| Name | Descshort | |
|---|
| ---Granny 3D animation engine | ---Really uninteresting piece of software | 0 games |
| Text Adventure Development System | A shareware, later freeware, interactive fiction programming system by High Energy Software. Comes in TADS 1, 2, 3, & Multimedia TADS versions. | 12 games |
| 2.5D | Uses mixed 2D and 3D rendering, usually with some of the objects or the game world seen as polygon meshes and others as regular sprites or pre-rendered scenes. | 0 games |
| Acknex game engine (Gamestudio) | Games made with Gamestudio & using the Acknex engine. | 1 games |
| Activation limit | A copy protection scheme where a purchased game has - usually very small - limit on the number of "activations" before you're supposed to re-purchase or renew your previous license for the game. | 6 games |
| Adaptive music (Interactive music;Nonlinear music;Dynamic music) | | 8 games |
| Adventure engine | Games that use Warren Robinett's unintentional invention of GUI. Originally used for [[gameid:80504 Adventure]], it proved useful to TLC for additional titles | 13 games (12 characters) |
| Adventure Game Interpreter | "AGI (Adventure Game Interpreter) was the development tool used by Sierra Online to create their early adventure games." [Source: Wikipedia] | 15 games |
| Adventure Game Studio (AGS) | Games made using AGS. | 13 games |
| AGOS engine | | 17 games |
| AIX operating system | A UNIX-like proprietary IBM OS. Closed source, but most games are Open Source. Originally Advanced IBM UNIX. Currently, Advanced Interactive eXecutive | 6 games |
| Alamo game engine | A game engine created by Petroglyph Games. | 5 games |
| Aleph One (Marathon Open Source Project) | An open source engine for the Marathon trilogy. | 11 games |
| Allegro Library | A cross-platform game oriented programming library. | 30 games |
| ALT Linux Sisyphus | A set of Linux distros specializing in customization, correct localization, and advanced package management. | 2 games |
| AMD Dual-Core Optimizer bug | Has serious issues if the AMD Dual-Core Optimizer is installed, possibly making the game unplayable. | 2 games |
| Amiga OS 4 operating system | Games for the Amiga OS 4. | 2 games |
| Anamorphic resolution | Anamorphic projection squeezes an image, usually horizontally, expecting it to be stretched out on the screen so that the final image appears normal. | 2 games |
| AppleDOS 3.3 | Games that operated on Apple's AppleDOS version 3.3. Either internally (boot disk) or could be loaded on a system running 3.3. | 1 games |
| AppleTalk | AppleTalk is a set of proprietary networking protocols developed 1984 by Apple for use with the Mac, OSX, ][c, & accessories. Discontinued 2009. | 6 games |
| Arcane game engine | Games that use Arcane as the underlining game engine. | 2 games |
| Arch Linux | A minimalist distro designed elegant, code correct, lightweight, & simple from a developers point of view. Relies heavily on command-line utilities. | 1 games |
| Arch Linux | | 1 games |
| Archive Games | This game is available through the Archive Games distribution/shopping service. | 6 games |
| Assembly language (ASM) | Games written in assembly language, a human readable form of machine code. The least portable of computer languages & lowest level that can still be considered a language | 68 games |
| AtmosFear engine | A game engine by Action Forms. | 3 games |
| Aurora game engine | Games that use Aurora game engine, created by BioWare. | 16 games |
| Automatic aspect ratio | Handles almost any aspect ratio from regular 4:3 to widescreen to vertical screen without effort, with possibly only very few limitations (such as square pixels). | 5 games |
| Automatic wide aspect ratio | Can attempt to automatically adjust to wide aspect ratios besides those it supports directly. | 3 games |
| BASIC programming language (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) | Coded in BASIC. | 350 games |
| BASICA Programming Language | Games that use BASICA source code. | 1 games |
| BASS audio library | | 6 games |
| batari (bB) | Batari is a BASIC-like language compiler for developing Atari VCS games. There is also a Visual batari Basic IDE application. | 1 games |
| Battle.net (bnet) | Utilizes Blizzard's Battle.net matchmaking and internet lobby services. | 23 games |
| BattleZone engine | | 3 games |
| bBasic programming language | Written in bBasic. A BASIC-like language that creates compiled Atari 2600 binary files suitable for emulators or creating Atari 2600 cartridges. | 1 games |
| BBS door | | 0 games |
| Bell Labs UNIX | Games that run on a specific UNIX OS distributed by Bell Labs | 1 games |
| BeOS (ZetaOS) | Runs on the BeOS Operating System. | 45 games |
| Big Huge Engine | A game engine by Big Huge Games. | 4 games |
| Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) | An application development platform created by Qualcomm for mobile phones. --Wikipedia | 4 games |
| Bink Video codec | .bik files developed by RAD Game Tools. Uses up to 16 different techniques per file to optimize decoding times rather than achieving best compression | 1 games |
| Blitzbasic programming language | | 3 games |
| Bootloader | Typical of 1980s computers. a bootloader OS is on the same media as the game. To play, one must reboot (turn on) the system while the game's boot disk is in it | 15 games |
| Boss button (Boss key) | Includes a hotkey to display a fake screen or quickly hide the game, creating an illusion of serious work. Used to try to fool a boss or just to keep onlookers from knowing a game is being played. | 14 games |
| Browser-based | Played in a regular internet HTTP browser. Usually requires account registration, but not always even that. | 32 games |
| BSD operating system | Games that run on BSD by Berkeley Software Design, Inc.
