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They also left out the best single player RPG ever:

http://www.nethack.org/

Thank you for the latest release of gradewrecker. My GPA just went in the corner and shot itself.
-- USENET posting, author unknown

Start playing NetHack. :P

Nethack is the only game you'll ever need -- it's been growing for years, and now contains more ways to die than I can think of off the top of my head :)

Nethack was originally released in 1987. The last update to the website was in 2004, a total of seventeen years of evolution.
Nethack itself is a branch of Rogue, which itself came out in 1980.

TFA does not even mention Nethack. So much for history...

You know what they say; its not whether you win or loose but how you play the game. I don't buy this story to be very honost.. Sure, you can have issues with your hands, I don't dispute that, but there are just way too many games out there which require quite a different way of controlling them.

I for one play with keyboard and mouse. If you get issues I guess games like UT and such maybe getting harder, but why not simply lower the difficulty level? Or perhaps shift to a different kind of game.. Not too much hard pressing action going on where keyboard and mouse are concerned when looking at, say, Command & Conqueror.

In the end there's always tuxracer to enjoy and when that one is giving you issues I'd suggest moving to the all time classic nethack! In fact, I think I'll have another go at that right now.

and ignore the rest of these cockbiters. console games are mostly for socially inept greaseballs.

get it here

Can anyone think of any console game where you get to have sex with a Indian Princess after rescuing her? Anyone? How about getting to have sex with any hot girl after rescuing her?

Since I've started using Linux exclusively, it has changed somewhat:

1. Multiple instances of Doom with the doomsday engine
2. Crack-attack
3. Mutant Storm
4. Nethack:)
5. Grid Wars 2

And that is why I play NetHack.

For those of us who remember the rogue-like games, from Ken Arnold's & Michael Toy's original, through moria, hack, larn, omega and arguably perfected in nethack (probably the first game ever developed over the Internet by various programmers), we know that gameplay mechanics, especially in interfaces that require an active imagination to fully express, were the games that lasted and are still forever playable.

Contrary to the notion in the article, it's the lack of realistic graphics and sound that make these complex games long-lived. Were there stinkers in the past? Hell yes. But nothing will ever match the groundbreaking creativity behind some of the true classics. After all, demand for eye-candy hasn't obviated the deck of cards, the checkerboard, the chess board, the backgammon board or dominoes. Truly "classic" games (whether played on UNIX terminals, 80s arcades or early consoles) demanded good and inventive game play precisley because the graphics sucked.

Many of today's games are proof that photorealistic and awesome physics engines can't substitute for lack of plot, strategy or complexity. In 100 years, nobody will be talking about Quake IV, but there will still be articles about Zork, Gauntlet and Zelda.

But I would also like to point out if that punishment for loosing is too great, then the game gets pretty tedious pretty fast (otherwise known as loosing over 15 hours worth of leveling when you die at level 59 in EQ arrrrgh!!!!)

Kids these days. All their fancy electronics. Missed out on the great, imagination-driven, adventures.

Here.

You know, it's extremely possible. In fact, it's been done.

That said, I just do not believe a game that's been in development for ten goddamn years can possibly be any good. Prove me wrong, Broussard, prove me wrong.

I don't know. There are games that have been in development for twice as long as that, that still seem to have a few loyal fans.

You, sir, need to turn in your geek badge. Aparantly, you don't play NetHack or ADOM

This sound suspiciously like another game

Apparently not that many, because there are hundreds or thousands of GPL game projects on SourceForge, and most of them are dead (or never really got started in the first place) because there weren't enough people to make them. Surely some of them had to be good ideas!

Consider the following points:

* I think that a lot of people that want to write games are younger folks -- the idea of writing a game is one of the things that I remember people doing in high school when they learned to code. These folks have less experience to draw on, and possibly a harder time with project management issues. If a project is your first, you have to make all your stumbles and do your learning on it...and so there are probably a lot of games out there that go unfinished. Also, a lot of these folks go off to or leave college, and it drastically affects their schedule.

* One of the largest motivators for open source is that a hacker is building something that *he can use*. Yes, peer approval and resume-building and a feeling of helping someone out or fighting against an objectionable closed-source company are all nice, but at the end of the day, there are a *lot* of (and really good) development tools written by open source folks, and few educational games for five-year-olds (yes, I know that there are some projects along those lines). Many, many games can be played through once or twice, and then the replay value fades. As this happens, the hacker can't enjoy using the software that he's writing, and his interest fades.

The open source games that have done well have one very noticable characteristic -- they all have extremely high replay value, much more so than almost any commercial games. People can and have played games like NetHack or ToME for far more hours than just about any commercial games. There are open source card games, and board games. Most open-source games have a randomized element, or are played against other players, so that they continue to be a challenge. I can think of almost zero plot-based open source games that have done well (text-based interactive fiction being a notable exception, and I think that this is more due to the large pool of potential IF authors and the reduced amount of content that must be produced). Plot-based games lose much of their charm after the first time through, so OSS folks can't really enjoy their own game.

