Top 10 OSS Games You’ve Never Played
Still, there are a few diamonds in the rough that have gone unnoticed by the majority of gamers. These are the games that you wish you existed, but are nearly impossible to find. Well, I’m throwing the veil off right here and now. I’ve scoured the ‘net to produce the top ten list of OSS games that you’ve never played. While they’re not all commercial software material, they are all a lot of fun to play, and most run on the top 3 platforms. (Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows). I sincerely hope you have as much fun playing these as I did in finding them.
Free Games
Asteroids 3D - Have you ever wondered what would happen if you took Wing Commander and combined it with Asteroids? No? Why not?
Well this game tries to answer that question anyway. It takes the classic game of Asteroids, wraps it in the prettiest 3D engine you’ve ever seen, and puts you straight into the cockpit! There’s not a whole lot of gameplay beyond shooting at rocks on a clock, but the 3D engine makes this a pleasure to play.
Privateer Remake - Have you ever wanted to ship cargo, take on pirates, and fight the Kilrathi in the Gemini sector? Well, here’s your chance! Privateer Remake revives all the great gameplay of Origin’s 1993 Wing Commander spinoff, but with a cool new 3D engine based on Vega Strike! So if you ever wanted to combine open ended gameplay with the Wing Commander universe, check this game out!
(Note: Since this game is based on the Vega Strike engine, most of the source code is on Vega Strike’s website. The portions unique to Privateer Remake are all Python scripts that are included with the binaries.)
Tower Toppler - In case you’ve never played it before, Tower Toppler was a popular game for many of the PCs and game consoles of the 80’s. This project replicates the original gameplay precisely, right down to the level layouts. The only difference is the high color, OpenGL graphics and high quality sound effects. Retro never looked this good!
Block Attack - Tetris Attack has always been one of my favorite games. Imagine how happy I was when I learned about the clone Crack Attack (Mac). Unfortunately, I found that Crack
Attack just couldn’t live up to the original. While the “endless” mode worked fine, there was simply no real challenge.
Thankfully, Block Attack came along and gave us full Tetris Attack gameplay! Everything from cartoon graphics, to puzzle mode, to a “versus” AI, it’s all here! All the great Tetris Attack gameplay, but none of the annoying Pokémons. Note that binaries are only provided for Windows and Linux. However, I had no difficulties in compiling the software for Mac OS X.
Secret Maryo Chronicles - Secret Maryo Chronicles is a game that attempts to emulate the gameplay of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World all in one game! The result is an odd combination of features and powerups. For example, you have an overhead map that allows you to pick the level you want to visit. On the other hand, the screen won’t scroll backwards when you try to move left instead of right. The result is a little weird, but otherwise makes for a very enjoyable game. If I had one complaint, it would be that the physics need to be tweaked. They’re far more loose than any of the Mario titles, thus making the gameplay quite a bit different from the source material.
No Gravity - This game is a suprisingly solid, arcade style, first person, space combat simulator with Wing Commander style physics. (Whew, that was a mouthful!) The engine looks great, the controls are smooth, and the gameplay is intense. So if you’re looking to take the controls of a real space fighter (rather than the glorified cargo ships in Privateer), check this game out! I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed. (Source Code)
Worminator 3 - Remember when Duke Nukem was a side scrolling character with an ego the size of Texas? If you’re like me, you may be wishing that he stayed that way instead of becoming the 3D vapourware champion. Well, there’s some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Worminator gives you a free, Duke Nukem style, platform game. You can take your Worm Commando from level to level of shoot ‘em up goodness, just like you used to do with Duke!
What’s the bad news? The latest Duke Nukem game is taking Forever!
Nexuiz - Looking for a new first person shooter with fresh online play? Check out this game! Nexuiz is a complete First Person Shooter based on a revamped version of the Quake III source code called DarkPlaces.
Meat Fighter - The Weiner Warrior - Strap on your boxing gloves, warm up in the gym, and get ready for some all out… Weiner fighting? That’s right! Meat Fighter is a whimsical fighting game of the Street Fighter genre that pits your deli meat against some of the meanest and toughest meats in the supermarket. Are you tough enough to face the challenge, or will you become tenderized like all the rest?
