Monday Multiplayer #0001 - Armagetron Advanced

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[Armagetron Advanced][armagetronad] is a modern tron-like game which supports up to 16 simultaneous players. It supports many people playing on one system, and many systems playing on one LAN. It runs on GNU/Linux, MS Windows, and Mac OSX, If You happen to use 0install, it is also in that repository. It is Free, Libre, Open Source software.

The basics of the game are simple: You ride around in a square room on a tron bike, attempting to last longer than all of the other players. Behind Your bike is a light trail, which is solid for all intents and purposes. The default mode makes this light trail permanent and of infinite length, making the game harder the longer it goes on.

You can change most of the settings, if You are the one who is running the server: You can have the room be huge or tiny, the bikes be fast or slow, light trails decay or be permanent, bots join or leave, teams set up or broken, and even control the music which plays in the background.

It falls flat for me in that, other than the built in scoring system, there is very little in the terms of development over the course of a night. It is very close to the original in terms of abstract mechanics, and that leaves me wanting something more complex. But for a social event, or a quick break from more complex games, I go to this one first.

It is an easy, lightweight game to set up, and is perfect for an impromtu LAN Party.

• Christopher