* Artists aren't rich. Programmers are, by and large, currently in heavy demand. This means that they can get away with working shorter hours and making plenty of money. They have more potential free time to run out and simply give away on free games.

If you do graphics work, things are, as I understand it, more competitive. One (traditional media) artist that I know of has to work a number of jobs to make ends meet -- I'm sure that if she didn't have to take care of her expenses, she'd love to donate her time.

I've no idea where sound engineering work comes in.

* Game content is less fun than game code. This is a guess on my part, but if I wanted to do some graphics work, I think that I'd rather try out a bunch of my own ideas. It has to be much less fun to, say, draw fifty frames of some character to obtain smooth animation.

Hence, we have plenty of OSS game engines, but less free content.

* Game content is less interchangeable than game code. OSS projects generally have code contributions from many, many people, and are patched together by a maintainer. People lose interest or have increased time demands and stop working on the project, and other people become interested or have a use for the code and start contributing patches. This works well for code. The user doesn't know how many people have worked on the code, because the coders don't have a user-visible style. I don't know whether Joe Hacker has a clever strategy for traversing linked lists when I use software. As long as my softwar

Heathens, nearly all of you. nethack is the granddaddy of them all.

I also loved playing Wasteland with its many endings and possibilities.

Anything automatic will eventually become boring to players.

Like Nethack?

WoW is piece of shit. Real men play NetHack. And last time I checked Blizzard was still considered evil among the slashdot crowd. I thought about giving WoW a try but they didn't provide a Solaris/sparc binary. That game is completely useless.

Try eating a purple fungus.

Zelda was good, one of the best even. But it still doesn't hold a candle to NetHack.

Nethack is like the ex-girlfriend from hell. Once upon a time, you had a mad, passionate love affair with her. You spent every spare hour with her, helpless to resist, almost psychotic in your obsession with her, until you realized that she was sucking the life out of you. To save yourself, to keep from flunking every single course and losing all your friends, you forced yourself to give her up. It was a long, long time before you undid the damage.

Needless to say, you haven't seen her or thought about her in years. Then, one day, someone mentions her, and says she's still around, still ready for a good time. Thinking yourself older and wiser, and beliving yourself to have outgrown the kind of all-consuming infatuation that robs you of your time, your precious, irreplaceble time, you go to see her.

She is, indeed, ready to pick up where you left off.

After an hour of fun and good times, you wonder why you ever stopped seeing her.

After ten hours, you remember.

After a hundred hours, you remember all too well.

Play a game of console-version nethack... everyone will think you're busy hacking away on the mainframe! During my days at university, I actually overheard a conversation between a student and a not-very-computer-literate prof where the student claimed to be working on some group theory related program - whilst playing nethack!

Me, I'm still busy with NetHack. But once I finish that -- any day now, really, or next week the latest -- I might take a look at this new-fangled stuff...

No year without a new release of Nethack can be considered a good year for Open Source.

I'm not seeing Nethack on that list! Next generation my ass!

Video games aren't like public buildings, you shouldn't need to make the handicap accessible.

That they were before is great... but they're not now, sad, sure, but move on, it's just a game.

===

There are plenty of other games which don't rely on keyboards AND mice...

Here is one that has always been handicapable!
http://www.nethack.org/

It's hard to take this article seriously considering their list doesn't even include the All-Time #1 Greatest Game of All Time...

From within Nethack (http://nethack.org/):

Pick an object.
F a fungus or mold (lichen)

From the Jubilex monster manual (http://www.juiblex.co.uk/nethack/VernonSpoilers/M onsterManual/lichen.html#lichen):

Name: lichen
Difficulty: 1
Base level: 0
Base experience: 4
Speed: 1
Base AC: 9
Base MR: 0
Alignment: 0
Frequency: Uncommon
Genocidable: Yes
ATTACK:
        Sticks to you
Weight: 20
Nutritional value: 200
Size: small
Resistances: None
Resistances conveyed by eating: None

Due to its unusual body chemistry, A lichen has no need to breathe. It has no eyes, and is therefore impervious to gaze and blindness attacks. It has no mind, and is therefore not detectable via telepathy. It has no limbs and no head. A lichen cannot pick up objects.

The chamber was of unhewn rock, round, as near as might be, eighteen or twenty feet across, and gay with rich variety of fern and moss and lichen. The fern was in its winter still, or coiling for the spring-tide; but moss was in abundant life, some feathering, and some gobleted, and some with fringe of red to it.
Lorna Doone, by R.D. Blackmore

At Dict.org:
http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict1&Strategy=* &Database=*&Query=lichen

NetHack

I made the switch about a year and a half ago. The transition really isn't that hard . . . especially when you start to appreciate concepts like "Hmm, I'd like to try out some software that does X", and five minutes later it's up and running, uncrippled (five hours for Gentoo :P).

