Browse Software groups

series

AliceSoft System	cross platform OS/VM hybrids by AliceSoft. Began as PC-98, x68k, FM-Towns, etc. Eventually focused on Windows, still has porting ability (Linux, Mac)		2 games
Glacier	Uses any generation/version of the Glacier game engine by IO Interactive.		0 game
GNOME Games	These games make up the GNOME Games package that comes standard with the GNOME Desktop Environment.	1994 / 2005	17 games
HPL	Uses any version of the HPL game engine by Frictional Games.	2007 / 2015	18 games
The KDE Education Project	These games are part of the The KDE Education Project.	2005 / 2011	11 games
Unreal Engine	Uses any generation of the Unreal Engine.	1998 / 2019	111 games

themes

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.	2006 / 2009	6 games
Ada programming language	A high-level programming language originally created by High Order Language Working Group (formed by US Department of Defense).	1980 / 2016	27 games
AESOP (Extensible State-Object Processor)	AESOP/16 and AESOP/32 are script based sound systems developed by Miles Design	1993 / 2015	6 games
AI middleware (Artificial Intellligence middleware;AI libraries)			0 game
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	1989 / 1997	16 games
ALT Linux Sisyphus	A set of Linux distros specializing in customization, correct localization, and advanced package management.	2001 / 2015	5 games
Amos programming language		1993 / 1996	8 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.	1991 / 2014	35 games
Annchienta Engine	A versatile 2D game engine by Jasper Van der Jeugt. Written in C++. Game can be written in C++ or other languages such as Python.	2006 / 2012	3 games
Anti-cheat (Anti-hack)	Uses any kind of anti-cheat/hack solutions.	2013 / 2014	3 games
APL programming language	Programmed in APL or one of its variants.		1 game
AppleDOS 3.1	Games that operated on Apple's AppleDOS version 3.1. Either internally (boot disk) or could be loaded on a system running 3.1		1 game
AppleDOS 3.2	Games that operated on Apple's AppleDOS version 3.2. Either internally (boot disk) or could be loaded on a system running 3.2.	1977 / 1983	24 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.	1978 / 2022	171 games
AppleTalk	AppleTalk is a set of proprietary networking protocols developed 1984 by Apple for use with the Mac, OSX, ][c, & accessories. Discontinued 2009.	1984 / 2000	11 games
Application Programming Interfaces			0 game
Arch Linux	A minimalist distro designed elegant, code correct, lightweight, & simple from a developers point of view. Relies heavily on command-line utilities.	1996 / 2019	71 games
Archive Games	This game is available through the Archive Games distribution/shopping service.	1989 / 2010	21 games
Ardor3d	Games that utilized Ardor3D, an open source, Java based 3D engine for desktop and mobile environments.		4 games
AROS (AROS Research Operating System;Amiga Research Operating System)	AROS is a non-propriety implementation of the AmigaOS 3.1 APIs. Source-compatible not binary-compatible; designed so AmigaOS code will compile on it.	2005 / 2014	2 games
Assembly language (ASM)	Written in assembly language; human readable form of machine code. The least portable & lowest level that can still be considered a computer language.	1975 / 2022	252 games
Audio middleware (Sound engines;Audio libraries)			0 game
Audio occlusion	Simulates audio occlusion.		2 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).	1995 / 2015	18 games
Automatic wide aspect ratio	Can attempt to automatically adjust to wide aspect ratios besides those it supports directly.	2005 / 2008	4 games
Bagatur Chess Engine			1 game
BASIC programming language (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)	Coded in BASIC.	1970 / 2021	2139 games
BASICA Programming Language	Games that use BASICA source code.	1982 / 1986	2 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 game
Battle.net (bnet)	Utilizes Blizzard's Battle.net matchmaking and internet lobby services.	1996 / 2015	30 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 game
Bell Labs UNIX	Games that run on a specific UNIX OS distributed by Bell Labs		1 game
BeOS (ZetaOS)	Runs on the BeOS Operating System.	1990 / 2010	481 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	2000 / 2016	96 games
Blender Game Engine	Shares the same code base as the Blender 3D modeling tool. But unlike blender, it renders in real time with sounds and interactivity.	2008 / 2014	16 games
Borland Graphics Interface	A device independent graphics library that can be statically or dynamically linked.		1 game
Boss button (Boss key;Panic button)	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.	1983 / 2011	27 games
Browser-based(HTML)[HTML4;HTML5]	Played in a regular internet HTTP browser, via HTML, javascript and/or server-side processing. Usually requires account registration, but not always even that.	1998 / 2015	83 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.	1971 / 2014	35 games
BSDi v4 operating system	Games that run on version 4 of the official BSD operating system provided by Berkeley Software Design, Inc.	1992 / 1996	3 games
C programming language	Coded in C, a general-purpose programming language, originally designed by Dennis Ritchie.	1972 / 2021	509 games
Caldera Linux			1 game
Cel Shading	Cel shading, cell shading, or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades.	2003 / 2014	12 games
CentOS Linux Distribution	Games for the CentOS operating system. CentOS promises 100% compatibility with Red Hat Linux	2004 / 2017	15 games
Chipmunk Physics Engine		2011 / 2012	4 games
clanlib	Cross platform C++ toolkit library. Its primary focus is on games.	2001 / 2012	16 games
Classic Mac OS	Games for Mac OS 9 or earlier.	1984 / 2019	2249 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.	1997 / 2022	45 games
Color Clash	Games are very colorful in the play area, but they are accompanied by strong color clash effects, or the background disapears to prevent it.	1983 / 2020	219 games
Color: 16 bit floating point (64 bit color;Half-precision floating point color)[Half16;Half-16;RGBA16f]	A 64 bit color mode where each color is represented by a 16 bit floating point number rather than an integer. The output is still presumed to be standard 24 bit RGB as is expected by most modern display devices.	2007 / 2017	4 games
Comes in a Debian package	Other distros beside [gametag=debian Debian]debian Debian[/gametag] can use theses packages also.	1993 / 2017	124 games
Compatibility	Any and all tags relating to software and hardware compatibility.		0 game
Compatible with Wine	Works [b]normally[/b] with at least 1 version of Wine translation and compatibility layer for Linux, simply by installing it, the same as if you were running it on Windows	1989 / 2016	62 games
Compiled Basic	Although source code was written in BASIC, this code was compiled into machine code to be distributed.	1980 / 2018	8 games
Control config (User configurable controls)	Allows changing controls, keyboard mappings, button layout, etc. It provides flexibility and customization to better suit the user.	1981 / 2022	111 games
Control layouts (Control presets;Multiple predefined control layouts)	Offers several predefined control layouts but no full customization, nor are these different control schemes.	2002 / 2009	4 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 game
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. Made 'open source' in 2001.	1970 / 2019	178 games
Crystal Space 3D engine	An Open Source 3D graphics engine.	2006 / 2009	14 games
Curses	A library for implementing GUI & graphic looking applications using only text display.	1990 / 2013	22 games
Custom Operating System	These games use a self-contained operating system (other than a single bootloading system).		1 game
Customizable anamorphic aspect ratio	The resolution & aspect ratio are fully independent and customizable.	2014 / 2015	3 games
D programming language (DMD;Digital Mars D)	A programming language created by Walter Bright of Digital Mars.	2001 / 2017	26 games
Dark Basic programming language	Game is written in Dark BASIC computer language.	2000 / 2014	3 games
Dark Side Engine	Created by Activision for Heavy Gear II and used in other games.	1999 / 2000	3 games
DART (Direct Audio Real Time)	A sound API & corresponding DLL that allows OS/2 applications to have multiple levels of direct access to audio hardware.	1997 / 2006	22 games
DASM Assembler	A tool for programming in assembly		1 game
Data only	Released as data only, requiring the player to find a game engine to run it on. Likely platform-independent.	2001 / 2016	55 games
Debian GNU/Linux	Games for Debian distro. The most tightly organized GNU OS available.	1993 / 2021	341 games
DemonWare middleware	Networking middleware by DemonWare Ltd. (owned by Activision since 2007/02)	2005 / 2007	8 games
Desktop Environments			0 game
Development System used HLSL parser	These games had their source code translated from Direct3D to OpenGL using the HLSL parser originally developed by Unknown Worlds Entertainment.		2 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.	1993 / 1997	14 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.	1993 / 1997	7 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.	1993 / 1997	9 games
Development system used was only a text editor and compiler.	Developed in whole or in part using only a text editor. These text files were then compiled directly.		1 game
Development System used was running a Linux based OS	These games were developed in part or whole using at least 1 Linux based system.	1996 / 2017	44 games
Development system used was running Classic Mac OS	These games were developed in part or whole using at least 1 machine or Mac OS 9 or earlier.	1991 / 2000	5 games
Development System used was running CP/M	These games were developed in part or whole using at least 1 computer running the CP/M operating system.		1 game
Development System used was running MacOS X	These games were developed in part or whole using Mac OS X.	2004 / 2011	2 games
Development System used was running Minix	These games were developed in part or whole using at least 1 Minix based system.		0 game
Development System used was running UNIX	These games were developed in part or whole using at least 1 UNIX based system.	1991 / 1993	5 games
Direct3D	Uses or can use Direct3D for graphics.	1996 / 2015	48 games
DirectMusic (Interactive Music Architecture)	A deprecated subset of the DirectSound API that allowed high level access to hardware through DirectSound. Not available to 64-bit systems.	2000 / 2004	8 games
DirectX 1.0 (DX1)	Supports or requires DX1 run-times to be present.	1995 / 1998	2 games
DirectX 2 (DX2)	Supports or requires DX2 run-times to be present.	1992 / 1999	4 games
DirectX 3 (DX3)	Supports or requires DX3 run-times to be present.	1996 / 2006	24 games
DirectX 5	Supports or requires DX5 run-times to be present.	1996 / 2007	56 games
DirectX[DX]			0 game
Display Control Interface	a predecessor to DirectDraw.		1 game
Display: 30 FPS cap(30 frames per second;Frame rate cap: 30)	Designed to run at 30 frames per second or is locked to run only at such screen update speed. Usually to deal with limited hardware capabilities of console platforms.	2005 / 2017	12 games
Display: 60 FPS cap(60 frames per second;Frame rate cap: 60)	Designed to run at 60 frames per second or is locked to run only at such screen update speed.	2016 / 2018	4 games
DIVE (Direct Interface Video Extentions)	A dynamic recompilation graphics API & corresponding DLL allowing OS/2 applications direct access to video hardware. DIVE predates DirectX/DirectDraw.	1994 / 2004	32 games
DoJa	A custom Java for DoCoMo's i-mode mobile phone platform.	2004 / 2011	2 games
Dolby Atmos			1 game
DOS installer	A Windows or otherwise non-DOS game that uses a DOS installer.	1983 / 1995	3 games
DOS/V	Games that need DOS/V to run. DOS/V is a special Japanese DOS version from IBM that could handle Japanese text. Introduced in November 1990		1 game
DragonFly BSD	Games that run on DragonFly BSD. A BSD to grow in an entirely different direction from other BSDs. Tokened & Virtual kernels, HAMMER FS, SSD optimised	1979 / 2003	26 games
DRM changed	The DRM mechanism used was changed to another with some update, and not simply updated to different version of the same thing.	2009 / 2011	2 games
DRM removed (Copy protection removed)	Games that originally were copy protected but had it removed in some officially released patch.	1982 / 2020	45 games
DRM: Pinhole Copy Protection	Primitive DRM method of puncturing a specific point of a master floppy disk. If the game can read & write the damaged sector, it knows its being played from a copy		3 games
DSiWare	Distributed through Nintendo's DSiWare online service for the Nintendo DSi handheld console.	2008 / 2013	71 games
Dualtone	Games are self constrained to using only two colors for the play area to not experience color clash.	1982 / 2019	295 games
Dynamic control prompts[Dynamic controller prompts]	The game dynamically changes controller prompts depending which controller you're currently using. Swap to keyboard and mouse and the prompts turn to key presses, swap to gamepad and it shows gamepad controls, with no other interaction from the player.	2016 / 2017	2 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.	2001 / 2016	21 games
ECMAScript (JavaScript;JScript;ECMA-262;ISO/IEC 16262)	Coded wholly or partially in ECMAScript or is extensible with it. Including any of its dialects such as JavaScript or JScript.	1998 / 2016	23 games
Eiffel Language	A computer language designed with commercial software in mind. Noted here at UVL for legitimate use.		1 game
EKI One	A game development suite.	2010 / 2012	2 games
Emulation			0 game
eON Technology (Virtual Programming)	A hybridization utilizing virtualization, emulation, & native libraries, allowing Windows games to run with specific circumstances on other platforms.	2001 / 2019	20 games
Europa Universalis Engine	Engine used for the 1st & 2ndgames in the series & possibly others & possibly games outside of the series.	2001 / 2014	4 games
Export data for use in another game.	Probably characters for a sequel, but any type data counts.	1987 / 2015	44 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 game
Facebook application		2008 / 2012	5 games
Famicom Disk Writer Exclusives	Famicom Disk Writer games that were only available from Disk writer kiosks. Usually no "box/package" exists for these games.	1987 / 1991	29 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		4 games
Famitracker NES music development software	Music was developed in full or part using the Famitracker software.		1 game
Fargo II Shell	Fargo II is an OS shell for the TI-92 calculator		0 game
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 game
Fedora Core Linux	Games that run on the Fedora Core Distro. Fedora is the 'free' version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.	1993 / 2019	127 games
ffdshow incompatibility	Exhibits issues of varying severity with ffdshow installed.	1999 / 2003	4 games
Flight Sim Toolkit	Built on Domark's Flight Sim Toolkit.	1993 / 1998	13 games
FOCAL language	FOCAL was a high-level computer language used mostly on early DEC systems.		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.	1970 / 2014	25 games
Frame synced (Frame synced logic)	Game speed and background logic is synced with drawn frames, meaning the actual game slows down or speeds up depending how fast it gets rendered and not just getting choppier or more fluid graphics. Top speed may be limited (via VSync or FPS cap).	1982 / 2015	27 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.	1979 / 2016	344 games
Friend-Zone Engine	The Friend-Zone engine is a friendship/relationship engine by Quickfire Games		1 game
Fullscreen only	Runs only in fullscreen.	1995 / 2021	81 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.	2005 / 2011	10 games
Game engines	This is a parent group for game engines.		0 game
Game Gear - Master System Compatability Mode	Game Gear games running in Master System compatibility mode.	1991 / 1993	12 games
Game makers (Game development environments)	Any software that exists to make making games as simple, easy and efficient as possible.		0 game
Game Oriented Object LISP 2 Engine (GOOL 2 Engine)			1 game
Game saves	Any tag that describes when or where the game can be saved, but does not include on what the saves are stored if anything.		0 game
Games for Windows - LIVE (XLive;GfWL)	Uses the Windows LIVE online service. Similar to Xbox Live and actually bridges over to it.	2007 / 2012	34 games
GameSpy (GameSpy Arcade)	Uses GameSpy's multiplayer matchmaking service. This may require an unique account at GameSpy.	1998 / 2015	85 games
