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I found the source code and the most current downloads here. You are correct, there is already a linux version (as well as Mac, Dos, Windows and even IRIX!). The source code is done in Lisp. I think this is the first and only time a major game release was made using this language. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
**Off topic stuff follows**
Saladpuncher came about when I was younger staying up late watching commercials with some friends. We saw the saladshooter and were suprised that something so worthless and silly could be sold. We made up the saladpuncher as something that was even dumber and more worthless. As time went by we starting calling anything stupid "a saladpuncher". So I'm basically calling myself dumb :)

Abuse isn't from "that company." (id) It's from Crack dot com, now dead.
Though it does kick ass.

I knew working with LISP caused insanity!

Abuse, although not incredibly recent, was a pretty good game, side-scroller in the era of Doom/Quake

Download it and try it out. Now only if Crack Dot Com had released Golgotha....

However, a lot of them are very stupid (no offense intended, but it's true). Things like "it doesnt work plz fix it tnx" or "yo dude do me a favor would ya fix this bug, LaTeRZz!" or "It doesn't work." are not uncommon.

I can confirm that statement. I wrote a Win32 port of Abuse (Check Here) a couple of years ago and released it public domain, and since that time I've received hundreds of emails about it from people.

The emails can be counted about like this:
3 - "I loved your port! Thanks so much!"
5 - "I tried it out and I got this error message -- how do I fix it?"
Everything else - "i tried it and it doesnt work how do i fix it thnx"

Now, I know that I have more users than the few hundred that have emailed me, because on a couple of download sites I've got tens of thousands of downloads, plus all of the non-counted downloads from other sites (including my own). But I've never once gotten a piece of feedback that was actually useful to, say, further development of the engine or anything.

I think that it's partly because of the mentality of the users: people who know better will either assume that it's junk and just doesn't work, or will be able to fix it themselves. People who don't have a clue will just click the email link and ask me to fix it without giving me *any* details about what happened or what kind of a system it's running on.

Now, I do try to help *every* person that's emailed me, regardless of how little info they give me. 99% of the time reinstalling the latest DirectX drivers works. For ther other 1%, it's like pulling nails to get system specs to see if, maybe, I can figure out why it might die. Usually in those cases I just give up and leave it to them to fix it or forget it.

--Jeremy

Another good one to try is Abuse.

Pretty sweet game by the now defunct Crack Dot Com

Try Abuse. It's an old DOS game, but with minor tweaks to let it run under Windows. (You may need to go to the Free Abuse site for the tweaked version.)

It's a 2D platform game. Run, jump, grab weapons, shoot. Mindless, but lots of good, visceral fun. The controls are trivial (move with arrow keys, aim and shoot with mouse) so even non-gamers can be up and fragging in no time. When my friends and I have LAN parties (which we've been doing since the DOS version was new) this is the "network test game" we run while people are setting up their machines. When you can jump into Abuse, you're on the net.

Don't try to impose youre tastes onto mine. I never claimed that Consoles are better or worse then a pc. Just different. But when you try to claim that consoles can outperform a top of the range PC you need to take a reality check.

Well, you did claim that your "Porsche" outperforms my console. That to me means "better." I own both, personally, and also count gaming as a hobby which I can easily afford. However, given my experience with each medium, I always feel sheepish when I upgrade my PC. It just doesn't get you much bang for the buck. The only way I feel justified in my purchases is the fact that I also like to tinker with code a bit, and having nice hardware gives me something good to play with (even if I don't need it).

And if you count draw distance as the only measure of graphical quality (which I *highly* doubt would be as much of a problem on any modern console as you think it is), then this discussion is pointless. I'll point you at Starfox Adventures, DOA3, Metroid Prime, or Rogue Leader and challenge you to come up with something that objectively looks significantly, or even noticeably better on the PC. You'll start counting polygons (or some other meaningless metric) and miss the point again.

It sounds like you're into the wrong type of games for consoles, anyway. But my challenge stands -- I've got a $150 Gamecube and a $600 PC (a conservative estimate -- and definitely much lower than some 'hardcore' gamers' machines). There aren't any games that look so good that they justify that much of a price gap.

--Jeremy

Good open source games for Windows would be:

Abuse/fRaBs
Wolfenstein 3D
Doom
Quake
Quake II

With all the id games, I believe the levels are still copyrighted. Nothing wrong with running user created levels though. :)

Also, Mozilla and OpenOffice.org are indispensible.

Haven't seen any announcements of this Tetris quake engine anywhere?

No, but I saw Breakout on Abuse =)

I don't think Tetris would be too hard to make with Q3A engine, though... too bad I have no idea personally how to make it.

The best 'Constructon Set' in recent memory was the level editor in Crack Dot Com's sidescroller, 'Abuse'. It used a lisp driven engine to allow you to make levels easier than anything I recall at the time.

Abuse was released as free software. You can now run it on DOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, even Irix. If you can score a copy of Abuse you can run the original levels, and if not you can run the "fRaBs" (Free levels for Abuse).

Debian users "apt-get install abuse-sdl". (Sound effects are in "abuse-sfx" which is in non-free.)

Everyone else http://www.abuse2.com/downloads.php3

steveha

People always seem to forget Abuse (1995, Crack Dot Com, www.abuse2.com) when they discuss 'moddable' game engines.

When Abuse came out, to my knowledge, there were no other games with a built-in script interpreter. All of the game's AI routines were done in LISP, all easily editable by anyone who knew LISP (granted: most people don't know LISP), and the game engine has an integrated level editor. But this game came out a full year before Quake 1, and still never gets mentioned in these discussions. Hell, they even had a $1000 level creation contest when the game came out.

Truly a shame, because it's a great game, and the engine was way ahead of its time.

--Jeremy

Check out Abuse (link below), even though the game came out more than 6 years ago the community is still going and active on a daily basis. I attribute this largely to the addition of LISP which made the game very expandable.

http://abuse2.com

Recently Jermey Scott made a Win32 port of Abuse and converted the IPX code to DirectPlay so you can play multi-player over the net. That can be found here:

http://www.uidaho.edu/~scot4875/