This web page provides information about, and access to, an online multiplayer version of the popular Puerto Rico board game. Here is a screen shot of a game in progress.
********** Click here after installing the Curl RTE as described below. **********
WARNING: The Puerto Rico applet uses the (free) Curl RTE, which apparently is now only supported on Windows, and only by Microsoft Edge in Legacy Mode (or Internet Explorer).
WARNING: The Puerto Rico server has been down since 2012, because the Curl RTE (still) does not support 64-bit linux, and I am only just now getting around to converting it to Python.
Once the Curl RTE is installed (see below), you can simply click here to run the game as a web applet. Note that clicking this link before the Curl RTE is installed will either ask you what to do with the file "game.curl", or will display it as textual source code, neither of which is very useful!
For more information about the Puerto Rico board game, see the Puerto Rico page at www.boardgamegeek.com, and/or the Rio Grande Games website (the publishers of the Puerto Rico board game in the USA). See the online rules for the complete rules to the board game (but be aware that they reflect somebody else's implementation). During play, hovering the mouse over various widgets will provide a brief description of the widget.
In order to play, you will first need to install version 8.0 (or older) of the Curl © RTE (Runtime Environment), available (free) via the Curl RTE download page at www.curl.com. These installers are signed by Sumisho Computer Systems Corporation (previously Curl, Inc.).
Once the Curl RTE is installed, browse to game.curl, to run the game. This will load and run a relatively small Curl Applet (about 440K of uncompressed source code), which will be cached locally, and only downloaded again when an update is available. The applet is the client for the game, and it will allow you to connect to the official Puerto Rico Server, and play an online version of the Puerto Rico board game against other human and computer players. It will also allow you to play a private game on your own computer, against computer players, or even against other human players, using hotseat play. Note that the computer players are not very smart, but they can help you learn how to play the game before you face other human players. You will also be able to view a somewhat useful help file.
Appropriate translations will be used, if available, for the main game. You can explicitly request the use of English, German, Dutch, Czech, or French. Please contact me if you see any mistakes in any existing translations, or if if you are interested in providing translations for a new language.
If you see an error mentioning a "curl-license" file, and reloading the game.curl applet does not seem to help, then shut down the Curl RTE and reload. If you get other errors, try clearing your internet cache (there is a bug in WinInet involving a very full cache). If all else fails, try clicking here.
As a long-time ex-employee of Curl, Inc, I can vouch that the Curl RTE is a non-malicious plug-in. As the primary author and previous maintainer of the open source game Angband, I have some claim that my vouching is worth something.
Contact Ben Harrison with comments, suggestions, bug reports, etc. Please put "Puerto Rico" in the subject, to help bypass my copious spam filters.
