''Jagged Alliance 2'' is a

tactical role-playing game Tactical role-playing games (abbreviated TRPGs), also known as strategy role-playing games and in Japan as (both abbreviated SRPGs), are a video game genre that combines core elements of role-playing video games with those of tactical (turn-bas ...

for PC, released in 1999 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and later

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

by Tribsoft. It is the third entry in the ''Jagged Alliance'' series. The game was followed by the expansion '' Unfinished Business'' in 2000. Two commercial versions of the mod ''

Wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

'' were released in 2004 in the form of

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game or collectible card game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, characters, or an ...

s. The core game and the ''Unfinished Business'' expansion were combined and released under the title '' Jagged Alliance 2 Gold Pack'' in 2002. The game takes place in the fictional country of Arulco, which has been ruled by the ruthless monarch Deidranna for several years. The player is put in control of hired

mercenaries A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any o ...

and with aid of local citizens and militia must reclaim Arulco's cities and ultimately defeat Deidranna. The game uses a strategic map screen of Arulco where the player may issue high level strategic orders for their troops, such as travelling or prolonged training. Combat and individual location exploration takes place in tactical screen, where the player can issue individual direct commands to their mercenaries, such as run, shoot, talk and so on. The game features a wide variety of guns, armour and items that the player may use. The game was commercially successful; ''

Pelit ''Pelit'' ("Games") is a Finnish video games magazine published in Helsinki, Finland. History ''Pelit'' dates back to 1987, as an annual extra games-only issue of '' MikroBitti'' and '' C-lehti''. Another annual issue was published in 1988, and in ...

'' estimated its sales at 300,000 units by 2006. However, it sold poorly in the United States. The game received positive scores from reviewers and was praised for its freedom of action, memorable characters and

non-linear In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...

and tactical gameplay.

Gameplay

The game puts the player in control of several

that must explore and reclaim towns and territories from enemy forces. As the game advances, the player can hire new mercenaries and acquire better weapons and armour to combat opponents. The map screen displays the

world map A world map is a map of most or all of the surface of Earth. World maps, because of their scale, must deal with the problem of map projection, projection. Maps rendered in two dimensions by necessity distort the display of the three-dimensiona ...

of Arulco in a square grid (called sectors) and the forces deployed by the enemy and the player.''Jagged Alliance 2'' game manual, p. 35. This is the strategic side of the game, as the player directs his forces, and controls the progress of time, which may be sped up or paused. From here, the player can access the game's laptop function, allowing the player to receive

email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

s from characters, buy weapons and equipment, and hire and fire mercenaries. This screen is used to give mercenaries tasks. Mercs with a medical kit and medical skill can be set to tend to wounded mercs; this significantly quickens their recovery. Mercs with a tool box and mechanical skill can be set to repair damaged weapons, tools and armour. Mercs can practice a skill by themselves or work as a trainer or student. Training a student increases their chosen skill. A trainer may train local citizens to become

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

to defend sectors while the mercs are away. Mercs can be ordered to travel on foot between the sectors. If the player acquires a ground or aerial vehicle in-game, they may load their troops into it to travel between sectors much faster. There is a tactical screen, where the player takes control of individual mercenaries during

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

interactions and

turn-based In video and other games, the passage of time must be handled in a way that players find fair and easy to understand. This is usually done in one of the two ways: real-time and turn-based. Real-time Real-time games have game time progress cont ...

combat. The tactical screen shows a sector from an isometric viewpoint. Here the player can view the terrain, explore buildings and find items. Although the game does not feature a visual

fog of war The fog of war (german: links=no, Nebel des Krieges) is the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations. The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, ...

, the

non-player character A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster o ...

s (NPCs) can only be seen if a player-controlled or allied character sees them. The game time advances in real-time on the tactical screen unless a battle is initiated, then the game switches to a turn-based combat mode. The player can control an individual merc or group of mercs, issuing move, communication and various interaction commands. Mercs can run, walk, swim, crouch or crawl. Mercs may climb onto the roofs of flat-roofed buildings. Battles occur whenever the player's and enemy forces occupy the same sector. The game proceeds in real-time until a member of one force spots an enemy. The game then switches to turn-based play.''Jagged Alliance 2'' game manual, p. 27. Each force takes alternating turns to move, attack, and perform various other actions. Each character has a limited number of

action points This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players. 0–9 A ...

