What's Your Favorite Open Source Game?

Carlos Camacho asks: "The Inkubator Project is a website for creating free, Open Source Mac games through a collaboration between experienced and inexperienced developers. As webmaster, I am interested in adding to the seven games we have listed in our link section. So, I would like to ask Slashdot readers for their picks of the best Open Source games. The Inkubator Project focuses on Mac developers, however any game project that uses cross-platform technologies is fine."

BZFlag

[christopherfinke]

BZFlag [sourceforge.net], definitely.

Re:BZFlag

[Scottarius]

It appears as if even though you didn't link directly to their homepage, enough people went from here, to sourceforge, to their homepage to effectively slashdot it.

So is that technically a slashdotting?

Re:BZFlag

[Blob Pet]

i second that. the graphics might not be state of the art, but the gameplay makes it addictive.

Re:BZFlag

[Tumbleweed]

And I'll third this one. The graphics might not be visually stunning, but they're accurate (as is the sound). Very cool stuff. Makes me wish my videocard didn't flake out on 3d programs - time to get a new card, just to play BZFlag again. (not kidding)

bzflag nick: Easy Target (or Morph)

Run, cowards - I'll be returning to BZland soon. I hunger.

Re:BZFlag

[Talonius]

Yep, I picked up BZFlag some time ago and actually ended up with everyone at work playing it online. :)

The game is fun!

I don't game

[Neil Blender]

But I found this [the-underdogs.org] pretty quickly on google. Has ratings and everything.

The obvious answer is

[Jouni]

Nethack [nethack.org], of course. :) You could also include the graphical Falcon's Eye [www.hut.fi] front end on the list.

Jouni

Re:The obvious answer is

[afabbro]

Beat me to it. Second place: Angband. Third place through twentieth place: a list of Angband and Nethack derivatives.

Re:The obvious answer is

[Brandybuck]

The original Rogue is still the best. It doesn't fit the definition of Open Source, since it has a non-commercial clause, but many distros are enlightened enough to include it anyway.

Nethack

[Bob_Robertson]

Oh man, when I saw the article name that is exactly what I thought too.

I've been playing for years, and I just cannot get past level 8-12 area. If I'm really careful, I can get through Sokoban, but then BAM! one or two levels later, dead.

Something in Nethack obviously I just don't get. Still, play on.

Bob-

Re:Nethack

[harrkev]

One of the advantages of open-source is free-as-in-speech.

If you want to take the source and double the HP that you dish out and cut your damage taken by half, then feel free.

But if you do, don't go around bragging that you beat Nethack.

BTW: I created a new "engineer" character class for Angband. He kicked butt. But I suspect that the game is almost impossible to beat with a "stock" character.

Re:Nethack

[Xentax]

Nah, Vanilla Angband (at least) is easier than nethack, though you still have to be very very careful (or lucky, or both).

Granted, my sample size is one datapoint - I've beaten Angband but not NetHack ;)

Xentax

This one

[Anonymous Coward]

This one [gnu.org] is pretty neat. It's quite challenging, but I'm still learning all the keyboard combos.

Re:This one

[Elwood P Dowd]

Linking to GIMP would have been funnier.

Re:This one

[HeghmoH]

Feh, you kids with your fancy graphics, it's disgusting. Try a nice text-based game sometime, you might like it.

Bah!

[MarkusQ]

Linking to GIMP would have been funnier.

Bah! GIMP is for wimps who can't play emacs. You don't even need to know lisp to do gouraud shading, for gosh sakes! Where's the skill in that?

-- MarkusQ

It has tetris built in!

[acomj]

type
esc -x
tetris

This works on emacs and xemacs.
Of course its only really playable on xemacs.

Tetris in lisp.. Now there is someone with a lot time...

Ladder

[DeadSea]

My favorite game growing up was Ladder for my Kapro II computer. Sort of a clone of Donkey Kong with ASCII graphics. I liked it so much I cloned Ladder in Java and released it open source [ostermiller.org]. Should work fine on the OS X.

Not open source, but free flash games that I really like:

• Tontie [kiteretsu.jp] - souped up whack-a-mole
• Miniputt 2 [roesser.com] - Miniture Golf

Re:Ladder

[tolldog]

I used to play that game all the time... at least when my dad would let me on the system... now to try the Java version...

-Tim

Re:Ladder

[Hubert_Shrump]

wow. memories...

ever play the sequel, ladup?

i'm sure i still have it on floppy, somewhere... ..........d............q..........H

Re:Ladder

[DeadSea]

I've never played the sequels theselves, but I have the levels for what somebody told me is Ladder 2 [ostermiller.org]. Is that the ladup to which you refer?

