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Sorry, I was too busy playing Oolite to read /. for a while :P
The thing about Oolite is the customisation options...you can make the 'Ooniverse' into pretty much any kind of experience you want to.
And as for the lack of instructions, well you get a reference sheet with the (free, open source) download, and the Wiki is excellent as is the Forum.

One of the authors of the original Elite (on the BBC Micro) released the source years ago. Sadly, it's pretty much incomprehensible. I used to program on that platform, but endless pages of uncommented assembly language with multiple instructions per line are actually harder to read than a well formatted disassembly.

Oolite is the 21st century's free elite, it has many expansion packs and an active community.

Ubuntu users: do not install Oolite from Synaptic/Software Center - that's an old version. Download the tar archive.

Many open-source projects need more than just programmers. If you have an artistic bent, whether it's musical or with actual artwork, look around and see if there are any open-source games that require input.

In my case, I contributed (as 'Pangloss') to an open-source remake and update of 'Elite' (the first open-ended 3D space trading and combat game) called Oolite. Once you learn a few things about the game, you start posting hints and tips for other people on the forum and before you know it you're getting involved in multi-participant submissions and developing planets like you're Slartibartfast...

Many open-source projects need more than just programmers. If you have an artistic bent, whether it's musical or with actual artwork, look around and see if there are any open-source games that require input.

In my case, I contributed (as 'Pangloss') to an open-source remake and update of 'Elite' (the first open-ended 3D space trading and combat game) called Oolite. Once you learn a few things about the game, you start posting hints and tips for other people on the forum and before you know it you're getting involved in multi-participant submissions and developing planets like you're Slartibartfast...

Many open-source projects need more than just programmers. If you have an artistic bent, whether it's musical or with actual artwork, look around and see if there are any open-source games that require input.

In my case, I contributed (as 'Pangloss') to an open-source remake and update of 'Elite' (the first open-ended 3D space trading and combat game) called Oolite. Once you learn a few things about the game, you start posting hints and tips for other people on the forum and before you know it you're getting involved in multi-participant submissions and developing planets like you're Slartibartfast...

Oolite has taken the mechanics of the original game and given them a well-needed graphics update. I was lucky enough to help with the Famous Planets, Your Ad Here boards, Ring Racing League ships, and Griff Con(venience) Store graphics (Username on the Oolite forum: Pangloss). It's incredible how we can add animation just by stacking frames on a 24-bit PNG like frames in a movie.

Here's a video showing what Griff has done with the Thargoid ship. In fact, here is a look at the standard ships, bang up to date, courtesy of the Ololite forum.

Haven't been there in a while. They just might drag me back in...

...you may like Oolite, an Elite tribute. It has the goodness that ArcElite has too - it is not player centric, you can encounter epic battles (I've seen three or four distinct groups of ships battling it out, with the Police mixed in there too). The game is open source (GPL) and expandable with expansion packs (so now you can have Generation Ships and Space Dredgers, as well as scenes from the Dark Wheel like the Tionisla Orbital Graveyard). It's available for OSX, Linux and Windows (it was originally developed for OSX).

http://oolite.aegidian.org/

Latest version is 1.73, and there is a wiki for the game at http://wiki.alioth.net/

Interesting. Thanks for the link. I've always been an elite fan and it appears that an online space sim community has finally implemented landing on planets, which will make it the first game, to my knowladeg, to have done so since Frontier First Encounters back in 1995.

Video: Lave to Zaonce

I bought (as in paid full price for) most of the games that Loki (remember them) ever ported to Linux. I still play Alpha Centauri sometimes - it still runs on modern Linux (though sadly their port of Civ3 no longer runs - doesn't get on with modern libraries in some way I haven't bothered to diagnose). I bought Neverwinter Nights when it first came out, because it was available in a Linux port (and it still runs very nicely, and yes, I still sometimes play it - mostly user-generated content, too). And I'm one of the only 597 people world-wide who have so far pre-ordered Apricot.

And that's kind of the point.

It costs money to develop commercial games; quite a lot of money. The people who develop them want to sell them. If there were enough Linux users prepared to spend real money on games, we'd have more commercial games. Over the last few weeks I've been playing (and really enjoying) The Witcher. It runs on an updated version of Bioware's Aurora engine, so presumably it wouldn't be hard to port it to Linux. But I don't expect we'll see a Linux port, because Atari, who sell it, clearly don't think enough of us would pay for it. And sadly I think they're probably right.

I've haven't found many open source game projects which are compelling to me. There are plenty of good ideas out there, and half-finished projects. Globulation is quite polished and seems to me quite innovative, and plays well; but it's also quite shallow - you'll enjoy it for a week but you won't still be playing it in a year. Oolite is genuinely good and you might still be playing it in a year - but that's largely because it is a faithful reconstruction of Elite, which is one of the great classics of computer games. Flightgear may be good but it isn't my thing.

To create a new game takes a lot of vision and a lot of work. Until you've done a lot of work it's hard to communicate the vision, so it's hard to recruit people. And even then, too many of the talented people prefer to tinker with some project of their own which they'll never get finished, than co-operate to deliver someone else's vision. I'd like to be wrong on this. But what I see on Freshmeat is lots of 'alpha' and 'beta' projects, and very little that's genuinely playable.

there is a relativly modern version of Elite out, called oolite. http://oolite.aegidian.org/

For open-ended games, I can't think of many that were more addictive than Elite. And yes, that is old school. If you missed it the first time around, too bad - it won't appeal to those who think anisotropic filtering makes a difference. It's wireframes, and your imagination does all the shading much better than any graphics card can.

