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The final chapter includes seven hacks that help the reader create their own customized Knoppix CD. Knoppix Remastered walks the reader through the steps of customizing and personalizing a live CD.

Aha! Finally, I'll be able to create a bootable BZFlag CD-ROM, and I won't have to ask permission before bringing my friends to the office on the weekend for a fragging session. Power goes out here regularly, so as long as everyone has to power up in the morning, nobody will be the wiser. Heh.

Now, where's that "Post Anonymously" check bo

Frozen Bubble? nah...

My Exceptions would be BZFlag, Battle for Wesnoth, and FreeCiv.

Liquid war is one of the most fun open source games I've played. I'm surprised BZFlag wasnt mentioned!

...i nearly always install on new systems:
CoreWar: simulation game where a number of warriors try to crash each other while they are running in a virtual computer.
Battle for Wesnoth: fantasy turn-based strategy game.
BZFlag: multiplayer 3D tank battle game.
Crimson Fields: tactical war game in the tradition of Battle Isle.
Crossfire: cooperative multiplayer graphical RPG and adventure game.
Enigma: inspired by Oxyd on the Atari ST and Rock'n'Roll on the Amiga.
FlightGear: Flight simulator.
FreeDroid: clone of the classic game "Paradroid" on Commodore 64.
Frozen Bubble: puzzle-bobble clone.
Globulation 2: Real-Time Strategy.
LinCity: city/country simulation game.
LBreakout 2: breakout-style arcade game in the manner of Arkanoid.
NetHack - Falcon's Eye: mouse-driven interface for NetHack that enhances the visuals, audio and accessibility of the game, yet retains all the original gameplay and game features.
netPanzer: online multiplayer tactical warfare game designed for FAST ACTION combat.
Pathological: enriched clone of the game "Logical" by Rainbow Arts.
Project StarFighter: xy-axis star fighting game.
SuperTux: classic 2D jump'n run sidescroller game.
XKobo: astpaced multiway scrolling shoot-em-up.
XRick: clone of Rick Dangerous.
XScorch: Scorched Earth clone.

Have fun!

I use an ATI Radeon 9000 and I have yet to have problems or difficulties with the card. It was plug and play for Fedora Core 1 and 2 and this card performs well for the 3D games I occasionally play (bzflag, armagetron, neverball, and the miniature golf game based on neverball code the name of which I have forgotten because I don't have it installed yet).

The Radeon 9000 AGP card is fairly inexpensive too ($30-$40).

Depending on the game, it might work or not. There are many couples playing with Sea3D, for example. I've heard of gals enjoying BZFlag too. I don't know if you can convince them for that game you're talking about, though. Worth a try.

Wikipedia mentioned Quake and UT. Bzflag is also a great CTF game, and a classic.

So the question is, what can you do while waiting for someone to make a game with fully random spawn points?

(oh, wait, they did.)

noiz2sa - SDL
Aleph One - SDL/OpenGL
BZ Flag - OpenGL
Egoboo - SDL/OpenGL
PoopemUp - SDL/OpenGL
Neverwinter Nights - SDL/OpenGL
Not to mention all the Loki titles that used SDL (heck, didn't they develop it in the first place?): Myth, Rune, Civ3,Sim City 3000, Tribes 2, Alpha Centauri, and so on
Don't forget the billion or so Doom/Quake/Wolfenstein 3D ports/spinoffs.

The imbalance between men and women was clear to see, with almost 50 male teams taking part, compared with just seven female squads. And as in the world of sport, there were separate competitions for each gender.

Separate competitions? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.

Boys' and girls' real-world sports are separated early on because of physical attributes. Physically, girls have different abilities from boys. And there are other physical attributes that cause both genders to become... distracted.

But online? Who knows -- who cares -- about your real-world attributes? For crying out loud, that's what makes gaming great for us geeks -- we don't have to be muscular, or fit, or even easily mobile! I'd probably lose 10-to-1 against Stephen Hawking at BZFlag.

So in a world where physical ability and differences are irrelevant, what justification could there possibly be for a gender-segregated gaming tournament?

Perhaps the organizers have a cynical ulterior motive? If I were a top-level girl geek, I'd turn down an invitation to such a demeaning event -- so all they'd get would be the second-rate girl teams. And then they can say "but look, they're clearly not in the same league."

Handy link, thanks. I have trouble even playing something as bandwidth-friendly as BZFlag on my slow, rural home connection. A "light" MMRPGOOGOOGAAGAA (whatever) would be excellent.

Unfortunately, the "Buy" links are in Russian, and I don't know "????????? ??????" from "?????????????????". My knowledge of Russian is limited to the similarity between "Toys [R] Us" and "Tet[r]is" (reverse characters in []).

BZFlag is fun and free. It's at http://bzflag.org.

bzflag is great. Easy to start, easy on the eyes and it's OSS.

Until Linux is a complete entertainment package as well as a utility package, Linux will be hard pressed to take over the desktop.

[...] Game development will have to undergo some pretty radical changes before it will fit successfully into the OSS model and we continue to have the quality of games we have today.


