Talk:List of open source games

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[edit] PiX Juegos' games

By PiX Juegos' games I mean: PiX Bros, PiX Pang and PiX Frogger

Now each game has its own article. If anyone removes our games from this list, please give a good reason.

To anyone who doesn't understand why I'm saying this, it's because our games have been deleted from this list some times before by people who consider theirselves that "games without article should be deleted". I'm not english-speaker myself, and I cannot write an entire article in english for it.

And, last, if anyone is not completely sure, our games are 100% GPL, the source is included along the binaries and there's a copy of the GPL in every project's page and within the binaries. Panreyes 00:54, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Those articles won't necessarily last long unless you can show how they are notable and provide reliable, independent sources for them, see WP:N and WP:V. If you are involved in the making or publication of the games yourself, you might want to take a look at WP:COI too. Marasmusine 07:18, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
Why have you deleted the features section in every game?

I understand that the PiX Juegos page was not needed, but "the reliable sources" are just the page that is referenced in External links. And I don't know why this page is bad, I just copied the most from PySol —Preceding unsigned comment added by Panreyes (talk • contribs) 07:40, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

WP:N requires that independent references be used to assert notability. This may be magazine reviews, interviews with the developers, or what have you. The primary source (the game and official website) can be used as a reference when notability is established. Marasmusine 13:27, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
Thank your for the info :) I'm understanding why this is done.

Now the problem I see is that every review of those games is in... Spanish (most), Italian, Japanese, etc... but I don't think of any in English. I only remember the review in Happypenguin, or in Softpedia, but I don't think it's enough. Anyway, I thought this would be easier, I cannot afford taking the time of looking for an english review for every game, and also, PiX Frogger it's a minigame that hasn't made any noise, so it's not reviewed in any place (but it's in Debian Sid already because it's our most bugless game...) Panreyes 20:04, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

The foreign language reviews will be okay, if the source is reliable (see Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias, sorry for all these referals, but they sum it up far better than I can!) If notability for PiX Juegos itself can be established, the less notable games can at least be listed on there. Marasmusine 20:15, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
I've put three reviews in different languages from different sites in each game. I hope it's enough :) Panreyes 00:19, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Alien Arena 2007

Can someone add alien arena 2007? It is based on the gpl'd quake ii code so its under some similar license i think

[edit] Criteria for inclusion?

It's not clear if this list should only include games with their own articles or not, as is the case with most lists. If it should only include "notable" games, this should be made clear at the top of the article. Otherwise, if the list is intended to be exhaustive, then that should be made clear. Thanks.   — Lee J Haywood 11:56, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Since this hasn't been addressed 4 months later, I'm going to "be bold" and add it. --irrevenant [ talk ] 11:30, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A Tale in the Desert?

A tale in the desert has its source code downloadable, however I am not sure if this is purely for compatability reasons with those who must compile from source or if it is truely open source, could someone look into this? --69.47.3.70 17:39, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Descent...?

Somebody put descent on this list. Shinobu said that "If the content is not open, that means that only the game engine is really free/open, but the game as a whole is not." Descent is open-source, in the public domain, but the content of the game is not. Thus, I am going to remove it from the list. 24.55.108.209 02:03, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

What about the open-source community project based on the game? Surely that deserves a link? (And the same for the Descent: Freespace Source Code Project.) Mysterius 06:24, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
If both engine and content are open source, then it can be on this list. Even if the engine was orgininally used in an non-open source game. Shinobu 13:47, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ecksdee

Someone deleted the Ecksdee article I wrote, one day after it was made? I have the author giving all writes to the text and images for it. 212.1.149.51 22:21, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] E-Magination