GC Engine	Developed for use at GameCoder Studios with planned licensing later.	1990 / 2013	16 games
GCOS (General Comprehensive Operating System;GECOS;General Electric Comprehensive Operating System)	Later renamed GECOS (the [b]G[/b]eneral [b]E[/b]lectric [b]C[/b]omprehensive [b]O[/b]perating [b]S[/b]upervisor) A multithreaded OS originally by General Electric that was designed for mainframes & batch processing. Remains in use through emulation for		1 game
Geeny Engine	A game engine by Sinister Systems		8 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. It was initially BSD based.	1983 / 2019	114 games
GFA Basic			1 game
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 game
Gnome Desktop Environment	Requires Gnome, a Linux/X11 desktop environment.	1994 / 2014	50 games
GNU Data Language (GDL)	GNU Data Language is a variant of Lisp and Free alternative to IDL.		2 games
GNU Standard C++ Library v3 (libstdc++5)	This has been removed from many modern Linux distros but many early games depend on it and will not work with newer versions. It can be installed from Old repos or manually.	2002 / 2005	3 games
GOAL Programming Lanuage (Game Oriented Assembly Lisp)	GOAL is a game oriented non-interpretor variant of Lisp that compiles directly to machine code and is similar to Scheme.	1996 / 2005	7 games
Graphics middleware (Graphics engines;Graphics libraries)	Any middleware that deals with rendering, texturing, visual effects, graphical user interface, image manipulation, animation, etc.		0 game
Graphics options	Actually offers options to sacrifice graphical fidelity for increased framerate. Mainly of interest on platforms where this is unusual, such as consoles.		1 game
Graphics techniques			0 game
GReasy Graphics System	A low memory footprint graphics engine by Sellam Abraham for handling animations, backgrounds, & sprites extremely quickly for the Apple II platform.		1 game
GREE application	Japanese social networking service.		1 game
Haaf's Game Engine (HGE)	By Relish Games. For quickly making hardware accelerated 2D games without having to know a lot about technology.	2009 / 2011	3 games
Haiku OS	Haiku is a modern replacement for x86 BeOS running on x86, x64, Arm, PowerPC, 68k, MIPS & possibly others. x86 BeOS compatibility requires an x86 CPU.	1990 / 2016	387 games
Haskell Computer Language		2011 / 2013	7 games
HawkNL™ (Hawk Network Library)	A free LGPL low level network API for games.		4 games
Heat.net	Uses SegaSoft's online service Heat.net, based on MPlayer.	1997 / 2000	3 games
Hosting(Servers)	Any tags relating to hosting multiplayer games or related concepts.		0 game
HP-UX OS (Hewlett Packard UniX)	Games run on HP-UX. HP's version of UNIX System V. HP-UX is why an HP tech can pull up your file in the time it takes a Dell tech to say "Please Hold"	1991 / 2005	24 games
HURD	Runs on the HURD microkernal, the intended core of the GNU operating system.	1997 / 2006	7 games
Import data created by another game	Probably characters from a prequel, but any type data counts.	1986 / 2021	70 games
iMUSE (Interactive Music Streaming Engine)	An interactive/adaptive music engine by LucasArts.	1991 / 2015	19 games
Inform programming language	A programming language and design system for interactive fiction, created by Graham Nelson in 1993.	1993 / 2009	4 games
Installjammer	A cross-platform windows style installation tool.	2009 / 2010	2 games
IntelliJ IDEA by JetBrains	Games developed in part or fully using the IntelliJ Integrated Developer Environment.		1 game
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.	1998 / 2018	41 games
iPod Linux operating system	Games for iPod Linux O/S.		1 game
IRIX operating system	Games for SGI's IRIX OS.	1979 / 2006	37 games
irrKlang audio library	A cross-platform audio library/API by Ambiera.	2008 / 2012	14 games
Java language	Coded wholly or partially in Java or is extensible with it.	1997 / 2019	14 games
Java platfom	Runs on the Java platform. Ideally they work on any system with Java runtime environment available without any differences.	1979 / 2018	409 games
JGMOD	An add-on for Allegro programs to play MODs. By Jeffery Guan.	2001 / 2003	4 games
JOGL (Java OpenGL)	JOGL is a wrapper that allows Java to use OpenGL functions.		4 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.		4 games
K Desktop Environment	Requires KDE components, a desktop environment for X11.	1996 / 2013	40 games
kFreeBSD - Debian for the FreeBSD kernel	These run on a GNU/Debian distribution variant that uses the FreeBSD kernel and not the Linux kernel. Editors should note CPU architecture with tags	1999 / 2011	6 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.	1993 / 2007	35 games
Knoppix Linux OS	Game runs on Debian-based Knoppix. Famous for being entirely CD runnable or other removable media.		2 games
LaserLock (LaserLok)	A copy protection that involves unreadable files in a hidden LASERLOCK folder on the game CD.		1 game
Launcher	Uses a launcher type startup application, often with various configuration, help, and other features easily available before player has chance to start the actual game. Login too is commonly part of the launcher if such is needed.	1999 / 2019	117 games
Learning AI	Employs some type of AI that can actually learn.	1996 / 2006	18 games
Letterbox	Uses letterboxing to allow unsupported aspect ratios to display correctly.	1991 / 2017	57 games
libgdx Framework	Cross-platform framework for games.	2012 / 2019	18 games
License: Apache	A license that protects software freedom. Requires original copyright & liability disclaimer remain intact but allows any GPLv3 compatible license for derivatives.	2010 / 2017	6 games
License: Microsoft Reciprocal License			1 game
License: Non-Propretary	These are licenses designed to protect software freedoms instead of restrict them.		0 game
Lighting and shadowing			0 game
Lindows Linux O/S (Linspire;LindowsOS;Lin---s;Lindash;Freespire)	Games for Lindows operating system	2002 / 2009	5 games
Linux distributions (Linux distros)			0 game
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.	2001 / 2009	22 games
Linux Lite	An "transitional" OS using the Xfce desktop. Based on Ubuntu & Debian. Not meant for permanent use.		1 game
Local save storage	Stores saves locally on some system default location.	1981 / 2016	7 games
Logo Programming Language	A family of programming language related to Lisp & focused on numerical thought. But known for "turtle graphics".	1981 / 1984	2 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.	1984 / 2004	117 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.	1984 / 1988	13 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.	1984 / 1991	51 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.	1984 / 2003	28 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.	1984 / 2004	10 games
Mac OS 6 (OS Classic 6)	Runs natively on Mac OS 6 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.	1984 / 2019	297 games
Mac OS 7 (OS Classic 7)	Runs natively on Mac OS 7 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.	1984 / 2019	738 games
Mac OS 8 (OS Classic 8)	Runs natively on Mac OS 8 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.	1984 / 2005	191 games
Mac OS 9 (OS Classic 9)	Runs natively on Mac OS 9 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.	1985 / 2007	127 games
Mac OS X 10.1.x Puma(Darwin 5.x)	Requires at least version 10.1 of OS X.	1999 / 2017	66 games
Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite(Darwin 14.x)	Requires at least version 10.10 of OS X.	2002 / 2017	44 games
Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan	Requires at least version 10.11 of OS X	2002 / 2019	28 games
Mac OS X 10.12 Sierra	Requires at least version 10.12 of OS X.	2016 / 2017	14 games
Mac OS X 10.2.x Jaguar(Darwin 6.x)	Requires at least version 10.2 of OS X.	1999 / 2017	105 games
Mac OS X 10.5.x Leopard(Darwin 9.x)	Requires at least version 10.5 of OS X.	1999 / 2017	172 games
Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks(Darwin 13.x)	Requires at least version 10.9 of OS X.	2002 / 2021	56 games
Mac OS X operating system(Darwin)	Games for OS X. Not inherently compatible with Classic Mac OS (version 9 and earlier).	1987 / 2023	949 games
Machine Code	Not even assembly computer language was used for these games. The programmer wrote raw machine code.	1976 / 2006	38 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.	2002 / 2009	4 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	1993 / 2017	91 games
Map generator (Random map generator;Procedural map generator)[level 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.	1975 / 2023	766 games
MecaniQue Interactive Fiction Authoring System	Proprietary IF creation software by Gabor de Mooij		1 game
Microkernel Systems	This is a collection of groups related to microkernels.		0 game
Microsoft GW-BASIC(IBM Advanced BASIC;BASICA)	GW-BASIC & IBM BASICA are functionally identical except IBM's requires a ROM (Cassette), the other is self-contained, & GW-BASIC has a compiler option		1 game
Microsoft PowerPoint	These game are played from PowerPoint format files (which plays cross-platform).		1 game
Microsoft Windows			0 game
Middleware(Libraries;Engines)			0 game
Mint Linux (Linux Mint)	Comes with/Installs very simply on Linux Mint.	1991 / 2019	183 games
MiNT OS (FreeMiNT OS)	Game runs on MiNT operating system. The opensource OS that Atari adopted for the Falcon. Later renamed FreeMiNT.		1 game
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 game
Modula-2 Programming Language	A cross-platform language that focuses on modular programs, designed for concurrent processes, and allows platform specific procedures and data types.	1987 / 2003	2 games
Monaural Audio	Uses mono sound for a system where stereo or better would be expected.	1980 / 1988	4 games
Monochromatic Foreground	Games that feature a single color for the play area's foreground graphics, eliminating strong color clash issues. The background can use multiple colors.	1983 / 2021	113 games
MorphOS/Quark	An operating system for PowerPC based hardware. Designed for maximum compatibility with all Amiga applications.	1998 / 2014	6 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 game
Native Option (Native)	These games are published as non-native but a way to run them natively also exists. Or, in cases where native needs to be implicitly stated.	1998 / 2021	30 games
Nazghul Game Engine	Used to create Ultima V or earlier style RPGs. Relies [i]heavily[/i] on TinySCHEME scripting to construct content and define its interaction.	2003 / 2006	3 games
ncurses	Is a free software foundation version of curses, which is a library for implementing GUI & graphic looking applications using only text display.	1979 / 2016	100 games
NetBSD operating system	Games for NetBSD. A freely redistributable version of BSD.	1982 / 2016	32 games
Networking middleware(Networking libraries)[Network libraries]			0 game
NeWS (Network extensible Window System)	Originally the "SunDew project. NeWS is windowing system by Sun Microsystems		2 games
Nintendo eShop	Online service for the Nintendo 3DS, Wii-U and Switch. It features a cash-based system instead of the points based system used with the Wii and Nintendo DSi.	2011 / 2023	473 games
Nixstaller	Nixstaller is an Open Source project with the goal to create user friendly and flexible installers that work on various UNIX like systems.	2007 / 2011	6 games
No Digital Rights Managment (No copy protection)	At least one release of the game comes free of any form of DRM. Especially if this is unexpected, such as Wii, Android or Windows games.	1977 / 2021	818 games
No DOSBox support	This is temporary tag for any DOS games that are not fully supported in latest DOSBox (not counting regressions).	1991 / 1997	6 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.	1995 / 2002	4 games
Noclash Design	Colorful games that avoid color clash in the play area positioning the graphical elements in ways that prevent the issue.	1982 / 2021	65 games
Non-game	Entries in UVL that aren't games.	1976 / 2009	63 games
Non-Native (Not Native)	These games are not for the OS shown. But, official support is provided by some form or emulation, virtualization, and/or compatibility layer.	1991 / 2022	192 games
Novell NetWare	Began as a disk sharing system and became a type of network operation system.		1 game
nProtect GameGuard	Anti-hack software.	1996 / 2007	16 games
Objective-C programming language	"Objective-C is a reflective, object-oriented programming language which adds Smalltalk-style messaging to the C programming language." - Wikipedia	1994 / 2011	13 games
Open Source	Licenses approved by the Open Source Initiative.		0 game
Open2x operating system	Fully open-source alternative operating system for the GP2X game console.		1 game
OpenAL (OAL;Open Audio Library)	Cross-platform audio API for multichannel 3D positional audio originally by Loki Software.	1997 / 2021	621 games
OpenBSD operating system	Games for OpenBSD. Fully Open Source & documented fork of NetBSD.	1982 / 2016	38 games
OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision)	A computer vision library originally by Intel.	2009 / 2011	3 games
OpenGL (Open Graphics Library;OGL)	Uses or can use OGL for graphics, a cross-platform and cross-languge (via bindings) API for 2D and 3D graphics originally created by Silicon Graphics, control passed to the non-profit Khronos Group in 2006.	1983 / 2022	1981 games
OpenGL Utility Toolkit	Game uses GLUT library or any alternative implementations of the GLUT API.	1997 / 2015	34 games
OpenVMS operating system	Games for OpenVMS.	1993 / 1997	7 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.	1994 / 2007	4 games
Otto Chrons' Digital Sound and Music Interface (DSMI;AMF)	A sound file format similar to MOD. Known file extensions: AMF Notabley plays to slow on Gravis Ultrasound cards	1994 / 1996	2 games
Outdated technology	Any and all tags that refer to software technology that is no longer in use because something has replaced them, and thus may give troubles when trying to play games with them. Excluding operating systems/platforms.		0 game
Pardus Linux			3 games
Pascal programming language	Games written in Pascal, an imperative and procedural programming language, developed in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth.	1981 / 2015	111 games
PCLinuxOS	Linux from Texas. A Debian derived distro with influences from Mandriva. Also from Gentoo, OpenSuSE, Fedora, & Ubuntu. Backed by the PCLinuxOS company	2004 / 2019	11 games
Pedantic Installer	Installer checks & refuses to install if overly strict compatibility far beyond the actual requirements of the game are not met.	1993 / 1999	4 games
Performance issues (Speed issues)	The game is for a system that has no variation in hardware yet still runs into occasional performance issues.	1990 / 2003	4 games
PhenoProtect copy protection			1 game
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.	2004 / 2013	7 games
Physics middleware (Physics engines;Physics libraries)			0 game
PILOT Computer Language	Programmed in PILOT. A simple but high-level language related to Lisp and LOGO, and similar to BASIC.		1 game
Pixar's RenderMan Interface Specification	These games use RIS to generate graphics on the player's system.	1992 / 1998	2 games
Pixel doubling (Pixel multiplication)	Optionally multiplies the size of each individual pixel. An accessibility feature for those whose hardware can't deal with the original resolution or who wants to play windowed and the original resolution is too small to be actually playable.	2011 / 2016	13 games
PLASMA Language (Proto Language AsSeMbler for Apple)	A medium level programming language. Basically pseudo-English Assembly Language with higher-level tools.		1 game
PLD Linux	A Linux distro for advanced users focused on system administration for a wide variety of architectures.	1998 / 2008	8 games
Predefined controls (Single predefined control layout)	Offers only single configuration of controls with no options to change the button layout or anything else.	1994 / 2016	50 games
Presentation Software	These are formats for storing presentations. Some creative individuals have designed actual games in these formats.		0 game
Procedural effects(Procedurally generated effects)	Any effects that are primarily algorithmic in their implementation.		0 game
Production tools			0 game
Programming languages (Scripting languages;Computer languages)			0 game
Programming libraries	Any programming libraries that are not better described by the various middleware groups. Usually general purpose programming aids or too behind-the-scenes elements to not be noticeable to end user.		0 game
Proton compatibility layer	These games are officially supported through the proton compatibility layer.	2019 / 2022	2 games
