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Alien Arena (initially CodeRED: Alien Arena) is an open-source,

stand-alone first-person shooter video game. Begun by COR Entertainment

in 2004, the game combines a 1950s-era sci-fi atmosphere with gameplay

similar to the Quake, Doom, and Unreal Tournament series. Alien Arena

focuses mainly on online multiplayer action, although it does contain

single-player matches against bots.

Alien Arena has been released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, and

FreeBSD. While the game's content is proprietary freeware, prohibiting

commercial re-sale, the CRX engine is open source. In 2013 the assets

license was loosened somewhat, which allowed the game package to be

included in certain Linux distributions, such as Fedora, Debian and

Ubuntu.cite-ref-1[1]

Since July 2023, Alien Arena is available on the Linux App Store

Flathub. Since August 2023, Alien Arena is also available for free on

the indie games website itch.io.

• Gameplay

• Development

• Game engine

• Reception

• Alien Arena: Warriors of Mars

• See also

• References

• External links

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The game features an internal server browser for finding other players

online, and the external Galaxy program performs the same function

without having to launch the game, akin to The All-Seeing Eye. It also

serves as an IRC client for chat between players. The game uses modified

Quake II physics. Most Quake II trickjumps, such as strafejumping, will

work in Alien Arena. However, dodging, which isn't found in Quake II,

has also been added to the game.

Although it had been in development since 2003, Alien Arena was first

released as a beta in August 2004, with the title CodeRED: Alien Arena.

The first stable version was released in October. Two single-player,

campaign-style games, CodeRED: Battle for Earth and CodeRED: Martian

Chronicles, were released during 2003. Following these games, Alien

Arena received greater development focus. The final upgrade to the two

single-player games was made available on February 18, 2005. The

"CodeRED" title continued to be used until Alien Arena 2006 was released

in November 2005, promoted as a "sequel" to the old CodeRED version.

In September 2012, Alien Arena was also made available as an online

version through Roozz. By installing a small plugin, players can play

the game in any browser on the Windows operating system.

The game is powered by the Quake II-based CRX game engine, which has

been rewritten to include support for such features as 32-bit

high-resolution textures, 3D models used as architecture in maps, GLSL

per-pixel lighting effects, parallax mapping, normal mapping, ragdoll

physics using the Open Dynamics Engine, server-side antilag code,

shaders (GLSL and rscript), textured particles, semi-true reflective

water with per-pixel distortion shaders, reflective surfaces on

entities, light bloom, real-time shadows, overbright bits, real-time

vertex lighting, and other graphical effects, all of which can be turned

on or off in the menu. As of CRX version 7.30, OpenAL is used for sound

on all platforms.cite-ref-2[2] Physics support was added in version 7.50 using the

Open Dynamics Engine.

Alien Arena has been compared to Quake III and Unreal Tournament, and is

considered one of the best free first-person shooters.cite-ref-3[3]cite-ref-4[4]cite-ref-5[5] GameSpot

noted the use of 1960s-style sci-fi imagery and good selection of

weapons and maps in 2008.cite-ref-6[6] In 2008 APCMag.com named Alien Arena among

the Top 5 best (free) open source games.cite-ref-7[7] In a 2009 review of

Linux Format Alien Arena was rated 8/10.cite-ref-8[8] Alien Arena was selected in

February 2014 as "HotPick" by Linux Format.cite-ref-9[9]

On November 3, 2017 COR Entertainment released Alien Arena: Warriors of

Mars on Steam for Windows and Linux platforms.cite-ref-10[10]

• First-person shooter

• List of freeware first-person shooters

• List of open source games

cite-note-11. ↑ License of Alien Arena Content on red.planetarena.org (2013)

cite-note-22. ↑ Alien Arena 2009 review at Phoronix.com

cite-note-33. ↑ citerefbarr2007Barr, Joe (October 12, 2007). "New Alien Arena 6.10 blows away its FPS competition". Linux.com. Retrieved 2010-01-07.

cite-note-44. ↑ citereflake-steve2008Lake, Steve (April 14, 2008). "Open Source Game Review: Alien Arena 2008". Raiden's Realm. Archived from the original on 2010-08-03. Retrieved 2010-01-07.

cite-note-55. ↑ citerefdeathdudeDeathDude. "Alien Arena 2007". Abandonia Reloaded. Archived from the original on 2012-02-12. Retrieved 2009-08-09.

cite-note-66. ↑ citerefkevin-vanordaaron-sampson2008Kevin VanOrd; Aaron Sampson (November 19, 2008). "Cheaper by the Dozen". GameSpot. Retrieved 2010-01-07.