OPENBSD GAMING RESOURCE A continually updated resource for playing video games on OpenBSD. Mr. Satterly Updated August 7, 2021 P11U17A3B8 III Title: OpenBSD Gaming Resource Author: Mr. Satterly Publisher: Mr. Satterly Date: Updated August 7, 2021 Copyright: Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Universal Email: [email protected] Website: https://MrSatterly.com/ Contents 1 Introduction1 2 Ways to play the games2 2.1 Base system........................ 2 2.2 Ports/Editors........................ 3 2.3 Ports/Emulators...................... 3 Arcade emulation..................... 4 Computer emulation................... 4 Game console emulation................. 4 Operating system emulation .............. 7 2.4 Ports/Games........................ 8 Game engines....................... 8 Interactive fiction..................... 9 2.5 Ports/Math......................... 10 2.6 Ports/Net.......................... 10 2.7 Ports/Shells ........................ 12 2.8 Ports/WWW ........................ 12 3 Notable games 14 3.1 Free games ........................ 14 A-I.............................. 14 J-R.............................. 22 S-Z.............................. 26 3.2 Non-free games...................... 31 4 Getting the games 33 4.1 Games............................ 33 5 Former ways to play games 37 6 What next? 38 Appendices 39 A Clones, models, and variants 39 Index 51 IV 1 Introduction I use this document to help organize my thoughts, files, and links on how to play games on OpenBSD. It helps me to remember what I have gone through while finding new games. The biggest reason to read or at least skim this document is because how can you search for something you do not know exists? I will show you ways to play games, what free and non-free games are available, and give links to help you get started on downloading them. While the target audience is OpenBSD users it’s possible those of you using other Unix-like systems will see this. I make no comparisons or write about other operating systems outside of emulating them on OpenBSD. I decided to focus on ways to play games instead of details such as working around bugs and hardware support. That information would not only be out-of-date quickly, but harmful advice later. If you have questions about hardware support check the OpenBSD manuals https://man.openbsd.org/ and mailing lists https: //www.openbsd.org/mail.html. Bugs should be reported to the ports maintainers and software developers. Specifics about how to run games, game engines, and emulators are in their manuals, FAQs, Wikis, and ports documentation. OpenBSD users have high expectations in regards to accuracy and depth at the same time possessing both broad and deep tech- nical skills – in most cases far beyond my own. I hope what little I have compiled is useful. 1 2 Ways to play the games Playing games on OpenBSD can be both frustrating and rewarding. I find solutions are sometimes brilliantly simple, but only after I spend time reading through websites and documentation trying to understand the underlying software, standards, and technology. For me, it’s sometimes more about exploring OpenBSD than playing the actual games. For you it will probably be about blasting aliens, building cities, and the emotions from great stories. There are two major sources of playing games on OpenBSD. Those are the built-in games in the base system from OpenBSD and third-party software in ports. The base system refers to everything included from an installation of OpenBSD. Even if you didn’t select the games package during the installation there is still at least one game hidden away and others accessible through other programs. Ports is the software repository for OpenBSD. Packages are the binary distributions of ports. The ports FAQ and manual are both good places to start at. Ports has readmes, extra documentation, website URLs, and a software search. Packages are the preferred way for users to install software, but not always an option. When using packages make sure to pay special attention to pkg-readmes. There are more instructions specific to getting a game to run on OpenBSD in them. If you aren’t completely confident about installing ports and packages or are unsure about what any of that means stop here and reread the ports documentation. Now let’s take a look at how you can play games. 2.1 Base system The base system refers to everything from an installation of OpenBSD. Even if you didn’t select the games package during the installation there is still at least one game hidden away and others accessible through other programs. BSD Games BSD Games are a collection of terminal games and software toys that can be installed during an install or upgrade of OpenBSD. They existed before OpenBSD and now are significantly different than the original versions. Only two programs need further explanations than what the game manuals give. "pig" converts text into Pig Latin 2 CHAPTER 2. WAYS TO PLAY THE GAMES 3 while "wargames" is a simple launcher for other BSD Games. See intro (6). ddb ddb is the kernel debugger included in OpenBSD. The only time users will be forced to interact with it is when the system crashes. ddb includes a version of "hangman" similar to the one from BSD games. Unless you want to debug the OpenBSD kernel it is better to play hangman from BSD Games. telnet OpenBSD includes a telnet client which can be used to play games including MUDs, though MUD players will probably be better off using a dedicated client from ports. 