, which are spent to perform actions. The action points are renewed at the beginning of each round, depending on the physical state of the merc. Some unspent action points will be carried over to the next round. If a combatant has some action points left over during the enemy's turn and spots an enemy, they stand a chance of interrupting the enemy turn and performing actions. Mercs can attack enemies in many different ways. Firearms such as handguns, machine guns, rifles, close combat and thrown weapons like knives and

hand grenades A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade ge ...

, heavy weapons such as

mortars Mortar may refer to: * Mortar (weapon), an indirect-fire infantry weapon * Mortar (masonry), a material used to fill the gaps between blocks and bind them together * Mortar and pestle, a tool pair used to crush or grind * Mortar, Bihar, a villag ...

rocket-propelled grenade A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) is a shoulder-fired missile weapon that launches rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. Most RPGs can be carried by an individual soldier, and are frequently used as anti-tank weapons. These warheads are a ...

s and light anti-tank weapons and explosives like mines, and bombs. When a merc attacks, they have a certain chance to hit the target depending on the appropriate skill, obstacles in the line of fire and the number of action points spent aiming. Walls, doors, and many objects can be destroyed using explosives or heavy weapons. Some battles may be automatically resolved if the player chooses to do so. The game may be played using stealth elements. Mercs may move either in normal or stealth mode. In stealth mode, the merc attempts to move without making any noise. Moving stealthily costs more action points, but may successfully hide their position from enemies. The game features weapons that do not cause loud noise and

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the ...

kits, which when used may disguise the merc in their environment. Merc attributes and some special skills affect how stealthy they are. The game features a large array of various items. These include weapons, armour, tools and miscellaneous items. Items can be traded between mercs, picked up, dropped or thrown. If a merc dies, they drop all their items. Enemies will sometimes drop items upon dying. Mercs can be hired with their own combat equipment. As the game progresses, the online shop offers a larger and better variety of weapons, armour and tools for sale. Mercenaries can equip and carry various items in their inventory. The mercs can wear armour on their head, chest and legs. Certain skills and interactions require a certain tool or object to be held in the hand. The mercs can hold one large weapon or

dual wield Dual wielding is the technique of using two weapons, one in each hand for training or combat. It is not a common combat practice. Although historical records of dual wielding in war are limited, there are numerous weapon-based martial arts that ...

two small weapons. Weapons may be improved via special attachments, for instance a silencer or

bipod A bipod is a V-shaped portable attachment that helps support and steady a device, usually a weapon such as a long gun or a mortar. The term comes from the Latin prefix ''bi-'' and Greek root ''pod'', meaning "two" and "foot" respectively. Bipod ...

. The player needs money to pay the mercenary hire fees and to purchase equipment. At the start of the game, the player is given a set amount of money. The main source of income in the game are silver and gold mines located in several towns. The player has to reclaim these town sectors and convince the local miners to work for the player to receive a daily income. Weaponry, equipment and miscellaneous items may be sold to local merchants. Although the player is directed by rebels to head to Drassen first, the player may choose to capture the towns and explore the countryside in any order they desire. It is not required to capture any towns. Additionally, almost every sector may be entered via two or more entry points. The player may choose between a very large array of different mercs, allowing combinations for specific purposes – e.g. stealth combat, night combat, close-quarters combat and so on. The game features random

treasure chest Treasure (from la, thesaurus from Greek language ''thēsauros'', "treasure store") is a concentration of wealth — often originating from ancient history — that is considered lost and/or forgotten until rediscovered. Some jurisdictions leg ...

s, characters and certain events that differ from game to game.

Characters

The characters in ''Jagged Alliance 2'' are mercenaries, enemies, allies and the townsfolk; many of the NPC characters may be interacted with. The game is played almost entirely through the mercenaries chosen. Mercenaries can be hired from

private military company A private military company (PMC) or private military and security company (PMSC) is a private company providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their personnel as "security contractors" or "private military ...

websites, or recruited from the local citizenry. The player may create one personalized, unique mercenary. Characters are defined by their skills expressed in

character point A statistic (or stat) in role-playing games is a piece of data that represents a particular aspect of a fictional character. That piece of data is usually a (unitless) integer or, in some cases, a set of dice. For some types of statistics, thi ...

s. Every character has an

experience level An experience point (often abbreviated as exp or XP) is a unit of measurement used in some tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's life experience and progression through the game. Experien ...

