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Freecraft Out For The Mac

Posted by Hemos on from the come-and-get-it dept.

bsharitt writes "Mark Pazolli has ported Freecraft to Mac OS X, making this popular open source RTS game avalble on the three major platforms (it's been on Linux/*nix and Windows for a while). The complete download is here."

41 comments

  1. First by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Post for TheSpoogeAwards and the CLiT

  2. I think I'll go grab this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Because I would much prefer to play some shitty looking WarCraft II clone as opposed to the official Blizzard port.

    What the fuck is wrong with you open source coders?

  3. Open Source Development HOW-TO by poopbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Credits: onby

    1. Introduction

    As everyone knows, Open Source software is the wave of the future. With the market share of GNU/Linux and *BSD increasing every day, interest in Open Source Software is at an all time high.

    Developing software within the Open Source model benefits everyone. People can take your code, improve it and then release it back to the community. This cycle continues and leads to the creation of far more stable software than the 'Closed Source' shops can ever hope to create.

    So you're itching to create that Doom 3 killer but don't know where to start? Read on!

    2. First Steps
    The most important thing that any Open Source project needs is a Sourceforge page. There are tens of thousands of successful Open Source projects on Sourceforge; the support you receive here will be invaluable.

    OK, so you've registered your Sourceforge project and set the status to '0: Pre-Thinking About It', what's next?

    3. Don't Waste Time!

    Now you need to set up your SourceForge homepage. Keep it plain and simple - don't use too many HTML tags, just knock something up in VI. Website editors like FrontPage and DreamWeaver just create bloated eye-candy - you need to get your message to the masses!

    4. Ask For Help

    Since you probably can't program at all you'll need to try and find some people who think they can. If your project is a game you'll probably need an artist too. Ask for help on your new Sourceforge pages. Here is an example to get you started:

    "Hi there! Welcom to my SorceForge page! I am planing to create a Fisrt Person Shooter game for Linux that is going to kick Doom 3's ass! I have loads of awesome ideas, like giant robotic spiders! I need some help thouh as I cant program or draw. If you can program or draw the tekstures please get in touch! K thx bye!"

    Thousands of talented programmers and artists hang out at Sourceforge ready to devote their time to projects so you should get a team together in no time!

    5. The A-Team

    So now you have your team together you are ready to change your projects status to '1: Pre-Bickering'. You will need to discuss your ideas with your team mates and see what value they can add to the project. You could use an Instant Messaging program like MSN for this, but since you run Linux you'll have to stick to e-mail.

    Don't forget that YOU are in charge! If your team doesn't like the idea of giant robotic spiders just delete them from the project and move on. Someone else can fill their place and this is the beauty of Open Source development. The code might end up a bit messy and the graphics inconsistant - but it's still 'Free as in Speech'!

    6. Getting Down To It

    Now that you've found a team of right thinking people you're ready to start development. Be prepared for some delays though. Programming is a craft and can take years to learn. Your programmer may be a bit rusty but will probably be writing "hello world" programs after school in no time.

    Closed Source games like Doom 3 use the graphics card to do all the hard stuff anyhow, so your programmer will just have to get the NVidia 'API' and it will be plain sailing! Giant robot spiders, here we come!

    7. The Outcome

    So it's been a few years, you still have no files released or in CVS. Your programmer can't get enough time on the PC because his mother won't let him use it after 8pm. Your artist has run off with a Thai She-Male. Your project is still at '1: Pre-Bickering'...

    Congratulations! You now have a successful Open Source project on Sourceforge! Pat yourself on the back, think up another idea and do it all again! See how simple it is?

    - poopbot: who doesn't like scat?

    1. Re:Open Source Development HOW-TO by poopbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *grin*

  4. Let the flames begin? by Paul+Burney · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's cool that he's ported the project to OS X.

    I wonder how soon the flames will start up again? For reference, see when the game/engine was a focus on developer's slashdot:

    http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/0 5/27/0347226&mode=flat&tid=127

    I just got my copy of Warcraft III so it'll be a while before I can test this out. FWIW, I appreciate Blizzard shipping the Mac version at the same time as the PC.

    Uh oh.... Here come the bnetd flames...