Armagetron Advanced - What’s going on? Have you been digitized? Has the MCP returned to destroy you? Relive all the glory of the Tron lightcycles chases, but in full 3D! With both computer and online multiplayer modes, you’ll be feeling like you’re really in the cockpit of a lightcycle in no time flat. Before you know it, all the other programs will be saying,”That’s Tron, he fights for the users!”
Got Game?
Do you know of an Open Source game that rocks the house? (And I missed it?) Tell us about it! Either post a comment below, or email me at akaimbatman@gmail.com. If enough cool games show up, I’ll make another list in the future. Now go get your game on!
Update (10/10/2006): Since I first posted this, I have received a great deal of email concerning titles that other folks believe should be on this list. The responses are quite interesting, with a large percentage sending me games that either aren’t Open Source, or are so well known that I discounted them in the first place. Of those that actually fit in the “unknown & OSS” category, many were incomplete. Some weren’t even all that interesting. (To me, anyway. Everyone has differeing opinions.) Still, all the submissions have been quite interesting, each in their own way. So I’ve decided to share the list I’ve received. Here’s the list, in its full, unadulterated glory.
- TA Spring - An Open Source Real Time Strategy Game.
- War§ow - A First Person Shooter based on Quake II.
- OOLite - An OSS Elite Clone for Macs.
- Legends - A non-OSS, multiplayer FPS based on the GarageGame’s Torque Engine.
- BlobWars - An OSS 2D-Scroller.
- SuperTux - If you don’t know what SuperTux is, then it’s time to wake up.
- 2H4U (TooHardForYou) - Tetris and Pong. Combined.
- Battle for Wesnoth - Not my cup of tea, but Hex Strategy fans might find this of interest.
- Cube - Another FPS. Engine appears to be original.
- NeverBall - A 3D floor-tilting game.
- Mirror Magic - A port of the C64 game Deflektor. Does not advertise an OSS license.
- Wormux - Worms clone. Submitted never played it. (Don’t ask me.)
- Zanthor - Appears to be an isometric RPG.
- FreeDOOM - A Doom total conversion based on the GPLed sources.
- Glest - A 3D Real Time Strategy game.
- TORCS - A race car simulator.
- FreeCIV - Linked for those who make their homes under rocks.
- Scorched3D - An update to the classic DOS game Scorched Earth.
- Pok3D - 3D Poker. Neat.
- BZFlag - I’m absolutely sure you’ve never heard of this one. Absolutely.
- Alien Arena 2007 - Another FPS. Knock yourself out. Err… I mean your opponent. Because it’s a death… ah, forget it.
- XMoto - Nothing like dirtbiking on your computer.
- PlasmaPong - Pong and Plasma. Not Open Source.
- ISTMu - No hablo español, amigo.
- Free Allegiance - A Wing Commander-type game originally released by Microsoft. It’s now “shared source”, but not OSS.
There you have it. Also, don’t forget to check the comments below for even more games!
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April 10th, 2006 at 8:16 am
bzflag (at http://www.bzflag.org/ ) is a 3d battlezone-like game (solid faces, not wireframes.) Multiplayer, several teams, lots of odd powerups, and there are usually dozens of servers of it up and running all the time. And all Open Source, of course.
Wow, I just went there (I haven’t played in over a year) and they’ve really improved the graphics.
April 10th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
I might suggest Battle for Wesnoth http://wesnoth.org which is a turn based strategy game something similar to Advance Wars but with a high fantasy (elfs, trolls, wizards) theme and more scripted campaigns/scenarios.
Or Cube http://cubeengine.com/ which is an insanely fast “simple” FPS game. A spiritual successor to Quake 2’s gameplay with better graphics and a simple world design that makes for map sizes measured in bytes. And then there is Sauerbraten http://sauerbraten.org which is a sequel/fork of Cube. An even more conceptually simple world design capable of producing insanely detailed maps. Gameplay is much the same as Cube, but graphics and levels are much better. Still in infancy, multiplayer capable but not very popular in its alpha/beta stages.
April 10th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
This game just got released (was a Q3mod before)
Heres a summary:
Tremulous is a free, open source game that blends a team based FPS with elements of an RTS. Players can choose from 2 unique races, aliens and humans. Players on both teams are able to build working structures in-game like an RTS.
