VPA-Linux 3.67.6

VPA-Linux 3.67.6 — Native Wayland, pluggable graphics backends and combat-viewer charge indicators

🇬🇧 English. A new release of the native GNU/Linux build of VGA
Planets Assistant (VPA) 3.67, the classic client for the play-by-email
strategy game VGA Planets 3. Built from the original Turbo/Borland Pascal DOS
source with Free Pascal — no DOSBox, no dosemu. Star map, ships, planets,
StarBases, messages, and a native, bit-exact PHost combat viewer (replacing
the old DOS-only PVCR.EXE), all running natively on X11 and, from this
release on, natively on Wayland too.

The headline of this release is native Wayland support: VPA no longer
needs XWayland in a Wayland session, and the mouse pointer is no longer
trapped in its window. To get there the graphics layer was rebuilt as
run-time plugins, one per display system, behind a common internal API. A
handful of fixes come along with it — see What's new below.

Downloads

• vpa-linux-3.67.6-x86_64.tar.gz — pre-built binary for 64-bit x86 +
  everything you need to run it: the plugins/ folder with the two
  graphics backends and the bundled SDL3 (new, see below), VPA.HLP,
  VPA_RUS.HLP, VPA.MSG, DISTTABL.DAT, LITT_VPA.CHR. Start here if
  you're on a regular PC and just want to play. See HOWTO.en.md / HOWTO.es.md for
  setup instructions, including which files from your own VGA Planets
  installation and host you'll still need.
• vpa-linux-3.67.6-aarch64.tar.gz — pre-built binary for 64-bit ARM
  (Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 and other aarch64 boards), same contents as the x86_64
  package, both plugins and SDL3 included.
• vpa-linux-3.67.6-src.tar.gz — full source tree for this release,
  cleaned of DOS-era build artifacts. See BUILD.en.md /
  BUILD.es.md to compile it yourself.

Requirements

64-bit Linux (x86_64 or aarch64) with glibc 2.34 or later (Debian 12,
Ubuntu 22.04 and anything newer), and a graphical session, X11 or
Wayland. The VPA binary itself only needs libc; the plugins use the
libraries every desktop already has: the usual X11 ones (libX11, libXext,
libXfixes, libXi, libXrandr, libXxf86vm) for the X11 plugin, and the Wayland
client libraries (libwayland-client, libxkbcommon, libdecor) for the Wayland
plugin. SDL3 is bundled, you don't need to install it. Full details and
per-distribution package names in the HOWTO.

Quick start

tar xzf vpa-linux-3.67.6-<arch>.tar.gz      # x86_64 or aarch64
cd vpa-linux-3.67.6-<arch>
chmod +x VPA
./VPA <race> [game-directory]

The plugins/ folder must stay next to the VPA binary — VPA won't
start without it. If you copy VPA to your own games folder, copy
plugins/ along with it. VPA.HLP must be present in the directory you run
VPA from — it's required to start.

What's new in 3.67.6

Native Wayland — how it was done

Up to 3.67.5, VPA linked the Free Pascal ptcgraph library and, through it,
seven X11 libraries: it was an X11 program, and in a Wayland session it only
ran through XWayland. That is where the known limitation of the last two
releases came from: the mouse pointer was grabbed when it entered the window
and never released, because all the pointer handling was X11 code
(XGrabPointer/XWarpPointer) that Wayland deliberately does not honour.
Patching around it was not possible; the fix had to be structural.

• The executable no longer draws by itself. VPA now links no graphics
  library at all (ldd VPA: libc only). A new core, GRAPH/ (VPAGraph),
  offers VPA the same BGI drawing API it has always used, plus keyboard and
  mouse, so VPA's ~2,400 drawing calls did not change: uses ptcgraph simply
  became uses vpagraph. At start-up the core loads a graphics plugin
  with dlopen and forwards every call to it through a table of function
  pointers (the VPAGraph ABI v1). Before a plugin is accepted its ABI version,
  its table size and every mandatory entry are checked.

• Two plugins, the same drawing code. plugins/libvpagraph-x11.so and
  plugins/libvpagraph-wayland.so both contain the same ptcgraph; only the
  PTC "console" that finally puts the pixels on screen differs. The X11 one is
  the console VPA-Linux has always used; the Wayland one is a new PTC console
  written for this port on top of SDL3, which talks to the compositor
  natively. That is why the picture is byte-for-byte identical on both
  backends — and it is not taken on trust: make visual-test captures a set
  of reference scenes from a real game on X11 and on Wayland and compares
  every frame with the golden ones, with a threshold of zero.

    VPA (executable)                  libc only
     └─ GRAPH/  VPAGraph core         BGI API + keyboard + mouse + plugin loader
          │   VPAGraph ABI v1 (table of function pointers)
          ├─ plugins/libvpagraph-x11.so       ptcgraph on PTC's X11 console
          └─ plugins/libvpagraph-wayland.so   the same ptcgraph on a new
                  │                           SDL3 console (native Wayland)
                  └─ plugins/libSDL3.so.0     bundled SDL 3.4.16
  

• Why plugins and not two builds. There is still a single VPA
  binary. If SDL3 were linked into the executable, a system without it could
  not start VPA at all; as a plugin, a missing SDL3 just means the Wayland
  plugin does not load and VPA carries on with X11, exactly as before.

• Nothing to configure. VPA looks at the session (WAYLAND_DISPLAY,
  DISPLAY, XDG_SESSION_TYPE), loads the matching plugin and, if it fails,
  tries the other one. VPA_GRAPH_BACKEND=x11 or =wayland forces one, and a
  forced backend never falls back silently: if it fails, VPA stops and says
  why. The new ./VPA --graph-info explains the whole decision (session,
  order tried, plugin chosen, or every reason why none worked) without opening
  a window — attach its output to any graphics bug report. ./VPA --help
  now also lists the VPA-Linux environment variables.

• SDL3 comes in the package. Many distributions don't ship SDL3 yet, and
  some ship one that is too old, so the package carries its own:
  plugins/libSDL3.so.0, SDL 3.4.16 built from the unmodified official
  tarball with only what VPA uses (Wayland video, events and rendering), its
  zlib licence in LICENSE.SDL3.txt. Nothing is installed in your system. The
  plugin looks for it next to itself first and in the system second, so if
  you'd rather use your distribution's SDL3 (3.4.4 or later), just delete the
  bundled copy.