PunkBuster anti-cheat software		1999 / 2014	28 games
PureBasic programming language	A programming language based on established BASIC rules.	2004 / 2009	3 games
pygame	A game development framework that wraps SDL for Python.	2001 / 2017	163 games
Python programming language		1995 / 2019	753 games
QB64 Programming Language	Coded in QB64, a modern programming language that includes backwards compatibility with Microsoft QuickBASIC 4.5	2007 / 2020	42 games
Qnx operating system	QNX/Q-nix is a POSIX compliant, unix-like operating system.	1994 / 2013	7 games
QSound (QSound3D)	Uses QSound Labs' cross-platform audio API.	1992 / 2015	52 games
Quarterdeck Desqview/X	A system for running UNIX/X11 applications in an MS-DOS or compatible environment.		3 games
Quesa 3D	An open source alternative to Apple's QuickDraw™ 3D API that adds some features.		1 game
QuickBasic (QBASIC)	Unlike BASIC, QBASIC is a compilable structured programming language. Though supported, line numbers & GOTO are discouraged in favor of subroutines & functions	1985 / 2013	30 games
Rascal programming language	Games written in Rascal, (Real-Time Pascal), developed in 1985 by Richard Crandall, Scott Gillespie, and Greg Stein of The Reed Institute.		1 game
RAVE (Rendering Acceleration Virtual Engine)	Apple's short-lived cross-platform rendering API.	1997 / 2001	9 games
RC Pro-am Engine	Developed by Rare for the NES game. It was ported to other consoles and used in at least one other game.	1988 / 1992	4 games
ReactOS	Games that run on ReactOS, an alternative OS that aims for 100% Windows compatibility and is opensource.	1990 / 2005	19 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"		2 games
REDCODE	Abstract assembly language 1st used [i]within[/i] Core Wars (UNIX) on a virtual machine in the game known as a Memory Array Redcode Simulator(MARS)	1983 / 1999	4 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.	1988 / 2017	67 games
Redhat Package Manager (RPM)	Comes in a RPM package. Other distros beside Redhat/Fedora can use theses packages also.	1992 / 2017	120 games
Redundant: Partially GNU GPL (Partially GNU General Public License)	If only part of the game is release under the GPL license. Then this tag. applies.	1991 / 2013	0 game
RISC OS operating system	Famous for fewest & least harmful viruses of any OS & no spyware ever.	1992 / 2005	11 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 game
Ruby language	Coded and/or extensible in Ruby, a programming language designed by Yukihiro Matsumoto.	2002 / 2016	16 games
S3 Texture Compression (S3TC;DXTn;DXTC;GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc;GL_EXT_texture_compression_dxt1)	A group of lossy texture compression algorithms originally by S3 Graphics included in DirectX 6.0, OpenGL 1.3, and subsequent versions.	1998 / 2018	16 games
Scheme Language	Scheme is a minimalist variant of Lisp.		1 game
SciTech SNAP (SciTech System Neutral Access Protocol;OpenSNAP)	A dynamically loadable device driver architecture.	2002 / 2006	11 games
SCO UNIX (SCO OpenServer;SCO Open Desktop;Xenix)	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	1983 / 2001	4 games
Screen autosplit(Automatic split-screen)[auto split-screen]	Automatically splits and rejoins the screen when necessary, such as local same machine multiplayer it keeps everyone on same screen when close enough and splits it when they wander off too far.		2 games
SecuROM PA	SecuROM's internet activation based copy protection.	2006 / 2011	23 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.	2001 / 2003	5 games
SecuROM v4.7-4.83 copy protection	Copy protection scheme	2001 / 2003	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.	2002 / 2003	2 games
SecuROM v5	A copy protection scheme.	2004 / 2005	7 games
SecuROM v7.x copy protection	Copy protection scheme.	2004 / 2010	85 games
Self Modifying	Games that can alter their own programming.		1 game
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.	1998 / 2019	254 games
SEUK (Shoot'em Up Construction Kit)		1987 / 1996	4 games
Sierra's Creative Interpreter	Uses any version of SCI, a game engine that is basically only a scripting language and a runtime environment. Used primarily for adventure games.	1970 / 2015	124 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.	1989 / 2021	1646 games
Single save	Offers only single save slot per player, character, storage device, etc.	1981 / 2020	142 games
SkyOS operating system	proprietary		1 game
Slackware Linux Distro (Absolute Linux)		1994 / 2017	39 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 game
SmartE copy protection (SmarteSECURE)	A copy protection scheme.	2005 / 2006	4 games
Social network service(Community service)	Includes internal social network service(s), allowing at the very least easy communication with friends (even outside of games).	2006 / 2016	48 games
Softlanding Linux System	One of the very first GNU/Linux distributions		1 game
Software handicap	Any tags describing a handicap of some sort that only affects the software itself, such as locking the framerate to something specific instead of allowing it to go over it.		0 game
Solaris Versions (Solaris Distros)	Parent group for the various variants of Solaris.		0 game
Sonic Robo Blast 2 Engine	A variant of the GPLed Doom engine, allows side & 3rd person cameras, cut-scenes, and many 3D platformer elements.		1 game
Source code included	For games that provide their source code along with the playable version, usually through some very restrictive license.	1970 / 2021	305 games
Source Mage Linux Distribution	Descended from Sorcerer Linux. This distro's package manager downloads and compiles the source code of everything that gets installed.		1 game
Specifically eComStation compatible	eComStation is a later version of IBM's OS/2, supported by Serenity Systems until 2007 then by Mensys.	1992 / 2012	3 games
Specifically OS/2 compatible.	As opposed to the later eComStation operation system that is OS/2 compatible. Creators support running the game in OS/s (via Windows or DOS session)	1993 / 2012	3 games
Speech synthesis (Text-to-speech;TTS)[text to speech]	Features speech synthesizer in one capacity or another.	1977 / 2014	42 games
SQLite	A tiny C library to embed a tiny SQL database engine into a program without any fuss.		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.	1998 / 2021	60 games
Stos	BASIC dialect for the Atari ST mainly intended for game development. STOS was developed by Jawx and published by Mandarin Software. The first version was published in 1988.		1 game
SunOS operating system		1989 / 2005	36 games
Super Simple Texture Compression (S2TC;SSTC;S2 Texture Compression)	Uses S2TC, an Open alternative to S3TC. Almost as good quality a lot faster and patent free.		1 game
Supergrafx Enhanced	PC-Engine games that did not need a Supergrafx to play, but had enhancements if you would run them on a Supergrafx.		2 games
SUSE Linux (SUSE)		1991 / 2019	117 games
SVGALib		1994 / 2005	21 games
Theora video encoding	Uses Theora video encoding format by Xiph.Org, often stored in Ogg container format.	2004 / 2015	16 games
TIC-80 Tiny Computer	Games for the TIC-80 fantasy computer that exists on several platforms.		38 games
Tiny BASIC programming language	Tiny BASIC open standard dialect of BASIC designed to be liberated from proprietary concerns and fit into 4K or less.	1972 / 1979	7 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 game
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 game
Torque Network Library	These development libraries are optimized for gaming and designed to overcome high packet latency, limited bandwidth and packet loss.		1 game
Tracker music (Sequencer music;Module music;MOD music)	Music is in some tracker/module format.	1995 / 2018	12 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.		4 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.	1975 / 1977	2 games
Ubuntu Linux (Kubuntu;lubuntu;Xubuntu;Edubuntu;Gobuntu)	Comes with/Installs very simply on Ubuntu.	1988 / 2024	7137 games
Ubuntu Software Center - Paid for Application	These games can be purchased using the Ubuntu Software Center "paid" category.	2001 / 2014	42 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.	1989 / 1998	4 games
Unity RPG Kit	An framework to extend Unity for easy RPG specific game creation.		1 game
UNIX operating system	AT&T Bell Labs UNIX, from which various branches & versions can trace their lineage (Linux is not one of them). Trademark now owned by The Open Group.	1972 / 2007	39 games
Unknown engine(Unidentified engine)	The engine used by the game is entirely unknown, with no information whether it was custom built, licensed, or otherwise.		1 game
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 game
Visual Basic programming language	Version of BASIC that is object-oriented & event-driven. Events, functions & subroutines are associated with GUI elements by default.	1993 / 2012	22 games
VLOS Linux (VidaLinux Desktop OS)	A Gentoo based distro designed for ease of use (unlike Gentoo).		1 game
Vorbis audio encoding	Uses Vorbis audio encoding format by Xiph.Org, often stored in Ogg container format.	1998 / 2021	486 games
VR middleware(VR APIs)			0 game
WebM	Uses the WebM multimedia container format, based on Matroska, that uses VP8/VP9 for video and Vorbis/Opus for audio encoding.		1 game
Win3.x compatible			0 game
Win32s	Uses a subset of the Win32 API that allows it to be run in 16 bit O/S, such as Win3.1.	1995 / 1996	3 games
Windowed only	Runs only in a window.	1986 / 2021	135 games
Windows 2.11 Compatible (Windows/286;Windows/386)	Runs naively on Windows 2.11 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.		1 game
Windows 2000 (Win2K;Windows NT 5.0)	Runs natively on Win2k and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.	1997 / 2011	373 games
Windows 3.0	Runs naively on Windows 3.0 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.	1991 / 1998	9 games
Windows 95 (Win95;Windows 4.00)	Runs natively on Win95 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.	1990 / 2009	410 games
Windows NT4 (WinNT;WinNT4;Windows NT 4.0)	Runs natively on WinNT4 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.	1993 / 2009	47 games
Windows Phone 7	A Windows CE-based OS for mobile phones.	2006 / 2013	10 games
Windows Phone 8	A Windows NT-based OS for mobile phones.		2 games
Windows Sound System SPU(Microsoft Sound System)	Supports or requires the Windows Sound System. Notable for DOS games running under Windows that can be configured to use Windows the Sound System.	1992 / 2017	26 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.	1995 / 2020	771 games
Windows: 16 bit installer	Installer is a 16-bit Windows application though the game 32-bit (or DOS). Prevents installation on 64-bit Windows as it has no no 16-bit sub-system	1995 / 1999	11 games
WinG API	A predecessor to DirectX designed primarily to aid porting DOS games to 16-bit Windows. Early versions of 32-Bit Windows also supported it.	1994 / 1998	12 games
wxWidgets[wxWindows]	Cross-platform graphical user interface widget toolkit.	2003 / 2016	32 games
X Window System (X11)	Requires X11, such as XFree86, X.org or Xming.	1989 / 2017	365 games
XFree86 X11 sever for GP2X	These game require the GP2X11 server to run.		1 game
xTrap anti-cheat software	Uses xTrap to protect against cheaters.	2004 / 2009	4 games
xwiimote driver	These games use xwiimote, The 'official' way to interface with the wiimote driver within the Linux kernel.		0 game
Zeeboids	Zeeboids is an application, the videogame Zeebo, to create custom avatars, which can be used in games that have supported the application.		2 games
Zeta OS	ZetaOS was a continuation of BeOS based at least partially on sourcecode from the never officially released BeOS R5.1. Some game only run on Zeta OS.	2001 / 2009	34 games

entities

.NET Framework (Mono Project)[dotNet]	Uses the .NET Framework or its open-source implementation, Mono. Usually seen in use with C# programming language, but this is not mandatory.	2002 / 2018	136 games
'MOON' game system;『MOON』のゲームシステムを使	Created by OverRise, Inc.		1 game
3DVIA Virtools	Was created with 3DVIA Virtools development platform and runs under its game engine.		1 game
4A Engine	A game engine by 4A Games.	2010 / 2019	14 games
AAC audio codec (Advanced Audio Coding;MP4;M4A)			0 game
Acknex (Gamestudio)	Made with Gamestudio & using the Acknex engine.		1 game
ActionScript	A programming language derived from HyperTalk, though now a dialect of ECMAScript, primarily used in Flash.	2007 / 2012	4 games
ActiveMARK copy protection	Trymedia's copy protection schema.		1 game
ActiveX	Microsoft's software framework allowing library-level system access via Internet and networks (It lets websites operate your operating system).		1 game
Adaptive Game Engine (AGE)	A game engine by AGEOD.	2006 / 2007	2 games
Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime)	Uses Adobe AIR, a cross-platform runtime environment for internet applications without constraints of normal browsers.	2005 / 2015	55 games
Adobe Shockwave player (Adobe Director;Macromedia Director)	Requires Adobe's Shockwave player.	1994 / 2005	10 games
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture	A Linux sound architecture.	2000 / 2021	19 games
Adventure Builder System	A toolkit to create ZX Spectrum text or text and graphical adventure games by Tartan Software. Licensed for anyone to buy and use in 1986.	1984 / 1991	15 games
Adventure engine	Uses Warren Robinett's unintentional invention of GUI. Originally used for [game=#80504]Adventure[/game], it proved useful to TLC for additional titles	1979 / 2009	21 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]	1984 / 2015	94 games
Adventure Game Studio (AGS)	Made using AGS, a game engine and development tool for creating point and click adventure games.	1986 / 2021	62 games
Adventurescape	An IF Authoring System release on a cover disc on the magazine A&B Computing	1983 / 1986	8 games
Agen Engine			1 game
AGOS		1989 / 2021	26 games
AI assets	The majority of game assets are typically produced utilizing Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) or comparable technologies.	2023 / 2024	14 games
AirSim	An AI by Microsoft that specializes in maneuvering autonomous vehicles (initially drones) in urban environments.		0 game
Alamo	A game engine created by Petroglyph Games.	2006 / 2008	5 games
Aleph One (Marathon Open Source Project)	An open source engine for the Marathon trilogy.	1996 / 2012	16 games
Alice Soft System	Any of the System virtual machine game engines by Alice Soft.		0 game
Allegro	A cross-platform game oriented programming library.	1996 / 2017	160 games
Alterforce Engine	A game engine for gem-swap games by Smartpix Games		3 games
Amazon Lumberyard	A game engine by Amazon tied to Amazon Web Services and Twitch. Development fork from CryEngine 3.		2 games
Amiga OS 1.x	Games designed for the the original Amiga Operating System.		1 game
Amiga OS 4 operating system	Games for the Amiga OS 4.	2002 / 2017	8 games
Amityville	A game engine by Planet Moon Studios.	2000 / 2003	5 games
AndEngine	A free, open-source 2D OpenGL game engine for Android.		1 game
AngelScript(AngelCode Scripting Library)	A scripting library and its language for extending C/C++ program functionality.	2006 / 2017	38 games
ANGLE(Almost Native Graphics Layer Engine)			3 games
AngryAnt Behave	An AI middleware by AngryAnt.		1 game
Anti-Grain Geometry (AGG)			1 game
Anvil (Scimitar)	A game engine created by Ubisoft Montreal.	2007 / 2011	17 games
AnvilNext	A game engine created by Ubisoft Montreal.	2012 / 2015	17 games
Apple GS/OS	A fully 16-bit GUI based operating system. Hybrid port-conversion of ProDOS 16 v1.6 code and MacOS 5 features/code for the Apple IIgs with 65816 CPU.	1987 / 1997	11 games
Apple iOS (iPhone OS)			0 game
Apple Metal API	A low-level graphics API from Apple.		1 game
Apple ProDOS	Requires ProDOS to run.	1984 / 2014	29 games
Arcade Game Designer	ZX Spectrum game designer by Jonathan Cauldwell since 2008	2017 / 2019	5 games
Arcane 3D Engine	Uses the Arcane 3D Engine created by Wolfpack Studios.		2 games
Argon		2011 / 2013	3 games
Arianne	Arianne is a online multiplayer engine to allow the easy creation of online games.		6 games
AstoundSound(GenAudio AstoundSound)	A 3D audio spatialization solution that besides providing 360 degree directional cues horizontally, also includes cues for ±90 degree vertical.		1 game
Asura	Uses any version/generation of the Asura game engine, created by Rebellion.	2005 / 2013	19 games
AtmosFear	A game engine by Action Forms.	1998 / 2005	4 games
Atomic Game Engine	a 2D/3D game engine with nice features like streaming to texture.		0 game
Audiere	A high-level and extremely simplistic audio API.	2005 / 2017	6 games
