Obscure FOSS games

[Wuzzy]

Which obscure FOSS games do/did you play? Please also introduce the game with a sentence or two so we get a rough idea of it.

“Obscure” means you think the game is mostly unknown to most people, even in FOSS circles like FreeGameDev.

[dulsi]

Most things I play are obscure. My most recent has been Digger Reloaded. It is a remake of Digger which was a contemporary of DigDug and Mr.Do. I'd never heard of the game but have found it to be a nice arcade style game.

[ffaf]

Not extremely obscure, now and then I replay Cryptrover.
It is a coffee-break roguelike, extremely simple mechanics, always a fun challenge.

[Julius]

Maybe not so obscure, but it gets mentioned rarely: http://www.argentumage.com/

Digital card game with deck building.

[Julius]

https://blockattack.net/

Tetris Attack clone.

Hate the sounds but the gameplay is good.

[anon666]

Mobius Skies



i haven't played actually better shmup than this
https://www.pygame.org/project/381
https://web.archive.org/web/20100823213 ... ject/skies

even ported it to Android but it was too slow

[Sockstah]

Azimuth is a metroidvania which controls similar to Asteroids using purely vector graphics. Easily one of the best FOSS games I have played. Highly recommend it.

Project::OSiRiON is a space sim somewhat reminiscent of Freelancer. Sadly it's not far developed and development seems pretty dead.

[ffaf]

I'll just chime in to say «thank you» to everyone who suggested games, so many diamonds in the rough! Excellent topic, Wuzzy!

[Wuzzy]

Neverball Clockwork

Most of your probably heard of Neverball, a game of skill in which you tilt the world to roll a ball over coins, obstacles, pits and towards the exit. Really well-polished game!

Neverball Clockwork is exactly the same, but it adds two new level sets introducing a new collectible: The clock. If you roll over it, you win bonus time. I like the new levels.
Neverball Clockwork is also 100% compatible with Neverball, so you keep the progress you made in the original Neverball levels.

[mdtrooper]

Thanks I remember the Neverputt (entry in wikidata) or https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/neverputt (the poor game is a little brother and the homepage is only for Neverball).

is Neverputt a Obscure FOSS game?

[ffaf]

s Neverputt a Obscure FOSS game?

Don't know, but for sure it is one of the first game I install in a new machine! Excellent excellent production.
[i]edit: my favourite course being Reshaun's iPutt Course.

[Technopeasant]

I'll just post iMaze again.

[ffaf]

I'll just post iMaze again.

Needs a download link!

[Technopeasant]

This is about the closest still around I could find.

http://freshmeat.sourceforge.net/projects/imaze
http://www.tucows.com/download.html?sof ... d=9447&t=2
https://web.archive.org/web/20050326091 ... ent/iMaze/

I installed it using an ancient RPM, so there ya go.

[Technopeasant]

Found this one on Pygame. A pretty well implemented swarm shooter.



https://sites.google.com/site/kuviman/
https://www.pygame.org/project/1898/3416
https://web.archive.org/web/20160118164 ... %20src.zip (source code)
https://web.archive.org/web/20160118164 ... %201.0.zip (Windows binary; runs through Wine)

[Technopeasant]

And now I found this one over on Pygame as well.



https://maxwellsalmon.itch.io/duga
https://github.com/MaxwellSalmon/DUGA/

Appears to all be under the Mozilla Public License (except the sounds which are CC BY), seeing how the assets are included in the GitHub

[ffaf]

And now I found this one over on Pygame as well.

I get a

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

f@extensa:/tmp/DUGA$ python2.7 MAIN.py
pygame 1.9.4.post1
Hello from the pygame community. https://www.pygame.org/contribute.html
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "MAIN.py", line 28, in <module>
    import SEGMENTS
  File "/tmp/DUGA/SEGMENTS.py", line 51, in <module>
    load_customs()
  File "/tmp/DUGA/SEGMENTS.py", line 27, in load_customs
    segments = pickle.load(file)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/pickle.py", line 1384, in load
    return Unpickler(file).load()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/pickle.py", line 864, in load
    dispatch[key](self)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/pickle.py", line 892, in load_proto
    raise ValueError, "unsupported pickle protocol: %d" % proto
ValueError: unsupported pickle protocol: 3

I have installed "python-cloudpickle" but no dice.

