Updated August 1, 2018
I want to show you what games are available on OpenBSD. How can you search for something you don't know exists? After reading this document you will have an overview of what games, emulators, and other game tools are out there and be able to find more on your own.
If you have questions about hardware check the OpenBSD manuals, mailing lists, and other forums. Bugs should be reported to the ports maintainers and software developers. Specifics about how to run the games are in their manuals, FAQs, Wikis, and ports documentation.
Every project seems to need not only a logo, but an animal mascot. For those who don't know the OpenBSD mascot is a pufferfish. That should explain the fish image above.
OpenBSD is an operating system like Microsoft Windows, MacOS, or Android. The best explanations on what OpenBSD is, what you can do with it, and how does it work come from the OpenBSD FAQ and Wikipedia. If you don't plan on using OpenBSD read the Wikipedia entry and some of the OpenBSD FAQ. If you use or plan to use OpenBSD read the manuals, OpenBSD FAQ, mailing lists, and other documentation.
Many of the links are about old games because most of what OpenBSD can run and emulate are old games. Old can also mean classic, best ever made, and great genres that are no longer commercially produced.
The demos here are about the demoscene, not the limited versions of commercial games.
Many of the game engines require the original game data from commercial games. If you are looking to buy those games your options are limited. The OpenBSD community have put together a list of commercial games with an OpenBSD game engine on Good Old Games which will save you time and money.
These reviews mostly deal with commercial games. AVGN is entertainment, though he does review several of the consoles OpenBSD can emulate.
OpenBSD has exclusive games? Yes it does, except for ports. The OpenBSD ports system is only used in OpenBSD which is different from some operating systems which share a software repository. The ports repository has OpenBSD specific patches mostly for compatibility, but the games are available for other operating systems.
BSD Games are a collection of terminal games and software toys that can be installed during an install or upgrade of OpenBSD. They existed before OpenBSD and now are significantly different than the originals.
My description of pig spoils the game. Don't read the rest of this section if you want to avoid spoilers. The pig program converts English to Pig Latin which is classified as a language game. The entire manual for it is in Pig Latin which is the point of the game. I translated the manual to English.
"The pig utility reads the standard input and writes it out to standard output in Pig Latin. Useful for generating monthly reports."
The fortune manual lists a tool called strfile that isn't installed by default. It creates a .dat file required by fortune. The file format OpenBSD uses is a line with % between each fortune. Here is an example.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
%
"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the
swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the
wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour
to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."
- Ecclesiastes 9:11, King James Bible
%
"THIS IS MY PILL. It is round. It is pink. It makes me not care.
Watch me take my round, pink pill
...and not care."
- The Executive Coloring Book
%
...
Wargames lacks a manual or any explanation how it works. It is a simple launcher for other BSD games based on the movie called WarGames. Playing the game spoils the end of the movie.
ddb is the kernel debugger that comes with OpenBSD. It includes a version of hangman similar to the one in BSD Games. This isn't an accessible game unless you can debug the OpenBSD kernel. See the hangman manual for how to play.
0 A.D. 0.22 is one of the most polished games on OpenBSD.
You can wage war against your friends or turn the map into a
farm.
Ports is the third-party software repository for OpenBSD. Packages are the binary distribution of ports. Read the FAQ and manuals to understand how to use both of them. Ports has readmes, extra documentation, website URLs, a software search, and more.
There are more ports than listed here. MMOs, game engines, and some others in ports are split into their own sections. The rest are here, but only those which I have tried.
The OpenTTD 1.7.0 menu using the free graphics
replacement.
Older games such as Batrachians 0.1.6 don't scale, though
sometimes offer a full screen option.
Not even OpenBSD can escape the many card games on every
system. Belooted 0.1.4.1 shown here plays a card game popular in
France and Bulgaria called Belote.
FooBillard 3.0 a 3D billiards simulator is an unexpected
find in ports.
Roguelights and roguelikes are an important genre in open
source games. Witchblast 0.7.5 is one of several games from those
genres in ports.
These games are a mix of game engines that play a single game, source ports, forks, and so on. So many nonfree games end up on this list because the copyright owners of those games released the source code, but not the game assets. This creates an odd situation where the source code is ported to OpenBSD, but you still have to buy the game from somewhere else. A few of the game engines support demos which I listed and tested if available.
