Liberated Games Launches 168
Crusader writes "Two LinuxGames staff members have launched Liberated Games, a site devoted to cataloguing full commercial titles that have been released for free by the developer or publisher, either with the full source code or without. The current list is available here; the site tracks releases for all major computer platforms (Windows, Mac OSX, Linux), so feel free to submit any missing games to the list."
great turn around! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:great turn around! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:great turn around! (Score:2, Funny)
And possibly Tom, Dick and Harry its processor cycles and Steve its memory, too.
Re:great turn around! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:great turn around! (Score:2)
Linux needs games! (Score:5, Interesting)
On a similar note, I think Linux is a good candidate for future gaming platforms (I'm thinking ps3) because of it's flexibility. Last I checked, sony has already made use of Linux in their products.
Re:Linux needs games! (Score:3, Informative)
It was a harddrive a keyboard, and I think a nic card. Pretty cool stuff, I think there are still kits floating around.
Linux would make a great gaming OS, you can minimalize background proccessors and tweaking-ability is great.
Just needs more/better drivers for latest vid cards and more games.
But I like the ones I have. It's always nice when I see people type:
"oh shit my virus scanner just went off, BRB"
"oh shit I need to reboot"
"oh shit I..
Re:Linux needs games! (Score:5, Insightful)
What exactly would you use the OS for on a console? Drivers are unnecessary since low level access can be compiled into the game binary and anything the game might need can be on the disk. Having an abstraction layer in between would become an issue, for one thing the layer will probably be less flexible (or less efficient) than direct hardware access and for another thing the shipped version would have to be declared as final, they couldn't update it if they discover a bug or need new features, it could break compatibility with older games. Besides, Linux wasn't designed for being used as a games platform.
If a game wanted to use a customized Linux, the dev can customize Linux themselves and come out with exactly the version they want. No dev could complain about the OS lacking some vital feature.
Also, delivering the source code as mandated by the GPL would be a problem, where would you store it?
Linux might help pirates and hobbyists to interact with the hardware, but a console manufacturer wants neither group involved and there wouldn't be an advantage for the commercial developers.
Re:Linux needs games! (Score:2, Interesting)
On an offer, valid for at least 3 years, to deliver the source code to any third party, on a medium customarily used for software exchange, for not more than the cost of shipping and handling.
Re:Linux needs games! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Linux needs games! (Score:1)
Re:Linux needs games! (Score:5, Insightful)
In theory you're right, but there's a couple of reasons why nobody does like this actually
Once upon a time it could be done like this. On some old 8bit console, all you had to do to create a game was to write a short program, under a few thousand instruction, It had only to read input from joy pad, a move 1 or 2 sprites on screen (using hardware sprites) and do some very basic sprite-to-background (hardware assisted) collision detections. This could be done by hand, without using any other library.
Nowadays games are much more complicated : you've got more complexe graphics, you must have realistic physics. Your GFX hardware is much more general purpose (which is good), but that means you must implement everything ("3D mesh of a warrior running on a height-field ground" isn't a single hardware feature). Plus you have internet, savegames hardware (harddisk or memory stick) where files must be shared with other applications (hence the need of a file system) etc...
Still wanna write a full online game, with a robust TCP/IP stack, and everything else including in-game voice-chat with other players ?...
Modern console DO NEED an OS, because it's getting just to much work to re-invent the wheel everytime you write a new game. Yes, the OS adds an overhead, compared to hand-optimized assembler. But it removes a lot of head-ache from developpement process, and moderne consoles have more powerful processors : it's not only to make them run faster, it's also to make the overhead of OS and librairies more negligible.
But any OS could do the job. Actually, some early console of this generation could run multiple OSes. The DreamCast had a minimalist BIOS that could just check and boot watever OS was on the GD-ROM. Most of the games were built using SEGA's proprietary system "Katana". But there were also a few games made using Microsoft's Windows CE (hence the "compatible with..." logo on the front [cheatheaven.co.uk]), most homebrew games are done using KallistiOS [allusion.net], some fans managed to port the penguin to this console [sf.net]. You have the choice of the OS (DreamCast will boot any of them), but you have to use one, because few sane people want to code a 3D application by hand in SuperH assembler....
Yes the "boot whatever customized OS you-like" is cool. But console esigner don't do it. They like to force THEIR proprietary OS because of
Microsoft could have done some "boot your own favorite OS" console like the Dreamcast. But instead they've choosen to design a console with a Windows-2000-based kernel. The user has no other choice than to boot Dashboard, before everything else, and then the Dashboard will decide what the user can and can't do...