Hope you add it to the (next) list.
April 10th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Good list. I know you were going for less well known games, so it makes sense to exclude BZflag, Wesnoth & Tremulous (which I’ve recently become addicted to), but I have one that is less well known but is awesome.
Neverball.
Seriously this game is addictive and wonderful. Great looking graphics & just good clean fun (but it does need a newer computer to handle the highest resolution). Check it out, it is in the Debian repos.
April 10th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
I’d like to see in that list the great Clanbomber (www.clanbomber.de).
I’ve been playing it since…. and it still makes me cry (having fun). It’s great to have up to 3 players in the same keyboard against AI players….
Well, it doesn’t have cool graphics (3d or “wow!” textures) but it’s the kind of game that I enjoy.
PS: nice blog!
April 10th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
FYI- Darkplace is NOT based on quake3, or even two source code. it’s simply Quake1 with support for quake1,2,3,halflife1 maps, mdls, md2s, md3s, etc
so yeah. totally just quake 1
April 11th, 2006 at 9:21 am
Darkplace is simply Quake1
Since no one else has yet commented on this, allow me to be the first to say: Wow! That’s jaw-droppingly impressive. Darkplace has all the apperence and feel of the Quake 3 engine. To be based on Quake I source code is simply… inconceivable! (cue Princess Bride gags)
April 11th, 2006 at 9:26 am
I love
- Flightgear
- Chromium B.S.U
- Glest
April 11th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Netris is included with Knoppix. This is a tetris clone that runs in a terminal (NO X Required). Great game.
April 11th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Two great games:
The Urquan Masters (Star Control 2) : http://sc2.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php
and for those of you that own Ultima VII, the Exult engine : http://exult.sourceforge.net/
April 12th, 2006 at 2:56 am
DarkPlaces is most advanced and well written Quake1 engine, and FTE its the most advanced and feature complete QuakeWorld engine.
DarkPlaces is also very advanced on the Quake3/Doom3 lighting stuff, even after the release of Doom3. And even Tenebrae, just other flavour of lighting.
You can be shocked how a “old” engine look “new” with better models and maps and new hardware. But you sould considered that this “new” is because the updated policount, than on the build date.
Anyways DarkPlaces is not old, the latest build whas this week, so is not old in any standard
I love DarkPlaces, and my own quake1 engine, Telejano (http://telejano.berlios.de)
April 12th, 2006 at 9:24 am
[…] Top 10 OSS Games You’ve Never Played IntelligentBlogger.com […]
April 12th, 2006 at 9:54 am
Tremulous http://www.tremulous.net/
April 12th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Foo-Billiard I’m using PClinuxos linux distro with ati supprt. This distro Rocks.
Spent hours with this game. I was suprised how well this game works with this distro. PClinuxos has G-force supported distro too. Its only a pool game but its a good 3d one at it with sound
http://pclinuxos.com
http://foobillard.sunsite.dk
April 12th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Stepmania is a F/OSS Dance Dance Revolution. It’s even used as the basis for the console bemani game Beatmania. You can download the .smzip files for all the original DDR music/steps on Limewire or from Bittorrent sites too.
You can play with a keyboard, or two dance pads + USB adapter cost $30ish on ebay.
http://stepmania.com
April 14th, 2006 at 3:53 am
Fish Fillets - Next Generation is a port from the once commercial game Fish Fillets. Looks like a game for kids, but some levels are veeeeeery difficult.
http://fillets.sf.net/
April 14th, 2006 at 4:34 am
Viruskiller , a point and shoot game
http://www.parallelrealities.co.uk/virusKiller.php
April 14th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
PiX Pang…It’s a Super Pang clone.
