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Postal, the Legendarily Violent Video Game by Running With Scissors, Is Now Open Source (ndtv.com)

Posted by msmash on from the affinity-for-open-source dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Video game developer Running With Scissors has announced that it is open sourcing the original version of its most popular title-Postal, which was released back in 1997. Even though violence in video games has been a topic of debate for over decades now, Postal has been one of the most criticised games out of the lot. Running With Scissors has published the code for the game on Bitbucket under the GPL2 license and further said that it is entrusting the fans with the fate of its game. "Anyone with the time and skills can now tweak/change/update/modify anything in the game at all!" the company was quoted as saying in the report. Postal is popularly known for being termed "digital poison" by US Senator Joe Lieberman but developed an audience for itself over the years. Earlier this year, a high-definition remaster of the game called Postal Redux was released on Steam as well as PS4.

66 comments

  1. A long time ago... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Soldier of Fortune was another video game that came out at about the same time. It's claim to fame was being able to shoot off body parts. Don't recall if this was the game where the AI hops around on one leg if you shot the other leg off.

    1. Re:A long time ago... by Ynot_82 · · Score: 2

      'tis but a scratch

    2. Re: A long time ago... by ememisya · · Score: 0

      Whatchu talking about Willis?

    3. Re:A long time ago... by mrbester · · Score: 1

      Let's call it a draw

      --
      "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
    4. Re:A long time ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A scratch!? Your arm's off!

    5. Re:A long time ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "It's claim to fame was being able to shoot off body parts."

      Can it also shoot off that extra apostrophe?

    6. Re:A long time ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Soldier of Fortune was another video game that came out at about the same time. It's claim to fame was being able to shoot off body parts. Don't recall if this was the game where the AI hops around on one leg if you shot the other leg off.

      "Custer's Revenge" was much worse - it had thex!

    7. Re: A long time ago... by ememisya · · Score: 1

      I take it you've never played Postal 2.

  2. A game that would be hard to make today by elrous0 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Jack Thompson and Joe Lieberman are mere amateur demagogues next to today's SJW's.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by pseudofrog · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I thought we could make it to at least 3 posts before someone started whining about "SJW's"

    2. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Today's SJW's project themselves (racist, sexist, bully, etc) onto others.

    3. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If a game today so much as has some Muslim terrorists as bad guys, Anita Sarkessian is running to the UN screaming that it's a hate crime.

    4. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by elrous0 · · Score: 0, Troll

      If SJW's don't like people whining about them, maybe they should stop doing stuff like trying to censor videogames and bullying companies who make games that they don't like. Just a thought.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    5. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      If we don't at least acknowledge there's a problem then we can't even begin to solve the problem.

    6. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Techbros gonna bro, bro.

      I might take it more seriously if their user ID wasn't nearly 900k.

    7. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by Revek · · Score: 0

      Social Justice Whiners are impotent. What are they going to do really? Blow you up on facebook. That sounds like free advertising. They are like a less effective anonymous. They can't even take the website down for five minutes.

    8. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A game that would be hard to make today

      You must never have played any of the Hotline:Miami games.

      The idea that "SJWs" have taken all the fun out of games by forbidding violence is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. There are plenty of games where you can disembowel your fellow man if that's your thing. I'm currently playing Far Cry Primal, in which I can bash human heads in with a great club or send my friendly lion to tear them limb from limb on my behalf. That sound like a game that was ruined by "SJWs" to you?

      Or is your complaint that you're not getting enough titties in your games because of SJWs? Because last year's Game of the Year was a game in which your sidekick was a smoking hot silent assassin with big old titties who had to wear minimal clothing (get this) because she breathes through her skin and had to be as naked as possible to survive.

      So don't worry, games are still being made for 13 year-old boys and the grown men who are still 13 year-old boys at heart.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    9. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0

      If SJW's don't like people whining about them, maybe they should stop doing stuff like trying to censor videogames

      If you think videogames are being censored, then you haven't been playing video games.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    10. Re: A game that would be hard to make today by N!k0N · · Score: 1

      "Grown men who are 13 at heart", huh? That's like all of us.

    11. Re: A game that would be hard to make today by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      "Grown men who are 13 at heart", huh? That's like all of us.

      You bet.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    12. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1, Funny

      Because last year's Game of the Year was a game in which your sidekick was a smoking hot silent assassin with big old titties who had to wear minimal clothing

      That sound like a game that was ruined by "SJWs" to you?

