Archive:Games

A list of open source games, biased towards games that are (at least theoretically) cross-platform and can be played by everyone. (There are hundreds of Linux-only games that will not be mentioned here.)

Armagetron Advanced
Tron Lightcycles... looks pretty much like the movie, I understand. (download here)

BZFlag
A multiplayer tank game, based on Battlezone but updated for the 21st century. Truly awesome! Unfortunately, when playing online the experienced players will immediately and repeatedly destroy you, which can be frustrating... fortunately, this doesn't matter when playing on a local LAN

Cube
A family of games based on the original Cube engine and the Cube 2 engine, including the latest "Sauerbraten". These FPS games were designed to make it easy to edit levels from inside the game itself! Flying around the map monkeying with the level is good clean fun, before you kill people on it and get it all bloody.

FooBilliard
An OpenGL game primarily developed for Linux, although Windows and Mac ports are made every now and then.

FreeCiv
A Civilization clone.

FreeCol
A Colonization clone... still missing some functions of the original game, but relatively playable (and pretty!)

Liquid War
A truly unique open source game... never let it be said that free software programmers can't be creative!

Neverball
A totally cross-platform game reminiscent of Super Monkey Ball. Also comes with Neverputt, a similar golf game.

OpenArena
In line with id Software's tradition of open-sourcing their games 5 years after their release, the Quake III engine was released under the GPL in 2005. Since none of the textures or other data was released, however, the OpenArena project is necessary to create a functional open source version of Quake III. They are succeeding!

Super Mario War
A bizarre deathmatch game between various Super Mario characters. Stomp on your friends' heads to win! Sadly, you have to play on the same computer currently it seems, no network gaming?

Swear and MacSwear
A theoretically cross-platform worm game in non-euclidian space. What this means is that you are a worm crawling across the surface of various 3-D objects, trying to eat yummy pixels. You can choose whether or not to have the shape you're crawling on be visible, and whether or not the pixels try to run away from you as you attempt to eat them. Note: playing on an invisible Klein bottle is a pain in the ass.

Tremulous
An addictive FPS with some RTS elements e.g. base-building, with aliens and space marines battling to the death. Unlike games with more RTS elements like Natural Selection, instead of gathering resources to get upgrades for your characters or better buildings, you get points for upgrades by killing your enemies. While this can mean that a team that gets ahead early in the game can frequently continue to dominate for the rest of the round, it also keeps the focus of the game on the important stuff: slaying your foes.

Urban Terror
A Counterstrike equivalent based on the Quake 3 engine. It began life as a Quake 3 mod, but now has a GPL standalone version, ioUrbanTerror. It has Capture the Flag and Bomb Mode, as well as free-for-all and team deathmatch. It has specific hit detection: you can get shot in the legs, arms, torso, and head, and if you don't bandage yourself after being shot, you will bleed out. Getting shot in the legs makes you walk slower until you bandage them, and getting shot in the head is usually a one-hit kill if you're not wearing a helmet. You also have stamina, which you can use to sprint until you get tired, at which point you'll pant heavily and slow down. Overall a pretty realistic game, except that you can bunny hop and "power slide" like Sub-Zero.

Warzone 2100
One of the most mature open source RTS's out there, based on a 1999 PC/Playstation game that was released under the GPL in 2004. There is no multiplayer or network play yet, but the original single-player missions work just fine. It has a unique technology tree, and you can actually design your own units to some extent, which can be fun. Units earn experience, which can be very important for some units, such as the mobile command center which can command more troops the more experience it gets. Sadly, there is really only one playable race/faction, so multiplayer games could theoretically get a little boring, once they exist.

The Battle for Wesnoth
A turn-based strategy game set in a typical fantasy world (think LOTR). This project is extremely mature, and highly recommended if you like turn-based strategy games. Warning: multi-player games can easily take over 2 hours if you are at all evenly matched, longer for close games or games with more than 2 players. Setting a time limit per turn can speed things up a little, but not much because if you make the time limit too short, people run out of time to move their units and no action happens that bring the game to a close.