Aurora	Uses the Aurora game engine, created by BioWare.	2002 / 2019	24 games
Autodesk Scaleform(Scaleform GFx)	A Flash-based user interface graphics API from Autodesk.	2004 / 2016	36 games
Avalanche Engine		2006 / 2015	10 games
Awesomium	An HTML-based user interface engine.	2006 / 2015	8 games
BANG! Engine	A game engine created by Ensemble Studios.	2002 / 2008	9 games
BASS audio library		2006 / 2010	9 games
BattlEye anti-cheat engine		2000 / 2018	9 games
BattleZone	An unnamed game engine originally used for the 1998 BattleZone FPS/RTS.	1998 / 2000	3 games
BBS door	A piece of software that runs external to the BBS system on the client's computer, usually a specialized terminal emulator.	1988 / 1995	7 games
Better Than Zork adventure engine	Written by William Mataga and Steve Hales	1984 / 1986	20 games
biEngine	A proprietary game engine developed by Biart Studio.	2010 / 2012	13 games
Big Huge Engine	A game engine by Big Huge Games.	2003 / 2012	7 games
BigWorld	An MMO game engine by BigWorld.	2010 / 2016	12 games
Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW)	An application development platform by Qualcomm for mobile phones.	2003 / 2008	6 games
Bitsquid	A game engine created by Bitsquid AB, founded by Fatshark and former Grin developers.	2011 / 2015	17 games
BitTorrent[BT]	Uses the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file transfer protocol.	2004 / 2018	14 games
Blitz BASIC programming language	A programming language by Blitz Research.	1992 / 2016	10 games
BlitzMax[Blitz MAX]	A programming language by Blitz Research incompatible with its predecessor, Blitz BASIC.	2004 / 2015	27 games
BlitzTech		2009 / 2013	3 games
Bluepoint Engine(BPE)	A game engine by Bluepoint Games.	2006 / 2014	8 games
BMP images(Bitmap;DIB;Device Independent Bitmap)	Uses BMP/DIB images, a lossless and usually uncompressed (though can use RLE (run-length encoding)) up to 24-bit raster image format created by Microsoft.	2009 / 2012	2 games
Box2D physics engine		1997 / 2020	20 games
Buddha Engine	A game engine by Double Fine.	2009 / 2015	24 games
BugSplat	A proprietary crash reporting solution.	2004 / 2011	5 games
Build[Build engine;Build3D;BUILD]	A game engine by Ken Silverman, perhaps best known for its use in Duke Nukem 3D.	1995 / 2019	41 games
Bullet physics engine (Bullet physics library)	An open source physics engine.	2009 / 2018	9 games
Bulletin board system	Uses BBS in the back-end, which can (likely) be connected via most terminal emulators, such as Telnet clients, SSH, and others. Originally only connectable via modem by calling the BBS system's phone number.	1984 / 1992	3 games
BYOND(Build Your Own Net Dream)	Made with Byond, a free 2D multiplayer game maker.		1 game
C# programming language[C Sharp]	Coded in C# programming language.	2008 / 2021	85 games
C++ programming language	Coded in C++, a superset of C programming language, slowly diverging from its roots.	1983 / 2018	1074 games
Carbon API	These games use Apple's API for developing OS X applications that also run on OS 9 and OS 8.	2000 / 2003	6 games
CauseWay DOS Extender	CauseWay is a formally proprietary DOS extender by Bethesda.		1 game
Ceebot Engine	by Epsitec for many of their games. Ported to Linux for Colobot by PPC.		1 game
Chroma Engine	Level 7's engine for, Chroma, that also functions with some other puzzle apps despite those apps having completely different types of puzzles	2003 / 2013	5 games
Chrome Engine	A 3D game engine by Techland which supports scripting by Java.	2003 / 2015	28 games
Cinématique Evolution 2 Engine (CruisE)	Delphine Software's update to the Cinématique Engine (CINE) used for a single adventure game (on three platforms)		3 games
Cinepak video codec	Lossy video codec released in 1991. It was one of the first video compression tools to achieve FMV on CD-ROM.		1 game
Clausewitz		2007 / 2016	35 games
Clickteam Fusion	Successor to Clickteam's earlier Multimedia Fusion.	1992 / 2008	0 game
Clickteam Klik & Play	A game maker for creating simple games for 16-bit Windows, 32-bit Windows, and Classic Mac OS.		3 games
CloakNT (Cloak)	A game engine by Cauldron.	2003 / 2009	11 games
Clojurelang			1 game
Clojurescript			1 game
Cocos2d(Cocos2d-X;Cocos2d-JS;Cocos2d-XNA;Cocos2d-Swift)	A cross platform game framework originally for iOS.	2015 / 2016	3 games
Construct 2	A WYSIWYG closed source game maker by Scirra for creating HTML5 games.	2013 / 2021	34 games
Coretech	Uses any generation of the Coretech game engine, created by NeocoreGames.	2009 / 2015	7 games
Cossacks	An unnamed game engine originally used for Cossacks series.	2001 / 2016	6 games
Crap Adventure Construction Kit			1 game
Creation Engine	The Creation Engine is a 3D video game engine created by Bethesda Game Studios based on the Gamebryo engine.	2011 / 2018	10 games
Crimson Engine	A game engine by Michal Marcinkowski.	2011 / 2012	4 games
CriWare	An audio, video and lip sync middleware by CRI Middlware.	2001 / 2021	654 games
CryENGINE	Utilizes first generation of Crytek's CryENGINE.	2004 / 2017	26 games
CryENGINE 2		2003 / 2009	7 games
CryENGINE 3		2011 / 2016	18 games
CryENGINE V			1 game
Cryptic Engine	Uses any generation of the game engine by Cryptic Studios.	2004 / 2013	5 games
Crystal Caves	A nameless game engine created for Crystal Caves, later re-used for Secret Agent.	1991 / 2015	4 games
Crystal Engine	An engine developed by Crystal Dynamics.	2006 / 2019	26 games
Crystal Tools	A game engine by Square Enix.	2009 / 2016	7 games
Cube2engine	A zlib licensed engine with graphics based on an octree-to-triangle rendering engine. Cubes, sub-cubes, sub-sub-cubes, ad infinitum.	2004 / 2014	16 games
Custom[custom game engine]	Uses any engine that was made specifically for a single game.	1986 / 2022	332 games
Dagon Engine	An adventure game engine by Senscape. The sourcecode for engine and SDK are available under CDDL license.	2012 / 2014	2 games
Dagor	A game engine by Gaijin Entertainment.	2007 / 2016	13 games
Dark Engine	A game engine by Looking Glass Studios originally for Thief: The Dark Project.	1998 / 2014	7 games
DarkPlaces	A heavily modified Quake [1] game engine.	2003 / 2013	17 games
Darkstar		1998 / 1999	2 games
Dead Engine		2008 / 2010	6 games
DeHackEd	A tool for modifying the Doom 1/2 executable that can generate patches for it. Used by several mods and total conversions.	1997 / 2005	2 games
Delta Engine	An open source cross-platform game engine by Delta Engine GmbH.		1 game
Denuvo	A DRM scheme by Denuvo Software Solutions, created with bought out code from Sony DADC, the former creators of SecuROM.	2014 / 2020	28 games
Descent	A nameless game engine by Parallax Software originally built for the game Descent.	1995 / 2010	8 games
Development System ran the Code::Blocks IDE	These games were developed in part or whole using at least 1 computer running the Code::Blocks IDE.	2009 / 2011	2 games
Development System used was running Sun OS 1.x	These games were developed in part or whole using at least 1 Sun OS 1 based system.		1 game
Devolved Engine (Life RPG Engine)	An RPG engine where games are written completely in strict XML.		1 game
Diesel	A game engine developed by GRIN.	2001 / 2016	17 games
Digital Research Graphics Environment Manager(GEM)	Designed for GEM. A Graphic User Interface available for several OSes. Also numerous numerous printers, plotters, monitors, terminals, & cameras.		1 game
DirectDraw	A 2D raster graphics API part of the DirectX.		1 game
DirectInput[DInput]	A deprecated controller input API from Microsoft.	2002 / 2020	17 games
DirectPlay	Uses the now deprecated network communication portion of the DirectX API.		3 games
DirectX Audio (XAudio;DirectSound;DirectSound 3D;DS3D)		1999 / 2019	21 games
Discord Rich Presence	Supports Discord's Rich Presence feature.	2016 / 2018	3 games
Disrupt	A game engine by Ubisoft Montreal.		5 games
Divinity Engine	A game engine by Larian, originally created for a game that preceded Divinity series.	1999 / 2004	3 games
Divinity Engine 2	A game engine by Larian Studios originally for Divinity: Dragon Commander and later iterations used for the Original Sin series.	2013 / 2017	10 games
DivX video codec		2004 / 2009	6 games
Doom WAD	A file packaging format introduced for Doom but also used in Quake engine games as well as few unrelated to either engine.	1993 / 2013	51 games
DoomRPG	Uses DoomRPG's game engine.	2005 / 2010	6 games
DOS 1.x	Requires DOS 1.0 or newer.	1973 / 2014	25 games
DOS 2.x	Requires DOS 2.0 or newer.	1981 / 2014	113 games
DOS 3.x	Requires DOS 3.0 or newer.	1984 / 2015	98 games
DOS 4.x (Multitasking DOS;European MS-DOS 4.0)	Requires the maligned MS-DOS 4.0 or MS-DOS 4.01 (these are entirely different from IBM PC-DOS 4.00 & IBM PC-DOS 4.01).	1984 / 2017	29 games
DOS 5.x	Requires DOS 5.0 or newer.	1989 / 2017	83 games
DOS 6.x	Requires DOS 6.0 or newer.	1990 / 2017	25 games
DOS extender (DOS/4G;DOS32A)	Uses any DOS extender (such as DOS/4G) that breaks the memory limit of 640kB, allowing at least up to 64MB to be addressed.	1991 / 2015	32 games
DOS Protected Memory Interace (DPMI)	Requires the DPMI TSR service software to run.	1985 / 2003	3 games
Double Fusion Engine	An in-game advertising engine.	2011 / 2013	6 games
DreamWorld		2001 / 2012	5 games
DS2	A modified Quake 3 game engine by Digital Spray Studios.	2006 / 2007	2 games
Dumb Game Engine (Dumb 3D)	Capable of running Doom & Quake games & originals with dynamic levels, higher resolutions, and new features on 486/33z. Also for original games of other types.		1 game
Dunia	A game engine created by Ubisoft Montreal.	2008 / 2012	10 games
Dynamix Game Development System (dgds)	A game engine and system of development tools by Dynamix used for several of their games.	1990 / 1992	10 games
EA Access	A DRM solution from Electronic Arts.		1 game
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.	1980 / 2010	298 games
EasyAntiCheat		2012 / 2017	6 games
EDGE (Enhanced Doom Game Engine)	A modernized DOOM engine that still remains compatible with the originals.		1 game
Eduke32 Engine	A game engine that plays Duke Nukem and other games.	2006 / 2013	11 games
Ego Game Technology Engine		2005 / 2009	15 games
Electron Engine	Uses the Electron game engine, created by Obsidian Entertainment and based on BioWare's Aurora engine.	2006 / 2008	4 games
Emulated on MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator)	An Arcade games emulator available for almost any platform. (clones and bootlegs are merged to the parent)	1971 / 2016	3106 games
Enforce	A game engine originally by Black Element Software.	2004 / 2012	4 games
Enigma (Blitzkrieg)	A game engine developed by Nival.	2003 / 2008	9 games
EoB Engine(Eye of the Beholder)	A nameless game engine created for Eye of the Beholder series & updated for each game. Later updated for use with the Kyrandia series.	1991 / 2015	26 games
Epiboly Software's Adventure Maker	A system by Patricia B. Smith to makes simple GUI interactive fiction games for classic Macintoshes.		1 game
ES Online (Ensemble Studios Online)	Proprietary network by Ensemble Studios.	2005 / 2008	4 games
Escavatrix Engine	Uses the Escavatrix engine		1 game
Essence Engine	Game engine by Relic Entertainment created for the Company of Heroes game.	2006 / 2016	13 games
Eternal Lands Engine	A proprietary game engine developed for the Eternal Lands MMORPG. As the sourcecode is GPL, other MMORPGs are free to use it.	2003 / 2013	8 games
Euphoria	Uses the Euphoria dynamic motion synthesis engine.	2008 / 2009	9 games
Evolution(Evolution Engine;Sector Engine)	A game engine by Digital Extremes, originally named Sector Engine as per the first game to use it: darkSector.	2008 / 2013	6 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.	2003 / 2004	2 games
Explore Computer Language	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
Extensible Markup Language (XML)	Uses XML data serialization format for storage, configuration or anything else.	2002 / 2020	119 games
F# programming language	Coded in F# programming language.		1 game
Fabric Audio (Tazman Audio)	Fabric is middleware that extends the audio capability of the Unity engine.		1 game
FaceFX	A facial animation toolkit.	2007 / 2016	6 games
Fallout	Uses Fallout 1's game engine.	1997 / 2016	12 games
Fenix computer language		2004 / 2007	7 games
Fighter Maker	Created with Enterbrain's 2D Fighter Maker.	2001 / 2014	4 games
Filmation Game Engine	Isometric graphics engine employed in a series of games developed by Ultimate Play the Game during the 1980s	1984 / 1986	18 games
Fixel	An open source Flash game-making library that is completely free for personal or commercial use.	2009 / 2012	2 games
Flash	Uses Macromedia/Adobe Flash.	2001 / 2016	93 games
FlashPunk	A free generic ActionScript library for 2D game development.		3 games
flatzebra	A GPL generic game engine for 2D double-buffering animation using SDL by Pierre Sarrazin	2000 / 2008	12 games
FLEDGE	A game engine by Deck13.	2014 / 2017	4 games
Flexible Isometric Free Engine (FIFE)			4 games
Flixel	A free, open-source game-making library for Actionscript 3 and designed for use with free development tools.	2009 / 2014	19 games
FMOD audio engine (FMOD Ex)	A cross-platform audio engine by Firelight Technologies.	2000 / 2021	257 games
FNA	Open source reimplementation of Microsoft XNA Framework for many platforms.	2009 / 2023	159 games
ForgeLight[Forge Light]	A proprietary game engine by Sony Online Entertainment for MMOs.	2012 / 2015	4 games
Forth programming language		1979 / 1985	7 games
Fortnite platform	Games running on the Fortnite platform.		9 games
Fox Engine	A cross-platform game engine by Kojima Productions.	2013 / 2014	11 games
FPS Creator (FPS Creator Reloaded)	FPS Creator & later versions are developed by The Game Creators Ltd. They allow making FPSes with little or no coding/programming experience required		1 game
Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)	Open format, royalty-free, lossless digital audio compression. 50-60% rate.	2003 / 2017	2 games
Freescape	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.	1987 / 1992	37 games
Freespace Engine	A game engine with loosely interpreted outer space physics used for the Freespace series of games.	1998 / 2015	16 games
FreeTrack	Natively supports FreeTrack, an open source motion (head) tracking software with help of a regular webcam.	2007 / 2009	1 game
Frostbite(Frostbite Engine)		2008 / 2018	34 games
FuzixOS	A subset of GNU/Linux for minimal systems (6809, Z80, Z180, 8086, 6502, 68HC11, 68k, 65c816, MSP430, pdp11).		34 games
Game Center	A social platform for iOS 4.1 and OS X 10.8 or later.	2010 / 2014	3 games
GameAgent	A digital disrobution site by Aspyer that notably offers games for Mac. Also sells Linux and Windows games.	2013 / 2016	19 games
Gamebryo(NetImmerse)	Uses any generation of Gamebryo engine.	1999 / 2014	81 games
GameCODA	Audio middleware by Sensaura.	2002 / 2006	7 games
GameMaker(GameMaker: Studio;Animo)[GM Studio;Game Maker;Game Maker Studio]	Made with and powered by any version of GameMaker from YoYo Games.	1998 / 2022	142 games
GameOS(GOS)	A game engine developed by Andrew Glaister at FASA Studio until it was bought out by Microsoft in 1999.	2000 / 2002	6 games
GameShield	A copy protection solution by Yummy Interactive.	2009 / 2012	3 games
Garry Kitchen's Gamemaker (Activision Gamemaker)	Games made with Garry Kitchen's Gamemaker IDE.	1985 / 1986	2 games
Generic Adventure Game System/Adventure Game Toolkit	Generic Adventure Game System is an interactive fiction engine by Mark J. Welch's. Later extended and renamed Adventure Game Toolkit by David R. Malmberg's	1989 / 1991	3 games
Genesis3D	An opensource engine by Eclipse Entertainment. Used for an eclectic set of infamous games.	1998 / 2003	7 games
Genie Engine	A game engine developed by Ensemble Studios	1997 / 2015	11 games
Geo-Mod game engine	Uses any version of the Geo-Mod game engine.	2001 / 2011	14 games
GGPO (Good Game Peace Out)	A networking middleware originally created for providing network play for emulated arcade games.	2011 / 2013	7 games
Ginkgo Engine	A 2D Engine by Broken Rules	2009 / 2014	6 games
Glacier 2	A game engine by IO Interactive.		3 games
Glacier(Glacier 1)	A game engine by IO Interactive.	2000 / 2006	12 games
Glest	A game engine designed for strategy games. Originally created for Glest, used in various forms for other games.	2004 / 2010	7 games
Glide 3D	Subset of OpenGL API created by 3dfx for their Voodoo line of GPUs.	1995 / 2016	87 games
Glulx[glulxe;quixe]	Portable virtual machine intended for interactive fiction games.	2010 / 2011	2 games
GLYPH(GLYPHX)	A game engine by Petroglyph.	2010 / 2013	3 games
GNU/Linux kernel	Compiled for the GNU/Linux kernel regardless of the platform. To differentiate when the same entry is also for UNIX or other *nix kernels.	1991 / 2024	60 games