BSD is derived from UNIX & thanks to a very permissive license, has influenced subsequent UNIXs & many other OS including MacOSX, WinXP and Solaris. | 9 games |
| BSDi v4 operating system | Games that run on version 4 of the official BSD operating system provided by Berkeley Software Design, Inc. | 1 games |
| Bug: Thread sync missing | Fails to synchronize threads, causing inexplicable crashes on multi-core systems while seemingly running fine on single-core systems. | 2 games |
| Build engine | A game engine by Ken Silverman, perhaps best known for its use in Duke Nukem 3D. | 17 games |
| C programming language | Coded in C, a general-purpose programming language, originally designed by Dennis Ritchie. | 60 games |
| C++ programming language | Coded in C++, a superset of C programming language, slowly diverging from its roots. | 200 games |
| Caldera Linux | | 1 games |
| CentOS Linux Distribution | Games for the CentOS operating system. CentOS promises 100% compatibility with Red Hat Linux | 1 games |
| Chrome Engine | A 3D game engine by Techland which supports scripting by Java. | 6 games |
| clanlib | Cross platform C++ toolkit library. Its primary focus is on games. | 3 games |
| Classic Mac OS | Games for Mac OS 9 and earlier. | 24 games |
| CloakNT game engine (Cloak engine) | A game engine by Cauldron. | 7 games |
| Closed Captioning (CC;Subtitles 888) | Closed captioning is visual information about the audio of a game that is generally intended for the hearing impaired. | 25 games |
| Comes in a Debian package | Other distros beside [[gametag:debian Debian]] can use theses packages also. | 32 games |
| Compatible with WINE | Works [b]normally[/b] with at least 1 version of WINE compatibility layer for Linux, simply by installing it, the same as if you were running it on Windows | 55 games |
| Control config (User configurable controls) | Allows changing controls, keyboard mappings, button layout, etc. to better suit the user. | 38 games |
| Control layouts (Multiple predefined control layouts) | Offers several predefined control layouts but no full customization. | 2 games |
| Corel LinuxOS distribution | Games that run on Corel Linux, a Debian-based distro. Used custom GUI, looked like Win98. Migration was very easy. M$ stole its File & Settings Transfer Wizard. | 1 games |
| CP/M OS | An operating system that reached its peak just before the IBM-PC was released. It rapidly lost its market share to MS-DOS compatible OSes. | 36 games |
| Crap Adventure Construction Kit | | 1 games |
| CryENGINE 2 | | 6 games |
| Crystal Dynamics engine | An engine developed by Crystal Dynamics. | 16 games |
| Crystal Space 3D engine | An Open Source 3D graphics engine. | 9 games |
| Crystal Tools engine | A game engine by Square Enix. | 4 games |
| Curses | A library for implementing GUI & graphic looking applications using only text display. | 7 games |
| Customizable anamorphic aspect ratio | The resolution & aspect ratio are fully independent and customizable. | 2 games |
| D programming language (DMD;Digital Mars D) | A programming language created by Walter Bright of Digital Mars. | 13 games |
| Dark Basic programming language | Game is written in Dark BASIC computer language. | 2 games |
| DASM Assembler | A tool for programming in assembly | 1 games |
| Data only | Released as data only, requiring the player to find a game engine to run it on. Likely platform-independent. | 3 games |
| Debian GNU/Linux | Games for Debian distro. The most tightly organized GNU OS available. | 48 games |
| DemonWare middleware | Networking middleware by DemonWare Ltd. (owned by Activision since 2007/02) | 8 games |
| DEPRECATED: Text and graphics | Heavily text-based but has additional graphics, most often used in later text adventures. | 33 games |
| Development System used ran the NeXTSTEP/68000 OS | These games were developed in part or whole using at least 1 computer with a 68000 cpu running the NeXTSTEP OS. | 3 games |
| Development System used ran the NeXTSTEP/Intel OS | These games were developed in part or whole using at least 1 computer with an Intel 80386 cpu running the NeXTSTEP OS. | 3 games |
| Development System used ran the NeXTSTEP/PPC OS | These games were developed in part or whole using at least 1 computer with a PowerPC cpu running the NeXTSTEP OS. | 3 games |
| Diesel engine | A game engine developed by GRIN. | 8 games |
| Direct3D | Uses or can use Direct3D for graphics. | 26 games |
| DirectX 1.0 (DX1) | Supports or requires DX1 run-times to be present. | 2 games |
| DirectX 2 (DX2) | Supports or requires DX2 run-times to be present. | 4 games |
| DirectX 3 (DX3) | Supports or requires DX3 run-times to be present. | 15 games |
| DirectX 5 | Supports or requires DX5 run-times to be present. | 41 games |
| DoJa | A custom Java for DoCoMo's i-mode mobile phone platform. | 1 games |
| DoomRPG engine | Uses DoomRPG's game engine | 3 games |
| DreamWorld engine | | 4 games |
| DRM removed (Copy protection removed) | Games that originally were copy protected but had it removed in some officially released patch or re-release. | 28 games |
| DSiWare | Distributed through Nintendo's DSiWare online service for the Nintendo DSi handheld console. | 21 games |
| Dynamic Universal Music Bibliotheque (DUMB) | DUMB is an IT, XM, S3M and MOD player library developed by Robert J Ohannessian, Julien Cugnière and Ben Davis. | 7 games |
| Eamon Engine (The Wonderful World of Eamon) | A text based (graphics allowed) construction system by Donald Brown that was used to create hundreds of games. | 296 games |
| ECMAScript (JavaScript) | Coded wholly or partially in ECMAScript or is extensible with it. Including any of its dialects such as JavaScript or JScript. | 4 games |
