Parsec LAN-Test Released

A reader writes: "Linux and MacOS versions of Parsec LAN-Test have been released! Windows version will follow soon. The game will also be included on the European version of Red Hat Linux 7, with more than 50 minutes of music by Stefan Poiss. You can download the game here. Please use the mirrors."

Comments

Re:No, it's not a conversion of the TI-99/4A game

[Fross]

ObNostalgia: Anyone else remember playing this game until their hands ached from those black and orange joysticks?

God i hated those joysticks. worst designed ever. i ended up buying one of those adapters that allowed you to plug in two "regular" joysticks like Quickshot etc

I liked parsec, definitely the best game of its kind at the time, it was so colourful, and more fun than Defender et al.

Had so many TI-99/4A games... alpiner, chess, defender, pac man, donkey kong, q*bert, Adventure (with about 7 cassettes), but the best by far was one called Tunnels of Doom.

Tunnels of Doom was a cartridge for the basic engine, with cassettes to supply the actual dungeon etc.. it is comparable to something like might and magic etc, that kind of RPG. if you consider it had:

• random map generation every game
• buying/selling items
• 3d walking around view, changing to overhead (turn-based) for combat
• tons of monsters and items, weapons and armour etc
• 4 character classes, each with unique skills and attributes
• Character advancement through experience

not bad for 1982 eh? You can go check it out (along with a lot more info on the TI) here, it's just someone's homepage, but it's cool, and has a screenshot of Tunnels of Doom in it ;)

Fross

Re:Sourcecode and other platforms

[American AC in Paris]

I can understand their standpoint. Parsec was developed by a closed team, and they raise some valid points about controlling the artistic aspects of the game. They also raise the point that there are a number of perfectly good open-source counterparts in existance today (namely CrystalSpace and WorldForge.) They also say that they'll probably end up opening at least some of the source, and that they haven't really decided on which license they want to use yet. So yes, today it's not OS; tomorrow, maybe. Sometimes, greater things can come out of a small, close-knit and closed development team than can come of the community at large.

If Free Speech and Free Beer are requisite criteria in your book (they're not in mine, but I wholeheartedly consider them vaild criteria) then Parsec doesn't measure up. It's a free program released by a private group of developers who want to keep their code their own. There do exist the Free BeerSpeech counterparts; support and contribute to them.

Sourcecode and other platforms

[kritanus]

So i do not see a FreeBSD-Version. Ok, that is not so bad, because FreeBSD on x86 can start Linux-x86-Programs. But nevertheless I don't get it. This is a free Program, but it is free as in beer, not speech. (Take a look at http://www.parsec.org/faq.html question 33.) Why? So it is very likely we will never see native Versions for *BSD and also not for different hardware than x86 an Mac.

Ok, so they say "We're strong believers in a coordinated development effort". Even if they give the sourcecode away they can. Just look what it is with FreeBSD. Is is highly coordinated, but the sources are free.

AFAIK some of the Parsec-guys have been at Linux-Tag 2000. Didn't you hear the speech of Stallman? :-)

Re:Xshipwars? [rant]

[cduffy]

XSW is a nifty game, and has some competant people on the development team. Unfortunetely, Taura (the lead) isn't one of them. I've been on the mailing list for the last year and a half (started after doing some help w/ display support), and have been simply astounded by the level of general incompetance she's displayed. Also, the code sucks -- read it and see. XSW is one of those projects which effectively consists of duct tape and string. There are places where files are duplicated throughout the build tree because Taura "didn't want the complications" of putting them into static libraries. She repeatedly refused to use autoconf, and after permitting people to create autoconf-based packages for one version, wrote her next version w/o it and asked the same people to redo their work! There have also been several occasions (check the ML archive) where Taura has actively driven off developers, and she insists on keeping an extra, unnecessary, poorly written clause in the license (a modified GPL) which makes it potentially incompatible w/ the regular GPL. Until Taura gets a clue or the competant folks leave, I can't support XShipWars.

Where can I buy this game?

[SurfsUp]

I'm not kidding. This is professional quality stuff (probably because a lot of the people working on it *are* professionals). I want to pay money for it, get it in a box. How can I do that? Loki are you listening?

And when I do pay for it I'd like most of that money to go into the game team's party fund, so they can fly around the world and have conferences and parties, and attract more of the kind of first-rate engine hackers, artists and story writers who can take this thing all the way to the top.

I played it, it's good. It's slick.
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Oh, it's a game!

[pb]

I thought it was some kind of *really* high-end network benchmarking utility.

Anyhow, the screenshots look really neat. Hmm...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.