Open Source means source code is available, right?

[NanoGator]

Half-Life!

your sig

[QuantumG]

For anyone actually thinking of playing Ferion, I suggest you don't bother. It's a pyramid scheme for geeks. You can play the game "for free" but half way through a game all the nonpaying players are dropped and only paying players can continue in the arena. Of course, you can "pay" by recruiting other people who pay instead of you, which is why the above poster is advertising on Slashdot.

Re:your sig

[NanoGator]

" It's a pyramid scheme for geeks."

Actually, no, it is a game, and yes you are asked to pay for it.

"Of course, you can "pay" by recruiting other people who pay instead of you, which is why the above poster is advertising on Slashdot."

Actually, I'm an artist for the game. It's in my sig because I'm proud of it. You'll notice there's no referral info in my sig.

I don't care if you don't like the game or not. I don't care if you tell people you don't like the game. But to spread FUD? C'mon, man.

Re:your sig

[QuantumG]

Take out the pyramid scheme shit and state UP FRONT that you treat non-paying players as second class citizens and I won't have any "FUD" to spread.

Re:your sig

[NanoGator]

"Take out the pyramid scheme shit and state UP FRONT that you treat non-paying players as second class citizens and I won't have any "FUD" to spread."

Actually, you can spread FUD whether the info is factual or not. There's no pyramid scheme, it's an incentive to play. The game costs money to play. BFD. Go picket your local arcade.

Re:your sig

[Anonvmous Coward]

"and state UP FRONT that you treat non-paying players as second class citizen"

Read the FAQ [ferion.com] just like everybody else does, jackass.

Re:your sig

[Jane_the_Great]

It's funny how you and NanoGator seem to attack the same people in the same threads - almost as if it is one person with two accounts.

Cute, very cute.

Re:your sig

[Anonvmous Coward]

"It's funny how you and NanoGator seem to attack the same people in the same threads - almost as if it is one person with two accounts."

We talk on ICQ a lot.

Re:your sig

[DAldredge]

Why should people who don't pay and support the game get the same treatment that those that pay do?

Re:your sig

[Ryosen]

>>Why should people who don't pay and support the game get the same treatment that those that pay do?

You must be new here.

Re:your sig

[QuantumG]

It's the Amway style recruiting of others that worries me.

Re:your sig

[HeghmoH]

A pyramid scheme is where you get people to invest in something, and you use new investors to pay returns to the older investors. Once all available suckers have been scammed, it collapses. What you describe is not a pyramid scheme.

Re:your sig

[nacturation]

A pyramid scheme is where you get people to invest in something, and you use new investors to pay returns to the older investors. Once all available suckers have been scammed, it collapses. What you describe is not a pyramid scheme.

No, what you've described is a Ponzi Scheme [wikipedia.org], a specific implementation of a pyramid scheme. Not every pyramid scheme is a Ponzi.

Re:your sig

[HeghmoH]

Thank you, I didn't know the difference, now I am better educated than before. Nevertheless, Ferion is neither a Ponzi Scheme nor a pyramid scheme. (I know you didn't correct that part of it, I just want to be clear.)

Re:your sig

[yarbo]

your sig has a mistake too, the last number listed should be 6, not 9

Crossfire

[flonker]

Crossfire [real-time.com] of course! The graphics are a bit simple, but it's got nearly as much depth as nethack, and it's a MMORPG. Gameplay is a bit similar to gauntlet, but with CRPG elements.

Re:Crossfire

[XO]

You know, this sounds wonderful.. but.. the homepage and the project page are just not jiving here.. it says the latest version is 1.7.0, but the latest files range from v 1.0.0 to 1.5.0 .. wtf?

and zero documentation.

Re:Crossfire

[XO]

well, let's see. The server is 1.6.0, as it says. The client versions available on the FTP sites range from 0.95 to 1.7.1, but with data files that range in version from 0.9 to 1.3.0.

It looks like the sourceforge data hasn't been updated in 6 months or more.

The whole project looks like a nightmare.

Re:Crossfire

[XO]

Let me re-iterate:

The installation of this looks like an absolute nightmare, and has zero documentation.

Hope it's all worth it, cuz whomever designed the packages sucks.

Re:Crossfire

[XO]

Spent like 5 hours trying to figure out how to get that installed. Still failed, miserably.

Whomever tried to moderate me as a Troll sucks, too, I certainly am not trolling.