Gobengine	Coktel Vision's own game engine.	1991 / 1995	20 games
Godfather		2006 / 2008	11 games
Godot Engine	A free, cross-platform and open source game engine distributed under MIT license.	2014 / 2023	15 games
GOG Galaxy	Requires GOG Galaxy for some functionality, such as multiplayer matchmaking, when other services do not provide it. Generally applies only to games acquired from GOG and likely offers cross-platform multiplayer with Steam.		2 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]	1988 / 2015	58 games
GoldSrc(Goldsource)	A heavily modified Quake 1 game engine by Valve.	1998 / 2013	20 games
Google Breakpad (Mozilla Talkback)	A cross-platform FOSS crash reporting solution by Google, Inc. and Mozilla Foundation.	2004 / 2017	37 games
Google Native Client (NaCl)	Uses Google Native Client sandbox to run a game on a web browser via C-like compiled code instead of being limited by things like Javascript and HTML5.	2011 / 2014	17 games
Google Play Games(Google Play game services)	A social platform for Android, iOS and web by Google that provides leaderboards and achievements globally and for player's Google+ circles.		2 games
Google Plus	For games available under the Google social network.		3 games
Granny 3D	An animation middleware by RAD Game Tools.	2002 / 2015	8 games
Graphine	Texture streaming and compression middleware.		1 game
Grim 2D	A 2D graphics engine by 10tons entertainment.		1 game
Grim Engine (GrimE)	A game engine developed by LucasArts, incorporating the older Sith engine.	1998 / 2014	7 games
Groovie		1993 / 2014	9 games
GTK(GIMP Toolkit;GTKmm;GTK+)	A GUI widget toolkit originally developed as replacement for Motif.	1990 / 2016	17 games
Guadalcanal engine	An unnamed engine used in multiple games	1982 / 1983	3 games
GZDoom	Extremely heavily modified id Tech 1 engine based on ZDoom.	2018 / 2019	3 games
HackShield	An anti-hack/cheat solution by AhnLab.	2003 / 2013	7 games
Halo engine		2001 / 2011	8 games
Havok Physics	Uses the Havok Physics engine.	2000 / 2022	317 games
HaxeFlixel	Haxe language port of the Flixel game library.	2012 / 2021	10 games
Heavy Duty	A game engine by Primal Software.	2006 / 2010	2 games
HeroEngine	A game engine by Simutronics.	2009 / 2015	7 games
Horizon-Based Ambient Occlusion(HBAO)	An improved technique for ambient occlusion compared to the original SSAO.	2004 / 2018	11 games
HPL1	Game engine created by Frictional Games	2007 / 2010	10 games
HPL2	Second generation of the HPL game engine created by Frictional Games.	2010 / 2015	7 games
HPL3	Third generation of the HPL game engine created by Frictional Games.		4 games
HTML5	HTML specification started back in 2004, aiming to be fully finished by 2014. Notably adds support for hardware accelerated graphics via WebGL (subset of OpenGL) though includes many other things as well.	2000 / 2016	30 games
Hugo Engine	Game engine initially used for "Hugo's House of Horrors" trilogy.	1991 / 2010	20 games
HX DOS Extender	DOS extender allowing multitasking, DLL use, compatible with Windows PE and DOS executables. Also allows some 16-bit Windows games to run in pure DOS.		1 game
HyperCard	A hypermedia, database, and rapid application development tool by Apple Inc. (and intermittently Claris) for the Apple Macintosh, supported from 1987 to 1992.	1987 / 1995	29 games
I Wanna Be The Engine	Uses any version of IWBTE.		1 game
IBM PC-compatible DOS	Any tags related directly to the x86 CPU architecture DOS variants.		0 game
id Software game engines			0 game
id Tech 1 (Doom engine)	Uses the original Doom's engine or some modification of it.	1993 / 2013	28 games
id Tech 2 (Quake 2 engine;CRX engine)	Uses the id Tech 2 game engine developed by id Software.	1997 / 2014	47 games
id Tech 3 (Quake 3 engine;ioquake3)	Uses the id Tech 3 game engine developed by id Software.	1999 / 2016	86 games
id Tech 4 (Doom 3 engine)	Uses id Tech 4 game engine, developed by id Software.	2004 / 2015	31 games
id Tech 5 (Rage engine)	Uses the fifth generation of id Software's game engine.	2011 / 2017	14 games
id Tech 6(Doom 4 engine)	Uses the sixth generation of id Software's game engine.	2016 / 2019	4 games
Id Tech 7	Uses the seventh generation of id Software's game engine.	2020 / 2020	4 games
IllumOS	Known to run on IllumOS. The 100% Open Source variant of Sun Solaris.		0 game
Impact	HTML5-based game engine for browser games.	2010 / 2015	3 games
Impulse::GOO (Game Object Obfuscation)	A copy protection schema from Stardock.	2005 / 2011	38 games
Impulse::Reactor		2009 / 2011	5 games
Indeo video codec	A video codec from Intel.	1998 / 2000	2 games
Infernal Engine	A game engine developed by Terminal Reality.	2008 / 2013	6 games
Infinity Engine	IE is a game engine used to allow multiple characters to interact with pre-rendered isometric 2D environments in pausable real-time.	1998 / 2017	24 games
Infinity Ward engine (IW Engine)	A heavily modified version of id tech 4 engine by Infinity Ward.	2005 / 2013	20 games
INSANE(Interactive Streaming Animation Engine)	The [b]IN[/b]teractive [b]S[/b]treaming [b]AN[/b]imation [b]E[/b]ngine allowed full motion video & graphics to be displayed in high-res PC graphic modes, created by LucasArts. Not used interactively in most games.	1993 / 2017	24 games
Insomniac Engine			1 game
INSTEAD Engine	Games running on the INSTEAD engine. The engine was designed to interpret games that are the mix of visual novels, text quests and classical 90's quests.	2013 / 2014	28 games
Interactive Fiction Engine	A proprietary game engine of interactive fictions, created by Simutronics.	1987 / 2003	2 games
Interactive Spatial Audio Composition Technology(ISACT)	An audio middleware by Creative.		1 game
iOS 3.x	Requires at least version 3.0 of iOS.	2009 / 2011	10 games
iOS 4.x	Requires at least version 4.0 of iOS.	2009 / 2011	5 games
iOS 5.x	Requires at least version 5.0 of iOS.		1 game
iOS 6.x	Requires at least version 6.0 of iOS.	2014 / 2015	2 games
iOS 7.x	Requires at least version 7.0 of iOS.		1 game
iOS 8.x	Requires at least version 8.0 of iOS.	2015 / 2018	3 games
iOS 9.x	Requires at least version 9.0 of iOS.		1 game
IRC (Internet Relay Chat)	Has integrated IRC client for chat and possibly other functionality. Likely does not behave entirely like normal IRC, having various limiting factors and little to no normal IRC commands available for players.	2004 / 2013	12 games
IRE[IRE game engine]	A game engine similar to the one used for Ultima 6. Uses Allegro.	2003 / 2004	4 games
IRISZOOM	A game engine by Eugen Systems.	2010 / 2015	16 games
Iron Engine		2008 / 2015	4 games
Irrlicht Engine	A free open-source 3D graphics engine.	2000 / 2016	32 games
iZ3D	Natively supports iZ3D's stereoscopic rendering.	2009 / 2011	3 games
JACK Audio Connection Kit		1997 / 2003	2 games
Jade	A game engine developed by Ubisoft, originally in their Montpellier studio, for Beyond Good & Evil and named after the protagonist of that game.	2003 / 2007	35 games
Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME)[Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition]	A subset of Java for resource limited devices like cell phones, PDAs, & set-top boxes.	2003 / 2011	16 games
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)	A human-readable data serialization format, commonly used with JavaScript but is easy to parse on any language and as such has no dependency on JavaScript.	2010 / 2016	17 games
Jedi engine	A game engine by LucasArts.	1995 / 2015	3 games
JGame Engine	A Java based, widely cross-platform (Linux, Windows, Mac, Java, Mobile, Android, Flash, Webstart), 2D game engine with optional OpenGL.		17 games
jMonkeyEngine	A free Java 3D game engine.	2009 / 2016	14 games
K2 Engine	A game engine by S2 Games, originally for Savage 2.	2008 / 2015	9 games
Kalydo	Playable via Kalydo, a Java-based web browser plugin.	2004 / 2008	3 games
Kalypso Launcher	A layer in front of games released by Kalypso, requires login at Kalypso Launcher website to actually play the game regardless if you play offline or online.	2011 / 2017	16 games
KDE Games	Part of the KDE game modules.	1996 / 2008	14 games
Kex Engine		1997 / 2018	7 games
Kinetica	Game engine developed by SCEA.	2001 / 2010	18 games
KiriKiri(KiriKiri Adventure Game System;KAG;吉里吉里)	Uses any version of KiriKiri, a free game engine and framework for visual novels.	2006 / 2012	6 games
KRASS	A game engine by Massive Development.	2001 / 2005	4 games
Kung Fu Game State Machine Engine	A game engine created by Color Dreams Inc and used in several of their games.	1990 / 1991	3 games
Kynapse (Autodesk Kynapse)	Artificial intelligence middleware by Kynogon.	2007 / 2011	19 games
Lachhh engine			1 game
Lassie Adventure Studio			1 game
LC-Script Engine(LCSE)	Uses any version of the LCSE game engine by Nexton.	2003 / 2011	4 games
Level editor (Map editor;Construction Kit)	Level, map and/or scenario editor is available with the game or from official public sources for free, so players can design their own levels to the game.	1980 / 2021	1030 games
LibOVR(Oculus VR)[OculusVR]	Uses the Oculus VR API, used by devices such as Oculus Rift VR goggles, Constellation head tracking, and Oculus Touch.		1 game
libsndfile	A cross-platform library for reading from and writing to numerous audio file formats. Has no playback functionality in itself.	2011 / 2018	2 games
LIFESTUDIO:HEAD	A facial animation solution by LifeMode Interactive.	2003 / 2015	8 games
Lightweight Java Game Library (LWJGL)	LWJGL provides a simple platform-neutral API to expose OpenGL, OpenAL, OpenCL, and game controllers to a Java application.	2004 / 2014	30 games
Linux Kernel 2.0.x	Requires at least Linux Kernel version 2.0.x, may work on newer but this is not guaranteed.	1998 / 2001	4 games
Linux Kernel 2.2.x	Requires at least Linux Kernel version 2.2.x, may work on newer but this is not guaranteed.	1999 / 2007	14 games
Linux Kernel 2.4.x	Requires at least Linux Kernel version 2.4.x, may work on newer but this is not guaranteed.	2000 / 2008	4 games
Linux Kernel 2.6.x	Requires at least Linux Kernel version 2.6.x, may work on newer but this is not guaranteed.	2005 / 2017	5 games
Linux Kernel 3.0.x	Requires at least Linux Kernel version 3.0.x, may work on newer but this is not guaranteed.	2016 / 2018	7 games
Linux Kernel 3.2.x	Requires at least Linux Kernel version 3.2.x, may work on newer but this is not guaranteed.	2016 / 2019	3 games
Linux Kernel 4.3.x	Requires at least Linux Kernel version 4.3.x, may work on newer but this is not guaranteed.		1 game
Linux Kernel 5.8.x	Requires at least Linux Kernel version 5.8.x, may work on newer but this is not guaranteed.		2 games
LionEngine	A platformer game engine by Byron 3D Games Studio available to the public.		2 games
LISP programming language (List Processing Language;CL;Common Lisp)	LISP is the 2nd oldest high-level language, uses fully parenthesized syntax & was favored during the early days of AI.	1985 / 2014	18 games
Lithtech	A game engine originally created by Monolith Productions.	1998 / 2015	55 games
Lithtech Jupiter		2002 / 2009	8 games
Lithtech JupiterEX		2005 / 2009	14 games
Lithtech Talon		2001 / 2004	5 games
LiveMaker(ライブメーカー)	A visual novel authoring tool by Human Balance (ヒューマンバランス).		1 game
Living Battlefield		1997 / 1998	2 games
Lords of Midnight 3 Engine	A nameless game engine created for Lords of Midnight: The Citadel.	1995 / 1996	2 games
LÖVE framework (LÖVE engine;Legendary Orthogonal Virtual Environment;LOVE 2D)	An open-source game framework and engine.	2012 / 2020	60 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 (a C-like scripting language) interpreter, unlike many other MUD drivers which rely on hardcoded info.	1989 / 2001	5 games
Lua programming language	Uses Lua in one manner or another.	1993 / 2020	349 games
Lucasarts Zombies Engine	The engine for Zombies Ate My Neighbors was reused for several other games	1993 / 1995	5 games
Lutris	Lutris is an open source gaming platform for GNU/Linux for gathering & manage all games from any source, in a single interface. LutrisOS is for TVs.	1978 / 2019	889 games
Luxe engine	A cross-platform game engine written in Haxe		1 game
LyN Engine		2009 / 2010	3 games
M.A.D.E.(Multimedia Applications Development Environment)	A multimedia adventure game engine for DOS, created by Activision.	1989 / 1993	5 games
M.A.D.S.(Microprose Adventure Development System)		1992 / 2014	7 games
Mac OS X 10.3.x Panther(Darwin 7.x)	Requires at least version 10.3 of OS X.	1999 / 2017	118 games
Mac OS X 10.4.x Tiger(Darwin 8.x)	Requires at least version 10.4 of OS X.	1999 / 2017	151 games
Mac OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard(Darwin 10.x)	Requires at least version 10.6 of OS X.	2002 / 2017	133 games
Mac OS X 10.7.x Lion(Darwin 11.x)	Requires at least version 10.7 of OS X.	1996 / 2018	75 games
Mac OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion(Darwin 12.x)	Requires at least version 10.8 of OS X.	2001 / 2019	71 games
MacVenture(AtariVenture;PCAtariVenture)	A menu-based point-and-click interface and game engine originally developed for Mac by ICOM Simulations.	1985 / 1990	24 games
Magic Carpet	A nameless engine created for the Magic Carpet game series.	1994 / 2012	8 games
Magic Composer Engine	The Magic Composer engine was developed by the Russian studio Animation Magic for their Magic Tales series of interactive books, and was later used for various educational and adventure games targeted at children, as well as for the unreleased Warcraft Ad	1994 / 1996	8 games
Main Minix Distribution			8 games
Mantle	A low-level graphics API from AMD. AMD however recommends developers to use Vulkan or DX12 instead.	2013 / 2015	12 games
Marmalade(Airplay)[Marmalade SDK;Airplay SDK]		2009 / 2016	14 games
MassTech engine		2004 / 2008	3 games
MAX-FX(3DMark99 engine;3DMark2001 engine)	A game engine by Remedy Entertainment for Max Payne games that was also used for the 3DMark graphics benchmark application.	2001 / 2003	5 games
MechWarrior 2 engine	Uses MechWarrior 2's game engine.	1995 / 1998	12 games
MegaZuex (MZX)	A game maker originally released as shareware and now GPL.	1998 / 2011	5 games
Mercury Engine	Uses any version of the Mercury Engine game engine by MercurySteam.		3 games
Microsoft Internet Gaming Zone			1 game
Mikmod	Mikmod is a sound module player and library supporting many formats, including mod, s3m, it, and xm	2007 / 2012	6 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.	1992 / 2016	213 games
MinGW(Minimalist GNU for Windows)	A minimalist development environment for Windows that most notably brings GCC to that platform.		1 game
Moai (Moai framework)	Created using the Moai development framework, a mostly Lua driven cross-platform game development kit created by Zipline Games.	2011 / 2014	9 games
Mohawk Engine (Mohawk System;Living Books Engine)	Created by Brøderbund to run Myst on Windows. It was also use for some their Living Books and Carmen Sandiego games as well as Riven and other games.	1991 / 1999	44 games
Moho		2007 / 2011	7 games
MojoShader	Allows devs to use Direct3D shaders (HLSL) on alternate 3D APIs (such as OpenGL), and therefore on non-Windows platforms.	2005 / 2017	6 games
MonoGame	An open-source implementation of XNA 4 Framework with cross-platform support for iOS, Android, Windows, OS X, Linux, Windows Phone 8, PlayStation Mobile, and Ouya.	2012 / 2021	8 games
Mophun	A virtual game console for mobile platforms		1 game
Mozilla Prism	Delivered to some platforms with aid of the Mozilla Prism.		1 game
MP3 audio codec (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III;MPEG-2 Audio Layer III)	A controversial audio codec due to its many, [u]many[/u] licensing issues. Was, and likely still is, very popular with regular end-users despite it.	2003 / 2017	15 games
MPlayer.com (Mplay;MPlayer)[MPlayNow]	Multiplayer service that ran from 1996 till 2001.	1996 / 2000	9 games
MT Framework	A game engine by Capcom initially developed for Dead Rising and Lost Planet.	2006 / 2018	39 games
MUD eXtension Protocol			0 game
Multimedia Fusion (MMF)	Created with MMF, a software authoring tool by Clickteam mostly targeting game development.	2002 / 2013	18 games
Nebula Device 3D	An open-source game engine by Radon Labs.	2005 / 2008	2 games
Netty	A Java network library for non-blocking I/O.		3 games
Newton Dynamics(Newton Game Dynamics)	A physics engine by Julio Jerez and Alain Suero.	2005 / 2015	17 games
Nitrous	A game engine by Oxide Games.	2014 / 2016	3 games
NLKEngine	A 2D/3D game engine developed by Nerlaska Studio.	2012 / 2015	4 games
No MAME	For arcade video games that are not yet emulated.	1970 / 2020	386 games
Nocturne	A game engine originally developed for Nocturne by Terminal Reality.	1999 / 2000	4 games
