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Try the DROD (Deadly Rooms of Death) series, which are puzzle games with story lines and lots of humour. They are also very playable for beginners, you don't have to be a die-hard puzzle lover to play this.

You can play one or a few rooms per day if you want, the game will automatically save your progress so you can stop any time you want. They released the source code of the first game in the series, not unlike what id Software does.

http://caravelgames.com/Articles/Games.html

This game series has kept me busy for nearly a year now.

No fancy graphics here; it's pure turn-based puzzle, kind of a mix of Nethack and Gauntlet. Everything from horde monster fights to door-lock puzzles to old classic riddles.

A kind review: http://www.maa.org/editorial/mathgames/mathgames_06_13_05.html

Yes, everything was better back in the days. That's called nostalgia.
It's not easy to find the real good indie games, especially if you don't know the scene.
Two of my favorites:
the DROD series: logic puzzles, haven't played a better puzzle game. Not even in the 80ies :-)
Armadillo Run: Physics puzzles, lots of fun.
http://www.caravelgames.com/ (DROD)
http://www.armadillorun.com/ (Armadillo)

However, it's important to realize that he does NOT own the copyright to any patches he may have accepted. As a result, he IS bound by the recursive nature of the GPL on those patches, and any derivative works. I know of one project that's moved from the MPL to a private repository (DROD) they had to get permission from every contributor, and they removed the code written by non-consenting contributors from the codebase.

The source code is still released under the MPL, but it's developed on a private repository. The original announcement of this can be found on the SourceForge page.

Furthermore, in any country in which the GPL is enforceable as a contract (not Canada, by the way. All copyright licenses in Canada must be signed by the copyright holder), the GPL has no termination clause, so he cannot simply 'revoke' the license and state that all uses have been invalid (unless he's Canadian, in which case the GPL never was a copyright license in the first place).

Disclaimer: IANAL.

Have you tried asking nicely?

No, I'm not kidding. What I'd do is post a comment to the torrent with that software saying that if people liked it, they can support you at http://www.caravelgames.com/ You might be surprised, I imagine some people would support you as a result. Those who won't wouldn't anyhow.

Where are the commercial game ports for Linux? No one wants to make them, obviously, save for the FPS crowd (and there's only an Unreal Tournament for Linux because Epic passes the buck to Icculus to get the job done, not because they have the in-house talent to do it themselves). There are a few commercial games for Linux, yes, but only a few, and there's very little variety between them. In the open source world we have a few good games (the majority of them being FPS's, what a surprise), Battle for Wesnoth if you like strategy games (turn based ones, that is). Then we have the unfortunate, ugly ripoffs like "Secret Maryo Chronicles," and other games that look like they were developed for a C64. Plenty of selection, not a lot of quality.

The following publishers develop comemrcial linux games:

http://www.pompomgames.com/
http://www.garagegames.com/
http://www.introversion.co.uk/
http://frictionalgames.com/
http://sillysoft.net/
http://www.basiliskgames.com/
http://www.guildsoftware.com/
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/
http://www.rune-soft.com/
http://grubbygames.com/
http://www.caravelgames.com/
http://www.planewalkergames.com/
http://www.graalonline.com/

There are also the high profile ones such as neverwinter nights, the doom and quake series, unreal, etc.

There are many high quality independant titles such as neverball, you mentioned wesnoth, crimson fields, flight gear, torcs, the spring project, total annihilation 3d, tecnoballZ, powermanga, tile racer, pingus, clonk, freeciv, ultimate stunts, planeshift, scorched3d, VDrift, silvertree (not complete, but being created by the wesnoth guys so likely will not be vapor), ufo: alien invasion, scourge, etc.

http://spring.clan-sy.com/
http://www.wesnoth.org/
http://torcs.sourceforge.net/
http://www.flightgear.org/
https://icculus.org/neverball/
http://ta3d.darkstars.co.uk/
http://linux.tlk.fr/games/
http://tileracer.model-view.com/
http://pingus.seul.org/
http://www.clonk.de/
http://freeciv.wikia.com/
http://www.ultimatestunts.nl/
http://www.planeshift.it/
http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/
http://vdrift.net/
http://www.silvertreerpg.org/
http://ufoai.sourceforge.net/
http://scourge.sourceforge.net/

Many of these are very impressive independently made free games. Perhaps they lack the multi million dollar marketing budget and won't make your geofrce 8800 gtxz 45 x super elite ultra melt, but theya re *fun* games, and they are numerous. Also keep in mind this publisher and free game list is only what I could find in 1 hour of searching.

