Games

Games

Synopsis #

This chapter describes a curated selection of games available on OpenBSD, categorized into terminal-based and graphical titles. While OpenBSD does not prioritize gaming performance, it supports a variety of games through its ports and packages system, including strategy, simulation, roguelike, and emulated titles. This chapter also includes installation examples, system requirements, and performance notes.

Terminal and Text‑Based Games #

The OpenBSD ports tree includes many games that run directly within a terminal or text interface. These are ideal for resource-constrained systems or users who prefer minimalist gameplay.

Roguelikes and Interactive Fiction #

Classic dungeon-crawling games and text adventures are well represented:

  • adom: Ancient Domains of Mystery, a fantasy roguelike with quests and skills.
  • cataclysm-dda: Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, a post-apocalyptic survival roguelike.
  • crawl: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, known for its tactical depth and community involvement.
  • frotz: Interpreter for Infocom-style text adventures such as Zork.
  • nethack: A highly intricate and enduring roguelike where players descend into the Mazes of Menace.
  • tome4: Tales of Maj’Eyal, a modern, story-driven roguelike (also has a graphical version).

Puzzle and Arcade‑Style Games #

Small, self-contained games ideal for quick gameplay:

  • 2048-cli: Terminal version of the number-merging puzzle game.
  • bastet: “Bastard Tetris”, which gives the worst possible block.
  • bs: Simple terminal-based battleship game.
  • cgames: Collection of terminal classics including Tetris, snake, and minesweeper.
  • greed: A numerical maze challenge where movement consumes tiles.
  • moon-buggy: Drive a lunar rover while avoiding craters.
  • nsnake: Snake game clone with wall-collision and score tracking.
  • robotfindskitten: Surreal text-based game in which the robot must find a kitten among ASCII objects.
  • sudoku: Console-based version of the popular logic puzzle.
  • tint: Tetris clone with smooth terminal interface.

Graphical Games #

These games require the X Window System and provide richer graphics and gameplay. Performance may vary depending on hardware acceleration support and available system resources.

Strategy, RPG, and Simulation #

  • endless-sky: Space exploration and trading game inspired by Escape Velocity.
  • freeciv: Civilization-style empire-building and technology game.
  • opencity: City-building simulation with 3D graphics.
  • openra: Reimplementation of Command & Conquer titles with mod support.
  • openttd: Open-source version of Transport Tycoon Deluxe.
  • simutrans: Transport simulation with logistics and multiplayer.
  • tome4: Also available as a graphical roguelike.
  • wesnoth: Battle for Wesnoth, a polished turn-based fantasy strategy game.

Action, Arcade, and Platform Games #

  • abe: Platform game inspired by Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee.
  • openarena: Quake III-style arena shooter.
  • supertux: Side-scrolling platform game similar to Super Mario Bros.
  • supertuxkart: Cartoon-themed 3D racing game.
  • teeworlds: Multiplayer 2D platform shooter with fast-paced action.
  • xonotic: Fast-paced arena-style first-person shooter with advanced physics.

Emulators and Retro Gaming #

OpenBSD provides access to a wide range of historical systems via emulators:

  • dosbox: Emulates MS-DOS; compatible with many DOS-based games.
  • fuse: ZX Spectrum emulator.
  • mame: Multi-system arcade machine emulator.
  • mednafen: Versatile emulator for NES, SNES, Game Boy, and others.
  • scummvm: Supports classic point-and-click adventure games from LucasArts and Sierra.
  • vice: Emulates the Commodore 64 and related systems.

ROMs must be legally acquired and are not included with emulator packages.

Installing and Launching Games #

Games can be installed using pkg_add. For example:

# pkg_add tome4 wesnoth crawl
$ tome4

Games will then be available in the user’s PATH and can be started by name. Terminal-based games can be played in a text console or terminal emulator, while graphical games require an X session.

System Considerations #

Graphics Hardware #

OpenBSD supports hardware-accelerated graphics via drm(4) for select Intel, AMD, and newer NVIDIA devices. SDL and OpenGL games generally run well on supported GPUs, but performance-intensive or Vulkan-based games are not feasible due to the lack of Vulkan support and proprietary drivers.

Audio Configuration #

Graphical games typically require sndiod(8) for sound output. Ensure that the sound daemon is running:

# rcctl enable sndiod
# rcctl start sndiod

Volume and device parameters can be tuned using sndioctl(1) and mixerctl(1).

Input Devices #

Keyboard and mouse input is universally supported. USB gamepads may be recognized by uhid(4), although button remapping may be required manually. There is no native joystick mapping layer akin to evdev or xpad.

Performance Notes #

OpenBSD prioritizes correctness and security over raw performance. Lightweight 2D and strategic games typically run well. However, high-end 3D titles, especially those requiring Vulkan, may exhibit performance limitations or fail to run. Running modern games inside a virtual machine or on a dedicated gaming system may be preferable for those requirements.

Browsing Available Games #

Use the following to search the package repository:

$ pkg_info -Q games
$ pkg_info -Q emulators

To inspect individual packages:

$ pkg_info openttd