X-COM: Apocalypse (OpenApoc)

Game: X-COM: Apocalypse (DOS, 1997)

OpenApoc (OpenApocalypse): an open-source reimplementation of X-COM: Apocalypse, written in C++ with SDL2, that needs the original game’s files. PmProg founded it in July 2014, and its README quotes Julian Gollop, X-COM’s designer, saying they know about the project and support it. It runs at modern resolutions, with display scaling and at 60 fps, plays sound without the original’s pops and stutters, and adds a “More Options” menu with dozens of optional improvements, an experimental skirmish mode for quick fights, a debug system, and saves stored as XML in a ZIP file that you can edit. Almost everything can be changed with mods. It’s still in alpha: there are bugs and crashes, and its roadmap still lists what’s needed for a “truly playable” alpha, such as agent training from tactical combat. It publishes dated builds for 64-bit Windows, with an installer; on Linux and macOS you build it yourself. The latest is 20260916 (September 16), and the September builds applied the original’s combat experience rules, medals from victory points, and the end of the game on the final victory or the loss of the last base, and the launcher now detects the CD or ISO on its own.

You needYour own X-COM: Apocalypse CD as an ISO image (cd.iso) or a folder with all its files, the Steam release’s cd.iso, or the GOG release’s XCOM.cue and XCOM.bin; it must be complete, music included. Plus an OpenGL 2.0 graphics card and, on Windows, the latest Visual C++ Redistributable; the published builds are for 64-bit Windows, and on Linux and macOS you have to build it.

How it gets to PC

Fan reimplementation

Console

MS-DOS

Original studio

Mythos Games

Year

1997

Author

OpenApoc

Stars

602

Last activity

2026-09-16 · 1 month ago

Latest version

20260408 · 2026-04-10

License

GPL-3.0

Language

C++