or $MAPEDIT_GAME) it looks in the current directory, then its own (or, for the macOS app, the folder the app is in), then the folder chosen last time, and else asks with a folder dialog (--choose-game asks again). On macOS, cmake --build build --target mapedit_app makes "Colonization Map Editor.app"; tools/release.py builds the release zips (a static, universal SDL3 for the app; the Windows build cross-compiled).

Windows

With MSYS2 (UCRT64: pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-{gcc,cmake,ninja,sdl3,python}):

cmake -B build -G Ninja && cmake --build build --target mapedit

build/mapedit.exe and build/SDL3.dll are the program. From macOS or Linux, cross-build with MinGW-w64 and SDL3's MinGW development package (cmake/mingw-w64-x86_64.cmake says how); tools/m4.py --wine checks the result under Wine. MSVC builds too (CI).

A script is one command a line: wait MS, key NAME, type TEXT, move X Y, click X Y, shot FILE.bmp, exit (platform/host_sdl.c has them all).

The oracle tests run the player's own MAPEDIT.EXE in an emulator beside the port: set MAPEDIT_EXE to it and install Python's unicorn package.

The contract

The port must behave exactly like the 1994 program before it does anything new. Given the same input, it shows the same screens and writes byte-identical .MP files. Gate M4 (docs/plan.md) measures that against the original running under DOSBox-X. Improvements come after it, each behind an option.

Improvements

Each is off unless asked for on the command line, so the editor stays the 1994 program by default (src/include/options.h has the details):

--undo N	Undo goes back through the last N changes (the original keeps one, of the terrain only), Map > Redo Last Change (R) goes forward again; Ctrl-Z and Ctrl-Y
--check-save	before a save: Find Continents runs, and a popup lists what the game would change or mind (no land, land in the columns the game makes sea lane, one-square rivers) and asks whether to save anyway
--export-png [DIR]	Editor > Export Map as PNG (E): the whole map at full zoom, in DIR or the current folder
--new-map-menu	the editor starts with New empty map / Load existing map (and Generate random map where the program around it has the game's generator: OpenCol), instead of the file list; Editor > Create Map offers the same
--improved	all four, with 64 steps of Undo
--save-dir DIR	maps are written to DIR; the game directory is then only read (DIR's files first)
--play	Editor > Play This Map in Game (G), for a program that starts the editor: the map is saved and the editor ends, printing play NAME.MP
--test-generator	Generate random map with a stand-in generator (one rectangle of land), for the tests

License

See NOTICE.md. The platform layer and tools are MIT licensed. The imported source (src/) is a reconstruction of MicroProse's program and is not ours to license.