| EDGE (Enhanced Doom Game Engine) | A modernized DOOM engine that still remains compatible with the originals. | 1 games |
| EKI One | A game development suite. | 4 games |
| Electron Engine | Games that use Electron game engine, created by Obsidian Entertainment and based on BioWare's Aurora Engine. | 4 games |
| Engine remake | Entries in UVL that exist simply because the game engine was remade by third parties for other platforms. Often these require the original game assets to work. | 22 games |
| Enigma engine (Blitzkrieg engine) | Game engine developed by Nival. | 7 games |
| Essence Engine | Game engine by Relic Entertainment created for the Company of Heroes game. | 4 games |
| ExEn (Execution Engine) | By In-Fusio. Aims to be less limited than J2ME. Built-in scaling, parallaxing, raycasting, & rotation. Available under "premium" or "free" licenses. | 1 games |
| Explore Computer Language | Game written in the form of data meant to be interpreted by the Explore game engine by Joseph Peterson & De Crandell. | 5 games |
| Explore Engine | Joseph Peterson & De Crandell's BASIC engine for the TRS-80 computer. A generic way to create adventure games inspired by Colossal Cave Adventure. | 5 games |
| Export data for use in another game. | Probably characters for a sequel, but any type data counts. | 19 games |
| Extraneous data accidentally included | Unintended data included in production copies. For instance, the master copy disk had personal letter that was not overwritten by the game's data. | 1 games |
| Familiar Project (Familiar Linux) | Complete OS with OPIE or GPE GUI intended for iPAQ, Agenda or other PDAs. Based on a kernel modified by Compaq who officially switched iPAQ to Familiar | 3 games |
| Famitracker NES music development software | Music was developed in full or part using the Famitracker software. | 1 games |
| Fargo II Shell | Fargo II is an OS shell for the TI-92 calculator | 0 games |
| Fast Light Toolkit (FLTK) | Allows creation of complete games quickly without sacrificing graphics & GUI or taxing the end users' hardware. Includes 3D, OpenGL, & emulates GLUT. | 1 games |
| Fedora Core Linux | Games that run on the Fedora Core Distro. Fedora is the 'free' version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. | 13 games |
| Fenix computer language | | 1 games |
| ffdshow incompatibility | Games that exhibit issues of varying severity with ffdshow installed. | 4 games |
| Fighter Maker | Created with Enterbrain's 2D Fighter Maker. | 2 games |
| Flash | Uses Macromedia/Adobe Flash. | 14 games |
| FMOD audio engine (FMOD Ex) | A cross-platform audio engine by Firelight Technologies. | 72 games |
| Forth programming language | | 2 games |
| Fortran programming language | General-purpose language most suited for numeric and scientific computing. High-level languages were only theory before Fortran because they were considered inherently slower than handwritten assembly. | 4 games |
| Frame synced (Frame synced logic) | Game speed and background logic is synced with drawn frames. | 7 games |
| FreeBSD OS | Games that run on FreeBSD. A reliable variation of BSD with any code removed that might be legally questioned. Can achieve 99.95% or more up time. | 37 games |
| Freescape Engine | Developed in-house by Incentive Software in 1986, Freescape is considered to be the first proprietary 3D engine ever to be used in computer games. | 26 games |
| Freespace Engine | A game engine with loosely interpreted outer space physics used for the Freespace series of games. | 5 games |
| Fullscreen | Runs only in fullscreen. | 1 games |
| Gambas programming language | [b]G[/b]ambas [b]A[/b]lmost [b]M[/b]eans [b]Bas[/b]ic
An object-oriented dialect of the BASIC with it's own IDE that somewhat mimics Visual Basic. | 1 games |
| Game Maker | Made with Game Maker. | 10 games |
| Games for Windows - LIVE (XLive;GfWL) | Uses the Windows LIVE online service. Similar to Xbox Live and actually bridges over to it. | 17 games |
| GameSpy (GameSpy Arcade) | Uses GameSpy's multiplayer matchmaking service. This may require an unique account at GameSpy. | 53 games |
| Garry Kitchen's Gamemaker (Activision Gamemaker) | Games made with Garry Kitchen's Gamemaker IDE.
| 2 games |
| GCOS (General Comprehensive Operating System;GECOS) | Later renamed GECOS (the [b]G[/b]eneral [b]E[/b]lectric [b]C[/b]omprehensive [b]O[/b]perating [b]S[/b]upervisor) | 1 games |
| Gentoo Linux (Gentoo/FreeBSD) | Games for Gentoo. Gt and apps come in source code not binary form. This is so the user-compiled apps are optimized and fast. Its BSD based. | 11 games |
| GIMP Toolkit (GTK;GTKmm;GTK+) | Uses GTK. | 7 games |
| Glide 3D | Subset of OpenGL API created by 3dfx for their Voodoo line of GPUs. | 55 games |
| Glulx VM | Like Z-machine but uses 32-bit and Glk I/O. Plays game written in inform language. Games with this tag will [b][i]only[/i][/b] run on Glulx VM implementations. | 1 games |
| Gnome Desktop Environment | Requires Gnome, a Linux/X11 desktop environment. | 27 games |
| GNU/Linux kernel or compatible. | Games compiled for the GNU/Linux kernel regardless of the platform. To differentiate when the same entry shows
its also for UNIX or other kernels. | 50 games |
| Godfather engine | | 11 games |
| Gold Box Engine | 1987-1994. Know as GBE since a shiny gold cardboard box was used for many of the games. It was eventually released to the public as [game=Unlimited Adventures]Unlimited Adventures[/game] | 54 games |
| Grim Engine (GrimE) | Game engine developed by LucasArts, incorporating the older Sith engine. | 3 games |
| Havok Physics | Uses the Havok Physics engine. | 200 games |
| HawkNL™ (Hawk Network Library) | A free LGPL low level network API for games.