Some perspective is in order - at the time the graphics in Elite were jaw-dropping; writing the manual "in character" may not have been 100% original but was still fresh - and alluding to "generation ships" and other mysteries which might have been out there (but weren't) was a masterstroke.

I take it that everybody knows about Oolite - which is a nice half-way-house between the classic wireframe game and glossy commercial "re-imaginings".

I've been re-playing "Freelancer" which was one of the better 21st century Elitealikes - sumptuous graphics, but its let down by the tiny universe (Elite used pseudo-random techniques to give the impression of hundreds of systems on a 32K computer) and really, really lame and repetetive fake dialogue and "radio chatter" with traders. Its interesting that the genre persists despite nothing since Elite really hitting the big time.

Posted anon as I don't need the karma, but try Oolite if you liked Elite! http://oolite.aegidian.org/

Try http://oolite.aegidian.org/ .

You can always try Oolite, which is a remake for modern computers (and easily expandible):

http://oolite.aegidian.org/
http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Main_Page

Elite has got to be one of my all-time favorite games. I spent many hours, first on a BBC Model B, then later on the PC version.

For those who loved Elite, check out Oolite http://oolite.aegidian.org/
It's reasonably faithful to the original... with a lot of enhancements.

Yeah, I remember spending weeks on Sentinel Worlds back in my grade school days.

As for Elite type games, be sure to check out Oolite (which is a faithful remake of Elite, with a lot of optional add-ons for extra ships, missions, etc.) and Vega Strike , which is a modern Elite-style game. VS is an awesome game (once you upgrade the tugboat you start off in) although I always thought the universe's backstory felt like it was written by a Libertarian slashdot troll. (See the way-cool net/brain-interface techno-utopia guys who are in conflict with teh dumb space Socialists who don't realize how dumb socialism is, especially in teh space!)

For me 2006 is the year of Oolite. I am ashamed to admit I just discovered it this year... I never got into elite despite my interest because of the steep learning curve and the fact that I somehow never had the game and a guide at the same time. Well, I got oolite and a guide at the same time, and it's kept me pretty well-riveted. It's funny because it's about the least graphically complex game I've played in years (besides solitaire and bejeweled) but it's really quite deep and more importantly, it's extensible. The game supports addons and you can do all kinds of things with them. But even better than that, it's cross-platform with XML savefiles that work on all platforms, so you can have it installed on Windows, OSX, and Linux, and take your savegame between all those platforms (handy if you want to play at work and at home - not that I have time to play at work. But I have in previous jobs.)

If you liked tradewars, and you like live-action simulations, you'll love Oolite.

Or if you wanna play the remake of old classic Elite, try Oolite at http://oolite.aegidian.org/

The thing about Elite was that the minimalist graphics (amazing for the time, pathetic by modern standards) and open-ended nature of the game made it a great hook for the imagination, but unlike modern photo-realistic (well...) games you had to think yourself into it. The manual (not the first to be written "in character" but the idea was still fresh) had all sorts of fun BS about space dredgers, generation ships etc. which, along with the vast size of the universe gave the impression that there was "something out there". There wasn't - but it was fun proving the negative.

If you have any work that needs doing in the next few months, don't check out Oolite - a fairly faithful re-creation of Elite with more modern (but not overdone) graphics and a few modest new wrinkles (plus shedloads of optional add-on ships, missions etc.

You may have to be an Elite fan to appreciate it, though.

Also, Oolite is a hackable, open source, OpenGL-based, cross-platform version of Elite which has been billed as "Elite 1.5".

Sort of a cross between ArcElite (the definitive version according to Ian Bell himself) and some elements of Frontier.

Definitely worth checking out.

Yup, and I do rev up Oolite every now and then (though sometimes, when I'm too lazy to bother with the niceties of having to dock at a space station, I might play Escape Velocity instead). Another old game that comes to mind whose world was procedurally generated is Telengard. (Trying to map that dungeon was so frustrating!)

http://oolite.aegidian.org/
http://retrospec.sgn.net/users/tomcat/miodrag/xEli te.zip?
http://www.rebelstar.cd2.com/cgi-bin/dc.cgi?file=r emakes/elite_-_the_new_kind_v1_0.zip

May I also recommend:

Privateer...
http://priv.solsector.net/
http://wcuniverse.sourceforge.net/

What's a split-resolution screen?

We're pretty responsive to feedback, although it's best given in the appropriate forum. This is, of course, no guarantee that we'll do anything about sugestions recieved. ;-)

If you liked Elite, try Oolite - a recent open source recreation (now runs on Windows, as well as Mac and Linux). http://oolite.aegidian.org/

Oops messed up the link: Oolite

Elite. So much so, that I'm now the Linux maintainer for the tribute game, Oolite (originally for Mac OS X). Oolite is an open source Elite clone written in Objective C and Cocoa for the Mac, GNUstep for Linux/BSD. Oolite is extensible with scripts and new ships, too.

http://oolite-linux.berlios.de/ - for the Linux binary installer (autopackage or tarball, your choice - has *no* dependencies for most distros) and source code.
http://oolite.aegidian.org/ - for the Mac OS X version.
A windows port is also under way (currently in alpha, you can get it from ftp.alioth.net/oolite)

Or, more recently I've been playing ToME, a very addictive roguelike.

Additionally, I'd like to recommend a modern version of Elite, Oolite (for Mac/Linux/Win).

..or Oolite as long as you don't use Windows.

Its quite good!

Oolite is another free Elite type game. They have OSX, Windows and Linux versions.