BZFlag rocks, if you aren't familiar with it. Check it out asap.

Dunno what you'd be doing with them, but I bought an Indigo2 with the CD drive, a 2g hard drive, IRIX 6.5 installed, and 576 megs of ram for 100$ on ebay. The only thing I needed was a monitor converter. The machine is a 200mhz r10k, 64bit, solid impact graphics, built in ethernet. Given the fact that it's fairly beef for a base indigo2, I could resell it for a bit more than I paid for it. But it's this insane, eye-melting PURPLE and looks really cool!

I've seen o2s (the little speedbump things) for ~100$- usually with the NO HARD DRIVE OMFG!!!! stipulation, or the NO OS!!!!! stipulation- and IRIX media goes for an arm and a leg on ebay. :| According to hardcore SGIheads, Octanes are Freaking Cheap on ebay- cheap by SGI pricing- 400-600$ for a base unit, if you're lucky. Though 100$ seems to be the going rate for SGI systems on ebay- assuming you're willing to pay out the nose for shipping.

Given the price of PC hardware these days, your main reasons for an SGI would be the 1337 factor, and, as you said, the ton of CFD software that's available.

Me, I'm a graphics dweeb. I'll eventually get around to turning my indigo into a BZFlag box. :-)

We play Descent II on a LAN using outdated machines (Pentium 233, Pentium Pro 200) and outdated graphics cards (S3). It is now open source and available for Linux, Mac, and Windows - thanks Matt Toschlog (Outrage Entertainment) and Mike Kulas (Volition Inc.)!

My new favorite multiplayer networked game is BZFlag - but it needs some horsepower (fast CPU and 3D GPU) and won't run right on my outdated machines.

Like you, I also haven't had any trouble getting these games to function correctly without fiddling. *shrug* As you say, to each his own.

BZFlag !

From the website:

BZFlag won best in class for "Best Free Multiplayer Action Game" in the HappyPenguin competition.

I'm not big on computer games... but about a year ago I got addicted to an open-source, networked game called BZFLAG

It's simplicity and tight community has made me the kind of nerd I used to make fun of.

----
Rehab is for quitters

Time for mini, tabletop, real bzflag. How can I get one with the guided missile option?

I think the BZFlag guys get the award for "most modifier goodies"- it made my dizzy, reading all the different kinds of flags there are. Forget a 'gunner', you need a 'flag checker'.

Driver:"Ooo, ooo! A flag! [steer steer steeer]"
Flag Checker(slow motion): "nnnooooooOOOO!"
-BOINK- BROADCAST MESSAGE: "Team A ran over Hippie Flag, now shooting Daisies"

I wish they'd do collaborative roles, so you really COULD have a driver, gunner, etc..that would ROCK.

Who remembers playing Bolo on their old Mac, or that crazy wireframe tank game? I forget the name, had a 3-D shaped retail box with a red pyramid or something

I've never found freely available Windows game that would be fun.
You do know that BZFlag has a windows port, right?

"My 4 THz Intel Pentium IIIVIXXX is father then your 16 KHz G101"

For those of you who have not read ALL of the CPU articles at ArsTechnica. Go there now and do so. Before posting any of your inane babble about clock speed and processor power.

It IS true that Motorola has fallen behind Intel - sort of.

There are other advantages to hardware other then Intel based systems.

Since this is an Apple thread I'll focus there - One of the most note worthy (My opinion) Is apple's System controller.

Go READ the articles at ArsTechnica!

Rather than re-writing I'll simply cut & paste.

The PCI bus is what really impressed me.

Direct PCI bus: In another example of superior architecture, the Power Mac G4 optimizes PCI performance by connecting the PCI bus directly to the system controller. In a typical PC architecture, PCI devices connect to the I/O controller through a bridge, a bottleneck in the data path where all connected PCI devices are slowed down to avoid overloading the system controller. Going through this bridge constrains PCI throughput to 133Mbps (the bus speed on Pentium 4 systems), even with otherwise fast PCI devices. This slowdown of data to and from PCI devices results in greater overall system latency. The Power Mac G4, on the other hand, features a direct 266-MBps bus to the PCI slots to guarantee high throughput and low congestion ? in effect, lowering latency. The Power Mac G4 also supports write combining, which allows write instructions to be grouped into one large instruction, further increasing data throughput.

Then Apple oficially slams PC architecture.

On the Power Mac G4, FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet and even the ATA/100 bus are built into the system and integrated directly into the system controller. (The ATA/66 bus has its own controller.) This dedicated connection reduces PCI congestion and guarantees low latency, resulting in optimal FireWire, Ethernet and hard drive performance. And as a side benefit, it also keeps the computer?s PCI slots free for your specialized audio and video cards instead of using them to provide basic technologies.

I got this info here.

Go READ the articles at ArsTechnica!

Apple is not the end all - be all of systems. Two of the greated systems are made by DEC & H/P. The UltraSparc kicks the crap out of anything Motorola & Intel have to offer.