So… if it’s not here… ¿does it mean that it is famous?
http://pixpang.panreyes.com
April 15th, 2006 at 6:40 am
[…] While metamoderating at Slashdot this morning I ran across a link to IntelligentBlogger’s Top 10 OSS Games You’ve Never Heard Of. Looks interesting, I might try some of these out when I recover from some serious motion sickness induced by last night’s session of Kingdom Hearts! Ugh, I’m hoping I was just tired and not getting too old to play these games. i always thought arthritis would be the thing to stop my game playing, but this motion sickness is just, ugh… […]
April 17th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Oolite - a modernized version of Elite - is one of the best space combat games out there. (For those who don’t remember 1985, “Elite” was the first home computer game to utterly define a generation. It was that good. And Oolite is far superior.) It does have the drawback that it doesn’t play well with SELinux, but I’m not sure that’s a terribly serious problem. There’s also a version of Chuckie Egg that’s Open Source, but I’m not sure where it is. Sadly, I’ve never seen Revs for Linux, that being the third of the trio of UberClassics. In the wargaming arena, Empire is the all-time classic (50-player world domination!), with XConquer (6-player world domination, with decent AIs) and Freeciv being very respectable alternatives, albeit with only a tiny fraction of the sophistication. Sadly, Empire and XConquer, along with the other Golden Oldie of Netrek, are dying out, although it is very unclear where the gamers are moving to. Another oldie that never caught on but was amazing for the time was XTank, with support for fully-programmable AIs. Attempts to revive XTank have so far failed for licensing reasons. Orbiter is an excellent realistic 3D space flight simulator. Although not a game, per se, Apollo Guidance System is a reproduction of the Apollo’s flight computers and is being integrated into full simulators such as Flightgear.
April 19th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
Yo imipak - Oolite isn’t open source, it’s only available for non-commercial distribution.
April 19th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
also check out the wikipedia entry on orbiter, it’s closed source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbiter_%28sim%29
April 21st, 2006 at 10:15 am
[…] When you see all the open-source games now (or soon to be) available for it. […]
April 25th, 2006 at 4:32 pm
Work on proof-reading your work. A spell-checker doesn’t catch moronic sentences.
Fix this:
“These are the games that you wish you existed, but are nearly impossible to find. “
April 25th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
Let’s see here. Dob Bole has:
It seems to me that we have another candidate for the Dunce Awards!
Next time, sir, please consider using more courteous behavior. And if you must correct the text (which is perfectly acceptable, mind you, I’m far from perfect), please make clear your objection. Thank you.
April 28th, 2006 at 12:41 am
[…] http://akaimbatman.intelligentblogger.com/wordpress/archives/27 […]
May 4th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
How can you forget… GLTRON!!!
May 4th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
I have played Jedi Outcast, Jedi Academy, and Call of Duty in Debian Sid, using Wine. Upgrading Sid generally breaks my NVidia drivers. Currently I am without 3d, and will be spending my time fixing them.
May 6th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
I just came across a game called gridwars. It’s a very simple game with amazing graphics and gameplay.
http://gridwars.marune.de/
My favorite sites for linux game news is http://www.linuxgames.com and http://www.linux-gamers.net
May 6th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
[…] http://akaimbatman.intelligentblogger.com/wordpress/archives/27 […]
May 7th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
I would suggest bomberclone( http://bomberclone.de ), a free clone of BomberMan. The network play is slightly laggy for transatlantic connections, but still quite playable.
Also, http://muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/software/tworld is the location of the excellent Tile World, a reimplementation of the famous Chip’s Challenge. Although it can’t ship with the original levels for copyright reasons, there are literally thousands of fan-made levels available: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/chips_challenge/
May 9th, 2006 at 6:59 am
Personally, in addition to Frozen Bubble, I like Gweled, & SameGnome/SameGame.
I’m easily entertained…
May 10th, 2006 at 8:53 am
Check out the Falling Sand game. There are many web versions and a few packaged for download.
http://www.fallingsandgame.com/
May 13th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
Planeshift is the only working 3D MMORPG for *nux that I know of. It’s nice.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
ManiaDrive : http://maniadrive.raydium.org/
X-Moto : http://xmoto.sourceforge.net/
Liquid War : http://www.ufoot.org/liquidwar/v5
May 15th, 2006 at 6:21 pm
While all the graphics wonderments are appreciated, especially the link to Privateer:TNG since Privateer was one of my favorite games ever, don’t forget Nethack. I may have never been past level 12, but I’ve been playing and enjoying it for years.
May 16th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
Good list. I’ll try to add some others which might not be that well known.