    --
    <?php while ($self != "asleep") { $sheep_count++; } ?>
    1. Re:Let the flames begin? by iomud · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Did you notice that wc3 was a little more expensive than other games on the shelf? I wonder if the expense in time and resources for porting to mac were responsible for the slight price increase. If so I wouldnt mind paying the extra cost for the ability to play future/other games on all my machines. Especially on my mac though.

    2. Re:Let the flames begin? by bsharitt · · Score: 1

      My guess would be that Warcraft III was so expensive because of the name, and they knew it would still sell just as good. I don't really care though, I still bought it the day after release.

    3. Re:Let the flames begin? by Alex+Thorpe · · Score: 1

      Since every Blizzard game to date has made it to the Mac, sooner or later, I don't think that's the cause. I think it's a combination of pent up demand(some people would pay anything for it), and to help pay for ever increasing server loads on Battle.net.

      --
      "Common Sense Ain't" -Unknown
    4. Re:Let the flames begin? by Triv · · Score: 3, Insightful

      hype, my friend. It's all 'bout hype. When a new game's touted as being the greatest game ever, they can get away with charging an arm and a leg for it. Personally, I just picked up a copy of Q3:a for ten bucks at Software Etc (and broodwar for a buck - my copy's a bit damaged). I'll wait till the publicity machine dies down a bit before I pick that one up. I'd rather spend 5 bucks on a used genesis/NES cart than spend 60 on a game that'll seriously stress my computer's specs.

      Q3:A is a beautiful sight on my iMac DV - WC3 would run like all the characters have Palsy. :)

      Triv

    5. Re:Let the flames begin? by BitGeek · · Score: 5, Interesting


      I worked on two games that shipped simultaneously on the Mac and Windows platforms in the late 90s.

      The development of parallel versions did not add significantly to the development time nor expense.

      Because we had good mac developers (I was one) we simply had our development team spread acrosss platforms -- rather than porting. So, for instance the "scound guy" was a mac programmer, and his code was written to run under windows and Mac with a small hardware specific sound API that was common.

      BTW FWIW, its much cheaper and faster to develop a game for the mac-- and this was under the classic os-- than for windows. The APIs are much better and more consistent.

      The only reason there are less games on teh mac is because of stupid marketing dipshits. Mac games are actually 20-200 percent more profitable -- meaning the mac version may make that much more money even though the prices are the same because support for windows products is so expensive. And while the mac marketshare is only %20 of the market or so (not %5 - that's new machines sold and they don';t count any sold at the apple store or at apple retail locations, its a bogus number) -- that %20 of the market has far less competition than the windows market, and so your sales may well be split 50/50 depending on the games appeal.

      But most companys, and game companies, make such decisions without actually doing the math, and so perception causes there to be fewer games out for the mac.

      This same set of perceptions is going to be hurting Linux gaming for the next 5-10 years as well.

      This even though I suspect its very cost effective to develop games under linux, as comapred to the windows API set.

      --
      Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/ 1816257
    6. Re:Let the flames begin? by Jobe_br · · Score: 1

      What kind of processor speed does your DV have? I have a 400MHz G3 and my bro has been bugging me to get in on Q3A.

    7. Re:Let the flames begin? by Triv · · Score: 2

      yep. iMac DV400 here too. Q3A runs beautifully provided you boot into OS9 - I haven't tried it in classic. There's also an OSX version in the works (it's in beta...there's info here). I'd say pick it up - it's certainly cheap enough. Just make sure you've got RAM to spare - I've got 640MB loaded into my system. :)

      Triv

    8. Re:Let the flames begin? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i've found that the os X quake runs much better than the os9 version on my imac DV. trust me. But i've found that Warcraft 3 actually runs slower and choppier in os X than in os 9... and blizzard tech wont tell me why. does anyone know? im sick of switching systems every second for different games

  5. Developers wanted by bsharitt · · Score: 5, Informative

    The main reason I posted this news was to get more Mac developers interested since they are a minority on Freecraft. Work still needs to be done on gettign the MacOSX port up to par with Linux and Window, specifically with sound. There is also room for a Mac classic OS port and a Darwin/X11 port(that way the front page is more truthful).