| 2 games |
| Heat.net | Uses SegaSoft's online service Heat.net, based on MPlayer. | 2 games |
| HP-UX OS (Hewlett Packard UniX) | Games run on HP-UX. HP's version of UNIX System V. It is the reason an HP tech can pull up your file in the time it takes a Dell tech to say "Please Hold" | 12 games |
| HPL1 engine | Game engine created by Frictional Games | 10 games |
| IBM OS/2 operating system (OS/2 Warp) | OS/2 games. Created for the PS/2 line of PCs by MS and IBM. | 12 games |
| id Tech 2 (Quake 2 engine;CRX engine) | Uses the id Tech 2 game engine developed by id Software. | 30 games |
| id Tech 3 (Quake 3 engine;ioquake3) | A game engine developed by id Software. | 54 games |
| id Tech 4 (Doom 3 engine) | Uses id Tech 4 game engine, developed by id Software. | 19 games |
| id Tech 5 | Games using the fifth generation of [[company:id Software]]'s game engine. | 1 games |
| Import data created by another game | Probably characters from a prequel, but any type data counts. | 23 games |
| iMUSE (Interactive Music Streaming Engine) | An interactive/adaptive music engine by LucasArts. | 9 games |
| Infernal Engine | Game engine developed by Terminal Reality | 5 games |
| Inform programming language | A programming language and design system for interactive fiction, created by Graham Nelson in 1993. | 1 games |
| Install OS limit | The game setup program prevents installing the game on unsupported systems on purpose. | 6 games |
| IntelliJ IDEA by JetBrains | Games developed in part or fully using the IntelliJ Integrated Developer Environment. | 1 games |
| Interactive Fiction Engine | A proprietary game engine of interactive fictions. Created by Simutronics. | 2 games |
| Inverse kinematics | Uses inverse kinematics or similar animation technique that tries to dynamically find the position of joints in respect to the desired end position, usually to connect a leg to solid surface. | 13 games |
| iPod Linux operating system | Games for iPod Linux O/S. | 1 games |
| IRE game engine | A game engine similar to the one used for Ultima 6. Uses Allegro. | 2 games |
| IRIX operating system | Games for SGI's IRIX OS. | 21 games |
| irrKlang audio library | A cross-platform audio library/API by Ambiera. | 3 games |
| ISACT | | 0 games |
| Jade engine | A game engine developed by Ubisoft (originally in their Montpellier studio). | 34 games |
| Java language | Coded wholly or partially in Java or is extensible with it. | 7 games |
| Java platfom | Runs on the Java platform. Ideally they work on any system with Java runtime environment available without any differences. | 44 games |
| Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition;Java ME) | A subset of Java for resource limited devices like cell phones, PDAs, & set-top boxes. | 10 games |
| Jedi engine | A game engine by LucasArts. | 2 games |
| JGMOD | An add-on for Allegro programs to play MODs. By Jeffery Guan. | 3 games |
| jPCT | jPCT is a free 3D engine/API for Java. It has renderers for OpenGL, Swing/AWT, and well as ability to display in browsers.
| 3 games |
| K Desktop Environment | Requires KDE components, a desktop environment for X11. | 4 games |
| Kinetica engine | Game engine developed by SCEA. | 16 games |
| Klik | Klik aims to reduce an application to only 1 file (the executable) that runs from any location on any distro without being installed. | 33 games |
| Knoppix Linux OS | Game runs on Debian-based Knoppix. Famous for being entirely CD runnable or other removable media. | 1 games |
| KRASS engine | | 4 games |
| Kung Fu Game State Machine Engine | A game engine created by Color Dreams Inc and used in several of their games. | 3 games |
| LaserLock (LaserLok) | A copy protection that involves unreadable files in a hidden LASERLOCK folder on the game CD. | 1 games |
| Letterbox | Uses letterboxing to allow unsupported aspect ratios to display correctly. | 13 games |
| License: BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution license) | Distributed under the BSD license. | 5 games |
| License: GNU GPL (GNU General Public License) | Distributed under the GNU GPL license. | 12 games |
| License: MIT (Massachusetts institute of technology license) | Distributed under the MIT license. | 2 games |
| License: Partially GNU GPL (Partially GNU General Public License) | If only part of the game is release under the GPL license. Then this tag. applies. | 3 games |
| Lindows Linux O/S (Linspire;LindowsOS;Lin---s;Lindash;Freespire) | Games for Lindows operating system | 1 games |
| Linux Game Publishing Copy Protection (LGP Copy Protection) | Supposedly a key/name/password system designed for full legal copying & installation rights for legitimate buyers while discouraging illegal copies. | 20 games |
| LISP computer programing language | [b]LI[/b]st [b]P[/b]rocessing [b]L[/b]anguage is the 2nd oldest high-level language, uses fully parenthesized syntax & was favored during the early days of AI. | 4 games |
| Lithtech game engine | A game engine originally created by Monolith Productions. | 41 games |
| Living Battlefield engine | | 2 games |
| Local save storage | Stores saves locally on some system default location. | 1 games |
| LPMud driver (LDMud driver) | MUDs running on LPMud driver or any of its derivatives. LPMud is a powerful engine with very little hard-coded functionality besides the LPC interpreter, unlike many other MUD drivers which rely on hardcoded info. | 5 games |
| LyN Engine | | 4 games |
| Mac OS 1 (OS Classic 1;Mac System Software 1) | Runs natively on the Original Mac System 1 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 1 games |
| Mac OS 2 (OS Classic 2;Mac System Software 2) | Runs natively on Mac System 2 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 0 games |
| Mac OS 3 (OS Classic 3;Mac System Software 3) | Runs natively on Mac System 3 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 0 games |
| Mac OS 4 (OS Classic 4;Mac System Software 4) | Runs natively on Mac System 4 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 0 games |
