

Vassal - Open Source Boardgame Engine - Fargren
http://www.vassalengine.org/index.php

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Tichy
It's pretty hard to discern how it works from the web site. What programming
language is used to create modules? Does it run on the web, or as desktop
client? And so on...

Interesting, though...

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Fargren
It runs as a client, and I think the modules are created from the client, but
I don't know what language they use, if any. Haven't tried the module creator
yet.

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berntb
Wikipedia says Java. _And_ it use LGPL.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VASSAL_Engine>

Respect, as the kids say. (-: Don't tell the old guy if the kids stopped
saying that ten years ago. :-)

I implemented most of the design rules for an old love, Car Wars. It can be
hard to implement complex board games.

(My CW stuff was planned as the first step of a full implementation. Steve
Jackson Games didn't want that, even if they got to control the servers, so I
gave up. It would have been legal to use for game owners, but I really didn't
have the motivation to go against the wishes of sjg.)

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Tichy
Would have loved to see an electronic version of Car Wars.

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tjarratt
Hmm, this is very similar to an idea I've been working on for a short time.
It's great to get some validation and see that something like this can work,
even better to see a community of any size embracing it.

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blue1
Note that while some modules are hobbyst work, some publishers (most notably
GMT Games) make the vassal modules of their games freely available when the
paper game is published. It's a great resource indeed.

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waterlesscloud
No SPI games at the publisher's request. :-(

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blue1
I've never searched for them, but I know that modules for SPI games do exist,
they aren't just distributed on the Vassal site.

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ryutin
As an old wargaming geek who's always been disappointed that the never
translated well to the electronic medium, this looks pretty exciting. I can't
wait to spend some quality time digging into it more.

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nvoorhies
It's amazingly impressive that they took on ASL as a first target and didn't
give up before completing that beast of a rule set.

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blue1
There is very little "rule set" in Vassal. Essentially it is a configurable
electronic board; rules are enforced by the players, not by the platform.

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uckelman
I'm one of he VASSAL developers. We're flattered to see VASSAL featured here.
Should anyone have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them---either here,
by email (uckelman@nomic.net), or in our forum.

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blue1
Vassal is mostly used for wargames. There are some modules for eurogames, but
they are few and not always of good quality.

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jswallesdaf
VASSAL is AWESOME. It is the engine for VASL, the virtual tabletop for the
greatest boardgame in the world.