      Yes because if it wasn't for the SJWs they'd be young titties not old ones.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    13. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Talk to enough developers and you'll find out that they censor themselves all the damned time because they're afraid

      I talk to game developers practically every single day of my life. I've never heard one say that they censor themselves because of SJWs. They're too busy making games.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    14. Re: A game that would be hard to make today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are no games that allow you to "disembowel your fellow man" because a digital construct is not anyone's "fellow man".

    15. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I've been slashdotting since the 90's.
      I'll get around making an account one day.

    16. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still angry over a girl laughing at your micropeen?

    17. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      This is a really stupid comment.

      The "SJW's" [sic -- the apostrophe is incorrect, as this is plural] you complain about are not nationally prominent politicians or personalities in the national news like Thompson and Lieberman. Offhand, I can't even think of any "SJWs" by name, except maybe that stupid woman who said "we need some muscle" at some college protest (and I don't remember her name either, just that she made the news with that comment and got fired).

      I'm sure there were plenty of horribly annoying people back in the 90s with very similar opinions to the worst of today's "SJWs", but we don't remember them because they didn't make the news, just like today. Some silly college students with extreme opinions don't matter; there's people with extreme opinions everywhere. What matters are people with actual power, like Lieberman when he was in Congress and on the ticket for VP in the 2000 election.

      For whatever reason, censoring video games has fallen by the wayside as a political issue. It probably had something to do with Gore and Lieberman losing to Bush in 2000; both Gore (through his ex-wife Tipper) and Lieberman were known for these efforts at mild censorship, and after the Dems lost in 2000 that whole thing seemed to disappear from the Dem platform, thankfully. It was really rather curious too, as the Dems were/are supposed to be the more socially-liberal of the two parties, so why the Dems would jump on a moralizing campaign like that doesn't make much sense to me, I'd expect that from the Christian Republicans.

    18. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


        I've never heard one say that they censor themselves because of SJWs. They're too busy making games.

      Developers rarely, if ever get to make the call of what to develop. That's done by someone else. I guarantee you they're all thinking about what they can do in a given context. They probably don't call those people "SJW"s, but self censorship happens in any creative endeavor.

      Now... I don't think censorship is really a big problem in video games. Look at Grand Theft Auto. But then again, even GTA has had its share of controversy, and censorship. If I recall the "coffeemod" thing was a big thing that had to be removed.

      Don't pretend that the SJWs of the world don't have an influence, because they do. These people are getting everyone to self censor, and people finally seem to be waking up to it. For instance, at my stepsons school this October they instituted a policy on Halloween that anyone in a Halloween costume would be sent to the principals office because "We don't "celebrate" Halloween here". No Joke... That actually happened at his school, and parents were called.

      At my wife's workplace the local SJW decided that the annual fundraiser was "racist" or "innappropriate" because they ate Mexican food, and put on Sombreros. Apparently wearing a sombrero is now "offensive" to a lot of people... A lot of people being mainly young white ladies who want to show how they're fixing society through their own facism.

      The SJW thing is real. Please stop ignoring it. It's not just whining 13 year olds. It's a fascist movement on the extreme left, and it needs to stop.

    19. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      For instance, at my stepsons school this October they instituted a policy on Halloween that anyone in a Halloween costume would be sent to the principals office because "We don't "celebrate" Halloween here". No Joke... That actually happened at his school, and parents were called.

      And you think it's your "SJWs" that have a War on Halloween?

      http://www.christianpost.com/n...

      http://www.fillthevoid.org/Occ...

      http://www.charismanews.com/op...

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    20. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know right? Why would people complain about cancer, I will never understand.

    21. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >I talk to game developers practically every single day of my life. I've never heard one say that they censor themselves because of SJWs. They're too busy making games.

      Maybe you shouldn't be an SJW then. People lie to you a lot if you're part of a clique that likes ruining people's lives over difference of opinions.

    22. Re: A game that would be hard to make today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At my wife's workplace the local SJW decided that the annual fundraiser was "racist" or "innappropriate" because they ate Mexican food, and put on Sombreros. Apparently wearing a sombrero is now "offensive" to a lot of people... A lot of people being mainly young white ladies who want to show how they're fixing society through their own facism.

      A decades old objection to a false caricature is suddenly news to you?

      Hey, why don't you try a Cleveland Indians or Washington Redskins game?

      Fucking morons, got their panties in a twist now that they can just shout about the SjWs and expect us to wipe away their crocodile tears.