, five attributes (agility, dexterity, strength, leadership, wisdom) and four skills (marksmanship, explosives, mechanical, medical). A character's level is increased by actively participating in the game. Skills are increased by performing actions based on these skills or by training. Attribute points may be lost if a character is critically wounded. Apart from this, a mercenary can have two (or one highly developed) special skills enhancing a certain aspect of his or her performance such as night operations, or lockpicking. Each character has a certain number of

health points Health is an attribute in a video game or tabletop game that determines the maximum amount of damage or loss of stamina that a character or object can take before dying or losing consciousness. In role-playing games, this typically takes the for ...

, which are reduced when they take damage. Wounds can be bandaged by using first aid kits. This prevents the character from bleeding and losing more health but does not restore health points. A wounded mercenary is given less action points proportionally to their wounds. Health can be restored by resting, being treated by another mercenary with 'doctor'-'patient' pair of commands or visiting a hospital. When a mercenary runs very low on health, the character falls to the ground slowly dying, unable to do anything until medically treated. If a character dies, they cannot be resurrected. Characters have an energy level, restored by sleep, rest, fluids or injections. Moving, using stealth and getting hit saps energy. Tired mercs who have not rested for a long time become exhausted faster. Exhausted characters will fall to the ground until they regain some energy. Mercenaries have a

morale Morale, also known as esprit de corps (), is the capacity of a group's members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship. Morale is often referenced by authority figures as a generic value ...

level, mainly increased by victories and successful kills and decreased by the opposite. Happy mercs perform better, while unhappy mercs will complain and may leave the player's forces altogether. Mercs who like each other and work together will have a higher morale than others. Mercenaries who dislike each other will complain often and eventually one of the two mercenaries will quit. Mercenaries may refuse to be hired if the player has already hired someone they dislike.

Plot

''Jagged Alliance 2'' takes place in the fictional nation of Arulco, ruled until the late 1980s by a unique democratic

monarchy A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy) ...

– monarchs led the nation, but elections were held every ten years to assert their legitimacy. In 1988, election candidate Enrico Chivaldori took a wife, Deidranna Reitman of

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, in order to boost his popularity and consequently was victorious. However, Deidranna proved to be more than a pawn; showing a thirst for power, she framed Chivaldori for the murder of his father. Enrico managed to escape, faking his death. Removing all other obstacles from her way, she consolidated her power and converted Arulco into an

authoritarian Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...

state. When the game begins, Chivaldori has hired the player to remove Deidranna by whatever means necessary. He puts the player and their team of

in contact with a rebel movement in the northern town of Omerta. Omerta suffered a massive raid shortly before the events of the game, leaving the town damaged and nearly deserted. The rebel leader Miguel Cordona, former election candidate and opponent of Enrico, guides the player to the city of Drassen. The game features a science fiction mode that introduces enemies not present in realistic mode – the "Crepitus", a species of giant insect living underground, infesting mines and occasionally emerging to the surface.

Development

In an interview with Game.EXE during the game's development, SirTech noted an intention to preserve freedom of movement, character relationships and flexible storyline from the previous title. Among the new features discussed were a real-time mode and player own character's generation. In a later interview during game's

alpha release A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

, the game's designer Ian Currie noted the addition of role-playing and strategy elements compared to the previous title. He explained that — while the tactical game mode was well suited for multiplayer — it would not be implementing, explaining that non-linear story and role-playing elements did not suit multiplayer. The developers explained the game being delayed due to heavy improvements in the

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...

, graphics and the creation of a detailed world, and originally expected to release in October 1998. Currie explains the game engine had several ground-up rewrites and that significant time was spent on the game's physics and projectile ballistics, as well as the creation of the non-linear storyline. A demo of the game, containing a unique map named ''Demotown'', was released in the summer of 1998 through distribution with various gaming magazines. An

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

AmigaOS 4 AmigaOS 4 (abbreviated as OS4 or AOS4) is a line of Amiga operating systems which runs on PowerPC microprocessors. It is mainly based on AmigaOS 3.1 source code developed by Commodore, and partially on version 3.9 developed by Haage & Partner. "T ...

port was released on June 28, 2008.

Reception

Sales

''Jagged Alliance 2'' became a commercial success and, according to designer Ian Currie, was the second-largest hit published by

TalonSoft TalonSoft, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher based in Baltimore. History TalonSoft was founded in March 1995, by video game producers Jim Rose and John Davidson. On December 24, 1998, Take-Two Interactive announced that ...