    1. Re:Developers wanted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How would sound be OS related?

    2. Re:Developers wanted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your mac.com page is maxed out. Better find somewhere else to park it.

  6. Why don't you just get a REAL operating system? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Instead of fooling around with stuff that's been on windows for ages.

  7. Three major platforms? by lindsayt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know I'll get modded down, but then my karma is "excellent" so what've I got to lose?

    The article states that Freecraft is now available on "the three major platforms" meaning of course MacOS, Windoze, and... linux, what else? This is slashdot, all right. I love linux - I'm a linux/solaris systems admin - but I'm sorry, when we're talking about games, it's *extremely* presumptious to casually refer to Linux along with Windoze and MacOS as one of "the three major platforms" - so far as I know, less than one percent of all commercial video games are launched on linux.

    Just a small, perhaps pendantic complaint. Of course, I'm excited to see it now available on both of the major desktop systems, as well as one of the many server operating systems... go linux.

    --
    I did not design this game/I did not name the stakes/I just happen to like apples/And I am not afraid of snakes-AniD
    1. Re:Three major platforms? by g4dget · · Score: 1
      it's *extremely* presumptious to casually refer to Linux along with Windoze and MacOS as one of "the three major platforms"

      There are millions of Linux users, probably more in absolute numbers than MacOSX, if not Macintosh as a whole. An Linux is very widely used among unversity students, who play lots of games and like getting them free, too.

      - so far as I know, less than one percent of all commercial video games are launched on linux.

      So what? The fact that people don't buy a lot of games (or software) for Linux doesn't make it a "minor platform", it only makes it a "minor platform" for commercial game developers. In fact, many commercial games are based on ideas from old, free games built at universities on top of UNIX.

    2. Re:Three major platforms? by g4dget · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You know, regarding the "moderation", I own several Macs myself and I like them. But the zealotry of Mac users is really annoying at times. Come on, guys, face the facts. Linux is a major desktop platform, with user numbers comparable to those of MacOS. And much of that wonderful software that makes MacOSX such a nice platform comes from that community.

    3. Re:Three major platforms? by bsartist · · Score: 0, Troll

      Linux is a major desktop platform, with user numbers comparable to those of MacOS.

      You're dreaming. Linux is about a big a player on the desktop as Macs are in the server room. Numerically, the number of Linux installations is comparable to that of MacOS, but the majority of those by far are server installations. Similarly, the vast majority of Macs in use are desktop machines.

      And much of that wonderful software that makes MacOSX such a nice platform comes from that community.

      Again, you're dreaming. Lots of well made and reliable low-level software does indeed come from the GNU and OSS communities. Lots of it is indeed in OS X. But the parts that make OS X such a nice platform, rather than Just Another Generic UNIX, are from Apple.

      --
      Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
    4. Re:Three major platforms? by g4dget · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Numerically, the number of Linux installations is comparable to that of MacOS, but the majority of those by far are server installations.

      And how would you know? We can count Macintosh and Linux Internet servers and we can count Macintosh desktop systems (from Apple sales). But there is no way to count Linux desktop users. In fact, even many Linux servers are used for running desktop applications anyway, using Windows and Macintosh as displays. Linux is widely used at universities around the world for workstations. The Linux desktop has been adopted as the standard by Sun and HP. RedFlag will probably be used by millions of desktop users in China alone. Desktop oriented Linux distributions have a large marketshare in many countries. And Gnome and KDE are both easy-to-use, robust, modern desktops by any measure.

      I just find this antagonism of the Macintosh community towards things Linux on the desktop fascinating. What have you got to prove? Linux isn't the enemy. The more Linux gets adopted on the desktop, the better for Apple because, unlike Microsoft, the Linux community doesn't hide behind proprietary APIs or patents.

    5. Re:Three major platforms? by Nate+Couch · · Score: 1

      I certainly don't feel I am antagonistic towards Linux, and I am Mac bigot to the max. In fact, I am quite intrigued by it. I have RH 7.2 loaded on my PC and am waiting for YDL 2.3 to load onto my Mac (actually I am waiting for the drivers for my nVidia GeForce 4 card before installing. I know I have much to learn, but am having fun doing so.