And game designer HAVE to pay a license for the constuctor's proprietary OS because they cannot use anything else.
Re:Linux needs games! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Linux needs games! (Score:2)
Linux's design philosophy has grown a lot, and certainly nothing stopping it from doing the job.
Re:Linux needs games! (Score:2)
Re:Linux needs games! (Score:5, Informative)
Current generation console systems already have a small kernel. Enough to load files off CD-ROM, download data from the network using TCP/IP, and run multiple lightweight threads. Many games (even early generation home computers like the Atari 800) made use of parallel processing to implement AI (the spare CPU time during vertical blank interrupts could be used to run depth searches of possible moves).
Have a read of Chapter 8 of De Re Atari [atariarchives.org] to see why having an OS/kernel is useful.
THE OPERATING SYSTEM
INTRODUCTION
With every ATARI Home Computer System comes an ATARI 10K Operating System Cartridge. The importance of this cartridge is often overlooked. Without it, you have a lot of potential, but absolutely nothing else! This situation is not unique to the ATARI Home Computer System; It is encountered with all computers. A computer is, after all, merely a collection of hardware devices. A user must manage these resources to accomplish any task. If all programmers had to start from scratch on each program, we would have an even larger software shortage than we have today. The solution that has evolved over the years is to build in a program that manages the resources available to the system, and eases the programming burden required to control them. This program is known by various names: Operating System, Master Control Program, System Executive, System Monitor, etc. In the ATARI Home Computer System it is known as the Operating System or OS.
Re:Linux needs games! (Score:2)
you don't have to provide the source code right along with the binary version (ever downloaded an rpm? they don't automatically come with source code.) you just have to make sure that it's available to anyone who gets a copy of the binary version, and that you make it known to them that it is available. the gpl provides a list of several different ways this condition could be met. iirc, in the early da
Home of the underdogs (Score:5, Informative)
As you may already know, 'unofficially' free software site Home of the Underdogs http://www.the-underdogs.org/ [the-underdogs.org] links to source or binary (now by Bittorrent!) to all old games abandonned by developpers and/or publishers. An endless source of fun and nostalgia... be sure to check it out!
Re:Home of the underdogs (Score:5, Informative)
Unlike the warez sites out there, they really do try to be honest. Just try and request a game on their forum and see what happens if you don't believe me.
Quoted:
"Home of the Underdogs is a non-profit site dedicated to the preservation and promotion of underrated PC games (and a few non-PC games) of all ages: good games that deserve a second chance after dismal sales or critical reviews that we feel are unwarranted. By nature, our criteria for choosing games to be honored here are subjective. However, we believe that our collective experience (many of us started gaming in late 1970s) allows us to be confident of our choices: we've played many of the best and worst games ever made. Therefore, we believe that our "Top Dog" tag signifies a truly remarkable classic, while at the other end of the spectrum our "Real Dog" tag signifies marginal underdogs we think you really should avoid (most of them are here only because a number of visitors pleaded us for them, anyway [EG]).
Although the site is non-profit in that we will never charge anyone for anything, we do need to pay hefty server costs every month to ensure decent download and access speeds. To that end, we unfortunately need to place banners on the site to cover these costs. These banners are mostly pay-per-impression, so you don't need to click on them (although we'd appreciate any clicks as they lead to higher payout rates and better ad campaigns). We are sorry for this inconvenience, and we thank you for your support.
Home of the Underdogs, while not an abandonware site per se (since our aim is to pay tribute to all underdogs, both new and old), supports the abandonware idea. We believe that providing games that have been abandoned by their publishers, while technically illegal, is a valuable service to the gaming community because these games are in danger of disappearing into obscurity, and their copyright holders no longer derive any revenues from them. For more information on our stance on abandonware, please read this section of our FAQ.
One of the larger goals behind Home of the Underdogs is to make it a friendly and dynamic community of classic game collectors, oldies lovers, game designers, and anyone else interested in the history of PC computer games; to be a place for sharing nostalgia, ideas, and information on underrated games. To this end, everyone is welcome to interact with the site via the "Community" subsection in the left-hand menu bar, where you can sign our Guestbook, join in various discussions in our Forum, or contribute to the site.
