Requirements: This should work on any Windows (currently Windows 7 32 and 64 bit), Linux (currently tested with Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit) or OS X PC.

Troubleshooting

If things don't work properly or at all, please let me know by contacting me at mark dot harman at ntlworld dot com . Useful information to send includes: Any error message that is displayed; the log.txt file, if one is created; details of your system, including Windows/Linux/OS X version, CPU, graphics card, DirectX version (for Windows). The log.txt file is located:

• For Windows, in %APPDATA%\Gigalomania.
• For Linux, in $HOME/.gigalomania (in Ubuntu, go to menu Places->Home Folder, then make sure View->Show Hidden Files is selected, then open the folder .gigalomania).
• In OS X, in the "app" folder that the program is located

Instructions

Quickstart:

• Select game type "SINGLE ISLAND".
• Select a player (it doesn't really matter who).
• Click "PLAY ISLAND".
• A number (initially '0') will appear; move the mouse over it and increase the number by clicking the right mouse button. This is to select how many men you want to play the island - the more men, the easier it is. In the full game, you have a fixed number of men to use across all the islands, but for this demo you can choose as many as you like. On the first epoch, try about 15-20 men to begin with, then adjust accordingly for future games if you want the game to be easier or harder. Later epochs will require more men.
• Move the mouse over the squares at the top (the island), and select one of them. Each square (or "sector") has different elements in it, which affects what things you can make, and how quickly; some sectors may be better than others. Click the left mouse to select, and start the game.
• Screen layout:
  • In the top left corner is a map of the island. The currently displayed sector is highlighted with a grid. Small squares represent sectors which are occupied by either you or the computer players. Next to this are displayed the player shields. If any armies are in the current sector, then the number of men for each player wil be displayed next to the shield. Above the shields a picture of a arrow - clicking left or right button on this icon changes the speed of the game.
  • In the main screen area is a depiction of the current sector. This may show buildings that are in the sector, along with armies.
  • To the left, below the map is the main control panel. Firstly, the name of the island and the epoch for the current sector is displayed. For sectors which you control (i.e., have a tower in), an interface is below that, giving you control over things which are done in this sector.
  • Most parts of the interface should have popup help text which explains what you can do by pressing which mouse buttons.
• In the main control panel to the left, click the lightbulb icon ("VIEW AND ALTER CURRENT DESIGN"). A new panel will appear, with three columns of icons. Select one on the right most column, e.g., the rock icon ("DESIGN A ROCK WEAPON"). Now some additional icons will appear just below the lightbulb, including an icon of a man, with the number "0" below him. Use the right mouse button to click on the man icon, and increase the number - this is the number of people designing the weapon you have selected. The clock will start counting down.
• When the design is complete, you will be told "Ergonomically terrific" or "The design is completed" at the bottom of the screen. Click the lightbulb at the top of the main control panel, to return to the main interface ("RETURN TO SECTOR CONTROL"). Then click the shield icon ("VIEW ARMY WEAPON STOCKS AND ASSEMBLE ARMY") to go to the army screen.
• The icon for the weapon you designed will be displayed, with "OK" beneath it to indicate that you can make the weapon. Click and hold down the left mouse button to add men armed with this weapon to your army. The total number in your army is displayed beneath the shield icon to the lower right.
• The mouse cursor should now have changed to a shield icon. Move the mouse over the map at the top left. Click on the map square containing the enemy tower.
• The army will be deployed, and the map will switch to the new sector. Your men will attack the buildings there, and eventually destroy them. The AI may deploy men to defend, depending on what weapons they have invented.
• To complete the island successfully, you must destroy all enemy towers and men.

Controls: The game is mostly controlled with the mouse, though additional keys are: P - [un]pause game; Q - quit and return to start screen.

Game Types: When you first load the game, you can choose between two game types:

• Single Island: You can choose to play on any island of any epoch you like. Use "NEXT ISLAND" and "NEXT EPOCH" to select the island and epoch. You always have a large pool of men, from which you can play with as many as you like. Essentially this game style treats each Island as an individual game, with no scorekeeping between islands. (This is the only form of gameplay available in versions 0.13 and earlier.)
• All Islands: Here you must start on the first epoch. Each time you win and island, it is removed from the list, and you do not play it again; only when every island in an epoch is completed do you advance to the next epoch. Within each epoch, you may choose the order in which to play the islands by selecting "NEXT ISLAND". You only have a limited amount of men, and receive an additional allocation each epoch. Be careful not to use them all up too soon! The options menu in the main screen also has options for saving and loading games.

