AssaultCube

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AssaultCube
Developer(s)	Rabid Viper Productions
Engine	Cube
Platform(s)	Cross-platform (Windows, Linux, OSX)[1] Windows Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000, 98, ME Intel Pentium III or AMD K7 range 192 MB RAM 45MB- 50MB of free hard disk space[2]
Release date(s)	November 4, 2006; 5 years ago (2006-11-04)
Latest release	1.1.0.4 / November 15, 2010; 17 months ago (2010-11-15) [3]
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Multiplayer, singleplayer
Rating(s)	N/A

AssaultCube is a free multiplayer first-person shooter game, based on the CUBE engine. It takes place in realistic environments, with fast, arcade gameplay. Although the main focus of AssaultCube is multiplayer online gaming, a single player mode consists of computer-controlled bots.

AssaultCube utilises efficient bandwidth usage, allowing the game to be run with connection speeds as low as 56kbit/s. As well as this, it can run on older computer hardware.^[4]

AssaultCube is available for free on Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. The game engine is free software, however parts of the accompanying game media, such as the graphics, are released under non-free licenses.^[5]

History

AssaultCube started out as ActionCube in July 2004 by a few members of the CUBE community. The first official release was in November 2006. The plan was to create an entirely new game incorporating Cube's simplicity and movement style in a more realistic environment.^[6]

On May 6, 2007, ActionCube was renamed to AssaultCube due to a request from the developers of Action Quake.^[7][8]

Despite its simplistic graphics and gameplay, AssaultCube maintains a consistent player base of hundreds of players, with over 60 user-run servers online at any given time.^[9] AssaultCube also has several gaming clans, some of which participate in organized tournaments.^[10]

Although it is based on the Cube engine, AssaultCube's engine has been highly improved compared to the original Cube, and even incorporates features from Cube 2.

Gameplay

A screenshot from the game AssaultCube

AssaultCube was designed to be more realistic and team-oriented than Cube while keeping Cube's distinctive fast-paced gameplay. In comparison to other games, AssaultCube is slower than Quake but faster than Counter-Strike.^[11] There are two different teams in AssaultCube, called the Cubers Liberations Army (CLA) and the Rabid Viper Special Forces (RVSF).

AssaultCube retains a movement bug from the original Cube engine that allows players to utilize straferunning to move at a faster speed. This was left intentionally unfixed by the developers because it was considered an enjoyable feature of Cube, similar to bunny hopping in Quake.

Another feature of the game is the potential for using the recoil of the weapons (which pushes one backwards) to reach and perform moves that were previously impossible. This was also included intentionally, allowing players to achieve faster movement and jump higher. This feature was inherited from Cube, though it was absent in the original release of AssaultCube.

AssaultCube's weapons are all fictional and fill the basic niches of a modern first-person shooter: the assault rifle, sub-machine gun, sniper rifle, carbine, shotgun, pistol and knife.

AssaultCube has twelve different gamemodes excluding bot game modes and the in-game level editor:

• Deathmatch(Known as Free-For-All in other games)and Team Deathmatch
• One Shot One Kill and Team One Shot One Kill (Sniper rifle and knife only)
• Last Swiss Standing (Knives and grenades only)
• Survivor and Team Survivor (Teams fight until opposing team is eliminated)
• Pistol Frenzy (Pistols, knives, and grenades only)
• Capture The Flag
• Keep The Flag and Team Keep The Flag (Find the flag and keep it as long as you can)
• Hunt The Flag (Known as VIP in other games)
• Against Computers in many difficulties

Single-player modes are:

• Bot Team Deathmatch and Deathmatch
• Bot One Shot One Kill^[12]

Mapping

AssaultCube retains an in-game mapping feature from the original Cube game, resulting in a variety of custom maps. The diverse nature of the Cube Engine's mapping feature allows for creativity and almost endless possibilities for custom maps. Another aspect of AssaultCube is the ease at which custom maps can be shared. These created maps can be played online fairly easily if they comply with quality pre-requisites. They can also be easily shared with others through community sites such as Akimbo and Quadropolis (all Cube Engine games). Several maps from other games have been remade for the Cube engine by players. However, only one remake is included in the official release (remade for AssaultCube by original author).

See Also

• List of freeware first-person shooters

References

Further reading

• (German) Bertits, Andreas (February 2007) (in german). Gratisspiel des Monats- Umsonst ist hier der Tod. 2. PC Action. http://www.planetholgi.de/quake4you/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=494. Retrieved 2009-02-26 ^{[dead link]} Review of AssaultCube (ActionCube) in the magazine, not on the given link.

External links

• AssaultCube home page
• AssaultCube at SourceForge.net