Exploration is a fun game of 15th – 19th century era of exploration from Interactive Magic.
Earlier released in Europe by Black Legend as Voyages of Discovery, the game attempts nothing that we haven’t seen before since the days of Seven Cities of Gold or Colonization: a combination of trading, exploration, war, and economics elements set in the age of exploration. But it does add a lot of complexity to the familiar formula. You can play against up to four computer or human (via network options) opponents. The main goal of this game, as is in most strategy games of this kind, is to either annihilate or do better than your opponents.
In Exploration, this is accomplished by exploring the world with sailing vessels, finding other neutral civilizations and either conquering or befriending them, and developing a good economic base by trading with these new alliances. War is also another option, but one that should be avoided at all costs because it tends to reduce your meager assets. Success in the game relies on laying efficient and profitable trade routes between your colonies and your home port. As time passes, new and bigger ships become available for you to lay longer routes. You can also send expedition groups on shore—these units have the ability to either conquer or befriend the natives they meet.
Random elements such as disease, starvation, and fires must also be dealt with. After you have founded a few colonies and established some trade routes, the game becomes quite repetitive and there is no “meta-goal” (such as declaring Independence in Colonization) to alleviate the tedium.
Another weak point in Exploration is the tedious user interface that forces you to click on multiple screens to get to the option you want. There are not many shortcut keys you can use to jump quickly to common actions, and the graphics are for the most part too drab and blocky. One of the game’s few redeeming values is the relatively high replay value thanks to random maps, but this isn’t much help when the game as a whole is rather repetitive.
The bottom line is clear: try Exploration only after you have played just about every other historical trading game. Only an average rating for this one. If you like extensive micro management, however, this underdog is well worth a look.
Review By HOTUD
English 
German 
Comments and reviews
Are you supposed to download all the options to make it work?
RIP English version 2 MB
Download
ISO Version English version 374 MB
Download
Installer English version 16 MB
Download
eXoDOS v6 version German version 307 MB
Manual
English version 2 MB
Die deutsche Version scheint beschädigt zu sein. Nach der Intallation kommt die Fehlermeldung "Fehler beim aktualisieren der Autoexec.bat".
Wenn man danach im Installtationsordner das Spiel starten möchte, kommt "Bitte zuerst install.exe starten". Habe auch eine alte CD mit der dt. Version von Kolumbus, da tritt das gleiche Problem auf.
so this browser and download are the trial version i think...
there is no accessing other ports, church, you cant build settlements, alot of missing stuff that effects the overall polish of the game, still fun, but i deff was confused since i remembered playing with those options
where is the church in the port? was it removed?
English DOS Manual is available here https://archive.org/details/exploration-manual
you can use google translate for the german to english manual. copy and paste each page you want to read. i find too many bugs in both amiga version and exploration for dos. but i still like something about this game. in my previous post im talking about colonial ports not the home port. theres a major difference.
How do you transfer goods from colonial port to ships. I can only figure out to transfer goods with expeditions. is this game really that flawed they didn't program a simple mechanic to transfer directly from port to ship?
Keyboard layout
In addition to mouse control, some menu items can also be accessed directly via the keyboard:
MAIN MENU INFORMATION
F1 home port F6 goods
F2 general map F7 soldiers
F3 Search F8 Production
F4 Save
F5 End of game
COMMANDS
M move
W wait
S Anchoring/fastening
E expedition form
U unload army
Space no commands
C centering
F ships
Esc end round
Anyone know where to find the English manual for this?
hallo
also ich bin auf save gegangen und habe dann auf "Game Name" geklickt, dann kommt ein "-" und man kann einen Namen eingeben, dann noch auf "save" klicken.
beim nächsten mal laden war mein spielstand wieder geladen
das war jetzt am 30.11. 20
Hallo, ich habe Kolumbus hier bei abandonware im Browser gespielt. Hat zunächst erstaunlich gut funktioniert. Speichern war nur möglich mit dem Name "Test1". Nach dem Browser Neustart hatte ich eine ganz andere Landkarte und einen anderen Spielstand. Wie löst man das Problem für spätere neue Spielrunden? Warum lässt sich nicht ein eigener Name vergeben?
I down loaded Exploration how do I get it to work on Windows 10
I love this game! I can't remember how to land though! Could sure use a manual!
Muito bom não a melhor
this game is very interesting
I bought one exemplar of Exploration in a second hand shop.
I did not figure out how to install, so i came here in this wonderful site to download xDDDD
I hope that i can help with something. :)
Kisses ~
like it
Is this available as an app?
I really want to download exploration
it's my favourite play
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.