• What you get on Wayland. The pointer comes and goes freely: VPA's white
  crosshair inside the window, the desktop's cursor outside. The picture stays
  sharp with fractional desktop scaling (tested at 100 %, 125 %, 150 %, 200 %
  and 240 %). The window keeps VPA's 4:3 shape when you resize it, as on X11,
  and VPA_SCALE=fullscreen fills the screen with black side bands and no
  distortion. The map stops auto-scrolling when the pointer is over those
  bands. The window's [X] button saves your turn like Alt-X. Key repeat,
  keyboard focus (also after returning from Edit file) and Ctrl-+ / Ctrl--
  on non-US layouts all work, and the "sticky mouse" that pulls the pointer
  onto planets and ships works on compositors that allow pointer warping.

• Built for older systems too. The packages are now built in a clean
  Debian 12 (bookworm) chroot, amd64 and arm64, with scripts included in
  tools/. That's where the glibc 2.34 minimum above comes from.

Fixes

• The map no longer scrolls while the pointer rests on the right-hand
  panel. With AutoScroll = On the map kept scrolling for as long as the
  pointer was anywhere over the panel. This came from the very first versions
  of the port and happened on X11 as well: under DOS the mouse driver stopped
  the pointer at the edge of the map (SetMouseRange(0,0,479,479)), but on a
  modern desktop the real pointer moves into the panel, and its position was
  only clamped to 479 — so the whole panel counted as "the right edge". Now
  only the 8-pixel strip at the edge of the map scrolls, as on the other
  three sides.
• The bottom auto-scroll strip is 8 pixels, like the other three. It was
  2: the original DOS source used MouseY>477 at the bottom and 8 pixels
  everywhere else. Under DOS nobody noticed, because the mouse driver pinned
  the pointer to the edge anyway; with the right-hand side fixed, the
  difference became obvious.
• The PHost combat viewer shows the charge of beams and torpedo tubes, in
  the battle simulator (F5) and when watching VCRs, like the classic viewer
  always did: a red bar per beam that fills green as it recharges, and a
  red / yellow / green circle per tube. The native PHost viewer that replaced
  PVCR.EXE had left these indicators unwired. The combat maths is untouched.
• Integer settings line up in the Ctrl-O menu. Numeric entries such as
  StickyMouseRange were printed without padding, one column to the left of
  the On/Off entries.
• VPA_FULLSCREEN and VPA_VIDEO are gone. They were leftovers from the
  first fullscreen attempt; VPA_SCALE=fullscreen (or full, max) is the
  one way to go fullscreen, on both backends.
• For developers: make builds VPA and the X11 plugin;
  make wayland-plugin builds the Wayland plugin against the system's SDL3;
  make data assembles the full package with both plugins and its own SDL3
  (make sdl3). make visual-test runs the pixel comparison desc...

VPA-Linux 3.67.5

VPA-Linux 3.67.5 — the settings-menu crash, centred fullscreen and a turn you no longer lose

🇬🇧 English. A maintenance release of the native GNU/Linux build of VGA
Planets Assistant (VPA) 3.67, the classic client for the play-by-email
strategy game VGA Planets 3. Built from the original Turbo/Borland Pascal DOS
source with Free Pascal — no DOSBox, no dosemu. Star map, ships, planets,
StarBases, messages, and a native, bit-exact PHost combat viewer (replacing
the old DOS-only PVCR.EXE), all running natively on X11/Wayland.

This release is again almost entirely the result of detailed bug reports from
one player — see Acknowledgements below. Its headline fix is a memory
corruption that had been triggered every single time the settings menu was
opened.

Downloads

• vpa-linux-3.67.5-x86_64.tar.gz — pre-built binary for 64-bit x86 +
  everything you need to run it (VPA.HLP, VPA_RUS.HLP, VPA.MSG,
  DISTTABL.DAT, LITT_VPA.CHR). Start here if you're on a regular PC and
  just want to play. See HOWTO.en.md / HOWTO.es.md for
  setup instructions, including which files from your own VGA Planets
  installation and host you'll still need.
• vpa-linux-3.67.5-aarch64.tar.gz — pre-built binary for 64-bit ARM
  (Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 and other aarch64 boards), same contents as the x86_64
  package.
• vpa-linux-3.67.5-src.tar.gz — full source tree for this release,
  cleaned of DOS-era build artifacts. See BUILD.en.md /
  BUILD.es.md to compile it yourself.

Requirements

64-bit Linux (x86_64 or aarch64), X11 or Wayland (via XWayland), and the usual
desktop X11 libraries (libX11, libXext, libXfixes, libXi, libXrandr,
libXxf86vm) — no libXxf86dga needed. Full details in the HOWTO.

Quick start

tar xzf vpa-linux-3.67.5-<arch>.tar.gz      # x86_64 or aarch64
cd vpa-linux-3.67.5-<arch>
chmod +x VPA
./VPA <race> [game-directory]

VPA.HLP must be present in the directory you run VPA from — it's
required to start.

