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Artman2004

Libre versions of other old FPSs?

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On 6/14/2020 at 10:57 AM, Artman2004 said:

Are there other projects that try to make a free and open source version of an FPS?

Technically, the Marathon games are free and open source, but the game data is still proprietary (IIRC) albeit free to use.

 

OpenArena is a free game in the footsteps of Quake III Arena but I'm not sure if you can just use the game data files with the original Q3 engine.

 

Transfusion is open source (Quake engine) and has the official license to use Blood assets, but again those are proprietary and not free at all outside of this one project.

 

There were also projects similar to Freed∞m for Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior which were C&D's by 3D Realms before they got anywhere, and I think someone wanted to do something with Descent/Descent II but IIRC this was abandoned because of certain complications with how the game data is handled, or something (?; or maybe a lack of interest). I think it never went beyond making a data file with some placeholder and HUD textures. The project page is still alive though.

 

My notes suggest there was another project for Descent called Flight Back. It was part of the Open Descent Foundation, some more info can be found here

 

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7 hours ago, MrFlibble said:

There were also projects similar to Freed∞m for Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior which were C&D's by 3D Realms before they got anywhere

Those projects were called Dave 3D and Ling. You can even find its resources here: https://forums.duke4.net/topic/8841-dave-3d-ling-resources-a-free-duke-nukem-gpl-project/

 

I actually tried Marathon, and it was very clunky, to say the least. The jumping was weird, the view warped when you tried to look up and down, it was all unpleasant.

 

And OpenArena, it's pretty good 10/10 would play again.

 

Do you guys know any more free alternatives to 90s FPSs (ex. Wolfenstein 3D, Half-Life, Unreal, etc)?

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47 minutes ago, Artman2004 said:

Do you guys know any more free alternatives to 90s FPSs (ex. Wolfenstein 3D, Half-Life, Unreal, etc)?

Well, a while ago I tried to make a list, not specifically about FPS games though. In most cases it is easier to find a similar game which would be open source or simply free, rather than a project like Freed∞m.

 

I don't know a Wolfenstein 3-D project along the lines of FD or LibreQuake, except that a while ago one such was discussed using deprecated Freed∞m assets from the attic. But as you probably know, there are lots of stand-alone mods and games for Wolf3D, it just depends on how free and/or open source you want to go. Operation GRAL seems to me like a very nice example of what a Wolf3D sequel game could be if the release of Doom delayed for a couple years. Trench Warfare is likely the most advanced game on the Wolf3D engine ever, and there's another project based on TW code (apparently) called Unsung.

 

There's a kinda-sorta Wolfenstein-3D-y game called Gun Godz but I'm not sure if you'd accept it as a clone/substitute. Free not libre. And of course Shadow of the Wool Ball is heavily inspired by id's classic title.

 

Half-Life is kinda hard. I never encountered a game that could be called a straight clone of HL, commercial or free. But, there is one made on a free FPS maker called Beyond Life which may have a similar vibe, to an extent. Also possibly TECNO: The Base, which was at some point released as freeware, and then just vanished off the Internet. I only played the demo, it's more like an adventure-FPS, mostly rather playable and original.

 

You probably know about Cube and its sequel, Sauerbraten. They were never made after any specific FPS (AFAIK) but are pretty playable and nice, at least to my tastes.

 

Nexuiz (Classic) felt more like Unreal Tournament to me than Quake III Arena for some reason, even though it is built on the DarkPlaces engine. But I did not play a lot.

 

You could likely think of REKKR as a free alternative to Heretic, except of course it has its own merits as a Doom based engine.

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TECNO: The Base looks pretty fun and tense. I like how you can shoot the robot's torso off and the legs try to kamikaze you, along with some nice dismemberment system. I really like the setting, too. It's like yellow System Shock 2 with robots.

 

Beyond Life looks like it was made on FPS Maker. That's all I have to say.

 

I've actually heard of and played most of the games you mentioned, most of them were okay I guess.

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14 hours ago, Artman2004 said:

Beyond Life looks like it was made on FPS Maker. That's all I have to say.

It was.

14 hours ago, Artman2004 said:

I've actually heard of and played most of the games you mentioned, most of them were okay I guess.

If you know of others that have't been mentioned yet, please tell!

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There's a libre version of Minecraft named Minetest. It even has a mod community and forums. I recommend you try out the games made for it, as the base game is quite lackluster. I recommend the MineClone 2 game, as it will give you the libre Minecraft experience.

 

If you want a standalone version of the Half-Life mod Natural Selection, you can try Tremulous. Though I don't know if it's still being played to this day.

 

There's this Wolf-3D style game named DUGA. It looks pretty fun.

 

Slightly off-topic, but I found this game engine named Cafu 3D. From the screenshots & videos, It looks like GoldSrc with some Doom 3 engine elements. It's under the MIT license, too. Here's the link to it's website: https://www.cafu.de/

Edited by Artman2004

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On 6/19/2020 at 4:24 AM, Artman2004 said:

If you want a standalone version of the Half-Life mod Natural Selection, you can try Tremulous. Though I don't know if it's still being played to this day.

Tremulous became Unvanquished (which looks active still).

https://unvanquished.net/

 

Nexuiz Classic became Xonotic: https://xonotic.org/

 

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Sure: 

But frankly I don't think there's a point, considering that many Wolf3D mods are stand-alone anyway, and a libre base game would not be very interesting IMO unless there was a major overhaul or expansion of the features.

 

Something like a free, libre stand-alone version of Operation Serpent, on the other hand, would be pretty nice, or a stand-alone version of Shadow of the Wool Ball.

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Hey, that's actually not a bad idea, but it would probably require a lot of creative effort to not be an obvious ripoff of the original.

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On 6/28/2020 at 6:18 PM, Artman2004 said:

What about a Freedoom 3?

i remember some guy tried to make a freedoom 3 once, and i think it was built on the doom 3 engine. however the author had to rename the project and now i think it's abandoned or something.

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TBH I never heard of that project, but then again I'm more into 90s games so I haven't searched for a Doom3 libre project very thoroughly.

 

As for a libre Wolf3D, on a second thought, such a project could be useful for an online implementation like this. I remember id Software actually put up a three-episode play-in-browser edition of the game for a twentysomething anniversary but it's been taken down since as it seems.

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4 hours ago, cambreaKer said:

i remember some guy tried to make a freedoom 3 once, and i think it was built on the doom 3 engine. however the author had to rename the project and now i think it's abandoned or something.

You mean this one?

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