Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

MSWL Olmec PBEM Soccer Game GPL'ed

Posted by michael on from the corner-kick dept.

zeb writes "MSWL is one of the most popular PBEM football (soccer for North Americans) game, which is itself a variation of a game of postal soccer invented by Alan Parr in England around 1970. In this game, each manager has to organise his team, manage fatigue, train his players and trade them. Olmec is a game engine written by Alla Sellers. It helps the commissioner (game master) to simulate the games and publish the results. Allan has decided to release the source code of Olmec under the GPL, so that everyone can enhance the program. The actual version of Olmec is written in Visual Basic and uses MS Access as a database. The author suggests Olmec could be rewritten in a multiplatform language, for example Java, using MySQL as the database. This task is made easy because of the rich documentation about the game engine (PDF format)."

18 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Great by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 2, Funny

    All the excitement of soccer without actually any of the playing.

    Anyone got an appropriate Simpson's quote?

    1. Re:Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      EuroTrash: In the rest of the civilized world, it's called "football".

      Homer: Here in America, it's called, "soccer," and we pay about as much attention to it as we do to UPN.

  2. And there was a time... by gloth · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...when game developers were divided on the question whether C was fast enough, or if assembly was the only way to go.

    And these days people write games in visual basic? What has this world come to?!

  3. MSWL Olmec PBEM Soccer Game GPL'ed by Dark+Lord+Seth · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did anyone else just stare blankly at the subject for a few second and wonder who took what kind of drugs?

    --
    Hate me!
    1. Re:MSWL Olmec PBEM Soccer Game GPL'ed by AKnightCowboy · · Score: 2, Funny
      Did anyone else just stare blankly at the subject for a few second and wonder who took what kind of drugs?

      Yes, but then I clicked on the link and am even further confused. Where are the screenshots? Does it use OpenGL or some proprietary graphics interface? Basically I'm wondering what this thing looks like and how good the graphics are. The web site is unimpressive to say the least.

  4. mswl olmec pbem soccer game gpl'ed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    omfg!

  5. Popularity of play by email football.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    A recent Gartner Group study has revealed the surprising news that play by email ("PBEM") football ("soccer") is actually slightly more popular than repeating punching yourself in the balls. However, compulsive genital self-pugilists insist that their sport is growing rapidly in popularity and will soon outpace PBEM football, even given the influx of free software nerds that this GPL announcement is likely to attract. "Punching yourself in the nads is simply more fun than PBEM football," said a spokesman today. "Also, it's less gay."

    1. Re:Popularity of play by email football.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Good god, what you just said was gayer than Andy Dick riding a tricycle to the theme of "Its Raining Men"

  6. Re:North Americans? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    FUTBOL? I thought that was a programming language.

  7. "MSWL Olmec PBEM Soccer Game GPL'ed!!" by SlashChick · · Score: 5, Funny

    And if you read that and knew what it meant, you DEFINITELY don't have a girlfriend. ;)

    --
    Simpli - Your source for San Jose dedicated servers and colocation!
    1. Re:"MSWL Olmec PBEM Soccer Game GPL'ed!!" by whiteranger99x · · Score: 4, Funny

      And if you read that and knew what it meant, you DEFINITELY don't have a girlfriend. ;)

      What if, hypothetically speaking, I have no idea what all that means and i still have no girlfriend? :P

      Hypothetically speaking of course!

      --
      Join the TWIT army now!
  8. MOD PARENT UP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    LOL

  9. Play by email football/soccer? by domovoi · · Score: 5, Funny

    So if I get a mail through your mailserver, I score. Meanwhile, you tweak procmail/qmail to bounce it. Likewise, I'm doing the same while you try to get a mail through my server. Standard rules.

    Otherwise...play an actual (fantasy) sport via email? Gah. I'd be less bored by remote-control hamster ball races.

  10. postal? by DragonWyatt · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...a variation of a game of postal soccer...

    So how does that work, you run around in funny jerseys, kicking round balls and, uh, shooting people?

    --
    Don't sweat the petty things. But do pet the sweaty things.
  11. PBEM?! Argh. by Feztaa · · Score: 3, Funny

    When I first read the summary of the story, I thought they were talking about some 3d accellerated soccer game written in Visual Basic, and I started crying. Then after reading a few comments I found out that PBEM meant 'Play By EMail', and I started crying again because this is way too lame to be on the front page.

  12. YEs! by luekj · · Score: 2, Funny
    Finally, Duke Nukem Forever has been GPL'd and we can compile the epic ourselves.

    Time passes

    Oh no! We have to write the entire shader and physics engines BY OURSELVES!!

    Hehe

    --
    Many Thanks,

    Luke

  13. Re:soccer game with Visual basic. 5 meg download ? by zymano · · Score: 1, Funny
    Everyone know IceT is a NIGGER. He says so himself. Got himself a nice white woman now also.

    Zymano rules!

  14. Re:North Americans? by Hellraisr · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes we call it Soccer in Canada as well. And no, I don't live in an igloo.