We also belong to the group of "die-hard" gamers who long for the golden days of PC gaming, when games were more original and fun to play than today's hordes of mundane, "me-too" titles marketed by businessmen who abhors risking the corporate purse strings on innovative but unproven titles. We long for the days when designers were treated as "artistes" of their medium, entrepreneurial pioneers who worked without the fears of not meeting a Christmas deadline or making games that aren't compatible with 3D cards. We hope that games featured on this site will help inspired a new generation of game designers to reach back into the past and rediscover what great games are truly made of. To that end, we are honored to host the Scratchware Manifesto, a statement of purpose written by several designers who are dismayed with the state of today's gaming industry. We encourage everyone to read it and spread the word around
Re:that link tries to install shit (Score:2)
nice Compilation (Score:5, Interesting)
--
Play the Gmail game, win a free Gmail invitation! [retailretreat.com]
Re:nice Compilation (Score:5, Informative)
Re:nice Compilation (Score:2)
Re:nice Compilation (Score:4, Informative)
I'd like to see a list of liberated non-game SW (Score:1, Interesting)
Oh yeah... soon Linux'll be free'd by SCO.
CloudScape (Score:3, Interesting)
CloudScape
NetBeans
OpenOffice
Duke Nukem 3D on Linux! (Score:5, Informative)
This is excellent news! I just found out Duke Nukem 3D is not only on the list of liberated games, but that it also runs natively on Linux now! Grab a copy from http://icculus.org/duke3d/index.html [icculus.org] and meet me for a game. I'll be the one with the pipe bomb.
Oh and first p0st.
Don't you still need the CD... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Duke Nukem 3D on Linux! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Duke Nukem 3D on Linux! (Score:2)
Re:Duke Nukem 3D on Linux! (Score:2)
First of 2 Steps (Score:5, Funny)
Unreal Tournament (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Unreal Tournament (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Unreal Tournament (Score:1)
Anyway, this is the EULA [yes, it's a EULA, if you thought Epic GPLed Unreal Engine 2 you're wrong) so if you feel like trying your hand at playing with the code here are the limitations you have to work under. Void where prohibited. Sorry, Tenneseee.
http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/UnrealEngine2Runtime E ULA [epicgames.com]
Re:Unreal Tournament (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Unreal Tournament (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Unreal Tournament (Score:5, Informative)
Even so, the release of the code at that level isn't really significant - it still possible to do major changes to the gameplay with the engine to write things like "Red Orchestra", "Alien Blast", and even "Unreal Annihilation". All that's needed to do this sort of stuff is a license of UT2004 (as long as it is a free distribution that doesn't include the binary.)
A cheaper alternative would either be the Quake engines (GPL or pay $10,000), or the Tribes 2 [garagegames.com] engine ($100 per developer.)
Pretty soon we can add... (Score:5, Informative)
Also - Dink Smallwood [rtsoft.com] is a fun, quirky RPG which is also now available free of charge.
Re:Pretty soon we can add... (Score:3, Informative)
This seems fair, as they continue to make money off the actual games (Think Gameboy Doom ports, PSX Quake ports), whilst the engines are now commercially unviable.
Re:Pretty soon we can add... (Score:2)
Re:Pretty soon we can add... (Score:2, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Proposed Liberation Militia? (Score:2)
"Pharaoh! Let my software go!"
Re:Proposed Liberation Militia? (Score:5, Funny)
Fortunately, some upstanding citizens have realized their responsibility and have formed underground networks to liberate the poor captives and transport them into safety.
As always, the officials are after these groups of freedom fighters, and many have fallen, but the rest fight on. And there is good news too: in the past, the captive games, once freed, were taken to secret safe houses (called "ftp sites" by the underground), but nowadays, a number of networks are moving the captives around constantly, making it almost impossible to recapture them.
Three hurrays for the brave freedom fighters, past, present and future members of Razor, Myth, Khan, Origin and others. And to the brave, upstanding citizens, who risk arrest helping liberated games continuing their run on the wild. Hurray ! Hurray ! Hurray!
Most games are liberated, some (like Half-Life 2) before they are even released ;).
Re:Proposed Liberation Militia? (Score:1)
A regime-change! We could civilise the game-playing companies, and bring democracy to their offices! Bring out the bombs!
Re:Proposed Liberation Militia? (Score:1)
Coral link (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Coral link (Score:1)
All links dead (Score:1, Redundant)
Underdogs (Score:5, Informative)
If you're looking for a good DOS emulator to play these classics under 2K/XP or Linux, I use DOSBox [sourceforge.net]. It's not perfect, but it does work for most of the games that I've tried.