Not compatible with 686_p.exe	686_p.exe accompanies Cyrix CPUs to fool Windows into believing a Pentium chip is present. Some games work if it's disabled but crash if it's running.	1997 / 1998	2 games
Nvidia APEX	A multi-platform, scalable dynamics framework for artists to work with PhysX, created by Nvidia.	2008 / 2015	23 games
Nvidia GameWorks	A toolkit and collection of APIs for game development from Nvidia.	2012 / 2016	12 games
O.H.R.RPG.C.E.(Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Construction Engine)[OHRRPGCE]	James Paige, Brian Fisher, and team's retro RPG engine for creating games in the style of SNES/NES/GBA Final Fantasy series.	1998 / 2008	2 games
Object Pascal programming language[Delphi]	Any object-oriented dialects derived from Pascal. Notably one such dialect is used in Delphi.	2000 / 2016	15 games
Obsolete: Android Operating System	An OS optimized for mobile devices & based on an independent fork of the Linux kernel.	2008 / 2011	0 game
OCCAM 2 programming language	OCCAM with more data types, floating-point math, functions, & multi-dimensional arrays. Finally a full language instead of just an OS.		1 game
OCCAM programming language	Written in and for OCCAM. Created by INMOS for their Transputer platform.		1 game
Odyssey	Uses the Odyssey game engine.	2003 / 2016	7 games
OEngine	A game engine by OSome Studio.	2014 / 2015	6 games
Offset Engine	A game engine by Offset Software.		3 games
OGRE(Object-Oriented Graphics Rendering Engine)[ogre 3d]	A free open source (LGPL) 3D graphics engine.	2005 / 2018	71 games
Onyx	A game engine developed by Ubisoft.		4 games
Open Dynamics Engine (ODE physics engine)	Open source physics engine mainly for simulating rigid body dynamics.	2001 / 2012	26 games
Open Sound Library for Embedded Systems[OpenSL ES]	A royalty-free, cross-platform, hardware-accelerated audio C-language API tuned for embedded systems by Khronos Group.	2009 / 2011	1 game
Open Sound System	An Unix sound architecture. Largely superseded by ALSA which includes an OSS emulation layer.	1998 / 2016	16 games
Open Toolkit	A free, open-source, and cross-platform C# wrapper (OpenGL, OpenCL and OpenAL) and utility (math, input, etc.) library.	2013 / 2015	5 games
OpenBOR Open Beats of Rage Engine	An 2D engine to replicate gameplay of the Beat'em Ups like Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, and Final Fight.		2 games
OpenCL (Open Computing Language)	A generic, cross-platform parallel computing framework that is independent of the actual hardware implementation of the processors, allowing regular CPUs as well as GPUs and any other processors to process the OpenCL instructions.	2008 / 2016	3 games
OpenFeint	A social platform for iOS and Android. Closed down in 2012-12-14.	2010 / 2011	10 games
OpenFL(NME framework)		2013 / 2016	4 games
OpenGL Extension Wrangler Library (libGLEW)		2015 / 2018	4 games
OpenIndiana	An IllumOS variant intended for servers.		1 game
OpenSolaris	Known to run on OpenSolaris. Sun's non-free mostly Open Source version of Solaris 10. Released under the CDDL license.		4 games
OpenVR(SteamVR;Steamworks VR)[HTC Vive]	Uses the OpenVR API for VR headset functionality. Used by things such as HTC Vive and SteamVR.	2014 / 2019	3 games
Oracle Solaris	Known to run on Oracle Solaris. Oracle's proprietary version of Solaris 10 and later.		0 game
Origin	Online (and possibly offline) games require login at Electronic Arts' Origin service.	2008 / 2014	17 games
Orion		2005 / 2006	3 games
Orochi	Uses any generation of the Orochi game engine by Silicon Studio.	2011 / 2012	1 game
OS-9 Operating System	Games that run native in Microware/Radisys OS-9. Multitasking, multi-user OS originally for the 6809 CPU. [b](Not Apple's [url=/groups/info/macos9]classic OS 9[/url].)[/b]	1985 / 1990	15 games
OSVR(Open Source Virtual Reality)	Open source API for VR goggles by Sensics and Razer.	2016 / 2017	6 games
Outlaw Engine	8 Bit Weapon's engine and editor to create Apple ][ RPG games.		1 game
Overlap2D	a game engine		0 game
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.	2006 / 2016	14 games
PAIN engine	Game engine by People Can Fly.	2004 / 2010	8 games
Panda3D	A free 3D game engine by Carnegie Mellon University and Disney.	2007 / 2018	31 games
Pando Media Booster	A proprietary file sharing software that uses BitTorrent protocol with the distributed files hosted at Pando's servers. May install SmartShopper grayware along with itself.	2003 / 2013	6 games
Panopticum	A panoramic adventure game engine by Phantomery Interactive.	2008 / 2010	2 games
Panta Rhei	8th generation game engine from Capcom.		1 game
Panzer General	A nameless game engine originally created for Panzel General.	1994 / 2015	13 games
Paradox Connect	Requires account in Paradox Connect service.		1 game
PathEngine	A pathing (path-finding) engine by PathEngine.	2006 / 2015	40 games
Pepys Adventure Gamer	Games made with and playable using Pepys Adventure Gamer for graphical adventure games.		1 game
Photex		1995 / 1996	4 games
PhyreEngine[Phyre Engine]	A free cross-platform game engine by Sony.	2008 / 2019	38 games
PhysicsFS(physfs)	A file system and archive abstraction library by icculus.	2001 / 2016	44 games
PhysX physics engine	Uses PhysX physics engine.	2004 / 2022	285 games
Pico-8 Fantasy Game Console	Intends to capture the fun and creativity of writing programs for the small personal computers of the 80's, without the hassles of an arcane platform.	2016 / 2017	3 games
Pie in he Sky Engine			1 game
Plankalkül (Plan Calculus)	Plankalkül was the worlds first complete high-level computer language invented by Konrad Zuse. Originally written in 2D!		1 game
Playground SDK (Playground framework)		2007 / 2014	8 games
PlayStation mini	A downloadable game primarily for PSP but sometimes compatible with PS Vita as well.		1 game
PlayStation Mobile	Software framework used to provide downloadable PlayStation content for devices that meet PlayStation Certified requirements. Formerly known as PlayStation Suite.	2012 / 2015	19 games
PopCap Games Framework	Primarily 2D game engine from PopCap Games.		1 game
PowerRegister[PowerRegScheduler]	A social engineering product that collects information about the user and sends it to centralized server via internet. Silently installed with certain games and applications and is not removed with them.	2000 / 2001	3 games
Prism3D	A game engine by SCS Software.	2001 / 2005	6 games
Protected Mode DOS Extender	Developed by Renaissance for the game, Zone 66. In some configurations, it required a reboot to begin and end a game.	1993 / 1998	8 games
PTypes (C++ Portable Types Library)			1 game
PulseAudio[Pulse Audio]	A cross-platform sound system for POSIX operating systems.	2003 / 2017	7 games
Qt framework	A cross-platform application framework originally by Trolltech.	1997 / 2015	32 games
Quake(Quake 1)	Uses Quake's game engine.	1996 / 2009	25 games
Quantum3	A game engine by High Voltage Software.	2008 / 2009	3 games
Quazal (Net-Z;Rendez-Vous)	Uses any online networking and/or matchmaking service from Quazal.	2005 / 2009	42 games
QuickDRAW3D		1996 / 2000	5 games
QuickTime media player	Requires Apple QuickTime to be present on the system.	1992 / 2015	32 games
RAD Engine(Ready at Dawn Engine)	A game engine by Ready At Dawn.	2008 / 2015	2 games
RAD Pixomatic	A software renderer developed by RAD Game Tools, released in 2003.	2002 / 2007	5 games
RAGE (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine)	Games using the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine.	2006 / 2023	28 games
RakNet	An open-source, cross-platform C++ and C# networking library by Jenkins Software.	2005 / 2015	14 games
Real Virtuality	Runs on any version of RV game engine.	2001 / 2017	15 games
Reality Lab	A 3D game engine by RenderMorphics.	1995 / 1996	2 games
RealSound	A software solution for PC speaker audio to output 6-bit audio. Created by Steve Witzel, and patented (US US5054086 A) by Access Software.	1988 / 1993	11 games
Realspace game engine		2006 / 2014	2 games
Recast navigation	An open-source (MIT) 3D path finding toolset.	2012 / 2018	5 games
REDengine	A game engine by CD Projekt RED.	2011 / 2021	12 games
Refractor 2	A game engine by Refraction Games and Digital Illusions.	2002 / 2009	9 games
Ren'Py(Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine)	A Python based game engine for visual novels.	2004 / 2023	1062 games
RenderWare	A 3D graphics engine by Criterion Software.	1995 / 2012	68 games
Renegade		2007 / 2014	5 games
Retargetable Graphics API (RTG)	Programmed to use RTG features.	1994 / 2000	7 games
Return of the Hylian Engine	Vincent Jouillat's game engine created for the R.O.T.H. fan game. Was subsequently used for other fan games.		7 games
Riot	A game engine by Surreal Software.	1999 / 2005	10 games
Road Hog	A game engine by Flying Wild Hog.	2011 / 2016	9 games
Robin Game Engine	Millennium Interactive's game engine for The Adventures of Robin Hood and other games. Amiga, Atari ST, and DOS.	1991 / 1992	5 games
Rockstar Games Social Club	Requires login at Rockstar Games Social Club.		1 game
RPG Maker (RPGツクール;RPG Tsukūru)[RGSS]	Made with any version of RPG Maker. These either install RPG Maker run-time along them or require it to be pre-installed.	1997 / 2023	44 games
RPG Maker VX Ace[RGSS3]			3 games
RPG Maker XP[RGSS1]		2011 / 2014	4 games
RRedline(Speedy3D)	Rendition's proprietary graphics API.		2 games
RSX 3D Audio API	Uses the RSX 3D API for audio output.		1 game
Ruby on Rails	Web application framework for the Ruby scripting language.		1 game
S3 MeTaL API	Can use S3's proprietary MeTaL 3D rendering API for graphics.	1999 / 2000	3 games
SafeDisc copy protection	Uses SafeDisc copy protection scheme.	1998 / 2008	72 games
SAGA		1994 / 2013	14 games
SAGE (Strategy Action Game Engine)	Uses the Strategy Action Game Engine.	2003 / 2008	10 games
SAGE 2.0 (RNA engine;RenderWare New Architecture)		2008 / 2010	6 games
SCI0 - Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 0	Created with Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 0, an adventure game engine.	1988 / 1991	39 games
SCI1 - Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 1	Created with Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 1, an adventure game engine.	1990 / 2015	16 games
SCI11 - Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 1.1	Created with Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 1.1, an adventure game engine.	1992 / 2015	13 games
SCI2 - Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 2	Created with Sierra's Creative Interpreter Version 2, an adventure game engine.	1993 / 1995	10 games
Scoreloop	A social and distribution platform for mobile devices.		2 games
SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion)	A scripting engine used by many LucasArts games.	1987 / 2017	140 games
Scumm Virtual Machine		1984 / 2016	395 games
SDL_mixer	Uses SDL's very basic audio API for sound.	1998 / 2012	16 games
SecuROM copy protection	Uses any version of the SecuROM copy protection scheme.	1999 / 2013	83 games
SecuROM v1-v3 copy protection	A copy protection scheme.	2001 / 2005	14 games
Serge Engine	Perpetual Pyramid's game engine built on pygame.	2011 / 2014	13 games
Serious engine		2001 / 2010	10 games
SEUCK - Shoot'Em-Up Construction Kit	Games built with SEUCK, a "construction kit" for the Commodore 64, Amiga and Atari ST created by Sensible Software and published by Outlaw in 1987.		1 game
Shadowcaster	An unnamed game engine created for Shadowcaster by Raven Software when they found out Doom engine did not have the features they needed.	1993 / 1994	2 games
ShiVa 3D (ShiVa 3D Game Engine;ShiVa 3D Engine)	ShiVa 3D is a cross-platform application development toolkit centered around the ShiVa3D Engine.		5 games
SigEngine		2010 / 2012	4 games
Silent Storm	A nameless game engine developed by Nival Interactive for their Silent Storm tactical strategy game, later re-used for other similar games.	2003 / 2010	9 games
Silk Engine	A cross-platform game engine by Spiders.	2010 / 2016	10 games
Simple and Fast Multimedia Library	A free (zlib license), both low and high level C++ API for accessing graphics, input, audio, etc.	2010 / 2018	10 games
Simple DirectMedia Layer 2(SDL2)		1997 / 2020	39 games
Simplygon	A 3D mesh optimization solution that automates LOD creation.	2013 / 2014	2 games
Sith	A game engine developed by LucasArts.	1997 / 2000	4 games
SlaveDriver		1996 / 1997	4 games
Slayer	A game engine developed by The Collective.	2002 / 2006	12 games
SlimDX	A wrapper API for use with .NET, covering Windows multimedia functions as broadly as possible.	2009 / 2017	19 games
SLUDGE	And adventure came oriented engine and associated development tools.	2008 / 2015	9 games
SmartFoxServer		2009 / 2014	5 games
Snowblind(Dark Alliance)	A game engine originally created for Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance by Snowblind Studios.	2001 / 2021	17 games
Snowdrop		2016 / 2019	14 games
Soft Denchi(ソフト電池;SdRt)	A DRM solution from Paltiosoft.		1 game
Soft Solid 3-D		1983 / 1984	3 games
SoftwareShield IronWrap (GameShield IronWrap)	An obfuscating DRM scheme that involves a mini virtual machine.	2011 / 2012	2 games
Solarus Engine	A GPL 3 licensed engine by Christopho designed for making a Link to the Past clone. Used along with the Solarus Quest Editor to make other games.	2008 / 2015	13 games
Solidshield	A copy protection scheme by TAGES SA.	2007 / 2012	17 games
Sony Station	Requires account at Sony's Station service. This is NOT the same as used in PSN.	2004 / 2012	4 games
Source	Uses Valve's Source engine that was developed with Half-Life 2.	2004 / 2022	90 games
Source 2	The second generation of Source engine, first introduced with Dota 2 Reborn.		3 games
Source Engine 2	Uses Valve's Source engine that was developed with Half-Life 4.		0 game
Spark Casual Engine	Spark CE is a game engine used extensively by Artifex Mundi and available for free download.	2012 / 2015	14 games
Spark Engine	Created by Unknown Worlds for their game [i]Natrual Selection 2[/i].	2012 / 2014	4 games
SpeechFX[VoiceGaming SDK;VoiceKaraoke SDK;VoiceSync SDK]	A variety of speech recognition (voice command/control) middleware.		3 games
SpeedTree	A foliage generator by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc.	2006 / 2015	19 games
Spinnaker Adventure Language (SAL)	An adventure game engine by Spinnaker Software. It includes a framework for graphics and action sequences.	1984 / 1986	25 games
Spring(Spring Engine)	A free, open-source, cross-platform RTS game engine created by a community of enthusiasts.	2005 / 2012	11 games
Squirrel programming language	A lightweight, imperative, and object-oriented programming and scripting language.		1 game
SSG's Battlefront Game System Engine		1986 / 1991	27 games
Starbreeze	Any generation of the cross-platform game engine by Starbreeze Studios.	2004 / 2012	10 games
startrek game engine	A point-and-click adventure game engine by Interplay for Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (DOS). Used for 2 additional Trek games & ports to other OSes.	1992 / 2015	11 games
Steam Runtime	Uses the Steam Runtime, a runtime environment (binary-compatibility layer) for Steam applications so they execute on potentially any Linux distribution without issues.		0 game
SteamOS	Supports the SteamOS Linux distribution (a fork from Debian 7), either by coming with installer for it or is otherwise simple to setup on it.	2007 / 2021	428 games
Steamworks API	The software part that ties a game to the Steam community, matchmaking and other features.	2003 / 2020	349 games
StepMania engine		2001 / 2005	6 games
Stick 2D Engine (Stick AE)	A game engine based on the Lightweight Java Game Library	2012 / 2014	6 games
Stingray(Autodesk Stingray)	A 3D game engine by Autodesk, based on Bitsquid engine they acquired prior.	2014 / 2015	2 games
StoryNexus			2 games
Stratagus(Freecraft)	Uses the real-time strategy gaming engine Stratagus.	2002 / 2014	15 games
Substance Air (ProFX)	A procedural texturing middleware by Allegorithmic. Originally named ProFX.	2006 / 2014	3 games
Sun Microsystems Solaris	Known to run on Sun Solaris versions 2-10.	1979 / 2016	74 games
SunBurn(SunBurn Game Engine)[SunBurn XNA Game Engine]	A C# and XNA game engine by Synapse Gaming.	2011 / 2014	4 games
Supaplex Engine (Megaplex Engine)		1998 / 2004	2 games
Super Pitfall Engine	A game engine by Steve Bjork used famously for Super Pitfall & less so for Mine Rescue.	1986 / 1988	3 games
Syllable OS	A fork from the former AtheOS.	1999 / 2006	2 games
System3.5(Alice Soft System 3.5 – 3.9)	Uses the OS/VM hybrid game engine System3.5 (3.5 – 3.9) from Alice Soft. Platform support primarily for Windows 95 but backwards compatible with Windows 3.1 as well.	1991 / 2002	3 games
System3(Alice Soft System 3.0)	Uses the OS/VM hybrid game engine System3 from Alice Soft. Platform support for PC-88, PC-98, MSX, x68k, FM-Towns, and MS-DOS (and Win3.1 via DOS backward compatibility).	1989 / 1996	19 games