. By October 1999, Udo Hoffman of '' PC Player'' reported that its sales had surpassed 100,000 units in Germany and that distributor

TopWare TopWare Interactive – AC Enterprises e.K. is a German video game publisher based in Karlsruhe. The company is best known for publishing the '' Two Worlds'' series developed by its Reality Pump Studios division. History TopWare Interactive w ...

was pleased with the returns. It debuted at #1 in April 1999 on Germany's computer game sales charts and held the position the following month, before falling to ninth in June. It claimed 14th for July. However, the game flopped in North America:

PC Data PC Data was an American market research and point of sale tracking firm founded in 1991 and based in Reston, Virginia. Its founder, Ann Stephens, had worked previously as the head researcher for the Software Publishers Association. Initially, th ...

reported sales of 24,000 for ''Jagged Alliance II'' through the end of 1999. The editors of

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

nominated it for their 1999 "Best Game No One Played" award, which ultimately went to '' Disciples: Sacred Lands''. Regarding ''Jagged Alliance 2''s global sales, ''

''s

Niko Nirvi Niko Nirvi (born 16 February 1961 in Jokioinen, FinlandMalin, AarnoNiko Nirvi on suomalaisen pelijournalismin pioneeri, jonka olemassaoloa moni ehti epäillä – kameran karttamisesta tuli pakkomielle ''Suomen Kuvalehti'' 16 February 2021. Acce ...

reported that "estimates of sales bounced between 150,000–500,000." He remarked that team member Chris Camfield placed its sales at 300,000 units by 2006, a figure that Nirvi said "sounds credible".

Critical reviews

''Jagged Alliance 2'' received a score of 85.09% from review aggregation website

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. GameSpot praised its non-linear gameplay, freedom of action and variety of tactics and mercenary character traits, while IGN highlighted its story-telling and role-playing, detailed world, challenging opponents and excellent audio. ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'' presented the game Editor's Choice award, and Jeff Green described it as a hardcore game, praising its selection of mercenaries, replay value and combat planning, although noted AI was not very intelligent and graphics weren't strong. ''Jagged Alliance 2'' was a finalist for ''

Computer Games Strategy Plus ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...

'',

's and ''

''s 1999 "Strategy Game of the Year" awards, which it lost to '' RollerCoaster Tycoon'', '' Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings'' and ''

Homeworld ''Homeworld'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment, Sierra Studios on September 28, 1999, for Microsoft Windows. Set in space, the science fiction game follows the Kushan exil ...

'', respectively. It was also nominated in GameSpot's "Best Sound" and "Best Game No One Played" categories. The editors of ''Computer Games'' wrote, "Sirtech's amazing hybrid of detailed tactical strategy and role-playing delivered the goods. How many real-time games have this much tension?"

Legacy

After the release of the original ''Jagged Alliance 2'', two sequels and various mods have been released, including a prequel titled ''Jagged Alliance: Flashback'' which was released on Steam in October 2014.

''Unfinished Business''

''Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business'', alternatively known as ''Jagged Alliance 2.5'' is a short, mission-based

standalone Standalone or Stand-alone may refer to: *Stand-alone DSL, a digital subscriber line without analog telephone service; also known as ''naked DSL'' *Stand-alone expansion pack, an expansion pack which does not require the original game in order to us ...

sequel released by

Sir-Tech Sir-Tech Software, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher based in the United States and Canada. History In fall 1979, Sirotech Software was founded by Norman Sirotek, Robert Sirotek and Robert Woodhead. Sirotech Software published ''Info ...

on December 5, 2000. This release adds some tweaks to the combat engine, as well as a scenario editor, The gameplay remains largely unchanged. A new plot is introduced in ''Unfinished Business''. The original owners of Arulco's lucrative mines have returned and established a missile base on the nearby island of Tracona, demanding the mines are returned to them. They destroy the Arulco's now empty Tixa prison to show an example for if their demands are not met. The player must put a team of mercenaries together to infiltrate Tracona and disable the missile base. Alternatively, the player may choose to use the characters from a previously saved ''Jagged Alliance 2: Gold''

savegame A saved game (also called a game save, savegame, savefile, save point, or simply save) is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game. From the earliest games in the 1970s onward, game platform hardw ...

.''Jagged Alliance 2: Gold'' game manual, p. 46. ''Unfinished Business'' is notably harder than the original. The product appears to be rushed as the gameplay is virtually the same as the original's, the play-time of ''Unfinished Business'' is much shorter, and the plot is linear and thus lacks replayability value. Sir-tech was experiencing financial problems at the time, most significantly trouble finding a publisher.