Why did you remove so many games on Sept 13? Were all of those not open source? Rob 13:02, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, what the heck happened? Just by looking through the first 3 deleted game entries, I've found that 0verkill, Asteroid (remake), and Bird Park Tycoon are all open-source, at least according to their websites. Asteroids (remake) was even hosted on Sourceforge! It seems clear that these entries were not properly reviewed, if at all, before they were deleted. Weeding out truly non-open source games from this list (and adding them to the freeware games list, remember!) is good, but random deleting is certainly not. Mysterius 06:24, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
I've checked up on some of the deleted items:
diff
Descent was probably removed because only the engine is open source.
diff
0verkill is GLP'ed, complete with levels.
Ace of Penguins is GPL'ed, including cards etc.
Allegiance seems to be open source, but research into the license (of the worlds in particular) is required.
Automaniac comes with data.
Asteroids was probably removed because you cannot get at the source without running an executable.
Battle of Antargis - couldn't download gz file... maybe someone should try again later.
Bird Park Tycoon - zip file corrupt?
Blob Wars: Blob And Conquer was probably removed because no further information and no link was given.
Castle comes as part of an LGPL package.
Charred Dirt - both source and data for download, but no license given, so it might not actually be open source after all.
Chromium B.S.U. artistic license, both source and data, afaict.
Crossfire+ is GPL'ed.
Crystal Core - source: LGPL, art: CC
Cuyo is GPL'ed, including data.
Daimonin - some very shady things have been going there. Closing content, forbidding connections to third-party servers, etc. Definitely not an open source game.
Dark Oberon - couldn't find a license, see Charred Dirt.
Dink Smallwood - only the engine is open source [1]
Egoboo - again no license...
Foresight Exchange - no mention of source code or anything like that...
Freedroid RPG is GPL'ed.
FreeOrion relies on a non-free library.
FreeTennis is GPL'ed.
Gnome Games are open source, afaict.
Gnome Hearts is GPL'ed.
Hack is open source [2]
ioquake3 is an open source engine and shouldn't be on this list. IDs levels are still closed afaik.
JFDuke3D is GPL'ed.
Laser Squad 3D is GPL'ed.
Lentilwars no link or other info, should be removed.
Maniadrive
Marathon Aleph One is GPL'ed.
Mars: Land of No Mercy - can't find license.
Moon-Buggy is GPL'ed.
I have to stop here, the rest will have to wait. Shinobu 18:28, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
  • Haha. Finally.

I prefer qaulity over qauntity. Those games mostly didnt have any proper articles. Links do not count as articles. --E-Magination 12:01, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

  • Who decides if a game is "quality," though? And what is a "proper" article, according to you? Several of the deleted games did have articles, and not just stubs, either. This is a List of open source games, not "Quality open source games." I believe that with a deletion of this scale you should have at least given some heads-up on the Talk page. I don't mean to disrespect your effort, but this is a community-written encyclopedia. I hope there will be better communication in future edits. -Mysterius 04:39, 21 September 2006 (UTC)
    We (inclusive "we") decide what's quality. I think it's a fair reading of What Wikipedia is not to say that we should maintain some quality controls of the list by occasionally purging it of games that don't "belong". If we wanted to be rigorous about it, we could come up with some rules of thumb for what "belong" means. I'd suggest notability (measured by whether it has an article) and being actually free software/open source as basic criteria, but others might have different ideas. — Saxifrage ✎ 04:47, 21 September 2006 (UTC)
We could limit ourselves to games with a Wikipedia article, or to games that actually work. We could place a screenshot near the better ones to make them stand out. Just some ideas, comment away please. Shinobu 01:34, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
Look. If a game with a proper article, proper licening etc. is deleted, Re-Add them. Be BOLD.
I will re-add moon-buggy. It is GPLed and actually works. --Jochen 07:06, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] About deleting any game without article

I don't know what do you want to get by deleting 'games without articles', but I don't think it's a good idea. E.g: I'm a spanish open source videogame programmer and I don't know english well enough to write that article, but I can, at least, write a line telling that my game is a clone of Super Pang and that is called PiX Pang. Also, if there's no article but the game is linked, maybe someone will write that article about the game. I think it would be better to let the games without article in and write some info in those games without articles. Excuse my grammar.

I agree. My lack of knowledge regarding creation of wikipedia articles has prevented me from writing an article for the open source driving simulator that i've been writing for 3 years (open source contents too, yeah). The name is Motorsport. It has a working website, forums, images gallery, even a vids gallery. However it's been removed from the list. I added a red-link hoping someone would start writing an article, but this way no one will feel the need to write it. Shoud all links to inexisting articles be removed from wikipedia too? I think i recall reading that leaving small text mistakes here and there, and leaving links to unwriten articles was actually a good thing, encouraing people to edit and extend the wikipedia. Also, is anyone in charge of this page? How was it decided that these types of games shold be removed? --STenyaK 00:04, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
I always thought the entire point of even having lists instead of categories was that you could have redlinks. Playstationman 04:21, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
That way this article is getting out of hand.--E-Magination 14:48, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
Again, this is about List, not "Quality Picks." Who is to decide if a game is "quality" or not? Basic requirements should certainly be enforced, such as having an article or stub, perhaps at least of two or three sentences in length, and actually being open source. Beyond that, though, I don't think we can reasonably exclude any games, and wouldn't trying to vet each one for "quality" actually increase the workload? If you want to make the browsing easier, a better step would be to organize the games into basic sections like "RTS," "RPG," etc., and perhaps with small pictures for ones that are deemed significant, like Shinobu suggested. I don't believe deleting true open source games from this list is the answer, though. -Mysterius 09:46, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
I think requiring an article or stub is backwards. IMO, if a game deserves to be on this list (ie. if it's notable) but has no article, then it should be added to the list and given an empty (red) link so an article can be created around it. Unless you are saying that if you want to add a game to this list then you should add a stub as well? --irrevenant [ talk ] 11:38, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
The fact that this kind of lists can be easily abused is just a reason. Please read what Wikipedia is not.--=='''[[User:E-Magination''' ==]] 14:56, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
The list also fails to distinguish between operating systems, which to me makes it completely useless in its current format.   — Lee J Haywood 18:57, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
I completely agree with that. MrHen 19:01, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
In my opinion having a list of red links is a good way of pointing people to articles needed to be written. To show the platforms needed, do we have little icons or logos on wp that we could add to the descriptions for OS's such as Microsoft Windows/ReactOS, Unix/Linux, Mac OS, Atari TOS etc. and environments such as Java, Flash, SVG+Javascript or whatever? --62.134.88.36 11:12, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
It's not a list for article writers. But the icons are a good idea.--=='''[[User:E-Magination''' ==]] 13:43, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
Personally, I disagree. When I come to this list I am looking for games that have strong development and are not merely attempts at getting famous quickly. In my opinion, if there is a strong community for a particular game it should be on this list. If more than a couple hundred people play the game it should be here. An extremely easy way to test that is if it has a Wikipedia article. Developers should not be putting their games on this list. I do not think this should be a bulletin board for garnering attention. If the game is good and the community is strong a Wikipedia article will appear and it will make it to this list. I have no problem kicking games off the list for not having full Wikipedia articles. MrHen