| Mac OS 5 (OS Classic 5;Mac System Software 5) | Runs natively on Mac System 5 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 0 games |
| Mac OS 6 (OS Classic 6) | Runs natively on Mac OS 6 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 2 games |
| Mac OS 7 (OS Classic 7) | Runs natively on Mac OS 7 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 3 games |
| Mac OS 8 (OS Classic 8) | Runs natively on Mac OS 8 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 4 games |
| Mac OS 9 (OS Classic 9) | Runs natively on Mac OS 9 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 2 games |
| Mac OS X 10.1.x Puma | For the 10.1 version of OS X. | 6 games |
| Mac OS X 10.2.x Jaguar | For the 10.2 version of OS X. | 9 games |
| Mac OS X 10.3.x Panther | For the 10.3 version of OS X. | 10 games |
| Mac OS X 10.4.x Tiger | For the 10.4 version of OS X. | 9 games |
| Mac OS X 10.5.x Leopard | For the 10.5 version of OS X. | 2 games |
| Mac OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard | Software themes For the 10.6 version of OS X. | 1 games |
| Mac OS X operating system | Games for OS X. Not compatible with Classic Mac OS (version 9 and earlier). | 131 games |
| Maemo OS | Maemo is a Linux distro based on Debian GNU/Linux and GNOME. It uses the Hildon application framework (GTK-based) and the Matchbox window manager. | 2 games |
| Mandriva Linux (Mandrake Linux) | Originally Redhat based. Uses rpm. Know for Windows-to-Linux migration tools, urpmi package manager, & nspluginwrapper allowing 32bit plugins on 64bit | 23 games |
| Map generator (Level generator;Random map generator) | Uses (random) map/level generator to create most or all areas where the player can go to instead of shipping with regular human designed static levels or maps. | 82 games |
| MecaniQue Interactive Fiction Authoring System | Proprietary IF creation software by Gabor de Mooij | 1 games |
| MechWarrior 2 game engine | Uses MechWarrior 2's game engine. | 11 games |
| Microprose Adventure Development System (M.A.D.S.) | | 3 games |
| mikmod | | 1 games |
| Miles Sound System (MSS) | Sound middleware originally by Miles Design to overcome the differences in soundcards in the old DOS days. Maintained by RAD Game Tools since 1995. | 156 games |
| Minix operating system | Originally intended as a learning tool to understand how UNIX-like OSes work. Minix 3 & later, however, are also intended to be of practical use. | 5 games |
| MiNT OS (FreeMiNT OS) | Game runs on MiNT operating system. The opensource OS that Atari adopted for the Falcon. Later renamed FreeMiNT. | 1 games |
| Minux operating system | Originally intended as a learning tool to understand how UNIX-like OSes work. Minux 3 & later, however, are also intended to be of practical use. | 0 games |
| MorphOS/Quark | An operating system for PowerPC based hardware. Designed for maximum compatibility with all Amiga applications. | 3 games |
| MPlayer.com (Mplay;MPlayer) | Multiplayer service that ran from 1996 till 2001. | 5 games |
| MT Framework engine | A game engine by Capcom specifically developed for Dead Rising, Lost Planet and possibly a third game. | 11 games |
| Multics OS (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service OS) | Games for Multics operating system. Ran from 1964 till October 31, 2000. Very influential on UNIX. | 1 games |
| ncurses | Is a free software foundation version of curses, which is a library for implementing GUI & graphic looking applications using only text display. | 4 games |
| Nebula Device 3D game engine | An open-source game engine by Radon Labs. | 2 games |
| NetBSD operating system | Games for NetBSD. A freely redistributable version of BSD. | 14 games |
| NeWS (Network extensible Window System) | Originally the "SunDew project. NeWS is windowing system by Sun Microsystems | 1 games |
| No install required (Runs off the media;Zero install) | Runs without installing any game files to permanent media besides possible configuration files and game saves. | 1 games |
| No saves | Player has no permanent game progress saves of any kind. | 37 games |
| Non-game | Entries in UVL that aren't games. | 14 games |
| nProtect GameGuard | Anti-hack software. | 15 games |
| OCCAM 2 Programming Language/Operating System | [gametag=OCCAM OCCAM]OCCAM OCCAM[/gametag] with more data types, floating-point math, functions, & multi-dimensional arrays. finally a full language instead of just an OS | 1 games |
| OCCAM Programming Language/Operating System | OCCAM Games. Language created by INMOS for their Transputer platform. Later ported. Threads can be sequential, concurrent, guarded or channeled | 1 games |
| Odyssey game engine | Game uses the Odyssey Engine. | 5 games |
| Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Construction Engine | James Paige, Brian Fisher, and team's retro RPG engine for creating games in the style of SNES/NES/GBA Final Fantasy series. | 1 games |
| Offset engine | A game engine by Offset Software. | 3 games |
| Onyx engine | Game engine developed by Ubisoft. | 4 games |
| Open Dynamics Engine (ODE physics engine) | Open source physics engine mainly for simulating rigid body dynamics. | 19 games |
| Open2x operating system | Fully open-source alternative operating system for the GP2X game console. | 1 games |
| OpenAL (OAL;Open Audio Library) | Cross-platform audio API for multichannel 3D positional audio originally by Loki Software. | 183 games |
| OpenBSD operating system | Games for OpenBSD. Fully Open Source & documented fork of NetBSD. | 13 games |
| OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision) | A computer vision library originally by Intel. | 1 games |
| OpenGL (Open Graphics Library;OGL) | Uses or can use OGL for graphics. | 394 games |
| OpenGL Utility Toolkit | Game uses GLUT library or any alternative implementations of the GLUT API. | 1 games |
| OpenVMS operating system | Games for OpenVMS. | 1 games |