There are ten epochs in total: 10000BC, 2000BC, 1AD, 900AD, 1400AD, 1850AD, 1914AD, 1944AD, 1980AD, 2100AD. For each island you start in a particular epoch, and can advance up to three epochs in the future (eg, if you start in 10000BC then you can advance until 900AD). Note that different sectors can be in different epochs - the epoch is a measure of the current level of technology, rather than how much time has passed.

Suspended Animation: When a sector reaches 2100AD (possible in Epoch 7 onwards), it is possible to place some of your men in suspended animation, to "save" them. This has no real effect when playing in "Single Island" mode, but in "All Islands" mode, it contributes to your final score if you complete the game (finish all the islands).

History

Version 0.19 (2011/07/30)

FIXED   make clean on makefile was failing if executable file wasn't present.
FIXED   Need gigalomania.vcxproj.filters for Visual Studio 2010.
ADDED   Linux Ubuntu/Debian binaries now available for i386, x64 and lpia.
UPDATED Linux version now stores save games and log file in user's home
        directory (in $HOME/.gigalomania/).
UPDATED Linux version now looks in /usr/share/ for game files, if not located
        in the program folder.
UPDATED Linux now supports make install, which installs the game properly,
        including adding a menu shortcut. Also supports make uninstall.
UPDATED Source archive now includes debian/ folder.
UPDATED Now using pre-compiled headers for Windows source.
UPDATED Don't print debug sector info to stdout (unless compiled in debug
        mode).

Version 0.18 (2011/07/19)

FIXED   Problem with "building" GUI icon.
FIXED   Clipping with font images.
ADDED   Ported to OS X (by Andreas Herzig).
UPDATED Updated GUI-click and explosion sound effects (getting rid of
        Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 licensed files, due to being
        non-Free).
UPDATED Factory smoke effect is now denser when something is being built.
UPDATED Improved element graphics.
UPDATED Improved graphic for open pit mine.
UPDATED Switched from using FMOD to SDL_mixer for sound.
UPDATED Fixes for OS X port.
UPDATED Windows version now compiled with Visual Studio Express 2010.
UPDATED Dropped support for original sound samples.

Version 0.17 (2011/06/24)

FIXED   Alt-tabbing out of full screen mode on Windows caused mouse cursor to
        be trapped in top left hand corner (this is an SDL bug when disabling
        SDL's cursor
        http://forums.libsdl.org/viewtopic.php?t=6023&sid=40770d3b145423f63e9f6688aa59f2b8
        - fixed with a workaround by using a blank SDL cursor instead).
FIXED   Occasional missed mouse clicks (particularly on Linux).
FIXED   "Move Army Here" popup for current sector wasn't being shown - except
        for nukes, when it was being shown when it shouldn't have been shown.
ADDED   Rock scenery.
UPDATED Improved tree graphics, and now with animation.
UPDATED Improved building graphics.
UPDATED Improved "wood", "rock" element graphics.
UPDATED Minor improvements to other graphics.
UPDATED Smoke effect for factory chimney.
UPDATED Map square icon graphics now procedurally generated.
UPDATED Improved land shading - also fixes issue for potential OS X port, since
        OS X can't load 8 bit PNG images properly(!)
UPDATED Various other fixes/changes in preparation for OS X port.
UPDATED Tweaked GUI so mouse clicks aren't so sluggish.
UPDATED Additional help on FMOD Linux compilation - some installs may need an
        additional command.
UPDATED Now including readme.html file in source archive.

Version 0.16 (2011/03/22)

FIXED   Linux source for FMOD include files, should look in fmodex/.
UPDATED Improved gigalomania_source.txt to give better instructions for
        compiling on Linux.
UPDATED Added "loading..." status to window title on startup.

Version 0.15 (2011/01/24)

FIXED   More fixes for repetitive mouse clicks.
UPDATED Log file and save game files on Windows are now stored in
        %APPDATA%\Gigalomania.
UPDATED Change some graphics from PNG to JPEG format (reduce file size of
        archive, and possibly help with loading times).
UPDATED Windows version now distributed as MSI installer file.

Version 0.14 (2010/10/19)

FIXED   Help popup text when selecting a sector to nuke.
FIXED   AI was sometimes abandoning a sector, even when a lab or mine could
        still be built.
FIXED   Improved some mouse click behaviours so clicks don't immediately
        re-register.
FIXED   Choosing a starting sector should be done with only left mouse button,
        not right mouse button.
ADDED   New game mode, allows playing the islands an epoch at a time, keeping
        track of how many men you have, and giving a score if you complete all
        islands/epochs. Option to save/load games in this mode.
ADDED   Sound effects.
CHANGED Clicking on an element image now switches the GUI to showing the
        element stocks.
CHANGED Pressing Escape or clicking close window when playing the main game
        quits the island rather than exiting the game altogether.
CHANGED Warn that you can't nuke a sector with player you're allied to.
CHANDED Updated documentation.