What's new in 3.67.5

• Opening the settings menus no longer corrupts memory (Ctrl-O / Ctrl-U).
  This is the important one. VPA saves the piece of screen hidden behind a menu
  so it can paint it back afterwards, and it kept the size of that save in a
  16-bit word. In 256 colours the settings menu needs 104204 bytes, which wraps
  around to 38668 in a word: VPA reserved 38 KB and then wrote 104 KB into it,
  overrunning the block by exactly 65536 bytes every time the menu opened.
  The damage surfaced later and anywhere — a crash on the second Enter, a crash
  while saving on the way out, a program that simply died — which is why it took
  a week of heap tracing and a bisection to corner. Under DOS the 16-colour BGI
  packed four bits per pixel and the same save took about 26 KB, comfortably
  inside a word, so the assumption held there and the bug never showed.
• A crash inside a menu no longer costs you the turn. Separate bug, found
  while chasing the one above. The emergency save that runs when VPA dies needs
  the reserved memory block as its I/O buffer, but menus release that block
  while they are open, so the rescue attempt died too and nothing was written.
  It now re-acquires the block first. Your turn survives even when VPA doesn't.
• Edit file in the settings menus opens a real editor. It was still
  trying to run edit.com, the MS-DOS editor, and after failing it left the
  program with no window, waiting forever for a keystroke that could never
  arrive — a freeze, not a crash. It now uses your own editor ($VISUAL, then
  $EDITOR), falling back to nano and then vi, and the menu line shows
  which one it will use. Note it needs VPA to have been started from a terminal.
  Editing also reloads the file you actually edited; before, it always reloaded
  VPAHELP.INI instead.
• Fullscreen is centred. With VPA_SCALE=fullscreen the picture sat in the
  top-left corner with all the leftover space in one black band on the right,
  which is uncomfortable on a large or curved screen. It is now centred, with a
  narrower band on each side. VPA is a 4:3 program, so on a widescreen monitor
  those bands are unavoidable without distorting the image. Mouse coordinates
  follow the picture, so clicks land where you point.
• Ctrl-+ and Ctrl-- work again (jump to last / first turn). 3.67.4 fixed
  one of the four ways of pressing them; the other three still did nothing. They
  are now handled by looking at the character rather than the key code, so they
  work from the numeric keypad and from the main row alike, on any keyboard
  layout.
• The right panel is no longer drawn 32 pixels low after the fleet report
  (Ctrl-F11). Leaving the report skipped restoring a drawing setting, and the
  panel was painted below its place until the next full redraw. Invisible under
  DOS, where a video-mode call at the end reset that setting by accident — a
  call that does nothing in this port.
• The statistics graph is readable (Ctrl-F10). The first series was drawn
  in dark blue on a black background, and so were its name in the legend and its
  value in the table above. All three now use light, mutually distinguishable
  colours.
• Numeric settings step sensibly. Pressing Enter on StickyMouseRange in
  the Ctrl-O menu added 1000 at a time — a step that only makes sense for
  MaxMoney — so a pixel radius of 2 jumped to 1002, a value that leaves the
  mouse stuck all over the screen and the program looking dead. Each numeric
  entry now has its own range and step; StickyMouseRange goes up one at a time
  to 20, and the .INI file still accepts up to 100.
• Video-mode restoration is honest. Seven leftover calls asked to restore a
  DOS 16-colour mode this port can never grant, so they silently did nothing.
  They now restore the mode actually in use, and only when the program really
  left graphics mode.
• New example launch script. Added an example launch script in
  EXAMPLES/game_launch.sh.
• For developers: a heaptrc build target (make heaptrc) that links Free
  Pascal's heap checker.
• Version bumped to 3.67.5 in the console banner and the graphical intro
  screen.

Acknowledgements

Once again nearly every fix in this release came from Alexander Alexandrovich
Bezborodov (Александр Александрович Безбородов), AKA "at0mix".
He reported each problem with enough detail to reproduce it, sent screenshots,
terminal traces and full heap-checker logs, patiently ran a series of instrumented
builds that each answered one question and nothing else, and tested every candidate
fix across three different machines. The memory corruption at the heart of this release
had been in VPA for as long as the Linux port has existed and would still be
there without him. Спасибо, Александр!

Known limitations

A thorough side-by-side comparison against the DOS version under DOSBox is
still pending. One cosmetic, by-design difference remains, documented in the
README: the combat viewer's first decimal digit can differ by ±0.5 from
PVCR.EXE due to a fractional-accumulation difference between the classic host
and PCC2ng's algorithm — the integer part and the final result always match.

Under Wayland the mouse cursor is grabbed but not released, because all the
cursor handling is X11 code running through XWayland, and Wayland deliberately
does not let a client grab and release the pointer that way. Selecting an X11
session works correctly in the meantime. The proper fix — separate X11 and
native Wayland graphics backends behind a common internal API — is planned but
is a substantial piece of work.

Credits & license

Original VPA by Alex V. Ivlev (1993–96) and later maintainers. Native PHost
combat viewer derived from PCC2ng by Stefan Reuther. Cyrillic console
font from the Linux kbd/console-setup fonts (public domain). This Linux
port © 2026 Pablo Romano Gómez. Multi-license breakdown and full texts in
LICENSE.md.

---

🇪🇸 Español. Versión de mantenimiento de la compilación nativa para
GNU/Linux de VGA Planets Assistant (VPA) 3.67, el cliente clásico del juego
de estrategia por correo VGA Planets 3. Reconstruido a partir del código
original en Turbo/Borland Pascal para DOS con Free Pascal — sin DOSBox, sin
dosemu. Mapa estelar, naves, planetas, StarBases, mensajes, y un visor de
combate PHost nativo y bit-exacto (sustituyendo al antiguo PVCR.EXE, solo
para DOS), todo funcionando de forma nativa sobre X11/Wayland.

Esta versión es de nuevo casi en su totalidad fruto de los reportes detallados
de un jugador — ver Agradecimientos más abajo. Su corrección principal es
una corrupción de memoria que se producía cada vez que se abría el menú de
configuración.

Descargas

• vpa-linux-3.67.5-x86_64.tar.gz — binario ya compilado para x86 de 64
  bits + todo lo necesario para ejecutarlo (VPA.HLP, VPA_RUS.HLP, VPA.MSG,
  DISTTABL.DAT, LITT_VPA.CHR). Empieza por aquí si estás en un PC normal
  y solo quieres jugar. Instrucciones en HOWTO.es.md /
  HOWTO.en.md, incluyendo qué ficheros de tu propia
  instalación de VGA Planets y de tu host seguirás necesitando.
• vpa-linux-3.67.5-aarch64.tar.gz — binario ya compilado para ARM de 64
  bits (Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 y otras placas aarch64), con el mismo contenido que el
  paquete x86_64.
• **`vpa-li...

VPA-Linux 3.67.4

VPA-Linux 3.67.4 — Russian help, keyboard fixes & a 13-year-old I/O bug

🇬🇧 English. A maintenance release of the native GNU/Linux build of VGA
Planets Assistant (VPA) 3.67, the classic client for the play-by-email
strategy game VGA Planets 3. Built from the original Turbo/Borland Pascal DOS
source with Free Pascal — no DOSBox, no dosemu. Star map, ships, planets,
StarBases, messages, and a native, bit-exact PHost combat viewer (replacing
the old DOS-only PVCR.EXE), all running natively on X11/Wayland.

