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Some Free games are very nice, specially the simple ones (not surprisingly, as they can't compete with the multi-million-dollars production effort of commercial games). The already mentioned Battle of Wesnoth and Freeciv are among my favorites strategy games. For action, Kobo Deluxe and Koules are pretty nice. Recently I found also XMoto, which looks silly, but is very fun to play.

• Boson
• Bsdgames
• Crimson Fields
• Dosbox (Emulator)
• Empire
• Konquest
• Mangoquest
• Pysol
• Tuxcart
• Zsnes (Emulator)
• Ace-of-penguin
• Battle for Wesnoth
• Bzflag, Bzflag-Server
• Clanbomber
• Crossfire (GTK client)
• Enigma
• Foobillard
• Freeciv, Freeciv-server
• Freesci
• Gltron
• Gnuchess
• Jump'n'Bump (joystick support patch, special graphic patches)
• Ksokoban
• Lbreakout2
• Lgeneral
• Miniracer
• Nethack
• Netpanzer
• Neverball
• Tuxracer
• Xgalaga
• XMame, XMess (Emulators)
• Xpilot

...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!

XKobo is one of my favourites, and I still play it today (I'm in stage 242, and there are only 50 stages, they begin repeating after that. Not that I'm addicted or something.. :)
The gameplay basically about dodging enemies in a two-way scrolling space, trying to destroy the bases. The level 6 and some later levels are very hard.

There is a modern version in SDL, called Kobo Deluxe, but I still prefer the original. Beware!

University Lectures got me up to level 50 in Kobo Deluxe

Granted, it doesn't need internet, but c'mon, it's kobo.
Miniclips Is where I tend to stay while internet activity is around in lectures, and tutes, and labs, and group meeting. Tell me, why do i bother at uni?

#1: Kobo Deluxe - addictive overhead space shooter
#2: nethack - THE RPG. Prepare to not get any work done.
#3: Frozen Bubble - A clone of Puzzle Bobble (aka bust-a-move) that's so good, I think it even outdoes the orginal. The music is just plain awesome... my friend burned it onto a CD and we listen to it in the car whenever we go driving.
#4: Armagetron - It's like... Tron lightcycles.... except in 3D... and so much more awesome.
#5: Ur Quan Masters - This is basically Star Control 2 released open source. What are you waiting for? GO!!!!
#6: Pingus - Lemmings for Linux, really. Includes functional level editor. Really, I couldn't ask for anything more.

However, looking at the Autoduel code isn't going to help you much in creating a new game. Most of the graphics and collision detection will be done in unreadable machine code. The approaches used in 1985 won't help you much in writing the game in 2003.

The code dealing with actual weapon effects and such just implements a subset of Car Wars, a game by Steve Jackson. The settings and characters are also based off his work.

Also, Origin was bought by Electronic Arts. Lord British no longer works there. Good luck prying anything out of EA's greedy grasp. Talk about a company I have no good-will for.

Anyhow, instead of thinking about the old code, sit down with the smooth scrolling demo code for OpenGL for a couple hours instead. Once you understand that, you can draw some nifty block graphics and build some maps to scroll across. Add a car in the middle and some direction controls and you'll have most of the graphics for autoduel.

You'll also need to design a new setting and new game play rules so you don't have to license Car Wars, since this is probably a hobby project.

After that will come the hard part - figuring out how to communicate real time critical information across a wire with variable latency between clients. Oh, and you have to do it without trusting the client very much because people can hack their clients to try to gain an advantage.

Good luck with it though. I, too, would love to see Autoduel in the wild again. That game taught me to count cards in blackjack and made me memorize poker odds. I owe alot to that game ;)

SDL uses OpenGL and DirectX for its backend (and DIB's/native windows APIs and...), but you get the idea - its just a layer on top of the for-metioned API's)

(well it uses OpenGL for 2D after some proding care of David Olofson olofson.net)

riki