Sparkling gems and new releases from the world of Free and Open Source Software
Snipes
Sticking with the theme of ancient DOS games (see above), Snipes is likely to have been the first computer game many children of the 80s played. It's a classic from 1982 that, despite using text mode and beep sound effects, remains very playable. You can't even tell it's running in text mode, as the simple line graphics and animations feel very similar to games like PAC-MAN. However, the gameplay itself feels more like later arcade shooters like Smash TV, because there are two sets of controls. You use the cursor keys for left, right, up, and down movement, and A, S, D, and F for shooting direction. The game's objective is to simply move around the maze and shoot the 'snipes' and their hives. This means you can move in one direction while shooting in another, which is quite an advanced control mechanism that adds a lot of depth and timing requirements to the gameplay.
This version prides itself on being 100 percent identical to the original, despite being completely reverse engineered from the original. Sadly, one revolutionary feature of the original hasn't made it into the 21st century. Remarkably, the original had networked play, at least in a later release, which meant that if you were on a network with other players on the same network drive, you could hunt them down in the maze instead of the regular snipes. It's a long way from a modern First Person Shooter game, but it was still crazily addictive. It would be fantastic if something like networked play could be added in the future, but it's already a very nostalgic and utterly authentic way to waste a few minutes, especially if you played the original.
Project Website
https://github.com/Davidebyzero/Snipes
This version of Snipes was reverse engineered from the original to run on modern hardware.
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