This release is almost entirely the result of detailed bug reports from one
player — see Acknowledgements below.

Downloads

• vpa-linux-3.67.4-x86_64.tar.gz — pre-built binary for 64-bit x86 +
  everything you need to run it (VPA.HLP, VPA_RUS.HLP, VPA.MSG,
  DISTTABL.DAT, LITT_VPA.CHR). Start here if you're on a regular PC and
  just want to play. See HOWTO.en.md / HOWTO.es.md for
  setup instructions, including which files from your own VGA Planets
  installation and host you'll still need.
• vpa-linux-3.67.4-aarch64.tar.gz — pre-built binary for 64-bit ARM
  (Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 and other aarch64 boards), same contents as the x86_64
  package.
• vpa-linux-3.67.4-src.tar.gz — full source tree for this release,
  cleaned of DOS-era build artifacts. See BUILD.en.md /
  BUILD.es.md to compile it yourself.

Requirements

64-bit Linux (x86_64 or aarch64), X11 or Wayland (via XWayland), and the usual
desktop X11 libraries (libX11, libXext, libXfixes, libXi, libXrandr,
libXxf86vm) — no libXxf86dga needed. Full details in the HOWTO.

Quick start

tar xzf vpa-linux-3.67.4-<arch>.tar.gz      # x86_64 or aarch64
cd vpa-linux-3.67.4-<arch>
chmod +x VPA
./VPA <race> [game-directory]

VPA.HLP must be present in the directory you run VPA from — it's
required to start.

What's new in 3.67.4

• The Russian help is now actually readable. 3.67.3 started shipping
  VPA_RUS.HLP, but it displayed as garbled accented-Latin characters: the
  help viewer draws its text with ptcgraph's own built-in 8×8 bitmap font,
  which has no Cyrillic glyphs, so the CP866-encoded text was rendered through
  the wrong glyph table. Glyphs #128–#255 of that font are now the CP866
  ("DOS Alt") Cyrillic set, verified byte-for-byte against the standard CP866
  layout. ASCII glyphs are untouched, so the English help is unaffected.
• Item-display switches now work and are remembered. Two separate bugs
  in the indicator toggles (top-right corner of the star map): Shift-C and
  Shift-F did nothing at all, because both toggles were trapped inside an
  {$IFDEF vpacc} block for an optional DOS module that is never built on
  Linux; and the whole set of switches was not persisted across sessions —
  whatever you set, restarting always came back to the same fixed pattern. The
  save/load code assumed a group of separate global variables would sit
  contiguously in memory in declaration order, which held under 16-bit Turbo
  Pascal but does not under FPC on x86-64, so it was reading and writing
  unrelated memory. It now copies field by field. The same fix also restores
  the previously selected object, which was being lost on every restart.
• Function and Ctrl keys that did nothing now work. F11, Ctrl-F11
  and Shift-F11, and later Ctrl-Tab, Ctrl-Up, Ctrl-Down and
  Ctrl-Keypad-minus, were all silently swallowed. ptccrt only emitted those
  scancodes for two keyboard modes, and VPA uses a third one — with no
  fallback. After the first report the whole modifier branch was audited by
  cross-referencing every gated scancode against the codes VPA actually
  handles, so the remaining cases were found and fixed together rather than one
  at a time.
• Fixed a crash on startup with ShowMaxPop = On. VPA aborted with an
  access violation (Error 217) right after loading game data. Planets whose
  owner isn't known — seen only through remote sensors — carry owner = -1,
  and two places indexed the 1..12 race table with it directly.
• PLANET.NM can now live in the game directory. It had to sit next to
  the VPA binary, unlike RACE.NM and the spec files. The lookup logic was
  never at fault: a stale IOResult was. With $I- in effect an unread I/O
  error persists and silently skips all further I/O, and ini_save ends with
  an erase() of a .BAK that doesn't exist yet. That error leaked into the
  next file open — which happened to be PLANET.NM — and also meant
  VPAHELP.INI was never written at all, leaving a stray .TMP behind on
  every run. This is upstream VPA Team code from 2013 and the same Turbo Pascal
  semantics applied under DOS, so the bug was there all along; it stayed
  invisible because DOS users ran VPA from the VGA Planets directory itself,
  where the fallback lookup found the file anyway.
• VPA_SCALE accepts a percentage. Values from 21 up are read as a
  literal percentage — VPA_SCALE=220 gives 2.2×, 137 gives 1.37× — for
  finer control than whole multiples. Values 1–20 keep their old "N times"
  meaning, so nothing changes for existing users. Fullscreen benefits too: the
  largest fit is now computed as a percentage instead of being rounded down to
  a whole multiple, so a 1920×1080 screen fills the full height (225%) rather
  than wasting 120 pixels.
• The StickyMouse radius is configurable (StickyMouseRange). VPA's
  filter that keeps an accidental nudge from dropping the current selection was
  hardcoded to 2 pixels, too tight for modern optical mice that report movement
  constantly. Set it in VPA.INI under [Interface]; the default stays at 2,
  and 10–20 works well with a modern mouse.
• Version bumped to 3.67.4 in the console banner and the graphical intro
  screen.

Acknowledgements

Nearly every fix in this release came from Alexander Alexandrovich
Bezborodov (Александр Александрович Безбородов), who reported each one with
enough detail to reproduce it — often with screenshots, terminal output and
testing across two different monitors. He also tested every build and confirmed the
fixes. Several of these bugs had been in VPA for years and would have gone
unnoticed without him. Спасибо, Александр!

Known limitations

A thorough side-by-side comparison against the DOS version under DOSBox is
still pending. One cosmetic, by-design difference remains, documented in the
README: the combat viewer's first decimal digit can differ by ±0.5 from
PVCR.EXE due to a fractional-accumulation difference between the classic
host and PCC2ng's algorithm — the integer part and the final result always
match.

Under Wayland the mouse cursor is grabbed but not released, because all
the cursor handling is X11 code running through XWayland, and Wayland
deliberately does not let a client grab and release the pointer that way.
Selecting an X11 session works correctly in the meantime. The proper fix —
separate X11 and native Wayland graphics backends behind a common internal
API — is planned but is a substantial piece of work.

