BZFlag Open Source Developers Interviewed, Honored

morrison writes "BZFlag, a 'free multiplayer multiplatform 3D tank battle game', is the Sourceforge [part of OSDN, as is Slashdot] April 2004 Project of the Month, and the award page features details and an interview with the creators. Hopefully other well-deserving Open Source games will receive recognition down the road." The creators explain the game "runs on Irix, Linux, *BSD, Windows, Mac OS X, and other platforms", note: "There are about 53,000 players in the statistics", and mention plans: "We hope to build a karma system that enables the community to guard against cheats and abuses."

Comments

Wow.

[Zack]

I used to be so addicted to this game. Played whenever I could. Simple and yet massively fun. Great.. now I have to download the latest version and play just one game..

[ four hours later ]

Crap!

Re:Wow.

[Anonymous Coward]

[Article] Posted by simoniker on Friday April 23, @04:41PM
[Parent] by Zack (44) on Friday April 23, @04:43PM
four hours later

???

Seriously though, I know what you mean. I haven't played this game (yet), but I've definately played games where the time just flies.

Used to play this in Highschool

[miyako]

We used to play this game all the time in my Highschool CS classes (normally we could play after we finished our work, and fridays were dedicated just to playing, we ran a server in the school which was neat). This game can be a LOT of fun to play at a LAN party.
I just wish that the level editor was a bit more powerful and/or easier to use, and a linux version would be nice (though it does run ok under wine)

Re:Used to play this in Highschool

[potHead42]

>and a linux version would be nice (though it does run ok under wine)

uhmmm.... there *is* a linux version, and I'd guess it exists longer than the windows version...

Re:Used to play this in Highschool

[miyako]

There is a linux version of the level editor? I've looked but only found a version for windows. Care to post a link?

Re:Used to play this in Highschool

[potHead42]

Oops, I'm sorry, I thought you were talking about bzflag itself...

Re:Used to play this in Highschool

[Weirdofreak]

Half the people in my school play it every lunchtime, and whenever else they get the chance. I'm about the only person who hasn't got it, and proud. As if I'd be seen dead playing with people who use grammatically incorrect UNs...

Re:Used to play this in Highschool

[Bricklets]

Half the people in my school play it every lunchtime, and whenever else they get the chance.

Half the school??? How big is your high school? How many computers are there available during lunch?

Re:Used to play this in Highschool

[morrison]

There is a linux version of BZEdit. It is in bzflag's cvs as the "bzedit" module. It's got some silly outdated dependancies, so getting it to build and link properly right out of cvs may be non-trivial. Plenty of people have done it, though, including on bsd and os x machines.

That said, there is a complete rewrite of BZEdit currently under development (but held in a svn repository elsewhere). If you're interested in helping out in development, stop by #bzflag or irc.freenode.net.

Cheers!

Re:Used to play this in Highschool

[Weirdofreak]

Ehh... about a thousand students, 100 computers tops... feh, some people play it every lunchtime if they can get on a free computer.

Say thanks, folks!

[Jon Howard]

I felt obligated to send the team a thank you email, since I don't have much else to contribute. I've probably spent more time playing BZFlag than my commercial games combined.

They'd probably appreciate one from you, too ;)

Other deserving games:

[Nomihn0]

Cube: A remarkably compact and elegant first person shooter. Besides surprisingly good graphics, Cube features full networking and a server browser. It also sports some rudimentary single player support.

Parsec: A deathmatch space combat game reminiscient of a streamlined Freespace. It packs beautiful visuals and excellent sound effects (including full voiceover and original music). The gameplay isn't bad either and comes complete with LAN support.

Tenebrae: Based on the Quake 1 sorce code, this is a remarkable graphical modification. Now supporting bump-mapping, per-pixel lighting, and greater model polycounts, Quake is scarier than ever before. Tenebrae is now being developed into a standalone engine (T2) and a game entitled Industri.

Re:Other deserving games:

[delta407]

Parsec: A deathmatch space combat game reminiscient of a streamlined Freespace. It packs beautiful visuals and excellent sound effects (including full voiceover and original music). The gameplay isn't bad either [...]

Yeah, other than... there isn't any. The project has been completely adrift (har har) for nearly a year -- the last news entry, dated 5/5/2003, states:

"It is however work-in-progress, and not suitable for end-users. This is purely a developer release, and therefore some things are broken, incomplete or just plain missing. If you just want to play Parsec you will need to wait a bit longer. Compiling this release will not yield the long awaited Parsec Internet version."

The most recent build is from November 2001, and while users are able to connect to each other, it cannot be called a "game" by any stretch of the imagination.
Sorry to any Parsec developers (if they still exist) -- while I'd love a new king of the 3d-space shooter genre, Parsec isn't it... not now, and by the way the project looks, not ever.

Re:Other deserving games:

[Anonymous Coward]

There is gameplay, you just need a 16 player LAN to appreciate it.

Re:Other deserving games:

[Anonymous Coward]

And none with an os X version! woohoo!

tell me about it

[Zork the Almighty]

"We hope to build a karma system that enables the community to guard against cheats and abuses."

Oh yeah, 'cuz we all know how well that works!

They should port it to the DC

[Stormwatch]

The Sega Dreamcast is the best console to run that game - it comes with a modem!