    23. Re: A game that would be hard to make today by loufoque · · Score: 1

      There are being heavily censored, not necessarily because of regulation; sometimes because the developer is afraid of the backlash from social media.

      Consider FFXV, one of the latest AAA games, coming from Japan, a country that generally doesn't mind having violence and sex in their games.

      They cut all the cutscenes of the main female character, to the point where players are asking what her role in the story and what her motivation even was. The reason they did that is because of complaints there was on twitter and elsewhere about her being too subservient and her depiction too sexist.

      The content that was cut showed her being abused by men since childhood, going through the harshness of it all by devoting her life to supporting her prince.

    24. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by PrimaryConsult · · Score: 1

      Evangelical Christians, they so silly...

      Meanwhile at all of the Catholic schools I attended growing up, Halloween costumes were encouraged on Halloween (in the sense that, if you didn't wear one you still had to wear the normal uniform). I was tempted to dress as "public school student".

    25. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tell them to make a game like the best game in the world, interstate '76.

    26. Re: A game that would be hard to make today by Threni · · Score: 1

      "players are asking what her role in the story and what her motivation even was."

      This ruined Pacman for me. I've been playing games for 35 years and I just don't get how games like Pacman and Donkey Kong, Tetris, Tekken etc got so popular. They have superficial unrealistic back stories and it's hard to take seriously the premise for the game. Don't developers know how important these aspects of game design are?

    27. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Try 'Next Car Game: Wreckfest'. Just demolition derby, no guns.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    28. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

      OH SHIT MAN

      I still have this! It's a pain to get running on windows 7, but very doable. You have to cap the framerate using either AMD or Nvidia's control panel as the scripting is tied to frame rate.

      That game is sill absolutely amazing. And the fucking poetry button.

      Hey Stampede, how 'bout a poem?

    29. Re: A game that would be hard to make today by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 1

      Which female character are you talking about?

      --
      Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
    30. Re:A game that would be hard to make today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe. Often SJWs are difficult to distinguish from far right nutjobs. See most of them collect power by public bullying, so you'll often see the same popular piece of media being attacked by both sides.

    31. Re: A game that would be hard to make today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can tell you have no mexican friends. It's not like mexicans don't ever "be mexican" and put on a sombrero for festive reasons.
      They probably don't mind if you join them over some food either. Stop being such a fuckface
      The indians and the redskins are well developed brands so a greedy corporation doesn't want to abandon it, they should. But in case you didn't notice natives have bigger fish to fry right now.

      SJWs are a big problem and they probably contributed to the election of our soon to be president.... not cause they care, they just want people to see them care or to collect idiot clickbux off facebook.

      We sold out the country so buzzfeed and cracked could fund some unemployable dangerhair's bohemian lifestyle. No please tell me about all the PoCs that you chill with I can't wait to hear about it.

  3. Best subject for Uwe Boll's shit movies... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_(film)

    Surprisingly his best work

    1. Re:Best subject for Uwe Boll's shit movies... by elrous0 · · Score: 1

      I actually really liked that movie. It's a guilty pleasure. And Dave Foley is fucking hilarious in it--though I could have happily lived my whole life without seeing full-frontal nudity from any of the Kids in The Hall.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  4. Not original version by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 1

    It's fixed version which was also released on Steam. It contains all the fixes and changed to SDL2 by Ryan C. Gordon, and is known to run on 6 platforms: https://twitter.com/icculus/st...

  5. how good is the code? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone looked at the code yet? Is it a pile of spaghetti?

  6. if i timetravelled a game... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it would be Brutal Doom mod: it's all in there. Drop it off in Carmack and Romero's hands about 1994.

    Brutal Hexen is coming along...

    1. Re:if i timetravelled a game... by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      The hardware of time really did not have the power for that.

    2. Re:if i timetravelled a game... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i had 16MB RAM ($50) in my 486 dx4 100MHz ($85) Linux desktop running RedHat 5.2 while faculty and top nerds at school were playing with Pentium 166MHz ($300) with 128MB RAM ($800).

      How in the name of God could any Israeli technology continue in light of DEC Alpha 21164 500MHz on a LX motherboard) running circles around the non-competition?

      This tech was around just fine.

    3. Re:if i timetravelled a game... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      128MB RAM on a 166? I find that difficult to believe; that was in the days of 72-pin SIMMs and I never saw one of those with 32MB capacity. By the time we were looking at 64+ MB it was on DIMMs, and those weren't available on P166s.