Credits & license

Original VPA by Alex V. Ivlev (1993–96) and later maintainers. Native
PHost combat viewer derived from PCC2ng by Stefan Reuther. Cyrillic
console font from the Linux kbd/console-setup fonts (public domain). This
Linux port © 2026 Pablo Romano Gómez. Multi-license breakdown and full texts in
LICENSE.md.

---

🇪🇸 Español. Versión de mantenimiento de la compilación nativa para
GNU/Linux de VGA Planets Assistant (VPA) 3.67, el cliente clásico del
juego de estrategia por correo VGA Planets 3. Reconstruido a partir del
código original en Turbo/Borland Pascal para DOS con Free Pascal — sin
DOSBox, sin dosemu. Mapa estelar, naves, planetas, StarBases, mensajes, y un
visor de combate PHost nativo y bit-exacto (sustituyendo al antiguo
PVCR.EXE, solo para DOS), todo funcionando de forma nativa sobre X11/Wayland.

Esta versión es casi en su totalidad fruto de los reportes detallados de un
jugador — ver Agradecimientos más abajo.

Descargas

• vpa-linux-3.67.4-x86_64.tar.gz — binario ya compilado para x86 de 64
  bits + todo lo necesario para ejecutarlo (VPA.HLP, VPA_RUS.HLP,
  VPA.MSG, DISTTABL.DAT, LITT_VPA.CHR). Empieza por aquí si estás en
  un PC normal y solo quieres jugar. Instrucciones en
  HOWTO.es.md / HOWTO.en.md, incluyendo qué
  ficheros de tu propia instalación de VGA Planets y de tu host seguirás
  necesitando.
• vpa-linux-3.67.4-aarch64.tar.gz — binario ya compilado para ARM de 64
  bits (Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 y otras placas aarch64), con el mismo contenido que
  el paquete x86_64.
• vpa-linux-3.67.4-src.tar.gz — árbol de código fuente completo de esta
  versión, ya limpio de artefactos de compilación de la era DOS. Instrucciones
  para compilarlo en BUILD.es.md / BUILD.en.md.

Requisitos

Linux de 64 bits (x86_64 o aarch64), X11 o Wayland (vía XWayland), y las
librerías X11 habituales de cualquier escritorio (libX11, libXext, libXfixes,
libXi, libXrandr, libXxf86vm) — no hace falta libXxf86dga. Detalle completo
en el HOWTO.

Arranque rápido

tar xzf vpa-linux-3.67.4-<arch>.tar.gz      # x86_64 o aarch64
cd vpa-linux-3.67.4-<arch>
chmod +x VPA
./VPA <raza> [directorio-de-partida]
...

VPA-Linux 3.67.3

VPA-Linux 3.67.3 — Path handling, Russian help & documentation fixes

🇬🇧 English. A maintenance release of the native GNU/Linux build of VGA
Planets Assistant (VPA) 3.67, the classic client for the play-by-email
strategy game VGA Planets 3. Built from the original Turbo/Borland Pascal DOS
source with Free Pascal — no DOSBox, no dosemu. Star map, ships, planets,
StarBases, messages, and a native, bit-exact PHost combat viewer (replacing
the old DOS-only PVCR.EXE), all running natively on X11/Wayland.

Downloads

• vpa-linux-3.67.3-x86_64.tar.gz — pre-built binary for 64-bit x86 +
  everything you need to run it (VPA.HLP, VPA_RUS.HLP, VPA.MSG,
  DISTTABL.DAT, LITT_VPA.CHR). Start here if you're on a regular PC and
  just want to play. See HOWTO.en.md / HOWTO.es.md for
  setup instructions, including which files from your own VGA Planets
  installation and host you'll still need.
• vpa-linux-3.67.3-aarch64.tar.gz — pre-built binary for 64-bit ARM
  (Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 and other aarch64 boards), same contents as the x86_64
  package.
• vpa-linux-3.67.3-src.tar.gz — full source tree for this release,
  cleaned of DOS-era build artifacts. See BUILD.en.md /
  BUILD.es.md to compile it yourself, including the make hlp target
  that now builds both help files.

Requirements

64-bit Linux (x86_64 or aarch64), X11 or Wayland (via XWayland), and the usual
desktop X11 libraries (libX11, libXext, libXfixes, libXi, libXrandr,
libXxf86vm) — no libXxf86dga needed. Full details in the HOWTO.

Quick start

tar xzf vpa-linux-3.67.3-<arch>.tar.gz      # x86_64 or aarch64
cd vpa-linux-3.67.3-<arch>
chmod +x VPA
./VPA <race> [game-directory]

VPA.HLP must be present in the directory you run VPA from — it's
required to start (see "What's new" below).

What's new in 3.67.3

• Game directory paths with / are no longer rejected. VPA-Linux had
  inherited DOS's rule that anything starting with / was an option, so an
  absolute UNIX path like /home/user/PLANETS/mygame failed with
  Invalid parameter. Option detection is now strict — it matches only the
  documented /B /K /M /O /P /R /S /PW: /REP: /BGI: — and both / and \
  are accepted and normalized as directory separators, paving the way for a
  future vpa-winnt and vpa-macos. A length check now reports an
  over-long path (66 characters max) instead of silently truncating it.
• Russian help restored (VPA_RUS.HLP). make hlp only compiled the
  English VPA.HHH, so VPA_RUS.HHH — the Russian help shipped with the
  original DOS VPA — was never built or packaged. Both help files are now
  compiled and shipped. To play with the Russian help, set
  HelpFile = VPA_RUS.HLP in VPA.INI, or rename the file as in the
  original DOS version; the lookup is case-insensitive either way.
• Documentation corrected: VPA.HLP is required, not optional. HOWTO
  used to say only DISTTABL.DAT was strictly required, and that a missing
  help file just meant F1 showed nothing. In fact VPA aborts at startup with
  Can't read file VPA.HLP if the help file isn't present in the directory
  you run VPA from — HOWTO and BUILD now say so clearly, along with the new
  path rules and the Russian-help instructions above.
• Version bumped to 3.67.3 in the console banner and the graphical intro
  screen.

Known limitations

A thorough side-by-side comparison against the DOS version under DOSBox is
still pending. One cosmetic, by-design difference remains, documented in the
README: the combat viewer's first decimal digit can differ by ±0.5 from
PVCR.EXE due to a fractional-accumulation difference between the classic
host and PCC2ng's algorithm — the integer part and the final result always
match.