First, a good way to discover new games is http://www.happypenguin.org/ , a nice blog/database of Linux games (some of them OSS, some not). NetHack has already been mentioned; if you’ve spent some time with it, you may want to try out the popular fork Slash ‘Em ( http://slashem.sf.net/ ). Daimonin ( http://www.daimonin.net/ ) seems to be shaping up nicely as an open source MMORPG. If you liked the DOS game “Scorched Earth” (turn-based game with tanks shooting each other, you can buy new weapons after each round), you may enjoy http://atanks.sourceforge.net/ - the most faithful recreation I’ve seen.
If you prefer realtime action, netPanzer ( http://netpanzer.berlios.de/ ) is a neat multiplayer online game with tanks. Like most RTS games, it has production facilities, but it skips the resource management part. You basically just have to build lots of tanks, conquer bases, and kill all enemies. Quite fun, especially as it’s got a fairly large player base. If you enjoy RISK style strategy, check out Teg ( http://teg.sourceforge.net/ ), although its AI is way too predictable.
If you’re looking for a new addiction, try the multiplayer Tetris clone Tetrinet ( http://www.tetrinet.org/ ) and its Linux clients such as gTetrinet. You play against up to six people and can use various attacks against them whenever you destroy lines.Last time I played it, it had a surprisingly active player community. In the Tetris department, also check out Cuyo ( http://www.karimmi.de/cuyo/ ) , a fairly clever falling blocks game where you have to trigger chain reactions. One interesting aspect is that the blocks are animated, and change with each round, so it’s visually interesting. Also in the puzzle department, Enigma ( http://www.nongnu.org/enigma/ ) is a nice clone of the Atari ST classic “Oxyd”.
If you like shoot-em-ups, give Powermanga a try ( http://linux.tlk.fr/games/Powermanga/ ). Quite addictive little sucker. Many will know the excellent Breakout clone LBreakout, but also check out the other games at http://lgames.sourceforge.net/ .
To the person who mentioned Neverball, also try Neverputt, a highly addictive 3D minigolf game with lovely graphics, using the Neverball engine. I actually enjoyed it much more than Neverball itself.
If you don’t mind the “OSS” part that much and mostly want games that run under Linux, emulators are one of the best ways to get access to huge game libraries. There’s emus for almost all the older video game consoles and MAME for the arcades. Virtually any game for the SNES or Genesis will run nicely in an emulator, for example — from Sonic to Zelda. Home computers, too, can be emulated,so you can play old games like Krakout for the C64 or Turrican for the Amiga.
But my favorite is Dosbox, ( http://dosbox.sf.net/ ) an _excellent_ DOS emulator that is fast and easy to use and can run hundreds of DOS games perfectly. Just a few days ago I tried out some of the old Epic and Apogee shareware titles (including graphically intensive ones like “Epic Pinball”) and they worked fine. As long as you have a decent CPU, it is great fun. There’s a fairly large “abandonware” community that archives these old games. Some abandonware sites go to great lengths to get permission from game developers to host their old games.
Lastly, let’s not forget the efforts to replicate the engines of specific games. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Engine_Recreations has a decent list of such projects. Exult has already been mentioned; if you remember _any_ of the LucasArts adventure games, you will also want to examine ScummVM. Not only does it have support for the DOS and Windows versions of games like “Day of the Tentacle” or the first 3 “Monkey Island” titles, it also supports versions you’ve probably never heard of, such as a 256 color version of Zak McKracken with CD sound that was developed for the Japanese FM TOWNS system. (Hint: There _are_ torrents for these things.
As for the more popular games, in addition to the ones already mentioned, Google any of these: Supertux, Freeciv, PySol (massive solitaire game collection), Pingus (Lemmings clone).
Alas, there are relatively few good OSS games with 3D engines. It’s also true that very few OSS games are truly innovative in gameplay or design. Then again, they’re free.
May 16th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Ditto on fillets, it’s so much fun. Seems like the developers really had a good time writing it.
May 19th, 2006 at 4:07 am
Are the no business or management games?
May 19th, 2006 at 8:21 am
Every now and then I get addicted to an SDL-based game called BlobWars, http://www.parallelrealities.co.uk/blobWars.php which is quite fun although slightly more violent than I usually like, since you shoot at things and there’s (optional) blood. It was originally packaged for Mandrake (now Mandriva) Linux, but it’s been widely ported and there’s source.