| Operating system limit | Games that have artificial limiter that prevents them from being played on operating systems they fail to recognize or think are unable to run the game properly. | 3 games |
| P.I.S.D. (Platform Independent Software Development) | A C++ software library provided by P.I.S.D. Ltd. It allows for easy cross-platform development of interfaces. | 0 games |
| P.I.S.D. (Platform Independent Software Development) Software themes | A C++ software library provided by P.I.S.D. Ltd. It allows for easy cross-platform development of interfaces. | 7 games |
| Panzer General engine | | 8 games |
| Pardus Linux | | 1 games |
| Pascal programming language | Games written in Pascal, an imperative and procedural programming language, developed in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth. | 22 games |
| PCLinuxOS | Linux from Texas. A Debian derived distro with influences from Mandriva. Also from Gentoo, OpenSuSE, Fedora, & Ubuntu. Backed by the PCLinuxOS company | 3 games |
| Performance issues (Speed issues) | The game is for a system that has no variation in hardware yet still runs into occasional performance issues. | 4 games |
| PhenoProtect copy protection | | 1 games |
| PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) | An alternative to Perl that allows servers to execute C like code. A few games have been programmed using it. These nearly always require a server. | 1 games |
| PhysX physics engine | Uses PhysX physics engine. | 145 games |
| Pinhole Copy Protection | Primitive DRM method of puncturing a specific point of a master floppy disk. If the game can read & write that sector, it knows its being played from a copy | 2 games |
| PopCap Games Framework | Primarily 2D game engine from PopCap Games. | 1 games |
| Predefined controls (Single predefined control layout) | Offers only single configuration of controls with no options to change the button layout or anything else. | 7 games |
| Prism3D engine | Game engine by SCS Software. | 6 games |
| PunkBuster anti-cheat software | | 18 games |
| PureBasic programming language | A programming language based on established BASIC rules. | 3 games |
| pygame | A game development framework that wraps SDL for Python. | 13 games |
| Python programming language | | 34 games |
| Qnx operating system | QNX/Q-nix is a POSIX compliant, unix-like operating system.
| 2 games |
| QSound (QSound3D) | Uses QSound Labs' cross-platform audio API. | 45 games |
| Qt (cute;cutie) | A cross-platform development framework. | 3 games |
| Quake engine (Quake 1 engine) | Uses Quake's game engine. | 12 games |
| Quantum3 engine | A game engine by High Voltage Software. | 3 games |
| Quarterdeck Desqview/X | A system for running UNIX/X11 applications in an MS-DOS or compatible environment. | 1 games |
| Quesa 3D | An open source alternative to Apple's QuickDraw™ 3D API that adds some features. | 2 games |
| QuickBasic (QBASIC) | Unlike BASIC, QBASIC is a compilable structured programming language. Though supported, line numbers & GOTO are discouraged in favor of subroutines & functions | 24 games |
| QuickTime media player | Requires Apple QuickTime to be present on the system. | 4 games |
| RAVE (Rendering Acceleration Virtual Engine) | Apple's short-lived cross-platform rendering API. | 4 games |
| ReactOS | Games that run on ReactOS, an alternative OS that aims for 100% Windows compatibility and is opensource. | 20 games |
| REALbasic computer programming lanuage and IDE | "REALbasic is a rapid application development environment that enables developers to create high-quality, native software for Windows, Mac and Linux"
| 3 games |
| Redhat Linux OS | Games that run on Red Hat. A commercial Linux distro. Red Hat, Inc.'s best known product. Includes [b]7 years of support[/b]. [gametag=fedora]Fedora[/gametag] is the free version. | 15 games |
| Redhat Package Manager (RPM) | Comes in a RPM package. Other distros beside Redhat/Fedora can use theses packages also. | 25 games |
| Refractor 2 game engine | A game engine by Refraction Games and Digital Illusions. | 8 games |
| RenderWare engine | A 3D graphics engine by Criterion Software. | 42 games |
| RISC OS operating system | Famous for fewest & least harmful viruses of any OS & no spyware ever. | 4 games |
| Rockstar Advanced Game Engine | | 9 games |
| RRedline graphics API (Speedy3D) | Rendition's proprietary graphics API. | 2 games |
| RSTS-11 or RSTS/E operating system | A multi-user time-sharing OS by DEC for the PDP-11. Maintained from 1970 until 1992-09. | 1 games |
| Ruby language | Coded and/or extensible in Ruby, a programming language designed by Yukihiro Matsumoto. | 4 games |
| SAGA engine | | 2 games |
| SAGE game engine | Games using SAGE engine or its first iteration Westwood 3D (W3D) engine. | 17 games |
| Saves stored on removable storage | Game saves and such are saved on removable storage media, such as a floppy disk or memory card. | 0 games |
| Sci0 - Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 0 | Games programmed with Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 0 | 14 games |
| Sci1 - Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 1 | Games programmed with Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 1 | 7 games |
| Sci11 - Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 1.1 | Games programmed with Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 1.1 | 7 games |
| Sci2 - Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 2 | Games programmed with Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 2 | 5 games |
| SCO UNIX (SCO OpenServer;SCO Open Desktop) | A closed source UNIX maintained by the SCO Group since 1989. Originally a bare bones OS for OEMs to customize, the server and desktop were later added | 2 games |
| SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) | A scripting engine used by many LucasArts games. | 26 games |
| SecuROM PA | SecuROM's internet activation based copy protection. | 15 games |
| SecuROM v1-v3 copy protection | A copy protection scheme. | 22 games |
| SecuROM v4 copy protection (SecuROM New) | Copy protection scheme.