''Gold Pack''

''Jagged Alliance 2: Gold Pack'' was published by

Strategy First Strategy First Inc. is a Canadian video game publisher based in Montreal. Founded in 1988 by Don McFatridge, Steve Wall and Dave Hill, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and was subsequently acquired by Silverstar Holdings in 2005. Initia ...

on August 6, 2002 and adds the improvements of ''Unfinished Business'' to the final release of ''Jagged Alliance 2''. The ''Unfinished Business'' and a scenario editor are included in the package. ''Gold Pack'' introduces notable changes to the

difficulty setting Game balance is a branch of game design that is described as a mathematical-algorithmic model of a game’s numbers, game mechanics, and relations between the two. Game balance consists of adjusting values to create a certain user experience. Play ...

. The player choosing an advanced difficulty level may decide to make the player turns timed and whether to disallow saving during combat, as opposed to the original ''Jagged Alliance 2'', which set these settings automatically. As of July 2006 it is available via the

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

content delivery system, as well as Turner Broadcasting's

GameTap GameTap was an online video game service established by Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) in 2005. It provided users with classic arcade video games and game-related video content. The service was acquired by French online video game service Metab ...

''Wildfire''

''Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire'' was published by i-Deal Games in 2004 as an official

by Strategy First. The game's

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

was published in the package, under a

license A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

permitting non-commercial use. Comparing to the original ''Jagged Alliance 2'', ''Wildfire'' has not altered the game engine or controls. The focus was instead directed into designing revamped environments, new items and stronger enemies. This presents players with a more challenging campaign, however the goals and progression remain the same. In terms of the gameplay features, the game remains almost unchanged. A renewed commercial release of ''Wildfire'', dubbed version 6, through European publisher Zuxxez Entertainment in 2005 saw the ''Jagged Alliance'' series staying on shop shelves more than five years after the debut of its second iteration. ''Wild Fire'' version 6 contains changed sourcecode, a tweaked graphics engine that allows for a higher resolution, introduces new mercenaries and increases squad size from 6 to 10.

Modding and community development

''Jagged Alliance 2: Gold'' has seen numerous community mods after its release and especially after the source code release. Notable examples include ''v1.13'', ''Urban Chaos'' and ''Deidranna Lives''.

''JA2-Stracciatella''

The ''JA2-Stracciatella'' project aims for

cross platform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software r ...

capabilities for ''Jagged Alliance 2'' by

porting In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...

the

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). Pollination is required to make the p ...

''Wildfire'' source code to SDL as underlying library.

Mac OS Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded "M ...

, Linux, Android and other

source port A source port is a software project based on the source code of a game engine that allows the game to be played on operating systems or computing platforms with which the game was not originally compatible. Description Source ports are often cr ...

s were released as result. Also, ''Stracciatella'' can be seen as an

unofficial patch An unofficial patch is a patch for a piece of software, created by a third party such as a user community without the involvement of the original developer. Similar to an ordinary patch, it alleviates bugs or shortcomings. Unofficial patches do no ...

project, since the second focus is the fixing of technical errors (like

buffer overflow In information security and programming, a buffer overflow, or buffer overrun, is an anomaly whereby a program, while writing data to a buffer, overruns the buffer's boundary and overwrites adjacent memory locations. Buffers are areas of memory ...

s) and the removal of technical limitations without changing the game's balancing. The last commit of project initiator Tron in the project

repository Repository may refer to: Archives and online databases * Content repository, a database with an associated set of data management tools, allowing application-independent access to the content * Disciplinary repository (or subject repository), an ...

was ''r7072'' from August 2010. In March 2013 the JA2-Stracciatella project was continued by another developer and transferred to a new repository. Support for higher resolutions and additional fixes were introduced. In March 2016 the project was continued on

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continuous ...

v1.13

''v1.13'' is an enhanced version of ''Jagged Alliance 2 Gold'' and partial conversion mod of the game. The main change from the original code is the "externalisation" of many previously hardcoded variables to editable XML files, allowing users a great level of modding flexibility. It introduced many new features and items, as well as a multiplayer mode. Since July, 2007, 1.13 has been successfully ported to

. It is also backwards-compatible with a base ''Jagged Alliance 2'' installation.

References

External links

Official website
via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

''Jagged Alliance 2''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

{{Jagged Alliance 1999 video games Amiga games AmigaOS 4 games Commercial video games with freely available source code Linux games MacOS games Proprietary software that uses SDL Single-player video games Sir-Tech games Strategy First games Tactical role-playing video games Turn-based tactics video games Video game sequels Video games developed in Canada Video games scored by Kevin Manthei Video games set in a fictional country Video games with expansion packs Video games with isometric graphics Windows games TalonSoft games