VDMsound (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.ece.mcgill.ca/~vromas/vdmsound/
It's not a DOS emulator, and it won't let you play DOS games on Linux or Mac, but it will let DOS games have sound under Win2K/XP. It's probably faster than using DOSBox since it doesn't emulate the x86, just the sound card. Which may or may not be a good thing. The original Descent runs at 400 frames per second under VDMsound on my low-end Athlon XP.
perhaps the most surprising thing is (Score:2, Funny)
Two points (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Two points (Score:3, Interesting)
The purpose of copyright protection is to increase the amount of works available to the public. Abandoned software can fade into obscurity and become lost forever. Congress not requiring an anual renewal of copyrights was a diservice to the public. Personally, I don't ca
Evidently not too liberated... (Score:3, Funny)
Most are not fully liberated! (Score:4, Insightful)
Game data is not released under GPL. This is obvisly a mayor flaw, and will render the game unplayable. This includes Doom, Quake 1, 2 etc.
The licence is too restricted. This includes Civ :CTP, where the license will not allow you to fork your own project. Therefore noone is willing to do anything with the new code.
The release of the code happens too late, so the game isn't "interesting" any more. (Eg. Wolf 3d)
Still, by all means, more GPL'ed games is a good thing!
Re:Most are not fully liberated! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Most are not fully liberated! (Score:2)
You are supposed to buy the game, or use your old copy to make use of the sourcecode. Another option is to create your own content.
Re:Most are not fully liberated! (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong. The game is still playable.
You can download a free demo to acquire "game data", and play that with the GPLed executable.
You can find a 3rd party who's made free "game data", and play with that.
You can even pay for the original game itself, and use that "game data" with the GPLed executables. Valid old copies of Doom/Quake go for $1.99 each.
GPLing is important for old software, because otherwise it'll tend to become unrunnable on future computers. But the game data has no such needs. If an artist were to hypothetically "upgrade it for newer machines", he may as well start over from scratch.
PS. Note that one of the games on this list, Golgotha, is backwards from your claim: they released only the game data, and no working code (because they had none).
Re:Most are not fully liberated! (Score:2, Interesting)
Star Control II (released as The Ur-Quan Masters due to trademark issues) was a similar case: in that case, the only source code the owners had left was from the 3DO port (remember the 3DO? Part of the same ill-fated generation as the CD-i and Sega's 32x). So people had to start by porting that back to standard hardware...
Re:Most are not fully liberated! (Score:2)
Re:Most are not fully liberated! (Score:5, Insightful)
Just because you're too cheap to buy the original game doesn't make this a "flaw" in source code releases.
The "source code release" is just that--source code--not models, or art, or sounds, etc. Port the engine to whatever platform you want and use the data from the original game (that you bought) to play it as is--or better yet create your own damn game data and do something new.
I think that's the biggest problem with the open source community (and I'm not talking about the people who actually do productive things like code and test, I'm talking about the other 90% of the community.) No matter what somebody gives you--for free, no less--people complain that they haven't been given enough.
Re:Most are not fully liberated! (Score:3, Insightful)
Of *course* users of free software are whiny. Read a user forum for *any* software and you'll see whining!
Re:Most are not fully liberated! (Score:2)
Everyone who participates in a market economy must produce, or else they'll have nothing to trade in that market.
Re:Most are not fully liberated! (Score:2)
25 years of copyright duration would be a dream to come true...
It's not that we are complaining, but seeing more fully free games is what we would like to. Fortunatly the comunity is filling the gaps with quality games like Battle of Wesnoth.
Re:Most are not fully liberated! (Score:2)
How much of a geek is the poster... (Score:5, Interesting)
Wow, how much of a geek do you have to be to include Linux as a "major computing platform" and leave out MS-DOS when the subject of said platform is gaming.
I don't have any hard numbers to back this up... but I wouldn't be at all suprised if the number of MS-DOS games out-strips every other platform around.
Re:How much of a geek is the poster... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How much of a geek is the poster... (Score:1)
in the name of everything that's holy... (Score:1)
I can only hope that the metamods catch this...
Site is slashdotted, here is an anticipated list.. (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft open-sourced Homeworld, but not under public domain and neither GPL.
ID Software open-sourced and GPL'd the engines for Wolfenstein & Spear-of-Destiny, Doom1, Doom2, Quake1, Quake2, and no later than December 2004 to GPL Quake3; ID is a pioneer and don't belong on the list because it makes them look uninteresting.
Among the above are the following software,
Aliens vs Predator 1 (they have source, no portage)
(Free)Space
Rise of the Triad
Duke Nukem 3D
Descent 1
Descent 2
Jagged Alliance
SiN
Googled JA, I didn't know it is opensource! MOD++ (Score:1, Interesting)
Thanks for the update! Whoever modded you down deserves hell on earth!
Re:Site is slashdotted, here is an anticipated lis (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Site is slashdotted, here is an anticipated lis (Score:2)
BaSS and FotAQ are labled freeware, so I doubt modification is permited.