"Sorry, the demo data files don't contain this dialog."
CorsixTH 0.61 using the Theme Hospital demo.
Descent 1 demo on DXX-Rebirth 0.60
Descent 2 demo on DXX-Rebirth 0.60
I wouldn't call any of these games massive. Choria claims to be an MMORPG, but it has a single player mode and I haven't found any servers for it. Crossfire is effectively dead. It had 0 players many times I checked, though recently I saw a few players or maybe idlers online.
The ManaPlus client supports Evol Online and The Mana World. The largest one is The Mana World with a small and dwindling player base. The total online numbers don't show that many of the players are idling in the center of a town.
Crossfire client showing 5 people online which is the most
I have ever seen. The client doesn't like my font choices.
MUDs are the precursor to MMOs and they could be described as text based MMOs or multiplayer Interactive Fiction. Ports includes MUD clients, not servers.
The Players who suit MUDs paper and A Rape in Cyberspace are great reads even if you don't play MUDs.
I define browser games as any game that runs in a browser including those played in JavaScript emulators. Any full-featured browser from ports should work.
I would need the space of this entire document to explain how terrible browsers such as Firefox and Chromium are. All the browsers in ports are bad choices, but I think Firefox is the least worst.
Ever thought that web browsers with Canvas, JavaScript, WebGL, Web Fonts, Cookies, WebSockets, Local Storage, WebAssembly, WebRTC, and other game enabling features are just too secure? Then ports has a Java plugin you can install. Fortunately the fun stops there because there are no plugins for Flash, Silverlight, or Unity.
The Internet Archive has so many games across many systems I thought it deserved its own section under browser games. All the games linked here run in the browser, but can't be downloaded. I found many games ran too slow to play.
Game engines need games, game data, or other files to run. Ports sometimes includes games for them, but usually don't. Some of the programs are game engine recreations, forks, or source ports.
If the game engine needs the original game data from a commercial game it will need the original install disks. A few game engines will accept Good Old Games and Steam game data, but Steam isn't available for OpenBSD. It's possible total conversions would work, but I haven't found any that do.
Blender is quite flexible for a 3D graphics program. You can make models for 3D printing, animated movies, and even games. Load the .blend file in Blender and the render menu becomes a game menu. Selecting the Start Game Engine option should work.
I read the API changes often and isn't backwards compatible. This may be why some of the games I tried didn't work.
Blender 2.79 with Sintel the Game loaded and ready to
run.
Sintel the Game on Blender 2.79
While EDuke32 supports more than one game, it isn't doesn't support all Build engine games. None of the games it supports are free, but EDuke32 in ports comes with the shareware version of Duke Nukem 3D. None of the total conversions I tried worked with the shareware version.
Flare 0.19 and its Alpha Demo
Flare is a 2D action RPG engine. It comes with one short game and more are available as mods. I wasn't able to get mods to work.
Hypatia 0.3.6 with its demo
I'm sorry if you came to this section looking for games because you wont find any. Hypatia is or was a game engine because development has stopped. I couldn't find any games for it. It comes with an unfinished demo the developer calls a game, but I don't.
I am not sure where to begin. The Doom franchise and all the games based on the engine have so much written about them. Luckily I don't have to say much about OpenBSD and the Doom engine.
Chocolate-Doom runs Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, and Strife. PrBoom and PrBoom+ run Doom and Doom II. None of those games are free, but there are several free game data replacements. There are probably tens of thousands of mods known as WADs for Doom and Doom II.
Zauberer and Blasphemer the free data replacements for Hexen and Heretic didn't work for me in Chocolate Doom. Freedoom seems to work with both PrBoom+ and Chocolate Doom, although there was some bugs.
GemRB runs Infinity Engine games which are 2D isometric RPGs. It requires the original game data and none of the games are free.
Experience toilet humor in the escape the room game titled
Escape the Toilet on Instead 3.0.1
Instead says it is a simple text adventure interpreter, but like Ren'Py the games go beyond what the description says. Unfortunately most of the games are in Russian. I tried the few English games available and all of them worked.
