FreeCol
FreeCol is a 4X video game, a clone of Sid Meier's Colonization. Free and open source software released under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later. In 2023, the FreeCol project reached its 1.0 release, after twenty years of development.
FreeCol

The Freecol Team · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Date
- 2003
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
FreeCol is a 4X video game, a clone of Sid Meier's Colonization. Free and open source software released under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later. In 2023, the FreeCol project reached its 1.0 release, after twenty years of development.
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In this article
The object
The object
Mostly programmed in Java and should thus be platform-independent. In practice, it is known to run on Linux and Windows, as well as Mac OS X (with some limitations). While remaining faithful to the original in terms of mechanics and gameplay, FreeCol features redesigned graphics. Moreover, in addition to the classical Colonization rules, it features an additional ruleset that incorporates ideas that didn't make it to the final version of Meier's game, requests by fans and original concepts like new European players with new national bonuses.

Free Colonization screenshot (http: www.freecol.org/) 01
The FreeCol Team
Key facts
Key facts
• Author — The Freecol Team • Developer — SourceForge project FreeCol • Latest Release Version — 1.2.0 • Programming Language — Java • Platform — Java platform 11 or later, display 1024×768 or more • Language — af ang ar arz be bg br bs ca cs-CZ da de el en-GB eo es et eu fa fi fr gl grc he hsb hu ia id it-IT ja km ko lt mk ms nb nds nl nl-BE nn oc pl-PL pms pt-BR pt-PT qqq ru sq sv ta tl tr uk zh-CN • Language Count — 54 • Language Footnote — (translatewiki.net) • Genre — Turn-based strategy video game • License — GPL-2.0-or-later • Website — http: www.freecol.org/
Gameplay
Gameplay
• Illustration — Screenshot of the unit selection screen In FreeCol the player leads the colony of a European power from the arrival on the shore of the New World into the future, achieving victory by one of two possible victory conditions: either gaining independence by declaring independence and subsequently defeating the dispatched royal expeditionary force or by defeating the colonies of all the competing European powers by the year 1600. To be allowed to declare independence, at least 50% of the player's colonists must support independence. This is achieved by producing liberty bells; 200 liberty bells turn one colonist from being a royalist into being a rebel. To be able to defeat the royal expeditionary force the player must train and build a strong enough army of their own. Another important factor are the numerous settlements of different Native American nations. Native settlements can be traded with to gain gold or they can be conquered for treasure. Native settlements can also teach the player's colonists and turn them into specialist. Specialists are considerably more productive when assigned in their trade. Most specialists can be trained for gold in Europe or come as settlers for free, but certain specialists can only be trained at certain native settlements, you can also train new specialists if you already have a specialist. FreeCol starts in 1492 with two colonists on a caravel on the ocean at the player's disposal. The player is the king's proxy and is supposed to lead the caravel to the shore and found a colony in the New World consisting of multiple settlements. The player gets additional colonists by producing food (200 food units in a settlement generates a new unit), by immigration from Europe, by converting the natives or by capturing unarmed units of competing European colonies. The player may trade with Europe using various natural resources which are produced in settlements or acquired from trade with natives. In each settlement the player can also build up industrial buildings to convert raw materials into processed goods, which sell for more in Europe, providing a significant economic advance.
History of the object
Dated record
History of the object
Explore 2003–2009
The full dated record · 3 entries
2003
FreeCol created.
2003
FreeCol is recorded from 2003.
2009
FreeCol published.
Reception
In February 2007 FreeCol was SourceForge's Project of the Month. In 2008, Rock, Paper, Shotguns game journalist, Alec Meer, had mixed feelings about FreeCol but still called it: "it's an (sic) remarkable accomplishment, and I'm very glad it's out there." and "FreeCol, though, is here right now, it's free, it's stable, it's pretty much feature-complete and unlike its parent it has multiplayer". In 2010 Alec Meer named FreeCol in Rock, Paper, Shotgun as a better alternative when he was confronted with the later commercial remake Civilization IV: Colonization. As of April 2026, FreeCol has been downloaded over 2,200,000 times on SourceForge.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Mielewczik, Michael. Rückkehr der Klassiker. Remakes von Colonization und SimCity. PC Magazin LINUX. 3/2007. 75–76. 2007.
- 2.Dawe, Liam. 20 years later the open source Colonization game FreeCol hits 1.0. 2023-01-10.
- 3.Project of the Month, February 2007. 2007-01-31.
- 4.Alec Meer. Get Ur FreeCol. Rock, Paper, Shotgun. 2008-06-12.
- 5.Alex Meer. A Brief History Of Modern Retro. Rock, Paper, Shotgun. 2010-03-01.
- 6.Download Statistics. SourceForge.net. 2026-04-01.
References
Citations
References
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Open the remaining particulars
It is placed in the genre turn-based strategy video game. It derives from, or follows, Sid Meier's Colonization.
Subject and derivation
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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