      It can be said we are all biased towards our platform of choice. I know many Windows users here are VERY dogmatic about Windows. If anything, I think Mac users are more open to trying various platforms. MTC.

      Nate

    6. Re:Three major platforms? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Absolutely absurd. You talk about zealotry. Linux is not, and never will be, a desktop platform. Pee or get off the pot. OS X has taken its place. Let Linux exist in the server market where it has always belonged. Let me put it this way... a new computer user would have an easier time getting accustomed to DOS 5 than KDE or Gnome.

  8. autodot lives! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    THE TROLL POLKA (ARSCHFICKEN MIT ZIEGEN)
    By Serial Troller, 2002-06-25


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    ____________________

    Change Log:

    • Subtle changes to most verses. It sounded really gay before.
    • Removed all references to Taco's pud. May have been high at time. Will investigate further.
    • Finally think I have goat sex written correctly in German. I think. Arschficken?

    (C) 2002 Serial Troller. Permission to reproduce this document is granted provided that you send all the bukkake porn you can find to serialtroller@hotmail.com.

  9. major my arse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    fuck man... the only person i know who uses linux full time was a guy i convinced to use it... and he changed to win2k after a month

    weak

  10. Anyone working on Arianne? by frankie · · Score: 2

    I'm glad FreeCraft has been ported, but I don't have the time or the reflexes to play RTS games. I'm more interested in TBS and RPG.

    One of the most active projects on SourceForge is Arianne RPG. There was a Mac version a while ago, but the last binary release was over a year ago, and it's recently been dropped from the download list.

    I doubt that Arianne compares favorably to Neverwinter, but OTOH it would probably run on a PowerBook (like mine) with Rage 128 graphics...

    1. Re:Anyone working on Arianne? by frankie · · Score: 2, Informative

      Whoops. Slashdot just posted a whole separate article about Arianne which mentions the current lack of a Mac version. I'll go read that now.

  11. I Hope It Plays Better Than It Looks by Spencerian · · Score: 2

    I genuinely appreciate the enthusiasm of the many people who port *NIX code to work in Darwin/OS X. And, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

    However, FreeCraft has got to be one of the ugliest games I've seen to date (and I've seen a lot of them in arcades, on consoles, and on computers over the past 30 years).

    I'm sure the reason is due in part to how X Window is used for the graphics. Another part of the problem may be the game's general design. I've never played the thing (my knee-jerk analysis is based on the screenshots from the SourceForge site noted in the topic) so I can't comment on its playability.

    Given that this is a game that was developed for free use, and that it is made to work on more than two operating systems (such as Windows or Mac OS), this is an impressive feat. However, I hope somebody is working on making it less hideous. Part of a game's magic is its appearance, but then, I know that I'm pretty spoiled now in the age of hyperrealistic first-person shooters and precision graphics.

    Was this game created as an OSS alternative to WarCraft, or was it on the scene prior?

    --
    Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
    1. Re:I Hope It Plays Better Than It Looks by bsharitt · · Score: 1

      I'm sure the reason is due in part to how X Window is used for the graphics.

      Actually Freecraft runs as a native Aqua application. Initially some of the early tries were aimed at Darwin/X11, but since the game uses SDL, it was easier to make it utilize aqua.

    2. Re:I Hope It Plays Better Than It Looks by Spencerian · · Score: 2

      Informative. You deserve a mod point for that--if I had one to give. :)

      Using Aqua should give the game a somewhat better appearance on OS X, but the game interface itself still seems a little scary. Oh, well--it's something I'll try out later, in any case.

      --
      Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
    3. Re:I Hope It Plays Better Than It Looks by bsartist · · Score: 2

      Using Aqua should give the game a somewhat better appearance on OS X

      Why would you think that? The underlying problem here is that the game art is ugly; using a different API to copy the bitmaps into video RAM is not going to help with that.

      --
      Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
  12. Mirror anyone? by themexican · · Score: 1

    *$&^@*! .Mac bandwidth restrictions.

  13. New Download Link and Various Notes by cedars · · Score: 5, Informative
    Hi.

    I (Mark Pazolli) just wanted to add a few things.

