Skip to content

Version history

1.13 has been in development for over two decades, and its release model has changed twice along the way. That is why the community talks about versions in three different dialects: SVN revision numbers ("r7609"), GitHub release tags ("v5"), and a rolling "Latest (unstable)" build. This page explains what those names mean, lists the landmark versions people still reference, and shows how to check which version you are running.

If you just want to install the game, go straight to Installation.

The SVN era (2005–2022)

The Jagged Alliance 2 source code was released in 2004, and the 1.13 project started in 2005. In the old wiki's words, the team "started with the C++ CVS code that DeFrog so wisely ported over to C++.NET", then fixed bugs, added features, and externalized game data for modding — see What is 1.13? for that story.

For most of its life the project's code lived on a community-run Subversion (SVN) server. Versions from this era are named after SVN revision numbers, written as r<number> — every commit increased the number, so a higher number simply means a newer build. There was no fixed release schedule: official releases were occasional snapshots, and between them players ran development builds.

Landmark revisions

These are the revision numbers you will still see in forum posts, mod requirements and old documentation:

Revision Date Why it matters
r4870 December 11, 2011 Official release of its day (the "previous release" on the old wiki).
r7435 August 28, 2014 Official release; distributed as a full installer package.
r7609 October 25, 2014 Update to r7435 and the last official stable of the SVN era. Known simply as "the stable" or "7609" — many classic mods were built against it and still require it.
r8610 — Moved several New Game screen options (NCTH, enemies drop all, food system and others) into Ja2_Options.INI; r8622 then removed the "Max IMP Characters" option. See New game options.
r8741 ~2019 The development build that the previous (2019-era) starter documentation was written against.
r9389 2022 The last widely documented SVN-era build: the official hotkeys PDF is titled "2022 Unstable Release (as of r9389)". It is the basis of this site's hotkey reference.

Dates for r8610–r9389

The old wiki only recorded exact dates up to r7609. For later revisions the sources used here give context (which era, which change) but not release dates, so none are listed rather than guessed.

SCIs — how SVN builds reached players

Between official releases, players installed community-built packages called SCIs. The Bear's Pit "how to get 1.13" thread defines the term: "Single-Click-Installer, referring to the fact, that in those the GameDir and exe are already combined. Simply copy the content over an already installed original JA2, overwrite when asked."

In other words, an SCI bundled a matching executable and game-data directory so you did not have to assemble a development build yourself. SCIs were produced and hosted by community members on their own servers and file-sharing folders, with the current download links collected in that Bear's Pit thread. The term is still used loosely today for any such combined package — see the glossary.

2022: SVN shuts down, development moves to GitHub

The SVN server went down in October 2022, ending development there abruptly. To keep the project alive, development moved to GitHub under the 1dot13 organization, which hosts the source, gamedir, gamedir-languages, xml-editor, tools and documentation repositories — see Project structure.

The changeover is visible in the project's own history: the earliest pull requests in the v1 release notes still carry SVN-style numbers such as "r9402" and "r9404" before the project switched fully to Git-based versioning.

GitHub releases (2023–present)

Downloads now live on the releases page of 1dot13/source. Stable releases are tagged v1, v2, … and published as all-in-one packages (see below).

Tag Date Notes
v1 July 28, 2023 First GitHub release. Its changelog covers the transition work: cnc-ddraw detection, the CMake build, map editor fixes, translation updates.
v2 April 9, 2025 Tag exists in the repository (date is the tagged commit's); the release is no longer listed on the releases page.
v3 August 7, 2025 Same as v2. Later releases reference it as a savegame-compatibility baseline.
v4 September 12, 2025 Same as v2.
v5 September 28, 2025 Current stable at the time of writing. Release notes state it keeps the savegame compatibility of v3 and adds an important stability fix.

Why v2–v4 are missing from the releases page

All five tags exist in the Git repository, but the releases page currently lists only v1, v5 and Latest (unstable). The v2–v4 dates above are the dates of the commits those tags point to, taken from the GitHub API.

