Open source games roundup
Week of June 6 - 12, 2014
In this week's edition of our open source games news roundup, we look at Alienware's Steam Machine sans SteamOS, DARPA's gamification of open source bugfixing, and more.
DARPA creates games to aid open source software testing
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Crowd Sourced Formal Verification program is working on gamifying the act of verifying software. Through the Verigames web portal, volunteers can play free games which generate mathematical proofs that verify bugs within open source software. One of the games, Circuit Bot, lets players create robots to run missions in space. Matthew Barry with Kestrel Technology, who is working with DARPA to create the games, told Military.com, "The results of those assemblies contribute toward the verification of open source software."
Alienware's first Steam Machine won't include SteamOS
Not much open source news out of E3 this week—big surprise!—but Alienware has announced that their initial Steam Machine offering will not be shipped with SteamOS. Instead, the gaming PC will have Windows 8.1 installed, along with a custom UI. A lot of folks in the Linux gaming community are concerned about what this means for the overall viability of SteamOS and the Steam Machine program, but Alienware General Manager Frank Azor promises that they'll be right out there with Valve "as soon as it's ready," according to an interview with PC World: "It's a more sustainable way of delivering a reliable living room experience... We feel that over the long term, SteamOS and the Steam gamepad are going to be the best solution."
Civ V hits Linux
Sid Meier's Civilization V has been released for SteamOS, and it comes complete with all DLC and expansion content. An Ubuntu version is in the works as well. GamingOnLinux also reports that this ain't no wrapper; it's a native port, so it should run smoothly and offer the same options and features as the Windows and Mac versions.
id Software game engines released under GNU Public License
John Carmack, who co-founded the company, tweeted a link to the GitHub repository for the source code to the Catacomb series and Hovertank 3D. It's just the engine, though. The code doesn't include game assets, so you won't be able to build your own versions of playable games. But you can download a chunk of gaming history and see how some of gaming's early luminaries got their start. (via bitgamer)
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