Old School Computer Game
Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2019 2:53 amUnlikely on multiple levels, least of all being the OSR flavour (by way of the excellent Dark Dungeons at that) of OGL---it exists, and has for the past 6 years:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/149082/Old-School-Computer-Game Yes...here, not elsewhere where you'd normally think to find such
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/149082/Old-School-Computer-Game Yes...here, not elsewhere where you'd normally think to find such
Old School Computer Game (oscg) re-creates the fun of computer role-playing games from the late 1980s and early 1990s. You, the player, assemble a party of up to six adventurers and explore a sandbox world, completing quests, gaining character levels and accumulating treasure. The game mechanics are derived from the excellent OSR game Dark Dungeons, and the interface is a mash-up of early PC and console games. Minimalist art conveys the game while leaving the details to your imagination.
Features
- 52 classes, including clerics, druids, fighters, magic-users, paladins, psionicists, rangers, thieves, dwarves, elves and halflings
- 288 spells for clerics, druids and magic-users to cast
- 58 psionic powers for psionicists to use
- over 431 unique opponents to encounter and defeat (and another 176 subtle variants)
- over 2400 magical items to find and use
- a large, randomly-generated world map to explore
- over 150 quests to complete (a mix of randomly-generated and hand-crafted content)
Tips
- on most screens, pressing F1 will give you a list of available commands
- visit a dock and buy a ship, which you can use to explore the world map
- press "j" on the map screen to read your journal - it will give you a list of active quests to pursue
- talk to townsfolk to learn of rumours; these will lead you to new quests
- save often (CTRL+Q to quick save)
- if a certain quest is too hard, leave it and pursue easier ones, then return when your party is more experienced and powerful
- export your characters from a game (using the manage party view) and re-use them in new ones (saved characters are found in an "oscg" directory under your home directory - c:usersoscg on Windows 7 and /home/oscg on Linux)
- if you are stuck, the debug/cheat codes can help: press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT on the map screen
oscg is written in Java, and will run on Windows and Linux computers. If Java is installed properly on your system, you should be able to double click on the jar file to run it. Alternately, type "java -jar old_school_computer_game.jar" in a command prompt window. If you need to download a new (free) Java runtime, visit java.com and get Java 8 or newer.
The game contains content licensed under the Open Game License version 1.0a. If you unpack the JAR file (you can use 7-Zip or any other ZIP file manager), you will find a directory called "opencontent". This directory holds the "OGLv1.0a.rtf" file (which details the license), and all of the game's open content. You are free to change or use the content in this directory. You can even hack the game by modifying these files - the spells, monsters, magic items and character classes are all defined in spreadsheets in this directory.
oscg has been in development for six years, and is a labour of love. Feedback, especially constructive criticism, is most welcome - please use the forum below to ask questions, propose improvements and request new features.