Re:Site is slashdotted, here is an anticipated lis (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Site is slashdotted, here is an anticipated lis (Score:1)
Coral link (Score:2)
Timing? (Score:5, Interesting)
Effect of release? (Score:5, Insightful)
If they had read TFM or played the training missions, they wouldn't be so dumb. But they didn't buy the game, so they feel like they can jump right in and nothing bad can happen because if they get banned, oh well, they can just get another CD-key for free.
Re:Effect of release? (Score:2)
Want to clue me in on how to get my free CD-key? Although they did give them out for free they stopped and haven't resumed. I've read that the problem is servers overloaded with players, but how big a problem is that? The worst fate for an online multipl
So it did exacly what it was supposed to do! (Score:2)
Slashdotted... (Score:2, Funny)
Coralized and Freecached versions of story... (Score:5, Informative)
Coralized
Crusader [nyud.net] writes "Two LinuxGames [nyud.net] staff members have launched Liberated Games [nyud.net], a site devoted to cataloguing full commercial titles that have been released for free by the developer or publisher, either with the full source code or without. The current list is available here [nyud.net]; the site tracks releases for all major computer platforms (Windows, Mac OSX, Linux), so feel free to submit [mailto] any missing games to the list."
Freecached
Crusader [freecache.org] writes "Two LinuxGames [freecache.org] staff members have launched Liberated Games [freecache.org], a site devoted to cataloguing full commercial titles that have been released for free by the developer or publisher, either with the full source code or without. The current list is available here [freecache.org]; the site tracks releases for all major computer platforms (Windows, Mac OSX, Linux), so feel free to submit [mailto] any missing games to the list."
Vantage Master (Score:5, Interesting)
It's deceptively sophisticated --- put more simply, I suck. Each creature you summon has an associated element, and there's a strict order of precedence between the elements. Choosing your creatures to counter your opponent's is the key to the game. It's definitely made for wargame fans.
Despite being quite dated, it's still a lot of fun. The graphics are old but well done and perfectly adequate; it's full of well-presented little animations whenever anything happens. It's got a lot of nice touches like the fact that when you create a character, it runs you through a short personality test to find the right one for you... and there's something going on with Tarot cards I haven't figured out yet.
One of the attractions is the really, really bad translation from the Japanese. There's enough information there to actually play the game, but there's a weird air of surreality about the whole experience; particularly the cut scenes describing the ongoing plot. I've no idea what they're about --- my character seems to spend a lot of time talking to some woman with a dog, uttering the kind of cryptic runes you get when you try and speak Japanese without the right font installed!
Oh, yeah, and the fact that the title theme song is a direct ripoff of Limahl's Neverending Story has to be a point in its favour.
Alas, it's Windows only and doesn't run properly under Wine (it runs, but there's no sound and it's far too slow).
Re:Vantage Master (Score:2)
Re:Vantage Master (Score:2)
Re:Vantage Master (Score:2)
Isn't this already done? (Score:5, Informative)
Abandonware (Score:5, Informative)
Emulated systems? (Score:1)
Source code (Score:1)
does blender count? (Score:2)
Wonder how much it would cost to get source code to some of the classic games (e.g. various games in the C&C series)
Liberated Games? (Score:4, Insightful)
I was just looking at the Liberated Games, and the games I looked at (Aliens v. Predator and Homeworld) both require a purchased version installed in Windows or Wine to function. Further, the "source code" is not the source for the games, it is the source for an addon that allows the game to play in Linux. Being that such addons are not written by the game developers but some third party Linux enthusiast, it is not surpising these bits of code are free, but the games themselves remain proprietary and completely closed source.
So exactly what is "liberated" about this? Are these games "liberated" because you only have to install them in Windows and not play them in Windows? Or is the mere fact that one can play games in Linux a liberating experience in and of itself?
I expected some restrictions, like licencing or some similar unpalatable requirements, but I did not expect this "liberated" software to still be closed source. I am disappointed.
Perhaps the site should create a rating system for types of "liberated" if it is going to define "liberated" so liberally.
Re:Liberated Games? (Score:5, Informative)
You can read about the source code releases here:
AvP: http://www.linuxgames.com/news/feedback.php?ident
Homeworld: http://www.linuxgames.com/news/feedback.php?ident
Forgotten Game (Score:3, Informative)
Failed effort (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Solitaire, Minesweeper. (Score:1)
Re:Solitaire, Minesweeper. (Score:2, Informative)
Wrong. Golgotha and Wolfenstein-Enemy-Territory are on the list, and they were never for sale.
(However, both of those were planned for sale at some point)
Re:Correction. (Score:1)