Vega Strike dot sourceforge dot net

[PeteyG]

Vega Strike [sourceforge.net]

Without a doubt one of the premiere open source games. If you've ever played Wing Commander, Privateer, Elite, Escape Velocity Nova, you will love this game!

It's a 3d space combat/flying game where you accept all sorts of different missions (piracy, search and destroy, rescue, cargo hauling, patrol, exploration, etc) for money. You can purchase different starships and upgrade them to top of the line milspec craft. You can take the missions, or just fly around making credits as a tramp freighter, taking profitable cargos from station to planet to base.

There's also a really sweet dynamic universe, with the different empires constructing fleets of ships which do battle (and you can see the battles happen if you are in the same system!), and you can read about the progress of the wars on the dynamic news system.

The artwork is sweet, with a lot of professional-quality stuff. The graphics engine is awesome, and the gameplay rocks too.

This is the game you're looking for.
(Windows, OSX, Linux)

Re:Vega Strike dot sourceforge dot net

[digime]

And here if you can't get it from sourceforge:
Vega Strike [freshmeat.net]

Re:Vega Strike dot sourceforge dot net

[XO]

quick little word of warning:

166MB download.

I thought it was a 17MB, then when Moz started downloading it, I realised I slipped a zero. Oops..

Re:Your sig says you are not impartial.

[PeteyG]

Well, I figured my sig would take care of that.

But jesus, it's not like I was selling something. Just trying to highlight one of the top open source games.

Re:Your sig says you are not impartial.

[PeteyG]

The right thing to do would have been to make it clear you are involved with the project.

What I guess I'm saying is this; if you could figure it out, then I'm sure normal people would have no trouble at all.

Re:Your sig says you are not impartial.

[Idarubicin]

Dude--his sig already seems to make it pretty clear.

Also, he didn't mod himself up, so someone must agree with him...

But what am I doing debating accountability with someone who is posting AC?

Battle for Wesnoth

[Clover_Kicker]

http://wesnoth.org/ [wesnoth.org]

Turn based strategy, kinda like Panzer General/Fantasy General.

Re:Battle for Wesnoth

[elmegil]

Absolutely addicting. No thanks to Nez.

Re:Battle for Wesnoth

[Samus]

Definately on its way to being a top notch game. You have to keep the maps small and the battles simple though because it takes too long to do anything if you don't. Otherwise its a good game.

Re:Battle for Wesnoth

[mooingyak]

Absolutely. I just started playing it last week, and while the graphics engine could use some tweaking, the game design and flow is great. I can't wait for future versions.

Re:Battle for Wesnoth

[mar1boro]

Definitely in agreement here. Each release, moving toward 1.0, has been better.

There are a ton of other open source strategy games, but I think Wesnoth is so far the best implemented. The only other genre with a healthy number of entries is the roguelike games. For gameplay, they can't really be beat.

Re:Battle for Wesnoth

[The_Dougster]

Definitely Wesnoth. Open source notwithstanding, this is just one of my favorite games. Kind of reminds me of Empire or Xconq some times, with a bit of Heroes of Might and Magic flavoring. Its really pretty unique more than anything else. You can spend a lot of fun hours with this game.

What's Your Favorite Open Source Game?

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

It's called "find the fastest linux download server".

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Flightgear

[_aa_]

Flightgear [flightgear.org] is fun.

Re:Flightgear

[foidulus]

Heh, till you are asked to mod the code to do stuff for your university's aerospace dept. That being said, the code on that game is really well written and easy to modify. We added ships with realistic motion, and it was pretty dirt simple!

Re:Flightgear

[Wolfrider]

Games I actually play in Linux from time to time:

frozen-bubble

gnome-gataxx (A better version of Reversi, and one of my all-time favorites)

kpoker

xarchon (kind of like battle chess)
xonix

Xboing

[Gary Destruction]

It's got to be by far one of the coolest break out games I've played. When you lose the ball it says,"Awww shit!"

Re:Xboing

[PoiBoy]

I probably would have finished my PhD thesis a year earlier if I didn't find this damn game on the sun workstations. Fricking addictive.

Remember Stunts3D from DOS?

[empaler]

I miss it a lot...
But I wasn't the only one, and someone with more time and coding capability than me started making UltimateStunts [sourceforge.net].
I can't wait 'till it's done...

Raptor

[gchan]

<http://raptorv2.sourceforge.net/> raptor rox0rz.

Please learn how to make links.

[Anonymous Coward]

Please learn how to make links.