Blasting aliens in Marathon 1 using Alephone 1.2.1
Aleph One is based on the original Marathon 2 engine. It runs Marathon, Marathon 2: Durandal, Marathon Infinity (Marathon 3), and 3rd party scenarios. Bungie released the Marathon game data for free years ago.
Ports has the data for the Marathon trilogy and two 3rd party scenarios. The scenario ports are nice enough to include commands to start each one, but it is possible to start Aleph One with the game directory as an argument. While it works I was only able to use software or OpenGL classic rendering. This probably varies from system to system. The few scenarios from outside ports worked, but I didn't test them extensively.
If you don't play the game I suggest reading Marathon's
story told through game terminals on Bungie's website.
Ren'Py is a visual novel game engine. It comes with two tutorial games for developers. Ren'Py on OpenBSD requires all the game files or source code to be exposed. When downloading games select the Linux version if one is available because it will most likely to have those files available.
Each game can have its own documentation and in game help systems. Ren'Py lacks a manual and most of the online documentation is for game developers. Use these lines for some basic help.
$ renpy -h
$ renpy --help
Ren'Py on OpenBSD wont start because of a bug somewhere. This fix was posted on the mailing list.
$ export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.so.17.0
Ren'Py needs the full directory name of a game as an argument to start or it assumes it is in its base directory and will give you an error. Here is an example.
$ renpy /home/user_name/game_directory/
The version of Ren'Py in ports is out of date. It wouldn't run some of the newer games, but I had no problems with older ones. Check the release date of the version in ports then avoid games made after that date.
The quality of the free games runs from absolute garbage to amazing. Commercial games might work if they expose all the game files, but I didn't test any.
The games can be cute and short such as Mimi Nezumi on
Ren'Py 6.17.7.
Katawa Shoujo on Ren'Py 6.17.7 evokes strong emotions from
its fans.
Solarus says it is an action RPG engine. All the games are clones of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Solarus has no manual or readme and the Solarus Wiki is nearly useless.
There are 3 games by the Solarus team in ports. The community has made 1 game and 1 demo. Solarus said my version was too new to run Tunics and too old to run the demo The Legend of Zelda: Book of Mudora.
The games in ports support a gamepad. To play them use this command.
$ solarus_run game_directory
Press F1 or D then left or right to get an in game help or option screen.
The game engines listed here are for DOS or more specifically DOSBox. While I don't cover emulating other operating systems to play games I think using DOSBox is a special case. DOSBox doesn't require an emulated disk and instead uses the file system exposed by OpenBSD. For other OS emulation it requires installing that OS inside a full computer emulator, which DOSBox doesn't need either. The game engines themselves don't require an installation, but they do need configured. All of those reasons make using DOS game engines somewhere between the difficulty of using ROMs in game console emulators and using an OS you must install inside a full computer emulator.
MegaZeux 2.70 start screen on DOSBox 0.74
MegaZeux is a game engine for Microsoft Windows that is similar to ZZT. The older DOS version of MegaZeux works in DOSBox, but this limits which games can be played.
The controls in MegaZeux are not intuitive. Read the help file MegaZeux offers during the first configuration. If you missed it then view MZX_HELP.FIL in any text editor. It isn't plain text, but it is still readable.
The Endless Journey is one of the more advanced games for
MegaZeux 2.70 on DOSBox 0.74.
The Mugen title screen on DOSBox 0.74
MUGEN, M.U.G.E.N., or Mugen was a fighting game engine for Windows, though the early versions were for MS-DOS. The last DOS version was 2001.04.14 so any characters, stages, and mods need to be compatible with that. When looking for mods remember versions 1.0 and 1.1 were for Windows only. The DOS version of Mugen also needs DPMI to be placed in its directory which I linked to below.
Adding new content to Mugen can be a pain. Go through all the Mugen directories and read all the readmes and look through some of the .def files. It will explain how to add everything. After that comes the part of scouring through old websites testing which addons will work. Even if you find something that works most of the content out there has major problems with the old DOS Mugen. I didn't have a good experience with this engine, but I included it because it mostly works.
Majin Buu vs Goku in front of Babidi's spaceship. Notice
the poor scaling in DOSBox 0.74. Use the fullscreen option
instead.