Game only runs if a drive knows the difference between a read-only & writable disk. Many read-only drives do not. | 5 games |
| SecuROM v4.7-4.83 copy protection | Copy protection scheme | 3 games |
| SecuROM v4.84+ copy protection | Copy protection scheme.
This version adds to v4.7 the ability for a game to check a disk to verify the copy protection is present on it. | 2 games |
| SecuROM v5 | A copy protection scheme. | 7 games |
| SecuROM v7.x copy protection | Copy protection scheme. | 79 games |
| Self Modifying | Games that can alter their own programming. | 1 games |
| Serial key (Product key;CD-key;Serial number;Unlock key;Registration key) | Requires some form of alphanumeric key or similar to be presented to prove you own an authentic copy. A weak copy-protection mechanism, but more useful as GUID which it is also used for. | 147 games |
| SEUK (Shoot'em Up Construction Kit) | | 1 games |
| Silent Storm engine | Game engine developed by Nival Interactive | 9 games |
| Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) | A cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL, and 2D video framebuffer. | 337 games |
| Single save | Offers only single save slot per player. | 45 games |
| Sith engine | Game engine developed by LucasArts. | 4 games |
| SkyOS operating system | proprietary | 1 games |
| Slackware Linux Distro | | 5 games |
| Slax Linux Distro | Designed to be installed on thumbdrive, Media card, MP3 player, iPod, digital camera, etc & ran from any computer the device will interface with. | 1 games |
| Slayer game engine | A game engine developed by The Collective. | 12 games |
| SmartE copy protection (SmarteSECURE) | A copy protection scheme. | 3 games |
| Solaris operating system | | 37 games |
| Solidshield | A copy protection scheme often combined with TAGES. | 9 games |
| Source code included | For non-FOSS games that provide their source code, usually through some very restrictive license. | 8 games |
| Source engine | Uses Valve's Source engine that was developed with Half-Life 2. | 42 games |
| Speech synthesis (Text-to-speech;TTS) | Features speech synthesizer in one capacity or another. | 16 games |
| Spring engine | | 1 games |
| SQLite | A tiny C library to embed a tiny SQL database engine into a program without any fuss.
| 2 games |
| Starbreeze engine | A cross-platform game engine by Starbreeze Studios. | 4 games |
| StarForce copy protection | A copy protection scheme that has garnered perhaps the most criticism when compared to other mechanisms (barring things like Steam).
