What's this? See the FAQ below.
Now (PM of 2004/05/12): I'm still working on the rewrite - got boned by Apple. They included proprietary, non-functional wireless networking and 3D hardware in my new powerbook, making it close to useless for this development (esp since it's now opengl with the new rewrite).
Now (PM of 2004/04/20): I'm working on a rather major rewrite of the underlying GUI system, so it may be a bit before some visible improvements appear. This rewrite is needed to proceed with the next set of features.
Now (AM of 2003/06/11): All graphical updates done - colors and fonts should be right, speed of redraw should be good now. Still working on various GUI improvements and save/load of games - not done yet. It will autosave your new-game options though. All crashes should be fixed. If anyone sees a crash, or, much better, finds a reliable, repeatable way to crash the game, I'd REALLY like to know - it would really help with my bug swatting.
Send me ideas, suggestions, questions, and/or encouragements if you're interested in this project.
Status: Ship building, fleet manipulation, hyperspace, ship-ship combat (auto-resolution), colonization, and basic colony development are all complete. Exploration and basic ship discovery are now also done (but you can cheat and see all by hitting F5). Lemme know if you see something funky and how to reproduce it. I know there are still a few ways to cheat the game physics (fleet leap-frogging for instance).
All 7 binaries are up and work. All 7 are up to date. Almost everything supported is accessible through the GUI and should be self-explanatory. Currently there are two command-line options supported:
The following controls work in-game to one degree or another (Note that right-click is "Command-Click" on a mac):
Also, the following key shortcuts are available:
Also, until I finish writing the system options GUI, the key combo ALT-ENTER will toggle fullscreen on linux/x11 platforms (won't work in Windows, Solaris or MacOS at this point).
Now all architectures will be continuously up-to-date - thanks to access to hardware granted by the Binghamton University Computer Science Department (Linux-sparc64 and SunOS-sun4) and Sandor Szatmari (Darwin-ppc, Linux-ppc).
Warning! These are pre-alpha binaries. They are not playable yet and may do nothing more than destroy your entire computer. Use at your own risk only - I will not be held responsible for what happens if you download and run these!
Binary Tarball - Latest Version = 2004/04/20 16:52 (GMT):
Data Tarball - Latest Version = 2004/04/06 04:21 (GMT):
Tarballs now support all 7 architectures:
Important Note: This page is automagically updated every time I compile a new build that I feel is at least kinda stable. That means the version number up here can change from minute to minute. That means the tarball link(s) above may no longer be valid by the time you actually click on them. If you get a "Not Found" error when trying to download a binary, reload this page for the newest link and try again.
What is Cosmos? It is a turn based space conquest game designed to replace the addictive Masters of Orion 2 and Ascendancy (yes, I'm aware of Masters of Orion 3's release, and no, I don't think it's worth the media it's published on).
How do I contact you? You can feel free to send me questions and queries by e-mail, though I reserve the right not to respond - I'm a busy guy.
What is the current status of Cosmos? It is currently pre-alpha. Right now I'm just testing that things actually work on all the target architectures. The design is complete and implementation is beginning for a truly playable version.
Why do I get a "Not Found" error trying to download the tarball(s)? See "Important Note" above.
Why is almost everything represented with just a litle square, circle, etc...? Because I'm not an artist. I am writing the game itself in its entirety first, then I will recruit for artists. Until I get art to represent each thing, it'll be just a colored square, circle, or whatever else was easy to do in The Gimp
Why is the data tarball so big? I added music (well, some prototype samples at least) written by my friend, Wyatt, but have not yet added ogg vorbis support (or whatever I end up using). There are now massive music .wav files included in this datafile.
Why are there 2 tarballs? The files in the data tarball are optional, so I've split the tarballs into required (binary) and optional (data) parts (though, by "optional", I mean the game will run without them, not that it would be just as good). The big advantage is that the code changes a lot, as I work on it, but the music and other stuff doesn't change very often. This way people who want the whole thing can download the data only when needed and just get the binary tarball whenever it updates. It also saves me a lot of time uploading each build.
When will it be done? Short answer: when it's done. Long answer: I plan to release it in stages, the first being the framework with auto-resolution only, then thereafter I plan to add additional options (ship design, network play, tactical combat, etc...) to it piece by piece as options. The earliest playable version should be done in the next few weeks.
Will you be releasing the source? I hope so eventually, but not at first. Unfortunately, there are a lot of imature morons out there that would just love to cheat, and realeasing binary-only releases would make that harder for them. Fortunately, since this is not a massively multiplayer game, that's not so big a deal as it is for other projects of mine, like Acid Rain. Basically, my intent at this point will be to release it under GPL once the project is complete, but until then, I will most likely only be releasing binaries.
Will you be posting binaries for other Linux architecures? Yes. As soon as it gets out of the pre-alpha phase, I will enable more linux targets and make those binaries available. This should include at least sparc and mipsel (including Playstation 2) Linux architectures - assuming decent SDL support.
Will you be making a MacOS 9 version? Maybe, the code is designed for gcc and as such should be portable to any system that supports gcc and SDL. However, MacOS 9 doesn't support SDL very well, and doesn't have all the unix-like benefits of MaxOS-X, so I may never release an OS-9 version.
Will you ever be posting [Whatever] binaries?: If I do at all, only the stable version(s) will have a binary posted for architectures other than the above 7. This is due to either the proprietary and closed nature of an OS itself, or my lack of availability to the arch (mipsel, etc...). As far as I know, I can not easilly cross compile for many of these other architectures directly with gcc like I can for the other targets, so it is more of an undertaking. If this were to change, I would put binaries up regularly like I do for windows/linux.