4 ms·

Ballerburg SDL – Play classical castle combat game from 1987 in the browser

73 points by midzer 3y ago

midzer 3y ago
src: https://baller.tuxfamily.org/ https://baller.tuxfamily.org/
- andai 3y ago
  The king says: 'You ought to earn more money, build more shaft towers, and vanquish the opponent!'
gus_massa 3y ago
Autotranslation of the instructions: > Notes about the game: > Click on a cannon to change its settings and fire. > Click on the bullets, powder kegs or money bags to get to the market. > Press the ESC key for general settings. > For more details see the instructions. > Ballerburg SDL is free software and can be distributed and modified under the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 3. Further information is available on the Ballerburg SDL main page.
w-ll 3y ago
I see this pre-dated Scorched Earth [0] but I have so many hours playing it growing up. Worms is 2nd but probably not even close in sheer hours. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_Earth_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_Earth_(video_game)
- lightedman 3y ago
  There's a 3D Scorched Earth! It's fun!
andai 3y ago
This is great. Was a bit small on my screen, so I zoomed to 200% and set image-rendering: pixelated;
fileeditview 3y ago
Nice.. played that on Atari ST as a kid. Then later in school there was a very old IBM PC in some corner and we were sometimes huddled around it to play Ballerburg.. good times.
iforgotpassword 3y ago
Nice, I'm getting really old. The name rang a bell, but I just couldn't picture anything. Opening the page was like "oh of course!" Killed quite some time with this as a kid.
dindresto 3y ago
The creator of the original Ballerburg, Prof. Dr. Eckhard Kruse, teaches computer science at the Cooperative State University Baden-Württemberg (DHBW). I attended four of his courses (C, Interactive Systems, Software Engineering 1 & 2) during my Bachelor studies. He's a bit odd sometimes but also funny, with a strong interest in ghosts and spiritual stuff.
- d_k_f 3y ago
  If only you'd written that 15 years ago :/ I've played Ballerburg on my dad's Atari ST when I was a kid and everybody else already was on DOS/early windows. I later on attended the DHBW (back then still the "BA Mannheim") and would have loved to know that he was the creator back then. Thanks for making me smile, anyways!
  - weinzierl 3y ago
    This is how things go. As a kid I learned Pascal in school from a wonderful teacher and I loved it. Unfortunately I only had a C64, while most of my friends already had PCs. So I got hold of a Pascal version for the C64. I only realized many years later and many years after graduation, that one of my university professors was the original author the C64 Pascal. http://pascal.hansotten.com/uploads/matthes/ http://pascal.hansotten.com/uploads/matthes/
- elaus 3y ago
  He has a very "old-school" personal website: https://www.eckhardkruse.net https://www.eckhardkruse.net
krylon 3y ago
The sound - more than the game itself - tickles my nostalgia bone in a big way.
_cenw 3y ago
This game had a 3D spinoff (by Ascaron) that as far as I can tell only has been somewhat popular in Germany that was a substantial part of my childhood (through being included on a magazine CD). Time to delve into the internet to try and find it I guess.
- kosmozaut 3y ago
  Me too! I loved to play it during holidays at my grandma's place. I haven't tried it but it seems to be available to download from the Internet Archive.
- BYazfVCcq 3y ago
  Computer Bild Spiele #3 from 2004? Because that's where I got my copy.
jansan 3y ago
This has worse graphics than Artillery Duel on the C64 from 1983. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbT7OrvOvhs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbT7OrvOvhs https://c64online.com/c64-games/artillery-duel/ https://c64online.com/c64-games/artillery-duel/
- morsch 3y ago
  That's debatable. High res simple graphics vs low res pixel art. It's certainly a much more complex game: - multiple castles with different layouts (not sure if that's exposed in this port) - positional damage: hitting a cannon or one of the stores destroys them, hitting the weather vane removes the ability to determine wind speed, hitting the king ends the game - an economy: you use up powder and cannonballs and need to buy resources - a builder aspect: you can rebuild destroyed walls and other structures and build mine shafts for an initial investment but continuous returns
jamesfmilne 3y ago
Strong GORILLA.BAS vibes.
- dole 3y ago
  Used to vibe on Artillery Simulator on the Apple II in grade school. Never played Ballerburg but enjoyed the market concept and still worked from mobile :) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery_game https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery_game The eternal problem with Worms and most Artillery games is having a human opponent.
FrustratedMonky 3y ago
There is a lot of variability in the target. If I don't change any settings at all, the cannon ball lands in a wide range of different locations. IS this trying to be 'real' in some way, does wind play that large a role?