Credits & license

Original VPA by Alex V. Ivlev (1993–96) and later maintainers. Native
PHost combat viewer derived from PCC2ng by Stefan Reuther. This Linux
port © 2026 Pablo Romano Gómez. Multi-license breakdown and full texts in
LICENSE.md.

---

🇪🇸 Español. Versión de mantenimiento de la compilación nativa para
GNU/Linux de VGA Planets Assistant (VPA) 3.67, el cliente clásico del
juego de estrategia por correo VGA Planets 3. Reconstruido a partir del
código original en Turbo/Borland Pascal para DOS con Free Pascal — sin
DOSBox, sin dosemu. Mapa estelar, naves, planetas, StarBases, mensajes, y un
visor de combate PHost nativo y bit-exacto (sustituyendo al antiguo
PVCR.EXE, solo para DOS), todo funcionando de forma nativa sobre X11/Wayland.

Descargas

• vpa-linux-3.67.3-x86_64.tar.gz — binario ya compilado para x86 de 64
  bits + todo lo necesario para ejecutarlo (VPA.HLP, VPA_RUS.HLP,
  VPA.MSG, DISTTABL.DAT, LITT_VPA.CHR). Empieza por aquí si estás en
  un PC normal y solo quieres jugar. Instrucciones en
  HOWTO.es.md / HOWTO.en.md, incluyendo qué
  ficheros de tu propia instalación de VGA Planets y de tu host seguirás
  necesitando.
• vpa-linux-3.67.3-aarch64.tar.gz — binario ya compilado para ARM de 64
  bits (Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 y otras placas aarch64), con el mismo contenido que
  el paquete x86_64.
• vpa-linux-3.67.3-src.tar.gz — árbol de código fuente completo de esta
  versión, ya limpio de artefactos de compilación de la era DOS. Instrucciones
  para compilarlo en BUILD.es.md / BUILD.en.md,
  incluido el objetivo make hlp, que ahora compila las dos ayudas.

Requisitos

Linux de 64 bits (x86_64 o aarch64), X11 o Wayland (vía XWayland), y las
librerías X11 habituales de cualquier escritorio (libX11, libXext, libXfixes,
libXi, libXrandr, libXxf86vm) — no hace falta libXxf86dga. Detalle completo
en el HOWTO.

Arranque rápido

tar xzf vpa-linux-3.67.3-<arch>.tar.gz      # x86_64 o aarch64
cd vpa-linux-3.67.3-<arch>
chmod +x VPA
./VPA <raza> [directorio-de-partida]

VPA.HLP tiene que estar en el directorio desde el que ejecutas VPA — es
obligatorio para arrancar (ver «Novedades» a continuación).

Novedades de la 3.67.3

• Ya no se rechazan las rutas del directorio de partida con /.
  VPA-Linux había heredado de DOS la regla de que todo lo que empezara por
  / era una opción, así que una ruta absoluta de UNIX como
  /home/usuario/PLANETS/mipartida fallaba con Invalid parameter. La
  detección de opciones es ahora estricta — solo reconoce las documentadas
  /B /K /M /O /P /R /S /PW: /REP: /BGI: —, y se aceptan y normalizan tanto
  / como \ como separadores de directorio, allanando el camino para un
  futuro vpa-winnt y vpa-macos. Un aviso de longitud (máximo 66 caracteres)
  informa ahora de una ruta demasiado larga en lugar de truncarla en
  silencio.
• Recuperada la ayuda en ruso (VPA_RUS.HLP). make hlp solo compilaba
  la ayuda en inglés (VPA.HHH), así que VPA_RUS.HHH — la ayuda rusa que
  traía el VPA original de DOS — nunca se compilaba ni se empaquetaba. Ahora
  se compilan y distribuyen las dos. Para jugar con la ayuda en ruso, pon
  HelpFile = VPA_RUS.HLP en VPA.INI, o renombra el fichero como en el
  DOS original; la búsqueda es insensible a mayúsculas y minúsculas en
  ambos casos.
• Corregida la documentación: VPA.HLP es obligatorio, no opcional. El
  HOWTO decía que solo DISTTABL.DAT era estrictamente obligatorio, y que
  si faltaba la ayuda F1 simplemente no mostraba nada. En realidad VPA
  aborta al arrancar con Can't read file VPA.HLP si el fichero de ayuda no
  está en el directorio desde el que se ejecuta VPA — el HOWTO y el BUILD lo
  dejan claro ahora, junto con las nuevas reglas de rutas y las
  instrucciones de la ayuda en ruso de arriba.
• Número de versión actualizado a 3.67.3 en el banner de consola y en la
  pantalla de bienvenida gráfica.

Limitaciones conocidas

Queda pendiente una comparación exhaustiva contra la versión DOS bajo DOSBox.
Se mantiene una diferencia cosmética y por diseño ya documentada en el README:
el primer decimal del visor de combate puede diferir en ~±0.5 respecto a
PVCR.EXE, por cómo cada uno acumula la fracción sub-unidad de forma distinta
(host clásico vs. algoritmo de PCC2ng) — la parte entera y el resultado final
siempre coinciden.

Créditos y licencia

VPA original de Alex V. Ivlev (1993–96) y mantenedores posteriores. Visor
de combate PHost nativo derivado de PCC2ng de Stefan Reuther. Este
port a Linux © 2026 Pablo Romano Gómez. Desglose de licencias y textos
completos en LICENSE.md.

VPA-Linux 3.67.2

VPA-Linux 3.67.2 — Packaging & case-insensitivity fixes

🇬🇧 English. A maintenance release of the native GNU/Linux build of VGA
Planets Assistant (VPA) 3.67, the classic client for the play-by-email
strategy game VGA Planets 3. Built from the original Turbo/Borland Pascal DOS
source with Free Pascal — no DOSBox, no dosemu. Star map, ships, planets,
StarBases, messages, and a native, bit-exact PHost combat viewer (replacing
the old DOS-only PVCR.EXE), all running natively on X11/Wayland.