The characters, stages, movies, and interfaces you can add are based on everything from 1990s fighting games to fast food mascots and vocoloid holograms. Everything I read called Mugen a game engine, but FreeCiv allows new units, graphics, sounds, and rulesets and it's not a game engine. I'm don't want to debate minor differences, so I also listed Mugen as a game engine.
The controversial RPG Maker 2000 game Super Columbine
Massacre RPG! on EasyRPG 0.5.3.
The specifications and games for RPG Maker 2000 are similar to RPGs on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System while RPG Maker 2003 is similar to the Sony Playstation. The only software available to run them is EasyRPG. At a glance the games seemed to work, but I noticed some font distortion issues in RPG Maker 2000 games.
EasyRPG is a game engine, not a game maker. That means it can only run RPG Maker 2000 and 2003 games. It can't open, design, or compile them.
I listed all interactive fiction engines here because I have never seen a website with interactive fiction game downloads focus on only one engine. There are so few ports it wouldn't make sense to split them.
This section should be called Gargoyle because I think it is the best interactive fiction program in ports. I was surprised that it supports graphics and sound. The only reason to use anything besides Gargoyle is to run Frotz in a terminal.
The Gargoyle website says the developers thought they were making the typography better than the X Windows rendering. The problem is they don't allow hinting. I don't know what fonts look better without hinting, but I haven't seen any on OpenBSD. Maybe on other operating systems it looks better.
The default fonts selected by Gargoyle look worse in Gargoyle than they do outside of it. DejaVu the default font for OpenBSD and many ports programs also looks worse without hinting. I didn't see an option to enable hinting. Maybe they hated it so much they never put it in.
The great thing for players nearly all the games are free other than a few from the 1980s when IF was still sold in stores.
ResidualVM 0.2.1 can't scale its interface or detect the
demos from its website.
ResidualVM is similar to ScummVM except it focuses on 3D graphic adventure games instead of 2D. It supports few games and none of them are free. The compatibility chart shows good support for the Escape from Monkey Island demo, but it wouldn't detect it. Likely the demo needs to be installed in Microsoft Windows first.
ScummVM runs 2D graphic adventure games that were made for other systems. Ports has the data for the CD versions of Beneath a Steel Sky and Flight of the Amazon Queen. A few more are available for free on the ScummVM website.
ScummVM supports too many game engines to list in the title. Here are just a few of those engines.
The protagonist who looks like Neil Gaiman put into
Neuromancer interrupts a famous scene in the game DreamWeb on
ScummVM 2.0.0
MAME emulates over a thousand systems including computers, handheld and home consoles, arcade systems, chess machines, calculators, and slot machines. Many of the popular and recent systems don't work and most require firmware. I found emulators dedicated to one system are usually better than MAME, but having one configuration and interface is much easier to work with.
Mednafen emulates many home game consoles and handheld game systems. Some modules require external firmware files. The documentation included with the package is the same as the documentation on Mednafen's webpage. I avoid Mednafen because the configuration is long and complex.
MESS merged with MAME. See that entry for details.
RetroArch is frontend for libretro cores or plugins. The cores emulate many systems.
Neo-Geo 4-in-1 upright arcade cabinet [Neo-Geo_Cabinet]
Arcade emulation means MAME which is an acronym for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. The term arcade game goes beyond the classic upright cabinets of the early 1980s. MAME emulates so many types of systems such as pinball and video poker systems, though there are almost no games available. There are few free games and publishers rarely offered a limited amount of ROMs for sale in the past.
Arcade games were designed to suck down quarters as much as possible. You will find playing with infinite credits is almost like cheating and just how short the games really are.
World Rally on MAME 0.195
The computer systems I list had operating systems, but it wasn't required to play games. It seems for those systems the disk images were enough to start playing.
Atari 1040STf [Atari_1040STf]
The Atari ST series had firmware and an operating system called TOS. Hatari has everything needed to play games.
Commodore PET 2001 [PET]
This sections covers the list below, but there were other 8 bit systems by Commodore.
Commodore 64 [C64]
I briefly tested VICE and games seem to work with it. Both Frodo and VICE have the classic blue Commodore boot screen with Commodore BASIC.