System4(Alice Soft System 4.0)	Uses the System 4 virtual machine game engine from Alice Soft. Created from scratch and supports only Windows 98 and later related platforms.	2002 / 2011	4 games
T/SAL (Thackray/Seal Adventure Language)	Phoenix OS was created for the IBM 370 at Cambridge. Acheton was created there & became a basis for other 370/POS games. This 'authoring system' would come to be known as T/SAL		1 game
TAGES copy protection(T@GES)		2006 / 2013	30 games
Tcl scripting language (Tool Command Language;Tcl/Tk)		1994 / 2016	27 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.	1990 / 2010	35 games
TGA images(TARGA)[Truevision TGA]	Uses TGA/TPIC images, an RLE compressed or raw 32-bit raster image format by Truevision, usually favored for its simplicity and lack of inhibiting patents.	1984 / 2018	15 games
The Bard's Tale engine	A game engine by Michael Cranford created for "The Bard's Tale" that Interplay updated & reused for 3 additional games, 1 besides a Bard's Tale sequel.	1985 / 1998	30 games
The Games Factory (TGF)	Created with TGF, a graphical game authoring tool by Clickteam.		1 game
The Graphics Magician	A graphics focused set of routines by Mark Pelczarski. Originally used for both Applesoft BASIC and Assembly based games for the Apple II.	1982 / 1989	52 games
The Quill Adventure System	A program to write home computer adventure games. Written by Graeme Yeandle, it was published on the ZX Spectrum by Gilsoft in December 1983. It was used by several games companies to create over 450 commercially published titles.	1983 / 1987	14 games
The Wonderful World of Eamon	Uses the Eamon text plus graphics game engine to play the 240+ games created for it.	1983 / 2010	5 games
TheEngine	A 3D engine by SkyFallen.	2005 / 2009	10 games
Three.js	HTML5/Javascript 3D Engine by mrdoob.	2010 / 2015	7 games
Titan Engine	Uses the Titan game engine created by Stainless Steel Studios.	2001 / 2006	6 games
Titan Quest(Iron Lore)	A nameless game engine by Iron Lore Entertainment originally for the Titan Quest game.	2006 / 2016	3 games
Titanium	A proprietary game engine by Radical Entertainment.	2009 / 2012	6 games
Torque 2D (Torque Game Builder)	Made with Torque Game Builder.	2007 / 2014	11 games
Torque 3D(Torque Game Engine)	A game engine by GarageGames. Later open sourced.	2000 / 2016	38 games
Trash Engine	Uses the Trash game engine.	2008 / 2011	2 games
TressFX	A hair physics library by AMD.	2013 / 2014	3 games
Trisquel Linux	An Ubuntu Linux variant with no non-free (proprietary) elements.		1 game
TuxCap Framework	A non-proprietary alternative to PopCap Framwork	2007 / 2008	2 games
Twine Engine		2012 / 2014	7 games
TX Engine	A framework for turn-based strategy games for Unity, created by Full Control.	2009 / 2014	11 games
UBIart Framework[UBI art Framework]	An art oriented game engine by Ubisoft.	2011 / 2015	20 games
Ubisoft Online Services Platform		2010 / 2014	11 games
Ultima VI engine[Ultima 6 engine]	Origin's attempt to extract bits of U6, make tools & make multiple games based on the U6 engine to quickly create better games in less time, & cheaper	1990 / 2014	8 games
Ultima VII(Ultima 7;Exult)	Uses the Ultima 7 game engine or the open source remake, Exult.	1992 / 2021	38 games
Ultima VIII engine (Ultima 8 engine)		1994 / 1997	5 games
Umbra 3	Scene graph (occlusion culling) middleware by Umbra Software.	2012 / 2017	7 games
Unigine	A 3D game engine by Unigine Corp.	2008 / 2016	18 games
Uniloc copy protection (SoftAnchor)	A copy protection scheme by Uniloc Corporation.		1 game
Unity 5.x	Uses the fifth generation of the Unity game engine.	2015 / 2017	5 games
Unity(Unity 3D;Unity toolkit)[Unity3D]	Made with and powered by Unity toolkit and game engine, created by Unity Technologies.	2005 / 2023	1515 games
Universal Windows Platform	Platform-homogenous application framework created by Microsoft. Requires Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, or newer to run.		1 game
Unreal Development Kit (UDK)	Developed using the free (binary-only) version of Unreal Engine 3. These also install UDK redistributable or require it to be installed beforehand.	2009 / 2016	37 games
Unreal Engine 1	Uses first generation of the Unreal Engine, developed by Epic Games.	1998 / 2003	49 games
Unreal Engine 2 (Unreal Engine 2X;Unreal Engine 2.5)	Second generation Unreal Engine by Epic Games.	2002 / 2016	103 games
Unreal Engine 2X			0 game
Unreal Engine 3 (UE3)	Uses third generation Unreal Engine (by Epic Games).	2006 / 2019	333 games
Unreal Engine 4 (UE4)	Uses fourth generation Unreal Engine, created by Epic Games.	2012 / 2023	149 games
Unreal Engine 5 (UE5)		2023 / 2024	12 games
Uplay	Integrates with Ubisoft's Uplay in some manner.	2009 / 2019	40 games
V-play Engine	A 2D rapid development game engine for iOS, Android, Blackberry, MeeGo, Symbian, and Linux		3 games
Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC)		2004 / 2016	27 games
Vampire engine	A game engine created by Raven Software for MageSlayer.		2 games
Verge	Created using the Verge game creation system.		2 games
Vicious Engine	A game engine (middleware) by [company=Vicious Cycle Software]Vicious Cycle Software[/company].	2005 / 2009	11 games
Virtual Theatre	A cross-platform adventure game engine by Revolution Software designed to run on Windows, DOS, Atari ST, Amiga, Macintosh and Playstation.	1992 / 2015	31 games
Vision Engine(Havok Vision Engine)	A game engine by Trinigy, acquired by Havok in 2011.	2006 / 2014	17 games
Visionaire(Visionaire Studio)	Adventure game maker and associated game engine.	2008 / 2017	24 games
Vital Engine	A game engine developed by Deep Shadows.	2005 / 2009	4 games
Vocaloid (ボーカロイド)	A singing synthesizer developed by Kenmochi Hideki and colleagues. Originally not meant for commercial use, but with backing from Yamaha turned into such.	2009 / 2016	10 games (1 characters)
Void Engine	A modified version of id Tech 5 by Arkane Studios.		3 games
Voxel Space	Uses any generation of the Voxel Space engine, created by NovaLogic.	1992 / 2000	10 games
Voxlap engine	A game engine by Ken Silverman		1 game
VRAGE	A mixed polygon/voxel engine by Keen Software House.	2012 / 2019	6 games
Vulkan(glNext)	A cross-platform graphics API from Khronos Group for games and interactive media, partially based on AMD's Mantle. Successor to OpenGL.	2013 / 2022	30 games
WeiNGINE	A 3D to 2D pre-rendered RPG game engine by Planewalker Games.		1 game
Westwood 3D	Uses the Westwood 3D game engine.	2001 / 2002	3 games
Westwood Online (WOL;XWIS)	A proprietary network by Westwood Studios.	1996 / 2002	9 games
Windows 10(WX;Windows X;Threshold)	Runs natively on Windows 10 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.	2015 / 2020	31 games
Windows 7(Windows NT 6.1)	Runs natively on Windows 7 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.	2009 / 2020	35 games
Windows 8(Windows NT 6.2;Windows RT)	Runs natively on Win8 and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.	2006 / 2020	69 games
Windows 98 (Windows 98SE;Windows ME;Windows Millenium Edition;Windows 4.10;Windows 4.90)	Runs natively on Win98 and/or WinME and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.	1995 / 2014	345 games
Windows Media (Windows Media Video;Windows Media Audio)[wmf;wmv;wma]	Uses one or more of the proprietary Windows Media Audio/Video formats which may require installation of extra software packages or Windows Media Player itself.	2005 / 2016	19 games
Windows Mobile operating system (WindowsCE 5.0;WinCE 5.0)		2005 / 2012	8 games
Windows Vista(Windows NT 6.0)	Runs natively on Windows Vista and is supported by the developers/publishers on it.	1997 / 2020	493 games
Winqual (Windows Quality Online Services;WER;Windows Error Reporting)	A proprietary crash reporting solution by Microsoft for Windows operating systems (XP and later).	2001 / 2010	1 game
Wintermute(WME)[wintermute engine]	A free open source (MIT license) game engine and development kit primarily for adventure games.	2005 / 2014	11 games
Wolfenstein 3D	Uses the age old Wolf3D engine created originally for Wolfenstein 3D.	1991 / 2015	33 games
World Builder Engine	A game engine by Synergistic Software used for creating hybrid strategy games with RPG, action, and/or click-adventure adventure elements.	1989 / 1993	16 games
World Builder game creation system	1st used to create games in 1984, Silicon Beach Software published their system 1986. ©William C. Appleton, reportedly released as Freeware in 1995	1984 / 1994	48 games
Wwise (WaveWorks Interactive Sound Engine)	An audio engine - and associated development tools - by Audiokinetic.	2010 / 2020	59 games
X-Ray Engine		2007 / 2009	4 games
X-Wing Engine	Uses any version of the unnamed engine originally used for X-Wing, updated for subsequent games and backported for re-releases of the older games.	1993 / 2015	10 games
Xbox SmartGlass			5 games
XIGNCODE3	An anti-cheat solution from Wellbia.	2009 / 2015	2 games
XInput	Controller input API from Microsoft, introduced with DirectX 9.	2002 / 2017	28 games
Xith3D	A free open source (BSD) scene graph engine.		8 games
XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol;Jabber)	Uses XMPP for chat and possibly other functionality.		1 game
XNA Framework (Mono.XNA;Microsoft XNA;XNA Game Studio)	Made with and uses the XNA framework by Microsoft, a set of tools and a runtime for game development. Or the Mono.XNA open-source and cross-platform re-implementations of the API.	2004 / 2021	76 games
XnGine	Uses the XnGine game engine by Bethesda.	1995 / 1999	7 games
Xox Game Engine	A game engine used for some NeXTstep games.	1993 / 1994	9 games
Xvid video codec		2006 / 2009	2 games
YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language)	Uses YAML data serialization format for storage, configuration or anything else.		2 games
Yasmina's Quest engine	An engine for games mixing graphical point-n-click and text adventure gameplay, coded in PHP & DHTML (JavaScript, CSS and HTML).		5 games
Yeti Engine	A modified Unreal Engine 2.5 by Ubisoft Tiwak and Paris.	2006 / 2014	15 games
YU-RIS(ユーリス)	A freeware visual novel game engine by Firstia.		1 game
ZDoom	A heavily modified id Tech 1 engine that adds large number of new functionality that some games may depend on (thus be incompatible with other id Tech 1 based engines).	2008 / 2017	4 games
Zebra Othello Engine (WZebra Engine)	An othello engine by Gunnar Andersson released under GPL v2	2003 / 2015	3 games
Zedek Engine	Krell Software published Sword of Zedek then reused the code for other games.	1981 / 1983	8 games
Zelda Classic / ZQuest Engine	Began as pixel perfect recreation of original Legend of Zelda for DOS. But advanced to cross-platform (DWOL) & for other 2D Zelda-likes or platformers	1999 / 2015	54 games
Zero	A game engine by Pandemic Studios.	1999 / 2005	11 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.	1983 / 2007	63 games
Zip	A compressed data packaging format created by Phil Katz (PKWARE), used by games as a virtual file system and generic data packaging. Commonly the extension is changed to something else to prevent players from thinking they'd need to unpack them.	1989 / 2015	56 games
ZoneMatch	An online matchmaking service from Microsoft, retired on 2006-06-19.	1997 / 2003	13 games

concepts

3DS Virtual Console	Distributed through the 3DS Shop Chanel for play on official 3DS Emulators.	1983 / 2004	151 games
A* Pathfinding Algorithm	Uses the A* pathfinding algorithm.	2014 / 2016	3 games
Abandoned software (Deprecated software)	Any software (libraries, APIs, or such) or software components that are no longer developed, maintained, or supported by their (former) developers.		0 game
Ad Lib MDI	A music format developed by Ad Lib - as replacement for their MUS format - that didn't see wide use.	1991 / 1993	8 games
Administrator rights(Root access;Superuser rights)	Requires administrator/root level access to run properly or at all.	2007 / 2013	2 games
Ambient occlusion	Uses any ambient occlusion shading technique, commonly the very simple and fast SSAO.	2007 / 2019	89 games
Ambiguous: 2.5D	Uses mixed 2D and 3D rendering, usually with some of the objects or the game world seen as polygon meshes and others (like characters) as regular sprites or pre-rendered scenes.	1989 / 2021	37 games
Animation blending	An animation technique where two or more pre-canned animations are seamlessly blended together to create a combination or half-way form of them as opposed to using inverse kinematics or dynamic motion synthesis to simulate such.		1 game
Artificial Intelligence Generated Content	Not an AI chracter, rather the game or parts of it are generated by a functioning Artificial Intelligence.	1986 / 2014	10 games
Artificial intelligence(AI)	Any tags relating to use of AI in games.		1 game
Audio APIs			0 game
Audio format incompatibility	Games that exhibit issues of varying severity with OS audio output format (KHz and bits) set to something else than they want.		1 game
Benchmark	Includes benchmark mode.	2001 / 2015	6 games
Blob shadows	The most basic shadow projection invented that exists as a simple, indistinguishable dark blob below whatever it belongs to. Including other static shadow sprites, especially if everyone shares the same looking shadow.	2006 / 2018	7 games
Bloom (Glow)	A lighting effect where brightness bleeds over an area around it in an image, simulating a type of glare.	2003 / 2020	92 games
Bokeh	Emulates bokeh blurring for out of focus visual elements. A type of depth of field emulation effect.		1 game
Bootloader	Typical of 1980s computers. A bootloader includes a minimal OS on the same media as the game. To play, one must (re)boot the system while the game's boot disk is in drive.	1978 / 2016	169 games
Bug: Integer overflow	A bug that causes some integer to overflow (go over what the hardware can do) producing variety of effects, commonly a kill screen, crash or something less game stopping.		1 game
Case insensitive	The game is case insensitive and may fail to function properly if installed on a file system that is case sensitive.		1 game
Chatbot(Chatterbot)[chatter bot;chat bot]	Uses a chatbot to mimic/simulate intelligent conversation.	1978 / 2011	4 games
Client-host(Client-server)	The game client also can function as server for multiplayer games as opposed to having (or in addition of) dedicated server.	2010 / 2016	14 games
Cloth physics			4 games
CMD executable(CP/M executable)	Comes in the .CMD binary executable format, associated with the CP/M operating system.		0 game
Codecs	Audio and video encoding algorithms and related libraries.		0 game
Color depth			0 game
COM executable	Comes in the .COM binary executable format, associated with the CP/M and DOS operating systems. Applications in this format are all 8-bit and have maximum on-disk size of 65,280 bytes.	1987 / 1996	7 games
Common bugs	Any bugs (defects) that appear in multiple games in more or less uniform manner.		0 game
Common exploits	Any bugs (exploits) that appear in multiple games in more or less uniform manner.		0 game
Companion application	Includes a companion app (usually for some mobile platform like iOS/Android) that can be used to access information or small parts of the game remotely and asynchronously from the actual game but does not function like a proper game by itself.	2004 / 2016	11 games
Computer-assisted game[computer-assisted gaming;CAG]	Any games that use computer, console, etc. only partially with the rest done on paper, board, cards, or whatever else.		1 game
Conflicting Licenses	These simultaneously use multiple licenses that conflict; countervailing benefits of either license for users and/or developers.	2007 / 2011	2 games
Conservative Morphological Anti-Aliasing(CMAA)	An anti-aliasing technique similar to SMAA and FXAA, trying to accomplish some midway point between the two, fixing blurring of FXAA and performance cost of SMAA. Described by Leigh Davies of Intel.	2004 / 2013	2 games
Construction Kit		1984 / 1993	2 games
Controller autodetect	Automatically detects controllers when they're connected and disconnected while the game is running with no need to restart the game or manually refreshing controllers in the game.		1 game
Cooperative level editor (Cooperative construction kit)	Includes a construction kit or similar that allows multiple people to simultaneously construct and edit levels and such.	2011 / 2015	3 games
Coverage Sampling Anti-Aliasing	An optimized version of multi-sample anti-aliasing described by Peter Young at Nvidia.	2010 / 2014	9 games
Crippled windowed mode	Does not run in a proper windowed mode despite offering the option, commonly lacking the window deco for moving the window about and is "stuck" at some point in the display.		1 game