2.2 Ports/Editors GNU Emacs Emacs is absolutely full of features so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that it includes several games and software toys called amusements. You can download more games as addons which are often clones of popular games. The Emacs Wiki documents built-in and 3rd-party games which are similar to the BSD Games collection. LibreOffice As an office suite LibreOffice can create several types of documents one of which is a slideshow. Any program that allows making choices interactively can at least have choice-based fiction games. Forgotten Island makes use of that slideshow feature, but it is more of a proof of concept than an actual game. Vim Several text editors are extensible including Vim. Its scripting language called Vimscript has been used to create several games. The Vim website has a games section with 3rd-party scripts. 2.3 Ports/Emulators Only emulated systems that have at least one free game and one emulator that works without non-free firmware are listed here. Em- CHAPTER 2. WAYS TO PLAY THE GAMES 4 ulators that require installing an operating system on an emulated disk are not listed. Arcade emulation Arcade emulation means MAME (or AdvanceMAME) which is an acronym for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator because it is the only arcade emulator in ports. MAME also emulates pinball and video poker systems, though getting games for it is difficult. Publishers rarely offered limited amounts of ROMs for sale in the past. Arcade games were designed to suck down quarters as much as possible. I found playing with infinite credits is close to cheating. It shows just how short some games are. With computer or game console emulation there a few controllers and even fewer button layouts. With arcade games every system can be a completely new layout. Computer emulation This section looks a little thin. That’s because computers usually require firmware to run. Most emulators don’t distribute or emulate it that firmware. Games for these systems shouldn’t require any installation. Computer Years Emulator Atari ST series 1985–1993 Hatari Commodore Amiga 1977–1982 FS-UAE UAE Commodore PET series 1985–1996 Frodo Vice MSX series 1983–1993 openMSX ZX Spectrum 1982–1992 fuse Game console emulation There is so much to cover about every console. Each one of these systems could fill a book by themselves. One real problem is I simply don’t have enough experience with every single console to write about them all. Another reason is why bother? Other websites such as Wikipedia and Emulation General Wiki already do a good enough job detailing CHAPTER 2. WAYS TO PLAY THE GAMES 5 the history and emulation of hundreds of consoles. Wikimedia has hundreds if not thousands of photos of each system and their many controllers as well. What is needed is only information specific to emulating the countless consoles on OpenBSD. You can easily look up the console and emulator, but this table is a quick reference to exactly which emulators run on OpenBSD and which ones don’t require non-free firmware. Game console emulation without non-free firmware Name Years Emulator Amstrad GX4000 1990–1991 MAME Atari 2600 1977–1992 MAME Stella Atari Jaguar 1993–1996 Virtual Jaguar Audiosonic 1292 APVS 1978–1983 MAME NEC TurboGrafx-16 1987–1994 higan MAME Mednafen Nintendo 3DS 2011–2020 Citra Nintendo 64 1996–2002 Mupen64Plus Nintendo DS 2004–2014 DeSmuME Nintendo Entertainment System 1983–2003 FCEUX MAME Mednafen Nestopia RetroArch Nintendo Game & Watch 1980–1991 RetroArch MAME Nintendo Game Boy 1989–2003 Gambatte higan Mednafen mGBA RetroArch SameBoy VBA-M Nintendo Game Boy Color 1998–2003 Gambatte higan Mednafen mGBA RetroArch CHAPTER 2. WAYS TO PLAY THE GAMES 6 SameBoy VBA-M Nintendo Game Boy Advance 2001–2010 Mednafen mGBA RetroArch VBA-M Nintendo GameCube 2001–2007 Dolphin Nintendo Virtual Boy 1995–1996 Mednafen MAME Nintendo Wii 2006–2017 Dolphin Sega Game Gear 1990–2000 higan Mednafen RetroArch Sega Genesis 1988–1999 DGen higan MAME Mednafen RetroArch Sega Master System 1985–1996 higan Mednafen RetroArch Sega SG-1000 1983–1986 MAME Mednafen RetroArch SNK Neo Geo Pocket 1998–1999 Mednafen SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color 1999–2000 Mednafen Sony PlayStation 1994–2006 RetroArch Sony PlayStation Portable 2004–2014 PPSSPP Super Nintendo Entertainment System 1990–2003 higan Mednafen Snes9x I want to make a special note here about RetroArch here.