[edit] Deletion

GNU Backgammon has no current article. I will delete it for the time being - when someone makes an article, post here, and create the entry again. -Slash- 06:06, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Same goes for all the other entries.

[edit] Warsow & open content?

AFAIK Warsow doesn't use open content.--MilesTeg 12:05, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Warsow is open. -Slash-μιλώ 02:13, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

The media is copyrighted, and will remain artist’s property unless we abandon this project. In that case, we will ask the artist for their permission to make the media GPL. (see section 2.4) Playstationman 01:00, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Sounds pretty not open to me :\ // 3R1C 22:13, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ActionCube's content is not open

Because only ActionCube's source is open, it cannot be listed here.

I have, however, listed it on List of freeware games --Noerrorsfound 06:57, 21 February 2007 (UTC) Superscript text

[edit] From List to Table?

Wouldn't it be great if this list was converted to a table with columns such as "platform support", "Last update", "Category", etc. ?

Lordsatri 00:21, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Alien Arena

Hello, i dont think this game is open source. Thanks. 84.103.60.180 10:59, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Why not? mrholybrain's talk 19:49, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
The developers don't understand the GPL, for one thing. But it's still technically "open source" in that the source is available for perusal. Chris Cunningham 09:19, 16 April 2007 (UTC)
Well, I looked at it, and it looks like the source is GPL, as it is based off of the Quake II engine, but it seems the content is under a non-commercial license, which means that Alien Arena is not eligible for the list. mrholybrain's talk 12:16, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] genre section too?

I am pretty new to wikipedia, but wouldnt it also be useful to have a page with the same information, except divided by genre? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.15.122.216 (talk • contribs) 01:20, 4 July 2007

Genre's probably more useful, to be honest. I wouldn't think two different pages would be appropriate. Chris Cunningham 09:11, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
I agree; this list should be re-ordered. Alphabetical order is something that Categories do anyway. Personally I favour chronological order for video game lists, but by-genre would work too. MarašmusïneTalk 09:59, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Adding http://libregamewiki.cyanox.nl/List_of_Games to the link list

How about that? it is another Free open source game list. --77.177.10.211 19:40, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

No, linking to other wikis isn't recommended (See WP:Reliable sources), particularly one that uses advertising. Marasmusine 07:29, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup

Is there anything that would disqualify Allegiance, Rocks'n'Diamonds and Sauerbraten from this article? --Lijnema 01:02, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Not sure about Sauerbraten; article for the first two games say they are open source though. Best thing to do is to list them, saying which Open-source license they are under, with a reference for verification. And we should do this with every entry in this list. Marasmusine 07:34, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
Sauerbraten is open source. But I agree, notes on license & a reference for it might be a nice addition. --Lijnema 11:28, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
Sauerbraten's code is free, but the media is not. See [3] In particular: In this sense sauerbraten is similar to games like Quake (its code is Open Source, but its media is not), it is a game that is meant to be added to, not copied and used as a template. Playstationman 15:08, 8 September 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Playstationman (talk • contribs)

[edit] Possible merge

At Talk:List of freeware games, we are discussing whether or not we should merge these two lists together (I can't think of any open-source games that aren't also freeware.) If this does happen, of course those games which are open-source will be noted as such. Marasmusine 06:49, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Open source games are never freeware, freeware is never open source! Did you read the articles? --Nimmbh 01:04, 19 September 2007 (UTC)
Rename to List of free games, then. Marasmusine 06:25, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Moving to List of free games!

