These are so cool and there are so many of them. If you're unfamiliar, open source games are games that people remaster or otherwise restore somehow after their original release's official run has ended, and a community takes up the mantle in updating them or making new content.
Still lost? Lemme break it down with a nice example:
1. Let's say you're a big fan of a game like Sid Meier's Pirates, and you find out it hasn't been updated or had any new content for it in the 20 years it's been circulating. So you look for an alternative of some kind.
2. You google around a little and eventually find something with a name like "OpenPirates" or something with the prefix of "Open" or "Libre" or some equivalent. The website says all you have to do is grab the latest stable release of the game's launcher and a copy of the original game's data files (which in this example, should be free to grab because Pirates! is a really really really old game that used to come on floppy disks and nobody uses those anymore)
3. You do thing and other thing required to run the game and next thing you know you're pillaging the seven seas with modifiable code API and modding support.
I LOVE games like these because they take a game that's already great and add to it with more options and things to do because half the time, like mentioned above, many of these open source games will have support for add-ons/plug-ins/mods that put more things into the game. One of me and Maddog's favorites is OpenRCT2, an open source engine of Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, a game that has stuck like superglue to my childhood. I had a bunch of CD-ROMs that would often have their installer program bundled with a demo of another game, and I think the way I got RCT2's demo was with a game called Impossible Creatures, but it's been so long so it could have been something else, but I had SO much fun with it, and I would often beg my parents to let me save up to get the full version. I'm still playing it to this day, and I'm always looking for new ways to mess with park guests or make rides explode, it's so fun.
Aside from the usual debauchery that comes with owning a theme park the size of a small county, there are plenty of other humorous moments in this game:
-- When you build restrooms, you can charge people money to use them in their structure settings!!
-- OpenRCT2 adds a Sandbox mode as well as a cheat mode that lets you configure any roller coaster to use settings from other types of rides, so you can have a Steel Wild Mouse where people ride swans instead of box seats, and set them to travel at 45 MPH!!
-- You can see your guests thoughts and many times they will say things that don't even relate to where they are or what they're doing. You can also see their inventory; many times they will just walk around with trash in their pockets.
-- Half the time when you're building footpaths, guests will try to walk on them as you're building.
-- When you have lots of people in your park and they're all chattering over one another, if you listen closely, sometimes you can hear people shouting profanity! I once heard somebody say "go kick your own self!"
Honorable open source mentions for coping with life:
-- Pingus: A clone of Lemmings but with penguins.
-- OpenRA: Command & Conquer Red Alert and Dune 1+2 remastered in an open source engine
-- OpenClonk: I have no idea what this is supposed to be about but it plays kinda like Terraria if it were a strategy game. It's kinda weird.
Still lost? Lemme break it down with a nice example:
1. Let's say you're a big fan of a game like Sid Meier's Pirates, and you find out it hasn't been updated or had any new content for it in the 20 years it's been circulating. So you look for an alternative of some kind.
2. You google around a little and eventually find something with a name like "OpenPirates" or something with the prefix of "Open" or "Libre" or some equivalent. The website says all you have to do is grab the latest stable release of the game's launcher and a copy of the original game's data files (which in this example, should be free to grab because Pirates! is a really really really old game that used to come on floppy disks and nobody uses those anymore)
3. You do thing and other thing required to run the game and next thing you know you're pillaging the seven seas with modifiable code API and modding support.
I LOVE games like these because they take a game that's already great and add to it with more options and things to do because half the time, like mentioned above, many of these open source games will have support for add-ons/plug-ins/mods that put more things into the game. One of me and Maddog's favorites is OpenRCT2, an open source engine of Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, a game that has stuck like superglue to my childhood. I had a bunch of CD-ROMs that would often have their installer program bundled with a demo of another game, and I think the way I got RCT2's demo was with a game called Impossible Creatures, but it's been so long so it could have been something else, but I had SO much fun with it, and I would often beg my parents to let me save up to get the full version. I'm still playing it to this day, and I'm always looking for new ways to mess with park guests or make rides explode, it's so fun.
Aside from the usual debauchery that comes with owning a theme park the size of a small county, there are plenty of other humorous moments in this game:
-- When you build restrooms, you can charge people money to use them in their structure settings!!
-- OpenRCT2 adds a Sandbox mode as well as a cheat mode that lets you configure any roller coaster to use settings from other types of rides, so you can have a Steel Wild Mouse where people ride swans instead of box seats, and set them to travel at 45 MPH!!
-- You can see your guests thoughts and many times they will say things that don't even relate to where they are or what they're doing. You can also see their inventory; many times they will just walk around with trash in their pockets.
-- Half the time when you're building footpaths, guests will try to walk on them as you're building.
-- When you have lots of people in your park and they're all chattering over one another, if you listen closely, sometimes you can hear people shouting profanity! I once heard somebody say "go kick your own self!"
Honorable open source mentions for coping with life:
-- Pingus: A clone of Lemmings but with penguins.
-- OpenRA: Command & Conquer Red Alert and Dune 1+2 remastered in an open source engine
-- OpenClonk: I have no idea what this is supposed to be about but it plays kinda like Terraria if it were a strategy game. It's kinda weird.