Then there are freed older commercial games such as warzone 2100, homeworld, descent 1 and 2, doom, quake, etc.

Lets not stop t

There are more contributors than those that worked on the commercial versions, which is why things have to stay open.

I don't think Sourceforge has the latest version of the source any more - it lives here, on the company's official site: http://www.caravelgames.com/sourcecode.html

We have a very similar setup at Caravel Games. Our product, the DROD series, started as an open source remake of a closed-source game, but as we eventually gathered enough fans clamouring for a sequel we found that we couldn't sell what we'd worked on without breaking the license, as it was built on the top of the open source engine.

What we ended up doing is something rather unique: we sell the content we create, levels, voice acting, so on and so forth, and the game engine (including the editor we used to make the game) is free. Because DROD is a niche game that doesn't appeal to everybody, this works out well: players can play and create user-made levels to their heart's content, and most will enjoy the game enough to want to see 'everything', and to support the creators, so they'll pay for the stuff we create. It also helps build a community around the game. (We also let people get full versions of the game for other operating systems for free for the same reason - they've paid for the content, not the code they play it on.)

There are indies who support linux.

Support the indies, and they'll support you:

http://www.caravelgames.com/Articles/Games_2/JtRH. html
http://grubbygames.com/
http://sillysoft.net/

I'm sure there are more.

Four. You just have to read the system requirements that are next to each game on the original page (or copied into this thread). Barring any errors in the listings, the 4 Linux-running games are:

• DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold
• Professor Fizzwizzle
• Darwinia
• Tribal Trouble

So 40% of the games in the top 10 run on Linux. And cross-platform indie developers report about 10% of their sales come from Linux games. So don't bitch too much.

DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold has a native Linux version. A FreeBSD version and a Mac version are also in the works. Go to http://www.caravelgames.com/Articles/Games_2/Downl oadJtRH.html to download Windows, Linux, or Mac demos.

10) New Star Soccer 3
System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
http://www.newstargames.com/

9) DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold
System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Linux, Mac OS X
http://www.caravelgames.com/Articles/Games_2/JtRH. html

8) Professor Fizzwizzle
System Requirements: Windows or Linux, Mac OS X
http://grubbygames.com/

7) Darwinia
Windows 98/XP/2000, Linux, Mac
http://www.darwinia.co.uk/

6) Democracy
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
http://www.democracygame.com/

5) Mexican Motor Mafia
Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
http://www.scienceoftomorrow.com/mmm_main.htm

4) Tribal Trouble
MacOS X / Linux /Windows NT/2000/XP
http://tribaltrouble.com/

3) Zombie Smashers X2
DirectX 8+
http://www.totallyscrewed.net/newsite/home.htm

2) Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/digital_eel/weird_wor lds/1.htm

1) Oasis
Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
http://www.oasisgame.com/

But there's always a case that can be made for any type of addition to a controller. Let's add a lasso rope to the controller so that some cowboy game will work.

Your really missing something if you haven't played this one; i'm glad its been recognized by this contest. http://caravelgames.com/ . They didn't forget the linux users, either.

They don't make a big deal out of it, but the new DROD is open source. You actually can grab all the source from the game (http://www.caravelgames.com/sourcecode.html), but it is a little difficult to build with the eleventy-three dependencies and the media isn't open licensed. So yeah, you can build your own DROD, but if you wanted to distribute it, you'd need to replace the graphics and sound with something else. Hmmm.

It sure is great to see that DROD is back. I played this back when it was a 16 color game for Windows 3.1. I registered earlier this week. You start getting slammed with new enemies right after you pass the demo levels. The game is just great. The addition of the wandering nephew character really adds some great puzzles.

You can actually get the full original DROD, with level editor, for free. Go visit their site and check it out:

http://www.caravelgames.com/

They even have a Linux version - such a deal!