[Technopeasant]

Try running it with Python 3. I don't believe it is compatible with Python 2.

I have added all three games to Libregamewiki.

[ffaf]

Try running it with Python 3. I don't believe it is compatible with Python 2.

I have added all three games to Libregamewiki.

Yeah now I can play it! Thanks for the tip, it is really a unique/niche game, I like it very much.

[Technopeasant]

No problem.

I am really big into old corridor shooters (have played dozens of Wolfenstein 3D mods), so this should be my jam, but the procedural generation is frankly a turn off for me compared to actual level design. Granted, the level editor means people can make actual campaigns if they want to.

Main things I would like added would be rebindable controls, as I would personally prefer to play it with the arrow keys and no mouselook. Also could use a better collision system, as it tears a bit when you get close to walls, and of course AI improvements. A minimap is also something nice for these sorts of games. Granted, it being FOSS means I could probally do all these things (at least rebind the keys) if I wanted to dust off my Python knowledge.

My favourite game of this type from the indie scene is LAB, but that isn't FOSS except for some sprites he uploaded to OpenGameArt.

https://mutantleg.itch.io/lab-v30
https://opengameart.org/users/mutantleg

I have also now added an article for Heroine Dusk over on Libregamewiki. Not exactly obscure, having been covered by Free Gamer and several others, so it surprised me it was not already added.

[ffaf]

No problem.
I have also now added an article for Heroine Dusk over on Libregamewiki. Not exactly obscure, having been covered by Free Gamer and several others, so it surprised me it was not already added.

Again excellent find, neat game. I'll drop the link here so it's easier for others to find it

http://heroinedusk.com/

[Technopeasant]

Re: iMaze

Turns out the old FTP server is still operational via the Wayback Machine, save oddly for the latest version tarball (fortunately available from other sources).

https://web.archive.org/web/20050305105 ... aze/files/

EDIT: Turns out that the RPM I used is actually newer than I thought.
https://fedora.pkgs.org/30/rpm-sphere-x ... 4.rpm.html

Don't let the version number fool you though, it is still v1.4

[JeffM2501]

There is also GLMaze, linked from one of the iMaze pages
http://glmaze.sourceforge.net/

it uses 3DMazes and plays a little like decent.

[Wuzzy]

Long Night.

This game is a fork of Naev (https://naev.org/) and is similar in graphics and style, but it has a different storyline and a larger universe and has still a different gameplay feel to it. It's hard to describe … If you know Naev, it's very similar, but also does many things differently, like a completely reworked trading system or that every planet has its own backstory, etc. I had tons of fun playing it and I gave a lengthy review about bugs and such.

Like Naev, Long Night is incomplete. It was posted in the old Naev forums, but the forums have been lost (sadly).

It's very hard nowadays to obtain a copy of Long Night today, I don't think I have one anymore … So yeah, I definitely think Long Night qualifies as obscure.

EDIT: Oh, I remember it now! The game was eventually renamed to Nox Imperii: http://noximperii.com
It's still an obscure game, however.

[Technopeasant]

Continued my Libregamewiki binge with an article for XEvil, and the games Avoision and Mazer of this parish. Any of these could be considered obscure I guess.

https://libregamewiki.org/XEvil
https://libregamewiki.org/Avosion
https://libregamewiki.org/Mazer

Been trying to get CRAFT: The Vicious Vikings up and running again, but the ancient RPM that barely worked for me ten years ago is (surprise, surprise) no longer working. The even more ancient binary is not being recognized, and I have not been able to build from source. It is a little weird, since both iMaze and Unix XEvil launch for me and they are of a similar vintage and specification.

https://libregamewiki.org/CRAFT:_The_Vicious_Vikings

Also just gave CuteMaze a go. Not bad, and that is an impressive amount of installers!

https://gottcode.org/cutemaze/