What each stable release changed

The release notes on GitHub are raw lists of merged pull requests — over a hundred for v1 alone — so here is a digest of the headline changes. Since v2–v4 never had release notes published, their entries below are reconstructed from the Git commit history between the tags.

v1 (July 28, 2023) — the transition release, wrapping up the first year on GitHub:

  • The build system moved from Visual Studio project files to CMake, with releases produced by automated GitHub builds — the setup described on Building the exe.
  • The game now detects cnc-ddraw and disables its own windowed mode when it is present — the basis of the modern display setup (Troubleshooting).
  • Rebel Command gained its agent missions ("ARC expansion: missions").
  • New on the strategic layer: enemy transport groups — see the strategic war.
  • New options and tweaks: an option to start attacks at maximum aiming level, reduced stat growth at high levels, scalable tooltips, bigger squads at 720p resolutions, and the cosmetic "fake light" circle drawn around mercs now defaults to off (environment & lighting).
  • The Map Editor was repaired and added to the automated builds.
  • Many crash fixes, plus quality-of-life touches: Shift+B also picks up backpacks, enemies wear their backpacks properly (inventory), militia's initial orders changed from stationary to on-guard (militia), and Mini Events can no longer roll a stat change of zero.

v2 (tagged April 9, 2025) — twenty months of development, the biggest of the note-less tags:

  • Merc stat evolution was replaced by growth rates, and grenade bonuses moved from the Demolitions trait to Throwing — see skills & traits.
  • IMP creation gained an alternative background selection.
  • The enemy AI learned to retreat from a tactical battle (tactical AI).
  • Custom music can now be added, including separate night-time battle and enemy-present tracks (externalized music).
  • Backgrounds and facilities can define specific drug types and addiction risks (drugs & disease, facilities).
  • The food system's item handling was reworked, and merc opinions moved to a new MercOpinions.xml format (food, morale & opinions).
  • A wave of resolution work: multi-resolution battle panel and load screens, color variants for the radar and overhead maps, the version number on the main menu — and the legacy 8-bit display mode was removed (display).
  • On Linux and macOS the DLL override that Wine needs is now set automatically (Troubleshooting), and a batch of vehicle bugs (fuel use after cancelled moves, group IDs after loading, vehicles destroyed by ramming) was fixed (vehicles).

v3 (tagged August 7, 2025) — a fix release, and the savegame-compatibility baseline that v5's notes refer back to:

  • A long series of JA2: Unfinished Business repairs: M.E.R.C. hiring and contracts, the helicopter, the power generator fan, ten-merc squads at 720p, and the bloodcat quest sector externalized for modders.
  • A savegame-compatibility fix for the merc profile structure — see savegames.
  • Surrender is no longer offered in multiplayer.
  • A new INI option lets food items appear in the game without the food system enabled.

v4 (tagged September 12, 2025):

  • Backpack AP stance costs now scale with the pack's actual weight instead of a flat "backpack worn" check (inventory).
  • You can build an IMP with three major traits and no minor traits (IMP).
  • Right-clicking the time-compression controls fast-forwards a single hour.
  • The chance of the Queen losing control of a sector was fully externalized for modders (strategic war), and an off-by-one error in Rebel Command/ASD gas can handling was fixed.
  • Fixed a bug where combat did not end when an entire team retreated, and the merc nationality list was expanded and sorted.

v5 (September 28, 2025) — the current stable. Its release notes republish the whole v3→v5 changelog, but the commit history shows exactly one change over v4: release builds stopped using link-time optimization — the "important stability fix" the notes advertise alongside keeping v3's "pre-ITS" savegame compatibility.

The "Latest (unstable)" channel

Alongside the numbered stables there is a rolling prerelease tagged latest, titled "Latest (unstable)". It is rebuilt from the current development code and updated continuously — at the time of writing it was last published on July 2, 2026. Its release notes are a running changelog of every pull request merged since v1.