Downloads

• vpa-linux-3.67.2-x86_64.tar.gz — pre-built binary for 64-bit x86 +
  everything you need to run it (VPA.HLP, VPA.MSG, DISTTABL.DAT,
  LITT_VPA.CHR). Start here if you're on a regular PC and just want to
  play. See HOWTO.en.md / HOWTO.es.md for
  setup instructions, including which files from your own VGA Planets
  installation and host you'll still need.
• vpa-linux-3.67.2-aarch64.tar.gz — pre-built binary for 64-bit ARM
  (Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 and other aarch64 boards), same contents as the x86_64
  package. Built and tested on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2 running
  Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie) aarch64, including a full turn played over
  RDP.
• vpa-linux-3.67.2-src.tar.gz — full source tree for this release,
  cleaned of DOS-era build artifacts. See BUILD.en.md /
  BUILD.es.md to compile it yourself, including the new
  make data packaging target.

Requirements

64-bit Linux (x86_64 or aarch64), X11 or Wayland (via XWayland), and the usual
desktop X11 libraries (libX11, libXext, libXfixes, libXi, libXrandr,
libXxf86vm) — no libXxf86dga needed. Full details in the HOWTO.

Quick start

tar xzf vpa-linux-3.67.2-<arch>.tar.gz      # x86_64 or aarch64
cd vpa-linux-3.67.2-<arch>
chmod +x VPA
./VPA <race> [game-directory]

What's new in 3.67.2

• Raspberry Pi / aarch64 build: VPA-Linux now also ships a native
  64-bit ARM package, verified on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2
  (Debian GNU/Linux 13 "trixie" aarch64) — including a real game turn played
  remotely over RDP.
• One-command packaging (make data): now builds the binary and VPA.HLP
  together and assembles a ready-to-ship folder,
  build/vpa-linux_package/, with the binary, the help file, the EXAMPLES/
  folder, and all the support files and docs an end user needs — this is what
  each tarball above is made from.
• Case-insensitivity fix: RESOURCE.PLN, VPA.HLP and the map font
  (LITT_VPA.CHR) are now looked up the same way the rest of VPA's data files
  already were — case doesn't matter, so a lowercase copy from any source
  works.
• Documentation: HOWTO.md now lists every file not shipped with
  VPA-Linux that's required to play a game — both the ones from your VGA
  Planets installation and the ones your host provides.

Known limitations

A thorough side-by-side comparison against the DOS version under DOSBox is
still pending. One cosmetic, by-design difference remains, documented in the
README: the combat viewer's first decimal digit can differ by ±0.5 from
PVCR.EXE due to a fractional-accumulation difference between the classic
host and PCC2ng's algorithm — the integer part and the final result always
match.

Credits & license

Original VPA by Alex V. Ivlev (1993–96) and later maintainers. Native
PHost combat viewer derived from PCC2ng by Stefan Reuther. This Linux
port © 2026 Pablo Romano Gómez. Multi-license breakdown and full texts in
LICENSE.md.

---

🇪🇸 Español. Versión de mantenimiento de la compilación nativa para
GNU/Linux de VGA Planets Assistant (VPA) 3.67, el cliente clásico del
juego de estrategia por correo VGA Planets 3. Reconstruido a partir del
código original en Turbo/Borland Pascal para DOS con Free Pascal — sin
DOSBox, sin dosemu. Mapa estelar, naves, planetas, StarBases, mensajes, y un
visor de combate PHost nativo y bit-exacto (sustituyendo al antiguo
PVCR.EXE, solo para DOS), todo funcionando de forma nativa sobre X11/Wayland.

Descargas

• vpa-linux-3.67.2-x86_64.tar.gz — binario ya compilado para x86 de 64
  bits + todo lo necesario para ejecutarlo (VPA.HLP, VPA.MSG,
  DISTTABL.DAT, LITT_VPA.CHR). Empieza por aquí si estás en un PC
  normal y solo quieres jugar. Instrucciones en
  HOWTO.es.md / HOWTO.en.md, incluyendo qué
  ficheros de tu propia instalación de VGA Planets y de tu host seguirás
  necesitando.
• vpa-linux-3.67.2-aarch64.tar.gz — binario ya compilado para ARM de 64
  bits (Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 y otras placas aarch64), con el mismo contenido que
  el paquete x86_64. Compilado y probado en una Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev
  1.2 con Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie) aarch64, incluyendo una partida
  completa jugando por RDP.
• vpa-linux-3.67.2-src.tar.gz — árbol de código fuente completo de esta
  versión, ya limpio de artefactos de compilación de la era DOS. Instrucciones
  para compilarlo en BUILD.es.md / BUILD.en.md,
  incluido el nuevo objetivo de empaquetado make data.

Requisitos

Linux de 64 bits (x86_64 o aarch64), X11 o Wayland (vía XWayland), y las
librerías X11 habituales de cualquier escritorio (libX11, libXext, libXfixes,
libXi, libXrandr, libXxf86vm) — no hace falta libXxf86dga. Detalle completo
en el HOWTO.

Arranque rápido

tar xzf vpa-linux-3.67.2-<arch>.tar.gz      # x86_64 o aarch64
cd vpa-linux-3.67.2-<arch>
chmod +x VPA
./VPA <raza> [directorio-de-partida]

Novedades de la 3.67.2

• Build para Raspberry Pi / aarch64: VPA-Linux publica ahora también un
  paquete nativo para ARM de 64 bits, verificado en una Raspberry Pi 3
  Model B Rev 1.2 (Debian GNU/Linux 13 «trixie» aarch64) — incluyendo un
  turno de partida real jugado en remoto por RDP.
• Empaquetado en un solo comando (make data): ahora compila el binario
  y VPA.HLP a la vez y monta una carpeta lista para distribuir,
  build/vpa-linux_package/, con el binario, la ayuda, la carpeta
  EXAMPLES/ y todos los ficheros de apoyo y documentación que necesita un
  usuario final — de ahí sale cada uno de los tarballs de arriba.
• Corrección de sensibilidad a mayúsculas/minúsculas: RESOURCE.PLN,
  VPA.HLP y la fuente del mapa (LITT_VPA.CHR) ahora se buscan igual que el
  resto de ficheros de datos de VPA — la caja del nombre no importa, así que
  una copia en minúsculas de cualquier origen funciona igual.
• Documentación: HOWTO.md ahora detalla todos los ficheros ajenos a
  VPA-Linux necesarios para jugar una partida, tanto los de tu instalación de
  VGA Planets como los que aporta tu host.