73 points by midzer 3y ago

midzer 3y ago

src: https://baller.tuxfamily.org/ https://baller.tuxfamily.org/

andai 3y ago
The king says: 'You ought to earn more money, build more shaft towers, and vanquish the opponent!'

gus_massa 3y ago

Autotranslation of the instructions: > Notes about the game: > Click on a cannon to change its settings and fire. > Click on the bullets, powder kegs or money bags to get to the market. > Press the ESC key for general settings. > For more details see the instructions. > Ballerburg SDL is free software and can be distributed and modified under the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 3. Further information is available on the Ballerburg SDL main page.

w-ll 3y ago

I see this pre-dated Scorched Earth [0] but I have so many hours playing it growing up. Worms is 2nd but probably not even close in sheer hours. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_Earth_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_Earth_(video_game)

lightedman 3y ago
There's a 3D Scorched Earth! It's fun!

andai 3y ago

This is great. Was a bit small on my screen, so I zoomed to 200% and set image-rendering: pixelated;

fileeditview 3y ago

Nice.. played that on Atari ST as a kid. Then later in school there was a very old IBM PC in some corner and we were sometimes huddled around it to play Ballerburg.. good times.

iforgotpassword 3y ago

Nice, I'm getting really old. The name rang a bell, but I just couldn't picture anything. Opening the page was like "oh of course!" Killed quite some time with this as a kid.

dindresto 3y ago

The creator of the original Ballerburg, Prof. Dr. Eckhard Kruse, teaches computer science at the Cooperative State University Baden-Württemberg (DHBW). I attended four of his courses (C, Interactive Systems, Software Engineering 1 & 2) during my Bachelor studies. He's a bit odd sometimes but also funny, with a strong interest in ghosts and spiritual stuff.

d_k_f 3y ago
If only you'd written that 15 years ago :/ I've played Ballerburg on my dad's Atari ST when I was a kid and everybody else already was on DOS/early windows. I later on attended the DHBW (back then still the "BA Mannheim") and would have loved to know that he was the creator back then. Thanks for making me smile, anyways!
- weinzierl 3y ago
  This is how things go. As a kid I learned Pascal in school from a wonderful teacher and I loved it. Unfortunately I only had a C64, while most of my friends already had PCs. So I got hold of a Pascal version for the C64. I only realized many years later and many years after graduation, that one of my university professors was the original author the C64 Pascal. http://pascal.hansotten.com/uploads/matthes/ http://pascal.hansotten.com/uploads/matthes/
elaus 3y ago
He has a very "old-school" personal website: https://www.eckhardkruse.net https://www.eckhardkruse.net

krylon 3y ago

The sound - more than the game itself - tickles my nostalgia bone in a big way.

_cenw 3y ago

This game had a 3D spinoff (by Ascaron) that as far as I can tell only has been somewhat popular in Germany that was a substantial part of my childhood (through being included on a magazine CD). Time to delve into the internet to try and find it I guess.

kosmozaut 3y ago
Me too! I loved to play it during holidays at my grandma's place. I haven't tried it but it seems to be available to download from the Internet Archive.
BYazfVCcq 3y ago
Computer Bild Spiele #3 from 2004? Because that's where I got my copy.

jansan 3y ago

This has worse graphics than Artillery Duel on the C64 from 1983. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbT7OrvOvhs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbT7OrvOvhs https://c64online.com/c64-games/artillery-duel/ https://c64online.com/c64-games/artillery-duel/

morsch 3y ago
That's debatable. High res simple graphics vs low res pixel art. It's certainly a much more complex game: - multiple castles with different layouts (not sure if that's exposed in this port) - positional damage: hitting a cannon or one of the stores destroys them, hitting the weather vane removes the ability to determine wind speed, hitting the king ends the game - an economy: you use up powder and cannonballs and need to buy resources - a builder aspect: you can rebuild destroyed walls and other structures and build mine shafts for an initial investment but continuous returns

jamesfmilne 3y ago

Strong GORILLA.BAS vibes.

dole 3y ago
Used to vibe on Artillery Simulator on the Apple II in grade school. Never played Ballerburg but enjoyed the market concept and still worked from mobile :) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery_game https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery_game The eternal problem with Worms and most Artillery games is having a human opponent.

FrustratedMonky 3y ago

There is a lot of variability in the target. If I don't change any settings at all, the cannon ball lands in a wide range of different locations. IS this trying to be 'real' in some way, does wind play that large a role?