That classic blue Commodore BASIC boot screen on VICE
3.1
Commodore Amiga 500 [Amiga_500]
FS-UAE and UAE both emulate many of the Commodore Amiga systems and the firmware called Kickstart. AmigaOS wasn't required to play the games I tried.
UAE is a mess. Everything I seem to do to it causes it to crash. None of the software tests on their website work. I tried all sorts of options with no luck. When it locks and crashes it spews messages constantly and causes havoc with the window manager. It wont even exit properly without using the quit button.
FS-UAE was frustrating to get running the first time even though the package readme and the documentation covers everything. The internal firmware is enabled by setting kickstart_file = internal in the configuration file. Set the floppy_drive_0 = to a floppy image file location. Press F12 once the program is running. That is enough to get started.
Sony MSX HitBit HB-10P [MSX]
The MSX is a standard and not a specific computer. The four generations of MSX standards are the MSX, MSX2, MSX2+, and MSX Turbo R. I imagine there was problems over the years between implementations of that standard, but I didn't see any problems emulating games.
openMSX supports cassettes, cartridge ROMs, disk files, and so on. It also emulates the firmware and can use a directory as a disk. I have never seen a game or emulator on OpenBSD that uses the menu key until now.
See Sega SG-1000 in Game Console Emulation.
ZX Spectrum 48K [Spectrum]
Fuse worked with the games I tried and it didn't require any extra files to run ZX Spectrum games.
There is so much to say about every console. Each one of these systems could fill a book by themselves. I am fairly brief with each section to prevent this from turning into an emulation document. Specific information about MAME and Mednafen are covered in multiple system emulation. I only include systems that have at least one emulator that works without firmware.
The Amstrad GX4000 was a European game console based on
the Amstrad CPC made 1990-1991. [Amstrad_GX4000]
Some of these obscure game consoles are quite difficult to find homebrew games for. After searching I eventually came across a couple for the Amstrad GX4000.
Pentomino is a simple puzzle homebrew game shown here on
MAME 0.199
The Atari 2600 complete with woodgrain a popular feature
on products in the 1970s. [Atari_2600]
Neither MAME nor Stella require any firmware because whatever the Atari 2600 needs is included with the game.
Atari 2600 Jr [Atari_2600_Jr]
Atari Jaguar with Atari Jaguar CD [Atari_Jaguar]
Virtual Jaguar is the only Atari Jaguar emulator in ports. I haven't seen any games use the number pad and I hope I don't. I wasn't able to get many of the games and demos to run unless they were in a certain format. None of the Atari Jaguar CD games I tried worked.
Interton Electronic VC 4000 [VC_4000]
Like many other obscure game consoles there isn't a homebrew scene for the Interton Electronic VC 4000. The good news is one homebrew game exists and that gives me a reason to make this section.
Flappy Bird for the Interton Electronic VC 4000 which MAME
0.195 emulates poorly. Clearly the pinnacle of gaming has been
reached.
NEC TurboGrafx-16 [PCE]
There are few homebrew games for NEC TurboGrafx-16 also known as the NEC PC Engine. I think it's because it wasn't a popular system, it looks difficult to program for, and the media contains whatever BIOS the system needs. Mednafen seems to need firmware for the CD addon while MAME needs the game in CHD format created by chdman. I only tested HuCard games.
One of the few homebrew games for the TurboGrafx-16 is
Reflectron on MAME 0.197
Another game by Aetherbyte is Nantettatte Engine on MAME
0.197 with this title screen spoof about the homebrew scene.
Nintendo 3DS XL [3DS]
I was surprised such a new system would show up in OpenBSD. Before you get too excited Citra can only emulate a few homebrew games. Luckily there is an active and large homebrew scene for the 3DS unlike other older and more obscure systems. Not only that, but many of the games include source code too.
The Nintendo 64 was released in 1996 and had 3D graphics.
[N64]
Mupen64Plus is the only working emulator in ports for the Nintendo 64 that emulates the firmware. It includes all the needed plugins to work and has 3D acceleration support in OpenBSD. It only requires a game to run.
The controller configuration for Mupen64Plus is a bit complicated, but it does work. I was able to eventually get my gamepad to work with it.
MAME 0.195 requires firmware to run Nintendo 64 games.