"Unstable" means "newest features first", not "broken": it is where fixes land before they reach a numbered release. If a mod or forum post tells you to use "latest", this is what it means.

Headline changes in Latest that are not in any numbered stable yet (as of the July 2, 2026 build):

  • Increased Team Sizes (ITS) — the biggest change of the current cycle, and the reason v5's notes stress "pre-ITS savegame compatibility": saves do not carry across the ITS boundary (savegames).
  • Contract quality-of-life: contract renewal improvements, and one- and two-week contract offers now show the daily cost (hiring & contracts).
  • The reload hotkey now also clears a jammed weapon (weapon mechanics).
  • Prisoner handling: items can be taken from POWs who have not collapsed, and captured enemies in your line of sight no longer keep the game stuck in turn-based mode (prisoners).
  • Laptop emails were externalized from the legacy Emails.EDT format into Emails.xml, and the Unfinished Business tunnel enemies were externalized — both for modders.
  • Tank suppression fire was fixed (suppression), and the helicopter and enemy battle sounds now respect the volume sliders.
  • Rebel Command's daily update no longer runs a second time when you load an autosave, and the unused, unfinished ATM laptop feature was removed.
  • Treating disease became the highest priority for doctors (drugs & disease).

What an all-in-one contains

Each release — stable or latest — offers one .7z archive per language: Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Russian (roughly 800 MB each for v5). An all-in-one includes:

  • JA2 v1.13 itself (executable plus the Data-1.13 game data),
  • the Map Editor,
  • JA2: Unfinished Business support,
  • documentation in the docs folder inside the download,
  • cnc-ddraw (cnc-ddraw-config.exe in the game folder) for display issues on modern Windows.

You extract it over an installed copy of the original Jagged Alliance 2 and overwrite when asked — the same "copy over the game" idea as the old SCIs. The base game is not included and must be bought separately; the full procedure is on the installation page.

The archive name encodes exactly what is inside. For example, JA2_113-v5-Gdff4La10d-English.7z means: source tag v5, built with gamedir commit dff4… (G prefix) and gamedir-languages commit a10d… (L prefix), English edition. Latest builds insert the number of commits since the last tag and the source commit hash as well (for example v4-493-gba64ed5).

Checking which version you are running

  • In the game (tactical screen): press V to display the game version along with difficulty, Bobby Ray settings, progress and other campaign facts. This works back through the SVN era — it is listed in the official r9389 hotkeys PDF.
  • Main menu: recent unstable builds also show the version on the main menu ("Add version to main menu" appears in the Latest changelog).
  • Your download: the release archive's file name records the tag and data commits, as described above.

Knowing your version matters mostly for mods (many require r7609 or a specific newer build — see Mods built on 1.13) and for bug reports, where the team will ask whether you are on a stable release or Latest.

Sources

  • GitHub releases of 1dot13/source — tags, dates, release notes and assets retrieved via the GitHub API, July 2026 (v2–v4 dates from their tagged commits); the v1, v5 and Latest digests summarize the pull-request lists in those releases' notes
  • GitHub compare API for 1dot13/source (v1...v2 through v4...v5), July 2026 — used to reconstruct what the note-less v2–v4 tags changed and to isolate the single v4→v5 change
  • Bear's Pit thread: "How to get: latest 1.13, 7609, feature-descriptions and more" — SCI definition, SVN-era distribution, October 2022 move to GitHub
  • README of github.com/1dot13/source — SVN ending in 2022, all-in-one contents, cnc-ddraw
  • JA2 Stracciatella history page — 2004 source code release, 1.13 project start in 2005
  • Old pbworks wiki FrontPage (saved copy) — r4870/r7435/r7609 release dates, DeFrog/CVS origin
  • JA2_113_Hotkeys.pdf (r9389, 2022), from the 1.13 documentation — the V hotkey and the r9389 reference point
  • Previous 1.13 starter documentation (r8741 era) — r8610/r8622 option migration, r7609 "stable" usage by mods