    4. Re: if i timetravelled a game... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fucking CompUSA hack.

    5. Re:if i timetravelled a game... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Had a DX2/66 hand over, which was about a decade old at that point, where the owner had installed a single 32MB SIMM.
      So I'm sure they existed ; the main reason you never saw one was likely that they were quite expensive.
      There were even 16MB 30 pin SIMMs, never saw them but I saw them as a line item in an advertisement in a magazine. Exorbitant price, and you need at least four of them on with 486 (or 386DX if that works). I don't remember the price but perhaps $2K per stick.

      Had a P166 (before that, a Cyrix) with one DIMM slot (SDRAM) and four SIMM slots. You could mix the different memory types! Had 64MB in the P166 (a few years past its prime). The lower end Intel chipset only supported "64MB cached" i.e. the L2 would only cover the first 64MB. So the higher end chipset (430 FX or HX) was more adequate to use 128MB.

  7. Postal isn't Postal 2 by fleabay · · Score: 1

    Postal 2 was the legendary violent video game.

    --
    PlanetVulkan.com
    1. Re:Postal isn't Postal 2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      both are legendary..

                  Postal for it's storyline ( cruel and nasty actions that scored points)
                                  myself and several co-workers got verbally abused for playing it on beark, so we switched to duke nukem deathmatch.

                    Postal 2 brought a more free form storyline and much better graphics.

                                    I still play this one !

    2. Re:Postal isn't Postal 2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kids these days. The "violent video game response to commentary about violence in video games" thing was stale beer by the time Postal 2 came around. The original was much more controversial at the time.

  8. Having played the demo of it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't remember enemies continuing after you shot off bodyparts, but I do remember that it just wasted ammo to do anything other than chest/headshots if you had a choice. I think there may have been a couple areas where the guys were wearing head protection and shooting their arms/legs was your only option (unless you wanted to waste a lot of ammo, which was limited on easy levels and EXTREMELY limited on higher difficulty levels, making ammo conservation almost as important as hostage rescues.

  9. Should this be praised? by hackel · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    It's been 20 YEARS people! What use is the code to a 20 year old game, other than perhaps a learning aide? Did they release all the graphics and artwork under an equally Free license? Perhaps if they had done this 18 years ago it would have been newsworthy. id released the source code to Wolfenstein 3D only 3 years after its commercial release, way back in 1995. Doom source was released in 1997, the same time Postal came out—only 4 years after the original game was released. Running With Scissors is way too late on this one.

    1. Re:Should this be praised? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      People can add new art work, music, plot and allow for todays most advanced OS, cpu and gpu support.
      It also allows creative communities to gather around the code and try their own projects.
      No need to rent an engine. Support to the new developers who then add features to the released now open code is often an IRC chat or forum post away.
      In a few years optimised, reviewed code is been supported for creative new ideas.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    2. Re:Should this be praised? by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      On the plus side, somebody is likely to create a bowdlerized version that replaces the violence with handing people hats with flowers on top, so there's at least the potential for comedic redemption. :-D

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    3. Re:Should this be praised? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Check out Dioxine's XpirateZ mod for OpenXCOM.

  10. Re:Game of the Year by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Well, then if people aren 't being censored, then why did you say "Game of the Year" instead of saying whatever the name of the so-called "Game of the Year" is. Many games have game of the year editions and I wouldn't be surprised if various game magazines have awards they call "Game of the Year". So, out with it, what is the name of the game?

  11. Re:Trying to find out what Game of the Year by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    http://www.ign.com/wikis/best-... says their game of the year is Witcher 3

    http://www.gamespot.com/articl... also says Witcher 3 and shows an image with a woman wearing clothing that is selectively revealing.
    So what is this game you are talking about again?

  12. Re:Trying to find out what Game of the Year by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    So what is this game you are talking about again?

    I'm talking about Metal Gear Solid V, which was the true game of the year except for the fact that SJWs ruined everything.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  13. Re: Trying to find out what Game of the Year by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    So why didn't you just come out and say MGS V?

  14. Re: Trying to find out what Game of the Year by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    So why didn't you just come out and say MGS V?

    Because anyone who plays video games knew what I was talking about.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  15. Re: Trying to find out what Game of the Year by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Well excuse me for focusing mainly on indies. You lose a lot of your potential audience by focusing on the sorts of gamers that GamerGate appealed to. Oh, and Square-Enix, lots of Square-Enix. And forget Konami, because I don't cuss and Jim Sterling uses the cuss word variant, so you should know what I mean. MGS is a Konami game right? Oh, I still play Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, though and a few of the other Castlevanias, so whatever.