Mupen64Plus 2.5 running Funnel Cube. Many homebrew games
don't work with this emulator.
The Nintendo DS used both a stylus and a microphone to
play games. [NDS]
DeSmuME is the only Nintendo DS emulator in ports and it doesn't need the DS firmware. It supports using a gamepad, keyboard, and mouse. In OpenBSD a mouse can also be a touchscreen or graphics tablet. This might be useful since the DS used a stylus. I found some of the games nearly impossible to play without a stylus, but when I tried a graphics tablet it wasn't any better than the mouse. Maybe a touch screen with a stylus might work better. I didn't test if the microphone support works.
Bob's Game on DeSmuME 0.9.11. The developer claims he
spent over 15,000 hours working on the game.
Nintendo Entertainment System [NES]
The Nintendo Entertainment System also known as the NES and Nintendo Famicom had so many variants and clones it would be difficult to list them all, but here are just a few.
Nintendo Famicom with Disk System [Famicom]
Luckily none of that is important to emulating the NES on OpenBSD.
Nintendo Game Boy [Game_Boy]
VBA-M and Gambatte have command line and graphical versions. I prefer the command line, but neither of them could correctly use my gamepad without the graphical configuration. VBA-M gives Pango warnings and crashes when configuring a controller. mGBA has limited options and is best used as a RetroArch core. I suggest using Gambatte's graphical version for now.
Nintendo Game Boy Color [GBC]
Nintendo Game Boy Advance [GBA]
The options for Nintendo Game Boy Advance emulation are similar to the Game Boy except without Gambatte.
Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP Mark 1 [GBA_SP-MK1]
Super Nintendo Entertainment System [SNES]
The SNES also known as the Super Famicom in Japan was the follow up to the NES. As for as emulating it on OpenBSD I think Mednafen is a good choice, but I recommend Snes9x.
Nintendo Super Famicom [Super_Famicom]
Sega Genesis [Genesis]
The Sega Genesis also known as the Sega Mega Drive had an odd history of peripherals. The Sega CD was a base that the Genesis plugged into. Then the Sega 32X plugged into the top loader of the Genesis. Even though the 32X and CD were peripherals they were also another game console. This created a patchwork monstrosity. This section only deals with the original Genesis.
Bare Knuckled Princess on MAME 0.195 is one of the many
interesting homebrew creations.
Sega Master System [Master_System]
The Sega Master System is also known as the Sega Mark III.
Sega Saturn [Saturn]
I don't have much to say about the Sega Saturn because I had no luck emulating games with Yabause, but it does emulate the firmware.
Sega SG-1000 [SG-1000]
Some of the clones and variants of the Sega SG-1000 include
Sega SC-3000 [SC-3000]
The emulation websites I saw lumped the SG-1000 together with the Sega Master System. Both are similar, but different systems. None of the Sega SG-1000 emulators in ports require firmware.
Sony PlayStation SCPH-5001 [PS1]
Both PCSX-Reloaded and the core for RetroArch emulate the Sony PlayStation BIOS, but PCSX-Reloaded is broken on Intel GPUs. So if you do use an Intel GPU your only choice is RetroArch unless you have the PlayStation firmware. Ports knows about the PCSX-Reloaded bug, but decided not to mark the port broken nor put a warning on it.
Sony PlayStation PSone [PSone]
The Sony PlayStation Portable PSP-1000 was released in
2004. [PSP].
The Sony PlayStation Portable was an advanced portable 3D system for its time. Several Sony PlayStation 1 games were also ported to it and it has a large homebrew scene. For emulation on OpenBSD there is only PPSSPP which has its own built-in game repository.
The PPSSPP Homebrew Store on PPSSPP 1.5.4
Every system needs Flappy Bird shown here on PPSSPP
1.5.4
I added live CDs with games here. None of these require an emulated disk.
Fedora is a distribution of GNU/Linux and it has live DVDs it calls spins. One of the spins is a distribution of games for x86-64. Most are duplicates of what is in ports, but a few are not available in OpenBSD.
The live DVD has a problem in QEMU with APIC. When Fedora starts press tab and add a space then the word noapic to the line of kernel options then press enter. The emulated display will stay blank for a long time while Fedora loads. Some games don't work and the 3D games will cause problems. I tested this live DVD in QEMU, but it may work on Bochs.
