''Stratagus'' is a

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

cross-platform Within computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several Computing platform, computing platforms. Some ...

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...

used to build

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

video games. Licensed under the GNU GPL-2.0-only, it is written mostly in

C++ C++ (, pronounced "C plus plus" and sometimes abbreviated as CPP or CXX) is a high-level, general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup. First released in 1985 as an extension of the C programmin ...

with the configuration language being

Lua Lua is a lightweight, high-level, multi-paradigm programming language designed mainly for embedded use in applications. Lua is cross-platform software, since the interpreter of compiled bytecode is written in ANSI C, and Lua has a relatively ...

History

On June 15, 1998 Lutz Sammer released the first public version of a free ''Warcraft II'' clone for

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

he had written, named ''ALE Clone''. In 1999 it was renamed to ''Freecraft''. In June 2003, a

cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent by one party, often a business, to warn another party that they believe the other party is committing an unlawful act, such as copyright infringement, and that they will take legal action if the oth ...

letter was received from

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the h ...

, who thought the name ''Freecraft'' could cause confusion with the names ''

StarCraft ''StarCraft'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series, set in the beginning of the 26th century, centers on a galactic struggle for dominance amon ...

'' and ''Warcraft'', and that some of the ideas within the engine were too similar to ''Warcraft II''. The project halted on June 20, 2003. The developers regrouped in 2004 to continue work on the project, renaming it ''Stratagus''. Their focus changed from cloning ''Warcraft II'' to creating an open source, configurable engine for RTS games including support for playing over Internet/LAN or playing vs. computer opponents. A separate project, ''Wargus'', was started to get ''Warcraft II'' data files running in the ''Stratagus'' engine. This mod requires a legal copy of ''Warcraft II'' and allows for cross-platform support such as Linux and other operating systems. The free media set imitating ''Warcraft II'' was discontinued. On June 10, 2007, development of Stratagus was paused. The ''Stratagus'' developers began working on '' Bos Wars'', which uses its own modified version of the ''Stratagus'' engine. In June 2010 some of the developers moved ''Stratagus'' project from

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service founded by Geoffrey B. Jeffery, Tim Perdue, and Drew Streib in November 1999. SourceForge provides a centralized software discovery platform, including an online platform for managing and hosting open-source soft ...

to Launchpad and started working on ''Stratagus'' and games again. ''Wargus'' (for Warcraft II), ''War1gus'' (for ''Warcraft I'') and ''Stargus'' (for ''Starcraft'') continued to be developed by the Stratagus team on Launchpad. In 2014, ''Wyrmgus'' started as a

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to h ...

from the ''Stratagus'' engine to develop a strategy game based on free assets with a wider scope than the original engine allowed. The ''Stratagus'' team has since also moved to

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

. Playable ''Stratagus''-based games are: fantasy ''Aleona's Tales'', medieval ''Battle for Mandicor'', ''Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness'' (plus expansion ''Beyond the Dark Portal'') port ''Wargus'', ''Warcraft: Orcs and Humans'' port ''War1gus'', futuristic ''Battle of Survival'', historically-inspired ''Commander

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

'', ''

'' port ''Stargus'', and space age ''Astroseries''. Of these, only ''Aleona's Tales'', ''

Wargus ''Stratagus'' is a free and open-source cross-platform game engine used to build real-time strategy video games. Licensed under the GNU GPL-2.0-only, it is written mostly in C++ with the configuration language being Lua. History On June ...

'', ''War1gus'', and ''Wyrmsun'' are complete.

Programming

The ''Stratagus engine'' is a 2D engine based on

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

libraries A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

like SDL,

gzip gzip is a file format and a software application used for file compression and decompression. The program was created by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler as a free software replacement for the compress program used in early Unix systems, and ...

bzip2 bzip2 is a free and open-source file compression program that uses the Burrows–Wheeler algorithm. It only compresses single files and is not a file archiver. It relies on separate external utilities such as tar for tasks such as handli ...

and others. Basing on

as their primary

scripting language In computing, a script is a relatively short and simple set of instructions that typically automation, automate an otherwise manual process. The act of writing a script is called scripting. A scripting language or script language is a programming ...

, virtually all the abilities in the engine have been made available to the users of Stratagus for easy

modding Modding (from "modifying") is the act of modifying hardware, software, or anything else to perform a function not originally intended by the designer, or to achieve bespoke specification or appearance. The term is often used in reference to vid ...

, removing the need to change the original C/C++

source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute ...

. Animations are created from a set of .png pictures; this technique was commonly used in the time that ''

Warcraft ''Warcraft'' is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of six core games: '' Warcraft: Orcs & Humans'', '' Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness'', '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos ...

'' and other

RTS RTS may refer to: Medicine * Rape trauma syndrome, the psychological trauma experienced by a rape victim * Revised Trauma Score, a system to evaluate injuries secondary to violent trauma * Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome, a condition characterized by ...

had come out. ''Stratagus'' and ''Wargus'' have been

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desig ...

to run on

Pocket PC A Pocket PC (P/PC, PPC) is a class of personal digital assistant (PDA) that runs the Windows Mobile operating system, which is based on Windows Embedded Compact, Windows CE/Windows Embedded Compact, and that has some of the abilities of modern ...

Symbian Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...

and

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

devices. Wargus has also been ported to the

GP2X The GP2X is a Linux-based handheld video game console and portable media player developed by South Korean company GamePark Holdings. It was released on November 10, 2005, in South Korea only. The GP2X is designed for homebrew developers as we ...

and

Open Pandora The Pandora is a handheld gaming computer developed and produced by OpenPandora, which is made up of former distributors and community members of the GP32 and GP2X handhelds. Originally released in 2010, it was designed to take advantage of exi ...

Linux handhelds.

Reception

''Stratagus'' was downloaded from

SourceForge.net SourceForge is a web service founded by Geoffrey B. Jeffery, Tim Perdue, and Drew Streib in November 1999. SourceForge provides a centralized software discovery platform, including an online platform for managing and hosting open-source softw ...

between 2004 and June 2017 over 185,000 times.stats 2000-06-07+to+2019
on

(May 2019)

References

External links

* * {{Video game engines AmigaOS 4 games Free game engines Free software programmed in C Strategy video games Linux games Lua (programming language)-scriptable game engines Lua (programming language)-scripted video games MacOS games MorphOS games AROS software Amiga games Open-source video games Real-time strategy video games Free software that uses SDL Windows games Fan games

History

Programming

Reception

See also

References

External links