May 19th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Don’t forget OpenTTD, a recreation of Transport Tycoon Deluxe. You need to have (or pirate) a copy of the original game for some of the graphics and settings files (although they’re replicating that work and it’ll be done for version .7 or .8…). Packages for Windows, OSX, Linux, etc. Find it at openttd.org.
May 21st, 2006 at 4:15 am
I notice no one has mentioned any RPGs. Is this because there aren’t any good ones, or is it just not this community’s favorite genre?
May 25th, 2006 at 11:46 am
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May 26th, 2006 at 11:24 am
Well this game doesn’t really fit into the whole “3d” genre as most of the listed games do. But theres this game called “Cave Story”. Classic 2d platformer… Its really a great game. Check it out if you like that sort of thing.
May 27th, 2006 at 6:53 am
Let’s not forget the wonderful TASpring! Total Annihilation! Cross platform, and every bit as good as the original, with scope for much extension. Run’s beautifully on linux and windows.
http://taspring.clan-sy.com/
May 28th, 2006 at 8:22 am
Meat Fighter is written in Java. I have Java 1.4.2_10 and 1.5.0_06 on my Gentoo Linux.
When I try to run it using 1.4.2_10, I get a window completely empty (filled with gray color). After some time, I get sound/music effects, but nothing is displayed.
When I try to run it using 1.5.0_06, I get graphics and sound.
In both cases, game is not fullscreen.
There is a very bad bug there. If I click on window, then no key will work anymore.
Conclusions: the code probably is not well-written, or Java is not a good language for games.
May 29th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
> In both cases, game is not fullscreen.
I take it that you’re running it on Linux? Linux is a rather poor platform for Java games as its lack of standards has made it difficult for Sun to target with full screen gaming. The new 1.6 VM has full screen support for Linux, but it won’t be officially released for a few more months.
May 30th, 2006 at 5:37 am
A few years ago I was addicted to playing Mirror Magic http://www.artsoft.org/mirrormagic/ a great puzzle game with pretty good graphics, sound, and music. Also, if you like solitaire, don’t forget pysol and Ace of Penguins
May 30th, 2006 at 10:13 am
Try http://www.kimmoa.se/GUTS/.
May 31st, 2006 at 5:36 am
I like to play Crossfire (http://crossfire.real-time.com). It is an ugly MUD/MMORPG, but it features a rather complex set of rules and a rather big number of maps to explore.
>> In both cases, game is not fullscreen.
>I take it that you’re running it on Linux? Linux is a rather poor platform for Java games as its lack of standards has made it
>difficult for Sun to target with full screen gaming. The new 1.6 VM has full screen support for Linux, but it won’t be officially >released for a few more months.
>
Just for the record, Java fullscreen support under Linux wasn’t lacking because of its “lack of standards” (fullscreen mode under X doesn’t depend on anything but X itself), but simply because the Sun took a long time to work on this and integrate the result in the JDK (see JDK bug #4661156) - in 2002, Linux support clearly wasn’t one of their top priorities.
May 31st, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Invade Earth is an open-source Java implementation of Risk, Risk 2210, and various expansions. Check it out… if you have a couple of friends, you can play a networked game with them (and games go much faster than normal Risk without dice rolling).
June 8th, 2006 at 8:11 am
> Just for the record, Java fullscreen support under Linux wasn’t lacking
> because of its “lack of standards” (fullscreen mode under X doesn’t depend
> on anything but X itself), but simply because the Sun took a long time to
> work on this and integrate the result in the JDK
For the record, the above “for the record” is incorrect. Java Full Screen support not only requires a change in video mode, but direct memory access and VSync synchronziation. These features were not easy to access from X, and no standard existed across the various Linux machines to support them. Ergo, full screen support had to wait.
Please do read the bug report. It’s very insightful on the issues present in trying to merely switch the screen mode, much less produce “full-screen exclusive” mode.
June 14th, 2006 at 1:24 am
[…] A very nice writeup of 10 opensource games. Also some nice comments in the comment section. « Roller skating I. […]
June 14th, 2006 at 3:40 am
Warsow — based on Quake 2 engine.