Open source games does not describe the content's media, please move this list to List of free games to avoid confusion! See free games and open source games --Nimmbh 01:06, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Do not blatantly edit the original article without a substantial proof to the contrary

The original article on open source games does, in fact, describe open source software and open content as part of the definition. The recent "contributor" has blatantly edited the open source games article before he cited it as a source in this discussion. The original and correct article has now been restored. See its "History" as proof for the original article's content. This article has also now been restored, including the Linux Game Tome link, which is a great example of open source games, even if it doesn't cover them exclusively. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bristn (talk • contribs) 10:03, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] About not linking directly to the sites

Wouldn't it make more sense to provide links to the actual game web sites here, in addition to links to the wiki pages? People coming to this page won't be looking for summary pages on each one, but rather a direct location they can go to. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.37.27.158 (talk) 15:58, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

But Wikipedia isn't a search engine or portal website, it's an encyclopedia. Besides, I'd think many people might want a bit of info on games rather than blindly going to websites. --Lijnema 16:40, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestion for a link to be added

http://osswin.sourceforge.net/games.html

Apparently, this is a list of open source games which can be run on Windows, with the page itself on Sourceforge. Does not provide any information about the games themselves, but it seems like a pretty decent list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Johannes100 (talk • contribs) 07:02, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, that would a nice link to complement the links to lists of Debian and Linux games. --Lijnema (talk) 11:42, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Free Gamer

This blog is the only news resource I know, which specializes on open source games. --77.185.8.163 (talk) 16:19, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Blogs aren't normally accepted as valid external links (WP:EL) Marasmusine (talk) 17:03, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Marathon

Should not marathon be added to this page? And if it is, I think it should be placed under M where it would be easiest to find. G man yo (talk) 13:06, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] PlaneShift

Isn't PlaneShift open source? It says so right here on wikipedia... Not entirely sure though so didn't add it yet —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.169.69.149 (talk) 19:03, 22 January 2008 (UTC) EDIT: I see it's in the freeware list, I thought it should be in the open source list but maybe I'm wrong... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.169.69.149 (talk) 19:07, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Their website says the code is under GPL, so I don't see why not. I'll let you do the honours of adding it; the full wikilink is PlaneShift (video game). Marasmusine (talk) 20:11, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

At the top of this discussion article it says to only add games that have free source code and media, and Planeshift's media isn't free... or rather, you cannot choose to use it in derived works. "Please post only games that make their source code and media content, like graphics and sound, fully available and free to modify and redistribute. Featured games must have an article on Wikipedia in further stages than a stub. Anything else will be REMOVED." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.255.52.153 (talk) 17:50, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] rRootage

I found rRootage in the list, but it is not open source. It is freeware! Can I delete it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.152.41.198 (talk) 14:32, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

I thought all of Kenta Cho's games were open source, aren't they? --Lijnema (talk) 00:14, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Merge alphabetical list of free games to alphabetical list of open source games

Alphabetical list of free games is an unneeded content fork of alphabetical list of open source games. In the introduction of the free games article, it states "for open source games which do not necessarily have free content, see alphabetical list of open source games." For such a minor difference, the games could be listed in the article as being "open source, but not free." However, that difference doesn't seem to hold anyway: The talk page of the list of open source games states the criteria for inclusion as being "only games that make their source code and media content, like graphics and sound, fully available and free to modify and redistribute." In other words: the two articles have the same criteria! Since the open source game article existed first, any differences in the free game article should be merged here & a redirect from free games to open source games should be established. --Karnesky (talk) 16:17, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. --Lijnema (talk) 16:53, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
Merge completed. If I underestimate the controversy of this change, feel free to revert the redirect & continue discussion. We have separate articles for free games and open source video games & even separate categories for some reason. I don't believe there is this kind of content forking for other genres of software & this might deserve to be cleaned up later. --Karnesky (talk) 22:22, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] OpenTTD

Like many other games listed in this talk page, OpenTTD's content is not open. It requires the original, copyrighted, Transport Tycoon Deluxe graphics files. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.148.236.89 (talk) 12:42, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Move

I've performed a requested housekeeping move, but now I notice that there is also List of open-source games by genre. So in case of disagreement feel free to discuss here if the move needs to undone or another name is more appropriate. --Tikiwont (talk) 12:41, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Angband

Angband_(computer_game) should be included in this list. Its code and content (such as it is, bitmapped images and simple waveforms) is open source. Parts are GPL, the rest is under a non-commercial open source Angband license. Angband is important for the many variants it has spawned and for the many graduate students whose graduate careers were extended thanks to its addictive gameplay. Nd tim (talk) 04:44, 11 April 2008 (UTC)