Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

FreeCraft Forks Offer RTS Alternatives

Posted by simoniker on from the good-free-titles-with-no-added-copyright-fun dept.

TekPolitik writes "Blizzard's attempt to shut down the multi-platform freeware RTS, FreeCraft appears to have backfired. There are now two replacement projects - Project Inferno and Stratagus. The new sites are making some effort to catalog all the games that use the new engine. Stratagus lists Wargus, Aleona's Tales and RoboVasion. Project Inferno lists ShadowConflict." The Stratagus FAQ page constructively explains: "Stratagus aims at being a generic realtime strategy engine, with no special focus on Warcraft2."

3 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So, Wait... by Blackknight · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Emulation is not illegal, nor is reverse engineering a game engine. Freecraft required you to use the graphics from the Warcraft 2 cd, or the free graphics set. There was nothing illegal about it.

    Writing an emulator for any system is not illegal, no matter what the game companies want to make you think. Look at sites like Zophar's Domain for a list of emulation projects out there.

  2. Reasons for shutting down FreeCraft by neglige · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As I recall, the original reasons for shutting down FreeCraft were that the name was too similar to WarCraft and that the engine borrowed a few too many ideas from WC. With this in mind, the new games and the engine have a different names, thats good, but what about the engine functionality?

    From the Stratagus FAQ:
    [...] since the Warcraft2 support is already there we don't indent break it [...]

    Does this mean it's still close to the original? If so, is the new name enough to keep Blizzard at bay?

    --
    My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
    1. Re:Reasons for shutting down FreeCraft by PainKilleR-CE · · Score: 1, Interesting

      MS has lost to "Lindows" and Fox just lost to "Fair and Balanced".

      The Microsoft vs. Lindows.com jury trial doesn't even start until December 1st of this year. I fail to see how MS has lost if the trial hasn't even started yet.

      Then again, calling Fox' decision to stop the suit (including their wonderful quote: 'It's time to return Al Franken to the obscurity that he's normally accustomed to') a loss is rather interesting, as well.

      --
      -PainKilleR-[CE]