Installs low-level system drivers to perform their task. | 51 games |
| SunOS operating system | | 12 games |
| Super Pitfall Engine | A game engine by Steve Bjork used famously for Super Pitfall & less so for Mine Rescue. | 3 games |
| SUSE Linux (SUSE) | | 14 games |
| SVGALib | | 2 games |
| Syllable OS | | 1 games |
| Temporary Save (Expiring Save) | Tag used with another save method. Denotes saves are [i]designed[/i] to expire/erase. Such as by normal system reset, power off, or game is unloaded | 1 games |
| The Wonderful World of Eamon | Uses the Eamon text plus graphics game engine to play the 240+ games created for it. | 3 games |
| TheEngine | A 3D engine by SkyFallen. | 5 games |
| Theora video encoding | Uses Theora video encoding format by Xiph.Org, often stored in Ogg container format. | 3 games |
| Titan game engine | Uses the Titan game engine created by Stainless Steel Studios. | 6 games |
| Tops-10 operating system | [b]T[/b]imesharing/[b]T[/b]otal [b]OP[/b]erating [b]S[/b]ystem. Designed 1964 for the PDP-10. It is still commercially available or usable at no cost under Hobbyist License. | 1 games |
| TOPS-20 operating system | The 2nd proprietary OS for the DEC PDP-10. It was the most popular proprietary OS for that system. It replaced TOPS-10 (the 1st). | 1 games |
| Tracker music (Sequencer music;MOD music) | Music is in some tracker format. | 7 games |
| Tru64 UNIX (DEC OSF/1;DEC-UNIX) | A UNIX Built on the Mach kernel. Originally by DEC (OSF/1), it is currently owned by Hewlett Packard. | 3 games |
| TUTOR programming language | A [[tag:plato PLATO system]] language for creating computerized 'lessons'. Quickly rescued from obscurity when numerous games were created for it. | 2 games |
| TUTOR programming language (PLATO Author Language) | Developed for [gametag=plato]PLATO[/gametag]. Purely designed for teaching, it was unintentionally used for games. | 2 games |
| Ubuntu Linux (Kubuntu;Xubuntu;Edubuntu;Gobuntu) | Comes with/Installs very simply on Ubuntu. | 242 games |
| Unbound speed (CPU bound speed) | Game speed is purely dependent on how fast your computer can run it, making them run unplayably fast on newer machines without artificial means of slowing it down. | 4 games |
| Unigine | A multi-core scalable cross-platform real-time 3D engine w/photorealistic 3D render, physics, OO scripting, GUI module, sound subsystem, & tools. | 4 games |
| UNIX operating system | Originally by AT&T Bell Labs. Various branches & version were made over the years including BSD, OSX, SunOS & Linux. Trademark is now owned by The Open Group. | 12 games |
| Unreal Engine | Uses first generation of the Unreal Engine, developed by Epic Games. | 38 games |
| Unreal Engine 2 (Unreal Engine 2X;Unreal Engine 2.5) | Second generation Unreal Engine by Epic Games. | 82 games |
| Unreal Engine 2X | | 0 games |
| Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) | Uses third generation Unreal Engine (by Epic Games). | 136 games |
| Vampire engine | | 2 games |
| Vicious Engine | A game engine (middleware) by [[company:Vicious Cycle Software]]. | 9 games |
| Virtools Web Player | Allows interactive programs to be embedded in web pages or playable in a browser. Similar is some ways to Macromedia Flash. | 1 games |
| Virtual Theatre game engine | A cross-platform adventure game engine by Revolution Software designed to run on Windows, DOS, Atari ST, Amiga, Macintosh and Playstation. | 9 games |
| Visual Basic programming language | Version of BASIC that is object-oriented & event-driven. Events, functions & subroutines are associated with GUI elements by default. | 9 games |
| VLOS Linux (VidaLinux Desktop OS) | A Gentoo based distro designed for ease of use (unlike Gentoo). | 1 games |
| Vorbis audio encoding | Uses Vorbis audio encoding format by Xiph.Org, often stored in Ogg container format. | 162 games |
| Voxel Space engine | Games using any generation of the Voxel Space engine, created by NovaLogic. | 10 games |
| Win3.x compatible | | 0 games |
| Win32s | Uses a subset of the Win32 API that allows it to be run in 16 bit O/S, such as Win3.1. | 1 games |
| Windowed | Runs only in a window. | 17 games |
| Windows 2000 (Win2K;Windows NT 5.0) | Runs natively on Win2k and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 295 games |
| Windows 95 (Win95) | Runs natively on Win95 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 160 games |
| Windows 98 (Windows 98SE;Windows ME;Windows Millenium Edition) | Runs natively on Win98 and/or WinME and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 250 games |
| Windows Moble operating system (WindowsCE 5.0;WinCE 5.0) | | 1 games |
| Windows NT4 (WinNT;WinNT4;Windows NT 4.0) | Runs natively on WinNT4 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 37 games |
| Windows Vista (Windows NT 6.0) | Runs natively on Vista and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 247 games |
| Windows XP (WinXP;Windows NT 5.1;Windows NT 5.2) | Runs natively on WinXP and is supported by the developers/publishers on it. | 466 games |
| Windows XP 64 incompatible | Windows games incompatible with the said OS for one reason or another. These incompatibilities are usually rather spurious and most often go without slightest explanation. Oddly enough, many of these games run well in Vista 64. | 1 games |
| Windows: 16 bit installer | Installer is 16 bit application even if the game itself is 32 bit. Prevents installation on 64 bit Windows as the 16 bit sub-system is missing. | 9 games |
| Wolfenstein 3D game engine | Games that use the age old Wolf3D engine first used in, surprise surprise, [[gameid:19651 Wolfenstein 3D]]. | 8 games |
| wxWidgets[wxWindows] | Cross-platform widget toolkit for building GUIs. | 10 games |
| X Window System (X11) | Requires X11, such as XFree86, X.org or Xming. | 77 games |
| X-Ray Engine | | 3 games |
| X86-16 | Requires x86 CPU and an OS that can run 16 bit executables. | 7 games |
| XFree86 X11 sever for GP2X | These game require the GP2X11 server to run. | 1 games |
| XNA Framework | Made with and uses the Microsoft XNA framework, a set of tools and a runtime for game development. | 3 games |
| xTrap anti-cheat software | Uses xTrap to protect against cheaters. | 3 games |
| Yasmina's Quest engine | Combo graphical point-n-click+text adventure in PHP & DHTML. Enhanceable with JavaScript. Needs BeOS/Linux/*BSD/Win32s & compatible browser (FF+JS) | 2 games |
| Yeti Engine | Modified Unreal Engine 2.5 | 14 games |
| ZIL engine (Zork Implementation Language;Z-Machine) | A text game engine. Z-machine games where written in ZIL and compiled with Zilch into Z-code files. Z-machines for any platform all ran the same Z-code. | 28 games |