    Firstly, this release was very much a development release. It was not really intended to be played, just to demonstrate the status of FreeCraft's support for Mac OS X. If you do play it, you will probably quickly discover some bugs. However with a bit of luck, we'll have a much improved version out soon.

    If you're to interested in helping to develop this version please visit the FreeCraft home page. Also a Mac OS X icon for FreeCraft would be very much appreciated, e-mail me (quirinus AT mac DOT com) if you have one to offer or can design one. General questions on helping out are also welcome to that address too.

    Next, as was pointed out, Mac.com homepages really aren't really suitable for wide-scale distribution (this version was actually intended to be an insiders-only release). So I'd suggest trying to download FreeCraft from here instead. It is quite a hefty download though (around 8 MB).

    Cheers. :-)

    1. Re:New Download Link and Various Notes by Nate+Couch · · Score: 1

      I dl'd the file but the game only plays for about 15-30 minutes. Is this some kind of beta? Should I simply be patient and wait for the updates. I can't save any of my games either. Questions from a newbie to OS X and Freecraft. Thx.

    2. Re:New Download Link and Various Notes by cedars · · Score: 1

      No, it's a development version and has a number of bugs. Crashing after 15-30 minutes is my experience too. The latest version (OS X binaries not available) crashes less, but still crashes. Hopefully we can get it working better in the future, but that will take time and work.

  14. Above poster is insane by qurob · · Score: 1


    The only reason there are less games on teh mac is because of stupid marketing dipshits. Mac games are actually 20-200 percent more profitable

    The reason there's so many more PC games is because there are so many more PC's out there. 20-200 percent more profit? WTF

    And while the mac marketshare is only %20 of the market or so

    Excuse me? Macintosh has 20% market share?

    But most companys, and game companies, make such decisions without actually doing the math, and so perception causes there to be fewer games out for the mac.

    Companies that don't do math? Enron and Worldcom?

    This same set of perceptions is going to be hurting Linux gaming for the next 5-10 years as well.

    Who are you, the Gartner Group?

    This even though I suspect its very cost effective to develop games under linux, as comapred to the windows API set.

    There's at least 5 major Linux distros, a ton of packaging formats, driver hell....what are you smoking?!

    1. Re:Above poster is insane by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Developing a Linux game would be hell on earth. Windows game development in C++ is almost as bad. Cocoa and objective C are godsends for game developers. I hope people will start to embrace them. Maybe it'll start in the shareware games arena.

  15. There is practically no Linux game market ... by AHumbleOpinion · · Score: 2

    This even though I suspect its very cost effective to develop games under linux, as comapred to the windows API set.

    There is practically no Linux game market, most Linux gamers dual boot or emulate so they are getting along quite well with the Win32 games. Mac users can not dual boot or effectively emulate (speed) so they need a native version, unlike Linux users.

    The real Linux game market is only those individuals who refuse to dual boot or emulate. Replacing a Win32 sale with a Linux sale is not incentive to do a game, only new sales matter.

  16. using w*rcr*ft cd with freecraft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How do i use my original cd or expansion cd (i have both) with freecraft?

  17. Price? by osolemirnix · · Score: 2
    Hm, here in Germany, WC3 was on sale for 37-39 Euros in several retail stores, from the day it came out. That is very cheap for a new commercial game, as other (PC-only) games average at 45-50 Euros when they come out, a difference of almost 20%. How much is it elsewhere?

    In addition, having a Mac and a Wintel-PC, I can now play it on either, without paying more. So I am effectively getting 2 games for the price of one. This is the first time I can remember getting a major game for two platforms for one price. All the others I know/own I had to pay twice (or the game wasn't available for a second platform at all).

    IMHO, this is a very good deal and it has yet to be beat. I can understand Wintel-only owners complaining though, if they have the feeling they have to pay for the Mac development too.
    But honestly I would think that this happens either way, the main game development costs get paid by the Wintel market, after all the graphics etc. are the same on the Mac. And a game like WC3 is so popular it would be worth developing for the Mac alone.

    I don't think it takes longer either, if their project managers know their job they coordinate 2 teams working at the same time.

    --

    Idempotent operation: Like MS software, wether you run it once or often, that doesn't make it any better.