The Pillager's Den :: Fun Stuff

Free-as-in-speech, open-source games

The Battle for Wesnoth is an extremely high-quality Free, free, generally platform-independent, turn based strategy game. While my entry for this game has boasted of the intelligence of its fan base in the past, I regret to say that this is no longer a strong point of the game, especially since its graphics quality exceeded commercial standards, and the most noticable things its developers implement for modern versions are new bugs.

My status: Designer of many strange scenarios. I play occassionally.

Project Starfighter is a game with an uncreative name, but uncommon quality. In its developers' words, it is a commercial quality open source game. It is a odd sort of side-scrolling shooter that you really have to play to understand, and it is good - the main downside is that it has very little replay value.

My status: I played it through twice.

The Ur-Quan Masters is a liberated game - it was originally commercial and closed-source. It is a science-fiction RPG (some would disagree whether it is an RPG) in which you fly a spaceship around the quadrant, trying to defeat the evil Ur-Quan. The gameplay is not great, but the game is a must-play: the music is amazing, and the graphics are quite nice as well, considering its limitations. Also, the melee shows that a game can be quite strategic, even with only a battle between two individual ships with simple controls. The game now has networked player vs. player melee as well, and we can always use more players on IRC at Freenode's #uqm-arena.

My status: Admirer, modder, expert melee player

Globulation 2 (Windows/Linux) is a work-in-progress, but still playable, real time strategy game with an interesting take on mircomanagement. Unfortunately, development has been slow and the game currently does not run on Mac, which was my OS for a long time. Fortunately (maybe) I now run Linux, so I can now play and code this game again,

My status: Code contributor and pretty good player, both of a while ago.

Although there are far too many roguelikes to name, I have particularly enjoyed T.O.M.E for its various features and Kamband for sheer crazyness.

My status: Former player of various roguelikes. Maybe the fancy will strike me again someday.

RoboWar (Mac/Windows) is an old game of coding 'robots' to fight each other. Its programming language is pretty bad, but it is still a decent game (better than any other AI-programming game I've run into.) RoboWar is complete but still being developed (very slowly, and it often goes dormant for years at a time.) In the past, it has had $$ tournaments, but it has declined and is no longer active.

My status: Occasionally I design robots, which are competitive with some of the best. I once coded the game to make shots bounce off walls, too. Contact me if you're interested in that modified version.

Free-as-in-beer, closed-source games

Gate 88 is a very original abstract 2d game where you fly a 'spaceship' around, shooting at things, commanding fighters, and building turrets to attack or defend. It shows no signs of further development; two versions have been released, and its creator has abandoned any and all promises to continue work on it. What's more, the community (such as it still is) seems to prefer the first, no-longer-supported version. Jerky physics (due to lag) and jerky opponents (due to their attitude) make this game rather frustrating at times.

My status: Former skilled player, advocate of open-sourcing the game

Rescue! (Mac only) is a fun little game, based on Star Trek, where you fly a spaceship around, killing enemy ships and rescuing colonists. Unfortuately, the original developer didn't have permission from the people who owned the rights to Star Trek. He was forced to alter the game to be less Trek-like in order to continue its development.

My status: Player, although I cannot beat the game (1.6) at any but the lowest difficulty level

Escort Wing (Mac/Windows) is a game where you fly around a ship - notice a pattern here? Well, actually, it's an airship, so the obvious progression is not really supported - and the next entry definitely isn't a game where you control a naval ship. Back on the subject of Escort Wing, its gameplay is fairly simple but the graphics, sounds, and music are pretty cool.

My status: Player, inactive developer

World to Conquer is an interesting turn based strategy game on a hex grid, but very unlike Wesnoth above. It's fun but challenging to play. The developers have plans to release a much improved version of the game, potentially as shareware, in the future.

My status: Beta tester for the new version... except that I haven't heard from them in a while...

Books

Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech. A strong example of how a novel can be worthy literature while being very easy to read.

Changing Planes, by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is a book of short stories describing the narrator's travels to different planes - each one occupied by a different intelligent species with its own social structure (most of which is not simple allegory, either.) Le Guin astonished me with her ability to give strong voices to multiple characters who do not remotely understand each other.

Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It pokes fun at lots of things - religion, politics, science, history, what have you. At the same time it manages to have a real, solid, well developed plot, more so than most of Pratchett's books. (They're all good, but most of them seem to have lots of little things left out, unfinished subplots, etc...)

Sabriel, by Garth Nix. Excellent imagery - it seems I can identify with a lot of what goes on in the book, despite it being filled with magic and purposeless evils trying to kill everyone. Garth Nix is a master of escape literature.

Evil proprietary games

Majesty is a wonderful, although closed-source, $$-requiring, and terribly buggy real time strategy game, where you don't have direct control over your units. The game is still available from the linked site, (or the linux version, from here - but whatever OS you're on, your best bet is to browse around for a cheaper copy) but the game's community has moved to part of this forum after their original forum was abandoned. Recently, the "rights" for the Majesty "IP" have been purchased by Paradox Interactive, a company which actually has a chance of living up to the game's greatness.

My status: occasionally I play this game...

Spiderweb Software has produced many decent shareware games for Mac OS and Windows, mainly RPGs. The best, in my opinion, is Blades of Exile. Another neat thing about their games is that in the game, Avernum 4, its demo had (and may still have) a bug (at least in the Mac version) in it where you could go through the whole game without paying; you could just walk into the black areas you're not supposed to be in!

My status: I own copies of several of their games, which were very useful for learning about how difficult it is to design a good RPG.

Fun Stuff!

Free-as-in-speech, open-source games

Free-as-in-beer, closed-source games

Books

Evil proprietary games