<a href="http://raptorv2.sourceforge.net">raptor</a&g t;

(with the "&g t;" put there by Slashdot replaced with ">") yields: raptor [sourceforge.net]

KOULES

[bfgimpexe]

Koules [www.ucw.cz] is a friggin awesome game. It entertained me for an entire week during the summer of 1998.

FREECIV!

[mfarah]

Freeciv is an open-source implementation of the classic Civilization I/II games. Go to http://www.freeciv.org [freeciv.org] to check it out.

GLTron

[Icyfire0573]

One of my personal favorites is GLTron [gltron.org], nothing like 4 guys sitting down to 1 keyboard for a test of reflexes, the earlier versions were faster, but the newer ones have turbo.

I second GLTron

[cgenman]

It's just one of the best implementations of the classic game there is, Open Source or otherwise.

If only there was online play... Anyone up for developing a MMPOLCG?

Re:I second GLTron

[VisorGuy]

I've always enjoyed Armagetron [sourceforge.net].

It's already multiplayer capable over LAN & Internet.

Dawn of Time

[Caharin]

is a mud- it's open source, but not GPL. http://www.dawnoftime.org [dawnoftime.org] More developers are always welcome, and there's a great community in the forums and upcoming wiki page.

Common now..

[jjshoe]

Quake [idsoftware.com].

Maelstrom!

[Otter]

Maelstrom is a supremely addictive game, and it's now released under the GPL [devolution.com] so ports to pretty much everything are now available.

Armagetron

[oO Peeping Tom Oo]

http://armagetron.sourceforge.net/ It's a great 3d Tron Clone.

Definitely bzflag

[dtfinch]

Despite its simplicity, it's a very fun game.

My top 5

[minotaurcomputing]

1) NetHack
2) GNU Chess
3) GNU Go
4) Rogue
5) GNU Shogi

Pretty limited scope... sorry.

PARSEC47

[xenocide2]

I haven't seen it mentioned yet, so I'll throw it out there -- PARSEC47 [asahi-net.or.jp] is proof that talented individuals need not be specialists. Tumiki fighters and parsec have been featured on slashdot [slashdot.org] not too long ago, with source code and windows binaries. I'm pleased to mention that an acquaintance has started up a sourceforge project [sourceforge.net] to port Cho's games to Linux.

PARSEC is attributed to a single person, Kenta Cho. To sum the game is difficult, but I shall try. It's a stereotypical top down shooter with incredible a

Re:Parsec on the TI-99/4A

[xenocide2]

This parsec? [thelogbook.com] That looks more like defender. And the abstract portion of PARSEC47 is far more... abstract..er

Scorched3D

[ttfkam]

I used to play Scorched Earth almost every day afterschool for a while in high school on my friend's 386SX. Great fun.

Now there's an Open Source, 3D panning, zooming, rendered version of the venerable game [sourceforge.net].

No first person shooting. No Viet-cong. No Desert Eagle. Just a big gun, an angle, a force, and if you're good enough, a hit.

I like to think of it as a wine that's had sufficient time to age. Doubtless, the younger ones will not appreciate this fine wine in favor of a brand new Mickey's "fine malt liquor." Still, I like it.

Just naming a few...

[sICE]

...i nearly always install on new systems:
CoreWar [sourceforge.net]: simulation game where a number of warriors try to crash each other while they are running in a virtual computer.
Battle for Wesnoth [wesnoth.org]: fantasy turn-based strategy game.
BZFlag [bzflag.org]: multiplayer 3D tank battle game.
Crimson Fields [seul.org]: tactical war game in the tradition of Battle Isle.
Crossfire [real-time.com]: cooperative multiplayer graphical RPG and adventure game.
Enigma [nongnu.org]: inspired by Oxyd on the Atari ST and Rock'n'Roll on the Amiga.
FlightGear [flightgear.org]: Flight simulator.
FreeDroid [sourceforge.net]: clone of the classic game "Paradroid" on Commodore 64.
Frozen Bubble [frozen-bubble.org]: puzzle-bobble clone.
Globulation 2 [ysagoon.com]: Real-Time Strategy.
LinCity [demon.co.uk]: city/country simulation game.
LBreakout 2 [sourceforge.net]: breakout-style arcade game in the manner of Arkanoid.
NetHack - Falcon's Eye [sourceforge.net]: mouse-driven interface for NetHack that enhances the visuals, audio and accessibility of the game, yet retains all the original gameplay and game features.
netPanzer [berlios.de]: online multiplayer tactical warfare game designed for FAST ACTION combat.
Pathological [sourceforge.net]: enriched clone of the game "Logical" by Rainbow Arts.
Project StarFighter [parallelrealities.co.uk]: xy-axis star fighting game.
SuperTux [sourceforge.net]: classic 2D jump'n run sidescroller game.
XKobo [olofson.net]: astpaced multiway scrolling shoot-em-up.
XRick [bigorno.net]: clone of Rick Dangerous.
XScorch [xscorch.org]: Scorched Earth clone.