And let's not forget the Alpha. The Pentium - Pentium III architectures were based on technology stolen from DEC. Technology that Intel is still paying for today.

It basically falls down to system preference. Mac users DO NOT CARE if you can build a PC for $400. Mac users DO NOT CARE if only a few of the best selling game titles are ported to the system.

Having more game titles available is a Good Thing - naturally -but I find myself being... PRODUCTIVE instead of having my time eaten away by games - Linux users also what I'm talking about - unless they've downloaded BZFlag or Crack Attack.

Go READ the articles at ArsTechnica!

BZ Flag Is an open source multiplayer tank shooting game, runs on just about anything.
We played it all the time during class last year at my school.

Check out BZFlag!

Great little game. Also free as in beer.

Just watch out for people with cheat clients. Nothing ruins an evening like being on the receiving end of some +40's bullet, watching him BLATANTLY run through obstacles at about 40x the speed of a normal tank.

Scott

I was thinking about making a fps called Godmode/PK. ... I'd even open-source the code and let everyone behind the Magic Curtain to write whatever hacks and bots they wanted.

Oh, you mean this little open-source FPS that, if I'm not completely mistaken, got a "few" more cheats after it was open-sourced? =)

I remember playing Team Fortress some time after the source release and for some reason one thing in the game seemed to have a ridiculous amount of frags. Must have been a lousy day to play =)

My online game of choice? Classic Mac's Tank Bolo. I wonder if anyone has made any cheat proggies for that, yet.

Hrmm, wonder if anyone's been lifeless enough to write cheats for bzflag... =)

And does anyone know of a pc port of the Pointblank that used to ship with SGI's?

Tried BZflag?

Ever tried Armagetron??

And of course the legendary BZflag, a cool 3D Tank Shooter...

http://BZFlag.org/ ;-)

BZFlag!!! It's a free, low-violence fps-style tank game with strategy!

BZFlag is a fun and simple network game that is a essentially a first-person shooter, but simply involves tanks - very much like Battle Zone, so parents shouldn't mind. It runs on Windows and Linux.

Just make sure the kids turn on the UDP option so they don't lag the other players out!

Start with games. One of my favorite games is bzflag. Check it out here.

At my school there is an absolute no-games-on-computers, ever policy in force; at the end of term though we all felt desperately in need of some BZFlag action. Being the Computer Society, we decided the way ahead was to set up a USB QuickCam connected to a Linux machine with motion detecting software (apt-get install...) aiming right at the bottom of the door; we then wrote a quick app to be executed when motion was detected which would send a specific broadcast packet on the network and a daemon to run on the client (also Linux) workstations which, on receiving the packet, would execute 'chvt 1' immediately. Having set all of this up (in about half an hour - frenzied coding!) and opened emacs/top/something-important-looking on virtual console 1, we all got down to playing BZFlag - and lo and behold, as soon as anybody walked in the door every single screen simultaneously switched to the text console and we all looked deeply studious... Worked like a charm :-)

As one of the developers, here is some information about what's going on currently:

1.8 will look very little like 1.7. The user interface is fully customizable (through xml) and worlds will be completely custom. The network code is also being completely rewritten to reduce lag. 1.8 is in CVS HEAD for anybody who would like to try out the new features.

Also, a CTF (capture-the-flag) league is getting going. If you're interested in doing team battles and tournaments, take a look at http://bzflag.org.league/

BZFlag is also on OPN - feel free to drop by and make a suggestion or three.

1 - Download 1.7e2
2 - Download 1.7e2
Bzflag Home Page
Game Den review
SourceForge Page
Game Dudes Review

Lots of people!

HiP

The site is slashdotted. For those curious (as I was) about this game, have a look at the homepage. It has reviews and screenshots. Anyone got a cached copy of the article?

http://www.bzflag.org

From the site:

"At this point the game resembled bz by Chris Fouts. This is no surprise because both games are based on the old Atari arcade game BattleZone. In fact, BZFlag was called bz back then because no one in the PCG knew of the existence of Chris Fouts' bz. Yes, that's right, BZFlag was written with no knowledge of bz. The two games share no code and were designed and written independently. They owe their similarities to their BattleZone heritage"

Now, I'm not saying that it's a great name, but at least there's a reason for it being what it is...

I'm not surprised about the addiction. It was so good for its time, even in its single-player mode, that the military took a look at it to train its troops.

Based on Atari's BattleZone, it remains my favorite Video Arcade game.

For simple, multiplayer fun, BZFlag is very hard to beat. Sure, the graphics aren't THAT amazing (although they are fairly decent) but it's so easy to pick up and so addictive if you're playing against people you know. There's just something amusing about bouncing tanks, and Giant "LASER"s, and so on :-) I made a couple of dozen bootable CDs with a minimal Linux + BZFlag and used them in a lab full of machines as part of a summer festival money-spinner thing and people who'd never tried it before were simply hooked... Definitely worth a go if you haven't seen it already.

> Quake 3 is the biggest game out there on Windows

Of course you never played BZFlag.