Version 0.13 (2010/08/24)

FIXED   Bug/assertion failure when an AI you were allied with asked another AI
        for an alliance.
FIXED   Bug in placement of popup text windows.
FIXED   Problem where clicking to accept or decline an alliance could also
        change the currently viewed sector.
FIXED   Problem where AI would ask for an alliance, but then cancel request
        (in some cases, immediately).
FIXED   GUI no longer returns to the main sector control screen, when an AI
        asks for an alliance, or the player accepts or declines an alliance.
FIXED   Displaying "person" image twice, instead of image for item being
        manufactured, in Factory screen.
ADDED   New graphics - note that some of these are still "placeholder"
        graphics.
ADDED   Linux version now scales window size in windowed mode, choosing 2x or
        4x resolution depending on desktop resolution (previously only the
        Windows version did this).
ADDED   Source archive now contains gigalomania_fullscreen.sh, to run in
        fullscreen mode in Linux.
CHANGED Last island now plays as an ordinary island starting in epoch 2100AD.
CHANGED Made some changes to the user interface.
CHANGED Improved startup performance (avoid loading "slabs" image file multiple
        times).
CHANGED Now compiled using SDL 1.2.14 (now needs at least 1.2.10 for Linux).

Version 0.12 (2010/08/17)

FIXED   Source archive now also contains the "islands" folder (so that Linux
        users don't have to download the Windows binary archive anymore).
CHANGED Another fix to source code for 64 bit.
CHANGED Now compiled with Visual Studio Express 2008.

Version 0.11 (2010/01/17)

CHANGED Switched to using original set of islands.
CHANGED Don't quit if fail to initialise sound, instead carry on without sound.
CHANGED Warn if any sound samples fail to load.
CHANGED Now using FMOD version 4 (needed for 64 bit support).
CHANGED Fixes to source code for Linux and 64 bit.

Version 0.10 (2009/09/09)

ADDED   Display error message if failed to start up.
CHANGED Error logging for when failing to load images.

Version 0.9 (2009/08/16)

FIXED   Crash when Red team agrees to ally with you (problem with displayed
        text!).
FIXED   Bug to do with alliances, sometimes not being cleared properly from
        previous game.
FIXED   Fixed problems with compiling on Linux (hopefully...).
ADDED   Computer players now ask you for an alliance.
ADDED   Help popup text on the numbers next to player shields, to indicate the
        user can click to show details of armies.
ADDED   "Quitter" sound samples now played.
CHANGED Grab larger sizes for some icons (no functional change, but needed in
        preparation for new graphics files).
CHANGED Enabled _CRT_SECURE_CPP_OVERLOAD_STANDARD_NAMES for Windows.

Version 0.8 (2008/10/21)

FIXED   Shields couldn't be manufactured (via factory); if this was done by the
        player or AI player, the game would crash on exit.
FIXED   Game would crash if main music file was available, but sound samples
        weren't available.
FIXED   Prevent popups from going off the bottom of the screen.
FIXED   Sometimes included island .map files that were invalid.
FIXED   Fixed assertion check when checking if Island/icon images are
        consistent.
FIXED   Wasn't freeing sound samples upon exit.
ADDED   Speech sound effects are now printed as text on screen.
ADDED   Make assertion failures print filename/line number in log file.
ADDED   More checks for island .map files.
CHANGED Design/Lab icon now only appears if new inventions can be designed.
CHANGED Make AI keep alliances for longer.
CHANGED Improved debug logging.

Version 0.7 (2008/10/05)