Really the only true pain today for the home user is if you're hooked on some specific Windows-only games. I simply switched to Linux games (though I don't play many games nowadays anyway other than the one true game).

he actually has been quite useful. his contributions to The Great Game, for example, are IMHO quite spiffy and appropriate for the game. the tourist character class, for example

Amen to that brother. Case in point: Nethack. Why would anyone even think of playing this or other text-based roguelikes in today's age of cutting edge computer graphics? Maybe because it's one of the most re-playable games EVAR? My fav games include Nethack, ADOM, Starcraft and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri... all games pretty much ran on PCs/Macs from 5 years ago.

Try this game. No two games are ever the same, it's fiendishly difficult yet incredibly rewarding, doesn't requre the reflexes of a 13-year old and the visuals beat anything you could ever see on a screen (mainly because they take place mostly in your mind).

I've been playing for 15 years or so and am still not tired of it.

(oh man, i am really answering this question...)www.nethack.org

http://nethack.org/common/index.html
You must be new here ;)

That little thing was a HUGE help. My schedule was very fragmented, and I'm slow to memorize schedules, especially when they're layered and alternating. Needless to say, I used my palm every day. Most days it would be the first thing I looked at when I got up in the morning (usually just to judge how much time I needed to get ready). I also looked at it between classes; it helped me figure out where to go and when I needed to be there.

That was the most important function to me. I also ended up making extensive use of the phone book and memo functions. The task list helped remind me of important assignments, but I didn't catalog all due dates on the thing.

I know palms are not the hottest things anymore, but let's face it; you especially don't want an entertainment machine. As other posters have stressed, you don't want wi-fi, games, videos, or other really cool programs. You want something to help you work. In my opinion, the palm does this well with good, solid core applications. I also use a GPL program on the side to calculate my gas mileage on my car (sourceforge does wonders).

A good thing to do is find an older palm. The basic functionality of palmOS hasn't changed much at all, and you'll get a great price on a small handheld if you go used/discontinued/refurbished/whatever.

Also, other posters mention the effectiveness of paper and pencil. Beware. I'm the type that's rather loose with papers. Things in writing can be difficult to keep structured and organized if you're me, and papers get lost all the time, not to mention that they are a hassle to carry. A PDA like my palm makes all my data microscopic, automatically organized, and easily sortable and searchable. I find this more convenient and portable than a pencil and paper solution. That's just me.

Find a system that works best for you, but I do definitely recommend a cheap palm. If you do in fact prefer Windows pocket edition for whatever reason (can you say nethack?), an older generation pocketpc is also a handy thing.

I agree with most of your points, but when did Doom and GTA claim to be RPG's?

For a good example of what a computer can do for RPG's, see nethack, baldur's gate, or star wars: knights of the old republic.

Thank you for the latest release of gradewrecker. My GPA just went in the corner and shot itself.
-- USENET posting, author unknown
source: nethack.org

Nethack.

So Umbria is a Boulder Colocation company? Mayhap I've just been playing too much nethack. :-P

The game keeps you coming back for --more--, time and time again.

Don't forget all those poor nerds sitting in windowless university basements for years on end, no sunlight, no social life, no access to reality, sacrificing all to bring forth things like http://www.nethack.org/ and http://www.netrek.org/.

At the other end of the spectrum though, you will have large companies that have a pile of internal applications that run exclusively on Win32, making a move to Linux extremely difficult or largely pointless if they needed to use QEmu/VMWare on every PC just to run their internal applications. This is where Wine really shines, for applications that are needed, but have a low chance of being ported to Linux, and for which no native application exists. In the future they may decide to rewrite the applications to be native to Linux, but the chances of doing that as a part of the initial transion are low, as the time required to develop and test such applications is generally non-trivial.

I think in general, Wine is one of the catalysts for Linux adoption, which, ironically, will at the same time will cause it's own irrelevance at an accelerated rate. Without Wine, Linux adoption would be much slower than it is right now, even if only initially, people like to stick with what they're familiar with. Every person I know who has tried out Linux (including myself), has attempted to run the programs they used to use under Wine. I can also point out that they usually find native applications that replace the functionality of the programs they were running under Wine. I certainly did, and I no longer have a use for Wine, I've been running Linux exclusively for about 2 years now.

The one sticking point for a lot of users is still games however. Few Win32 games will ever be ported to Linux, and finding native games that can act as a replacement can be very difficult except for some of the most popular games, for example, the Civilization series => FreeCiv. Not to say that there aren't any games available for Linux, but if there was no Wine, the list would be significantly shortened, and many of the games that people want to play have no equivalant.

I don't think Wine will ever be completely irrelevant, but as it gets better, it will drive itself that way.

This should really improve the performance of my favorite game!

Will it play Nethack?

Nethack Game

Dudley's Dungeon, a NetHack webcomic, now bound to get millions of visitors!!!

Works fine for me, but then OpenBSD is not a real OS according to you.