The ReactOS live CD runs on x86 and x86-64 emulators. I tested it with QEMU, though it should work with Bochs and MAME. ReactOS comes with Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, and WinMine. Both the solitaire games are clones of the card games with the same names in Microsoft Windows. WinMine is a Microsoft Minesweeper clone.
ReactOS live CD on QEMU 2.12.0 using a high resolution
playing Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, and WinMine all at once
TempleOS incorporates the Bible in its core functionality
and is the subject of many internet jokes. [TempleOS]
The one man behind making TempleOS has a lengthy internet history. Last I read its creator is homeless with severe mental health issues. The internet has encouraged him for both fun and morbid curiosity in their search for novelty. What he has made is quite impressive, but what about playing games on OpenBSD?
The TempleOS live CD includes several games that have the quality, look, and functionality of shareware from several decades ago. Several of them appear to be clones of more popular games. You can access them by clicking on the menu near the top and then clicking on their icons in the window that pops up. For me the games run too slow on QEMU so there isn't much more to say. Maybe one day with faster emulation they might be playable.
The TempleOS 5.03 game menu complete with blinking text
and spinning logos on QEMU 2.12.0
Operating systems that are emulated directly and don't need to be installed inside another emulator are listed here. Live CDs have their own section under emulation.
DOSBox is the only DOS emulator in ports. The other emulators require you to install DOS. While not a perfect description it is probably somewhere between a full computer emulator and WINE.
DOSBox is designed to run DOS games, but supports any DOS software including Microsoft Windows 1, 2, 3, 95, 98, and ME. A few DOS games require extra files to run such as CWSDPMI. Some of its great features are using a directory as a filesystem and using ISO files without mounting the image in OpenBSD first.
There are many thousands of DOS games made over the last few decades. To play any of them you need to know how to use DOS. If you know how to use a shell and terminal then DOS is easy to learn. Don't forget to read manual and package readme because you will need them.
There is a known bug in DOSBox on OpenBSD that causes games to run slower as the cycle count increases. The best way to find the best cycle count is to run a game that has audio and lower the speed until the audio sounds right. Put the cycle count outputted by DOSBox in cycles= in the [cpu] section of the DOSBox configuration. For me 33000 cycles worked best, but 40000 to 50000 was acceptable. CPU Speed Test said 40000-50000 cycles in DOSBox is around the speed of an early Intel Pentium 1. If games freeze or DOSBox crashes try lowering the cycle count.
Some old commercial games such as The Elder Scrolls II:
Daggerfall running on DOSBox 0.74 are given away for free
now.
There are countless freeware games for DOS such as
MinerVGA on DOSBox 0.74.
Sorting things into categories always leaves something out. Everything that doesn't fit neatly into other sections is here.
Bash is a popular shell especially in other operating systems besides OpenBSD.
One of the old jokes about GNU Emacs says it's an operating system in need of a text editor. It shouldn't surprise anyone that it includes several games it calls amusements. More are available as addons which are often clones of popular games. Both types of games are similar to the BSD Games collection.
First, thanks for reading and looking at my page. If you missed them try looking over the general resources section again and check out the Reddit OpenBSD Gaming community or the Good Old Games list for OpenBSD.
There are several game consoles that don't require firmware, but I haven't found any free homebrew games for the following.
I know there are several more live CDs and DVDs that might have games not listed here. DOS probably has a few other game engines not listed here. Another source of games will probably be the old historical computer emulators. Some of the game console emulators have game engines not available on OpenBSD such as Beats of Rage on the PSP. A few games were made for shells, AWK, sed, and Perl. FNA games work on OpenBSD, but none of the games on the DRM free list are free. If all of that isn't enough you can always working on porting open source games to OpenBSD.
Now that you know some of what is out there you should be able to find more games on your own. There are many more game engines, live CDs, and emulators I haven't covered and some of my sections are fairly sparse so there is plenty for you to discover. Hopefully this page made you aware of what games there are for OpenBSD.
For the copyright notice of the fish at the top see [Pufferfish]. Full copyright licenses of works used on this page.
This document is licensed as WTFPL version 2.0.