FIXED   Assertion failure if trying to move an army whilst having an assembled
        army.
FIXED   Don't allow player to nuke their own sectors.
FIXED   Make island "0hm" come last in the island ordering.
FIXED   Bug with speeds of ammunition.
FIXED   Source wouldn't compile under Visual Studio.
FIXED   Possible problems with compiling source under Linux.
FIXED   Fail rather than crashing, if an image fails to load.
FIXED   Number of deaths and number of men remaining calculations didn't take
        into account army units that require more than one man each.
FIXED   Show correct mouse pointer colour if not playing Red.
FIXED   If a "shutdown" sector is nuked, the trees should be burnt.
ADDED   In windowed mode, attempt to run in 4x resolution (1280x1024) if there
        is enough desktop space to do so. If not, open in 2x resolution
        (640x512) as before.
ADDED   Alliances mostly done - you can make alliances, and the AIs will make
        alliances with each other, but they won't ask you for one.
ADDED   Can switch to showing details of armies in sector by clicking on the 
        numbers by player shields.
ADDED   Display "OK" when more shields/defences/weapons can be immediately built
        (without needing to be manufactured).
ADDED   Only change mouse pointer icon for deploying shields and defences if
        one can be deployed (i.e., there are some spare, or one can immediately
        be created without being manufactured).
ADDED   Plays introduction music.
CHANGED Maximum stored gatherable elements from 25 to 22 - avoids running out
        of elements straight away if there are only 25 of that element in the
        sector.
CHANGED Air units fly over a wider area, so they don't suddenly appear out of
        nowhere on-screen.
CHANGED Now compiled with Visual Studio 2005 Express.
CHANGED Switched to using STL vectors.

Version 0.6 (2007/02/27)

ADDED   All islands now implemented.
CHANGED Island data now read in from external data files.

Version 0.5 (2006/09/30)

FIXED   Crash when clicking on newly built "tower" buildings.
FIXED   Prefer "ergonomically terrific" designs when designing an invention.
FIXED   Laser colours for Oberon and Caesar were wrong way round.
FIXED   "2001AD" year should be written in futuristic shiny blue font.
FIXED   Minor bug when AI was allocating number of men for various tasks.
FIXED   Bugs when determining if AI should move to a new sector.
ADDED   Source code ported to Linux by Fredrik Sörensson.
ADDED   A load more islands - some epochs now have all three islands
        implemented; the rest have two.
CHANGED AI makes more effort to look for new sectors.
CHANGED "Gatherable" elements are gathered at a faster rate.
CHANGED Now using SDL_image instead of FreeImage.

Version 0.4 (2006/03/12)

ADDED   You can now play islands in all Epochs, 1 to 10.
ADDED   Choose which player you want to be.
ADDED   More than one opponent (no alliances yet, though).
ADDED   Nuclear Missiles, Flying Saucers, Nuclear Defences and Lasers.
ADDED   Can now set factory to make things continually (ie, an "infinite"
        production run).
ADDED   Can control number of factory workers and builders from the main
        interface.
ADDED   Win/Lose/Quit screen, complete with some game statistics.
CHANGED Improved AI.
CHANGED Improved combat algorithm.
CHANGED Attacker strength of individual units are no longer multiplied by the
        number of men per unit.
CHANGED Made defenders stronger.
CHANGED Towers no longer have a "maximum" population.
FIXED   User could move soldiers into enemy fortresses!
FIXED   Computer player would unnecessarily stop mining, when under attack from
        only unarmed men.
FIXED   Bloody sword icon (to indicate retreating an army) sometimes incorrectly
        shown or not shown.
FIXED   Corrected times to manufacture items.
FIXED   User could assign number of designers when nothing was being researched.
FIXED   Assertion failure if user tried to change number of units being
        manufactured, when nothing was being manufactured.
FIXED   Fixed a bug when determining tech level advances, and also improved the
        algorithm.
FIXED   Island "Bazooka" should be green, not white.

Version 0.3 (2005/01/20)

ADDED   You can now play islands in Epochs 4 and 5.
ADDED   The Lab is now implemented.
ADDED   Biplanes and Jets.
CHANGED No population growth if spare population is 500 or more.
CHANGED Maximum population of 999 is based on the spare population, not the
        total population.
CHANGED Slowed mining rate.
FIXED   Bug in Version 0.2 where the computer player had 0 men in Epoch 1.
FIXED   Incorrect graphics shown for cannon ammo when shooting up or down.

Version 0.2 (2004/11/30)

ADDED   You can now play islands in Epochs 2 and 3 (The Lab is not yet
        implemented, but it doesn't really matter for Epoch 3).
ADDED   Different island colours, and drawing of coastlines.
FIXED   Sometimes the number of "spare" men would drop below 0.
FIXED   The number of "spare" men could always be reduced to 0; changed to a
        minimum of 1, as in the original.
FIXED   Assertion failure if more than 1,000 soldiers in a sector (for now you
        can have an unlimited number, but I realise the original had a limit of
        250).

Version 0.1 (2004/11/15)

First public release.

Credits etc

• Mark Harman - Main programming.
• Fredrik Sörensson - Linux port, and switch to using SDL_image instead of FreeImage.
• Stephen Fish - Various graphics (the good graphics are done by Stephen, except for those files listed below; the rubbish graphics are placeholder graphics done by me;)
• Andreas Herzig - OS X port, and features.png graphic.