Have fun!

Intergalactic nodular warfare

[augros]

How many of you are fans of xkobo? It's by the far the linux game I've wasted the most time playing...

Re:Intergalactic nodular warfare

[sICE]

you get my vote ;)

btw Project StarFighter [parallelrealities.co.uk] might be worth a try, it isnt as fast paced as xkobo, but i like it a lot.

angband baby...

[italy]

Angband's [thangorodrim.net] a great RPG. Although it's more for D&D freaks.. :D

GORILLAS.BAS or NIBBLES.BAS

[mr_man]

Best. Games. Ever.

Re:GORILLAS.BAS or NIBBLES.BAS

[BillyBlaze]

I remember when playing those on a faster computer you had to tweak the delay loop calibration to count higher (which should be automatic, but 33MHz is enough for anybody, right?). It could also have something to do with the strange graphics mode gorilla uses. You could also try them under bochs or dosemu.

GeneRally

[awerg]

is my favorite open source windows racing game. generally.racesincentral.com [racesincentral.com]

Torcs

[fuzzbrain]

I've wasted alot of time playing the Torcs [sourceforge.net] driving simulator, trying to beat Berniw on the alpine course in a McLaren F1.

Neverball

[Weird O'Puns]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Neverball [icculus.org] a game based on Monkey Ball.

Fun, addictive and some of the courses can be really challenging.

The Kernel!

[aero6dof]

Does it have to be generally recoginzed as a game?

Boson?

[xiox]

As a Total Annihilation fan, I'm planning to try Boson [sourceforge.net]. Has anyone had a go with it yet? The screen shots look good.

Anagramarama!

[erinacht]

Cheap plug and it's not even ported to the mac yet (any takers???) Anagramarama [coralquest.com] Simple Addictive Fun

The Ur-Quan Masters

[Jeranon]

... aka Star Control 2

http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

Re:The Ur-Quan Masters

[PeteyG]

This is the truth.

You are not gaming to your full potential if you have not played Star Control 2 (now the Ur-Quan Masters)

Keep your eyes on Planeshift...

[agentk]

Still in development, but keep your eyes on Planeshift [planeshift.it] a very ambitious and so far very well done online role-playing game. (It's playable now but not complete and a very large download). I hear that a new preview version (with a MacOSX port) is on it's way.

There are a few other games in progress based on CrystalSpace [sf.net] as well (which works on Mac, Linux, Windows, and other platforms as well with varying degrees of support).

what about

[zr-rifle]

linux?

best text adventure around.

Re:what about

[Clover_Kicker]

Oh, you mean advsh [a.clue.de]?

Stepmania

[Twintop]

Nothin' like DDR'in infront of your pets to start the day off right.

Re:There aren't any good ones

[NanoGator]

"None are any good, so why bother even looking?"

Because you cannot prove that something doesn't exist. Therefore, you cannot use that rational to explain why you won't look.

Re:There aren't any good ones

[bersl2]

Define "decent." You're still being completely subjective. Your statement is definitely true for only one person: yourself.

Re:There aren't any good ones

[bersl2]

OK, we're getting better now. There are, to my knowledge, no good open source RTS games. There is a port of Command and Conquer whose client is open (obviously not the content), but they're "not dead [yet]," in the Monty Python sense of the phrase.

Besides, when you say "game," I'm assuming that you mean that it has at least semi-original content in addition to a completely open game engine. Those open source games tend to be simplistic; this, I believe, is the case because the creative part of any sufficie

Re:KSirtet and Nethack

[harrkev]

NetHack - text adventure

I do not mean to be the "genre police," but NetHack is better described as an "ASCII RPG." If you can type in English "get sword," "go north," and "put the painting in the bag," then it qualifies as a text adventure.

Sorry about the brief diversion. We now return you to our regularaly-scheduled thread.

Re:xevil

[shawn(at)fsu]

XEvil was the first game I played in linux. Thanks for remininding me about it.

I liked the games website and the hate mail that they "got". Not sure if it was real or not but it was back when the net was "small and young" so it woudln't suprise me if a lot of people did find it offensive. All the bios for the characters were great esp the nerd, who was my favorite character, who got killed by his robot.

All in all good times.