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July 19, 2009 9:56 PM   Subscribe

What are some free online or downloadable (mac) multiplayer games to be played by people in the same room?
posted by cmoj to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Have you considered emulators? Tons of great 2-4 player games there. I recommend MAME.
posted by archagon at 11:56 PM on July 19, 2009


Here's a whole list

I don't know what you're into, but I'd recommend these:

AssaultCube (Multiplayer shooter)
BZFlag (3D multiplayer tank game with deathmatch and CTF)
FreeCiv (Exactly like the name, a free Civilization clone)
Marathon (old-school Mac shooter, now free, has 8 player multiplayer)
Nexuiz (Looks a lot like UT2004)
OpenArena (Free Quake III Arena clone)
OpenLieroX (A 2d shooter like Worms but not turn-based)
OpenTTD (Open Source clone of Transport Tycoon Deluxe, has multiplayer)
Sauerbraten (kind of a funky to configure but cool shooter)
Scorched3D (graphically updated Scorched Earth 3D)
The Battle for Wesnoth (Turn-based strategy game)
Warzone 2100 (keeping the old retail RTS game updated, now Open Source, I think)
posted by JauntyFedora at 1:55 AM on July 20, 2009


Also, forgot to mention most/all of those games play nice on Linux and Windows as well.
posted by JauntyFedora at 1:55 AM on July 20, 2009


After a conversation where several people more or less said "I'm getting tired of fantasy themed games," one of the things I added to our gaming guild's activities beyond World of Warcraft is Hamachi VPN LAN gaming. This means we're constantly on the lookout for titles that are designed to be played in the same room. We're not limiting ourselves to free games or multiplatform games only -- only two of our players even own machines running something other than Windows and I'm one of them -- but here are a few of the (mac-applicable) free titles we've checked out or will be checking out. Many of these titles are remakes or formerly commercial games that are now free:

Scorched3D - Mentioned already, and while I loved it, the game was slightly less entertaining but still enjoyable for our younger players who don't remember the original Scorched Earth from the DOS era.
FUMBBL League JavaBowl - Not ideal for when there are more than two players, but who doesn't love a game of Blood Bowl?
Freespace2 Open - is a reimplementation of Descent:Freespace 2 with enhanced multiplayer features which at first I thought didn't require the original data files (even though we had them and used them) but upon further investigation it does. Sorry. Great game, though!
Homeworld SDL - Homeworld was the finest 3D RTS ever made, and Relic released the source a few years ago...
PrBoom - is Doom. It's only good for a few minutes of amusement at a time but it's still fun for a quick deathmatch.
UFO2000 - multiplayer X-Com tactical combat game. I'm really looking forward to trying this one since the X-Com combat system was one of my favorite ever.
Castle Combat - is a remake of Ramparts for up to 4 players. I just stumbled across this today and will be investigating.

If your Macs have a copy of Windows installed as well, we've really taken a shine to a game that is only playable that way:

Trackmania Nations - is a gorgeous free game in the tradition of the old Stunt Track Racer and Racing Destruction Set games. It includes a track editor so we've been making our own content.
posted by majick at 6:33 AM on July 20, 2009 [1 favorite]


Oh, crud, and I forgot GLTron which I used to play years ago. I'll have to go show that to my guild!
posted by majick at 6:45 AM on July 20, 2009


Oh, I take that back. The GLTron guy promised multiplayer was right around the corner years ago, but apparently has not yet delivered on that promise. Maybe one day!
posted by majick at 7:01 AM on July 20, 2009


Aleph One is based on the source code to Marathon 2, the spiritual ancestor to the Halo series. Many long-time Mac users consider it to be the greatest game ever.
posted by mkultra at 7:25 AM on July 20, 2009


Response by poster: These are all great and applicable... I'll be checking them out, but I was thinking more along the lines of board game, turn-based style games on the computer. Like Mario Party perhaps.

In retrospect I realize that I posted this at a non-ideal time and I'm posting this clarification rather late, so we'll see if anyone will read this.
posted by cmoj at 12:48 PM on July 20, 2009


GLTron still has multiplayer that is played "in the same room", however it has to be on the same computer, with different people having different controls on the same keyboard. It's very fun, but can get a little tight if there's more than 2 people.
posted by N2O1138 at 12:29 AM on July 22, 2009


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