Limitaciones conocidas

Queda pendiente una comparación exhaustiva contra la versión DOS bajo DOSBox.
Se mantiene una diferencia cosmética y por diseño ya documentada en el README:
el primer decimal del visor de combate puede diferir en ~±0.5 respecto a
PVCR.EXE, por cómo cada uno acumula la fracción sub-unidad de forma distinta
(host clásico vs. algoritmo de PCC2ng) — la parte entera y el resultado final
siempre coinciden.

Créditos y licencia

VPA original de Alex V. Ivlev (1993–96) y mantenedores posteriores. Visor
de combate PHost nativo derivado de PCC2ng de Stefan Reuther. Este
port a Linux © 2026 Pablo Romano Gómez. Desglose de licencias y textos
completos en LICENSE.md.

VPA-Linux 3.67.1

VPA-Linux 3.67.1 — First native Linux release

🇬🇧 English. The first native GNU/Linux build of VGA Planets Assistant
(VPA) 3.67, the classic client for the play-by-email strategy game VGA
Planets 3. Rebuilt from the original Turbo/Borland Pascal DOS source with
Free Pascal — no DOSBox, no dosemu. Star map, ships, planets, StarBases,
messages, and a native, bit-exact PHost combat viewer (replacing the old
DOS-only PVCR.EXE), all running natively on X11/Wayland.

Downloads

• vpa-linux-3.67.1-x86_64.tar.gz — the pre-built binary + everything you
  need to run it (VPA.HLP, VPA.MSG, DISTTABL.DAT, LITT_VPA.CHR).
  Start here if you just want to play. See HOWTO.en.md /
  HOWTO.es.md for setup instructions.
• vpa-linux-3.67.1-src.tar.gz — full source tree for this release,
  cleaned of DOS-era build artifacts. See BUILD.en.md /
  BUILD.es.md to compile it yourself.

Requirements

64-bit Linux, X11 or Wayland (via XWayland), and the usual desktop X11
libraries (libX11, libXext, libXfixes, libXi, libXrandr, libXxf86vm) — no
libXxf86dga needed. Full details in the HOWTO.

Quick start

tar xzf vpa-linux-3.67.1-x86_64.tar.gz
cd vpa-linux-3.67.1-x86_64
chmod +x VPA
./VPA <race> [game-directory]

Highlights

• Native ptcgraph-based graphics — same look, same keys as the original.
• Resizable window / fullscreen via VPA_SCALE.
• Native PHost combat viewer, ported from PCC2ng's pvcralgorithm and
  validated bit-exact against PVCR.EXE.
• VPA's own white crosshair cursor, scoped to its own window.
• Full bilingual documentation (English/Spanish).

Known limitations

A thorough side-by-side comparison against the DOS version under DOSBox is
still pending. One cosmetic, by-design difference is documented in the
README: the combat viewer's first decimal digit can differ by ±0.5 from
PVCR.EXE due to a fractional-accumulation difference between the classic
host and PCC2ng's algorithm — the integer part and the final result always
match.

Credits & license

Original VPA by Alex V. Ivlev (1993–96) and later maintainers. Native
PHost combat viewer derived from PCC2ng by Stefan Reuther. This Linux
port © 2026 Pablo Romano Gómez. Multi-license breakdown and full texts in
LICENSE.md.

---

🇪🇸 Español. Primera compilación nativa para GNU/Linux de VGA Planets
Assistant (VPA) 3.67, el cliente clásico del juego de estrategia por correo
VGA Planets 3. Reconstruido a partir del código original en Turbo/Borland
Pascal para DOS con Free Pascal — sin DOSBox, sin dosemu. Mapa estelar, naves,
planetas, StarBases, mensajes, y un visor de combate PHost nativo y
bit-exacto (sustituyendo al antiguo PVCR.EXE, solo para DOS), todo
funcionando de forma nativa sobre X11/Wayland.

Descargas

• vpa-linux-3.67.1-x86_64.tar.gz — el binario ya compilado + todo lo
  necesario para ejecutarlo (VPA.HLP, VPA.MSG, DISTTABL.DAT,
  LITT_VPA.CHR). Empieza por aquí si solo quieres jugar. Instrucciones
  en HOWTO.es.md / HOWTO.en.md.
• vpa-linux-3.67.1-src.tar.gz — árbol de código fuente completo de esta
  versión, ya limpio de artefactos de compilación de la era DOS. Instrucciones
  para compilarlo en BUILD.es.md / BUILD.en.md.

Requisitos

Linux de 64 bits, X11 o Wayland (vía XWayland), y las librerías X11 habituales
de cualquier escritorio (libX11, libXext, libXfixes, libXi, libXrandr,
libXxf86vm) — no hace falta libXxf86dga. Detalle completo en el HOWTO.

Arranque rápido

tar xzf vpa-linux-3.67.1-x86_64.tar.gz
cd vpa-linux-3.67.1-x86_64
chmod +x VPA
./VPA <raza> [directorio-de-partida]

Lo más destacado

• Gráficos nativos vía ptcgraph — mismo aspecto, mismas teclas que el
  original.
• Ventana redimensionable / pantalla completa con VPA_SCALE.
• Visor de combate PHost nativo, portado del pvcralgorithm de PCC2ng y
  validado bit-exacto contra PVCR.EXE.
• Diana blanca propia de VPA como cursor, limitada a su propia ventana.
• Documentación completa bilingüe (inglés/español).

Limitaciones conocidas

Queda pendiente una comparación exhaustiva contra la versión DOS bajo DOSBox.
Hay una diferencia cosmética y por diseño ya documentada en el README: el
primer decimal del visor de combate puede diferir en ~±0.5 respecto a
PVCR.EXE, por cómo cada uno acumula la fracción sub-unidad de forma distinta
(host clásico vs. algoritmo de PCC2ng) — la parte entera y el resultado final
siempre coinciden.

Créditos y licencia

VPA original de Alex V. Ivlev (1993–96) y mantenedores posteriores. Visor
de combate PHost nativo derivado de PCC2ng de Stefan Reuther. Este
port a Linux © 2026 Pablo Romano Gómez. Desglose de licencias y textos
completos en LICENSE.md.