CSV database(Comma-separated values)	Uses CSV-style human-readable database files.	2013 / 2020	6 games
Custom resolution	The display pixel resolution is fully customizable instead or in addition of prelisted supported resolutions.	2003 / 2007	5 games
Data caching	Temporarily caches certain data so it doesn't need to be fetched/transferred again via slow medium (e.g. from CD/DVD or streamed from internet) during play too often. Causes extra permanent storage (e.g. HDD) space needs.	1997 / 2003	9 games
Data import: Characters	Data import includes characters, so the player can continue with the same character(s) they played with in the previous game.	1990 / 2016	5 games
Data import: Story	Import includes the story, or major points of it, in which the player influenced an outcome of several possible. These choices affect how the story plays out in the game the data was imported to.		1 game
Data import: Unlocks (Unlock codes)	The imported data transfers unlock codes or similar that allow access to content that otherwise would be unavailable, such as items, maps, scenarios, characters, etc.	1998 / 2012	5 games
Data streaming	Streams new game data during play for use and storage.	2010 / 2013	4 games
Decoupled resolution(Resolution scaling)[Resolution upscaling;Resolution downscaling]	The render resolution is decoupled from display resolution, upscaling or downscaling it to fit the screen after the fact which leaves display resolution untouched from native or currently selected desktop resolution.	2004 / 2017	10 games
Dedicated client(Client-server model)	The game uses a dedicated client for gameplay which forces client-server setup even for local offline singleplayer. The server is likely automatically started by the client in the background with no separate action from the player.	1996 / 2016	137 games
Dedicated local host(Dedicated local server)	Has dedicated local host/server application available, either bundled with the game or available for free as a download. Usually available for more platforms than the game itself is available for.	2001 / 2016	20 games
Demo available(Trial version available)	Has a playable demo/trial version publicly available.	1980 / 2023	1425 games
Depth of field (Depth of focus;Depth blur;Lens blur;Focus blur)[DoF]	Simulates the depth of field optic effect, blurring things that are out-of-focus.	1999 / 2020	177 games
Desktop resize	Alters desktop resolution when launched (possibly limited to use of fullscreen mode).	2009 / 2013	2 games
Developer console	Allows trivial access to developer console where player can use developer commands to alter the game. Often used for cheating by players.	1996 / 2015	8 games
Development System used ran MS-DOS	These games were developed in part or whole using at least 1 computer running a version of MS-DOS or a compatible OS		1 game
Development System used ran Windows	These games were developed in part or whole using at least 1 computer running a version of Windows	2009 / 2016	3 games
Dialog wheel	Dialogs are implemented as a pie/radial menu. Invented to provide interactive dialogs to consoles where gamepads with analog sticks are the primary controller.	2007 / 2015	12 games
Diegetic UI(Diegetic user interface;Virtual cockpit)[Diegetic HUD;Integrated HUD]	The user interface is depicted as part of the gameworld rather than some overlay of statistics on the player's screen.	1983 / 2023	42 games
Digital rights management (Copy protection)	At least one release of the game uses any form of DRM, technology used to limit the use of digital content after sale. Commonly in some form that prevents or hampers making of (or the usability of) extra copies.	1980 / 2020	878 games
Direct connect	Allows connecting directly to game server - for which the player provides the IP or DNS address of - instead of solely relying on master servers or other mechanisms for finding servers.	2005 / 2016	27 games
Direct3D Retained Mode	Uses the Direct3D Retained Mode API, deprecated after DirectX 3.0 and no longer supported on Windows Vista or later.	1996 / 2000	4 games
Directionally Localized Anti-Aliasing(DLAA)	An anti-aliasing technique described by Dmitry Adreev at Lucas Arts that accomplishes its goal via edge detection and blur filters.	2010 / 2015	4 games
Displaced touch screen controls	Uses touch screen control but the actual action is displaced somewhat from the precise touch spot, preventing the player's finger or stylus from obscuring whatever they're trying to do.		2 games
Display device choice[Screen choice;Monitor choice]	Allows choosing which display device to use instead of the default.	2004 / 2016	14 games
Display: 280x192	Apple's default Hi-Res mode. 6 colors normally, 15 using artifacting. 16 with a hack.	1977 / 2022	219 games
Display: 40x40	Lo-Res graphics and text mode for the Apple II series. 15 colors. 4 lines of text were visible at the bottom of the screen.	1977 / 2020	60 games
Display: 560x192	Apple's Double Hi-Res mode. 15 colors but must be used skillfully due to artifacting.	1979 / 2021	65 games
Distributed networking (Peer-to-peer networking)[p2p;peer 2 peer]			0 game
DNS lookup	Supports connecting to servers or other players by DNS address rather than IP address or some other method.		1 game
DOS MZ executable	Comes in the DOS MZ .EXE binary executable format, associated with the DOS operating system and different from the later WinPE .EXE format.	1989 / 1996	8 games
Drag and drop[drag & drop;drag-and-drop]	An user interface technique where items are moved to their wanted destinations by dragging them there.	1994 / 2018	33 games
DRM Cruel	The developers (usually) implement a form of DRM intended to inflict some sort of anguish on those who play an illegal copy of the game.	1984 / 2013	12 games
DRM: Always Online(Always-On)[Always On;Constant internet connection]	Any DRM that requires player to be constantly connected to authentication servers to play, even for singleplayer and LAN games.	1999 / 2013	35 games
DRM: Encryption	Uses DRM that involves encrypting all or parts of the game data, executables, etc. Which is decrypted with proper serial key and/or online activation.		1 game
DRM: Login	Any DRM that requires an account at an online service.	2002 / 2016	53 games
DRM: Media check	DRM that employs some form of media check for validating the player has legal copy of the game.	2002 / 2009	3 games
DRM: Online activation (Internet activation)	Requires online activation before you can play.	2000 / 2018	97 games
Dynamic motion synthesis	A method of procedural animation that builds upon earlier ragdoll physics and inverse kinematics by adding virtual muscles into the equation.	2008 / 2013	10 games
Dynamic prompts	Controller prompts change dynamically to match used controller, for example gamepad prompts swapped to keyboard/mouse prompts when either is used.		1 game
Dynamic split-screen	Split-screen where the little split sections of the screen adjust dynamically in some fashion, such as sizing up and down or changing positions as the game sees fit.	1993 / 2018	5 games
Engine remake	UVL entries existing because the game engine was remade (likely by 3rd parties). By definition, the original game assets are needed to run the original but may be optional for running replacement clones on the new engine.	1981 / 2017	56 games
Enhanced Quality Anti-Aliasing	An anti-aliasing method by AMD similar to CSAA.		1 game
Enhanced Subpixel Morphological Antialiasing(SMAA)	An anti-aliasing method that combines MLAA and MSAA/SSAA techniques.	2010 / 2018	15 games
Environmental audio	Audio changes with the environment.	2011 / 2015	13 games
Error reporting (Bug reporting;Crash reporting)	Either automatically reports any critical errors to developer/publisher or gives a simple way for player to do so semi-manually when one is detected.	2009 / 2013	17 games
Event director[AI director]	Uses a director style event controller that considers how the player has been doing and what has happened or hasn't happened to decide what will happen next instead of events having an independent of anything chance to occur.	2008 / 2020	15 games
Executable and Linkable Format (Extensible Linking Format)	Comes in the ELF executable format associated with UNIX System V and unix-like operating systems.		2 games
Executable formats			0 game
Exotic resolution	Uses a very unusual resolution for the platform.	1978 / 2014	21 games
Expanding map (Expanding level)	The map, level, or such expands as necessary - such as the player or other important entity reaching (near) its edge - or on its own.	2011 / 2023	12 games
Extensible(Expandable)	Existing content can be extended, adding new characters, enemies, and complementary game logic without replacing the old.	1978 / 2017	119 games
Facial expressions[facial animation]	Facial animation taken beyond plain lip synchronization, to produce expressions such as frowns, smiles, grimaces, and so forth.	2004 / 2013	17 games
FADE(DEGRADE)	A DRM scheme created by Codemasters that reduces game functionality gradually as it detects the copy being illegal until the game becomes unplayable.	2001 / 2017	5 games
False Hardware Specifications(False System Requirements)	The game materials, perhaps even the configuration options, claim support for hardware, but it doesn't actually work or is simply false.	1990 / 2019	4 games
Fan port(Fan conversion)	Only available as a fan port/conversion on the platform, such reverse engineered game engine, usually unsupported by the original dev/publisher. Legality of these is somewhat unclear.		2 games
Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing(FXAA)	A shader-based anti-aliasing technique described by Timothy Lotters at Nvidia that accomplishes its goal via edge detection and sub-pixel resampling and filtering.	2004 / 2019	90 games
Fat Binary (Multiarchitecture Binary)	Uses executable code for more than 1 CPU architecture.	1984 / 2016	121 games
Field of view option	Player has some control over the game's field of view, useful for those few that get simulator sickness or other issues from games with too low (~60) or too high (~110) FoV. Not when this is hidden somehow.	2007 / 2017	71 games
Flip-screens (flick-screen;page-flipping)	Exiting a screen or area expediently places the character on the opposite side of the screen in an adjacent area in the game world. Common for games predating scrolling movement.	1979 / 2021	147 games
For Any Linux Distro	The game's publisher and/or developer claims it will run on any version of Linux.		2 games
Forced mouse acceleration	Forces mouse acceleration to happen with no (easy) way to disable it.		1 game
Fractal Generating	Makes notable use of fractal generation to create graphics, sound, or the game world (or aspects of it).	1985 / 2013	9 games
Frame animation	Animations occur by playing out pre-rendered/defined frames.	1997 / 2000	3 games
Framerate smoothing	Prevents spikes in framerate, usually by preventing the game from suddenly rendering excessively high number of frames despite being able to. Such as skipping frames when it has already rendered certain number within a small period of time.	2012 / 2017	8 games
Fur physics(Fur simulation)	Simulates movement of fur coating on beings. Similar in idea to cloth physics.		1 game
Game install	Any tags pertaining to game installation.		0 game
Game libraries(Game frameworks)	Libraries that contain large number of functionality one would need to make a game, and are there specifically for that purpose (including functionality that presumably only games need), but is not and does not have an engine on itself.		0 game
Generic[generic game engine]	Uses any game engine that was made to be easily adaptable to other games.	2012 / 2014	10 games
Gouraud shading	A shading method that linearly interpolates the color between each point of a triangle (polygon) producing a gradient fill instead of single flat color.	1992 / 2019	21 games
H.264(MPEG-4 AVC;x264;MPEG-4 Part 10;Advanced Video Coding)	Uses the video compression format developed by ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG).	2012 / 2014	3 games
Has no playable Demo	In contrast to what is expected, these game have no playable demo. For instance, DOS version has a demo but Windows, Mac, and Linux versions do not.	2012 / 2018	18 games
Haxe programming language		2012 / 2017	8 games
Head swapping	Characters who use the bodies of other characters with only the head swapped.	1994 / 2014	13 games
Heightmap			1 game
High Definition Ambient Occlusion	An ambient occlusion technique by AMD.		1 game
High Dynamic Range Lighting(HDRI;High Dynamic Range Imaging)	Employs some technique for HDRL.	2003 / 2016	37 games
Hit-boxes	Uses hit-boxes to determine if something hits something or not rather than actual model surfaces. These are used to reduce the amount of calculations needed to determine if something hits something and where.		1 game
Horizontal field of view[Horizontal FoV]	Field of view is locked horizontally, cutting off or expanding top and bottom parts of the view with different aspect ratios.	2004 / 2010	6 games
Host migrating(Server migrating)	Allows migrating host from one player to another mid-game, likely with a momentary pause as players connect to the new host and sync. Usually automatic if current host leaves/disconnects.	2010 / 2013	15 games
Image formats			0 game
In-game level editor (In-engine editor;In-game construction kit)	The construction kit or similar works in-game rather than as separate tool, often adding a layer of control on top of the game rather than a separate editor, making level testing simpler and faster while maintaining familiar controls.	1981 / 2015	10 games
In-game web browser	Has in-game HTTP browser that is not locked to certain pages/addresses.	2003 / 2013	7 games
Install OS limit	The game setup program purposefully prevents installing the game on unsupported (versions of) operating systems.	1993 / 2008	15 games
Installer	Includes an installer or uses the platforms included function that does the same, allowing the game to be fully or partially stored on HDD or similar to improve loading times and reduce disc wear, or for other reasons. Should only be used when unusual.	1999 / 2017	4 games
IPX network protocol (Internetwork Packet Exchange;IPX/SPX;Sequenced Packet Exchange)	Uses the old and largely obsolete IPX network protocol. Unfortunately no longer supported by modern operating systems natively, making playing games that require it difficult.	1990 / 2014	63 games
Language filter(Profanity filter;Chat filter)	Filters used language, likely to censor out player use of profanities. Usually optional for those who do not get offended as easily.	2001 / 2017	54 games
Legacy design			0 game
Legacy design: Coin function (Insert Coin;Play Credits)	The text "Insert Coin" is used. Or the lives and or continues work on a system of "Credits" that would make more sense on a coin-op.		1 game
Legacy design: Controls	Controls are not properly tailored for the end system.	2012 / 2015	10 games
Legacy design: Interface	Interface behaves poorly, oddly or unexpectedly with the platform's standard controllers or has design principles that don't make that much sense on it.	2003 / 2014	4 games
License-wtfpl		2004 / 2016	10 games
License: Artistic	OSI license detailing [b]code & binaries[/b] rights. Confirms separate content copyright, "fair use", some 'grey areas' thereof, & undercuts patent trolling.	1997 / 2009	24 games
License: Commercial Restriction	Copyright holder has stated specific restriction on commercial redistribution or use. This tag is likely to be used with other licenses.	1977 / 1993	67 games
License: The New World Order Common Sense Software Unlicense	No warranty & public domain plus total unrestricted rights redundantly stated for current and future jurisdictions that don't recognize public domain.		1 game
License: Vague	A custom license with language that has legally imprecise terms, overly broad terms, not complete, and/or unclear.	1977 / 2021	97 games
Licenses			0 game
Lightmaps	Uses pre-computed (static) lighting conditions.	1996 / 2002	10 games
Limited Controller Choice	Game supports multiple controller types but certain modes, such as multiplayer, are software limited to disallow some types or will restrict choice to a single type		1 game
Lip synchronization[facial animation]	Uses some form of lip synchronization.	2001 / 2018	44 games
Live editor[in-game editor]	Includes live game editing tools usable while the game is being actively played. In some cases this is to accommodate multiplayer game narration by allowing the narrator to alter the game world on the fly to fit their needs.	1981 / 2019	27 games
Live map generator	Generates more of the map/level when needed rather than everything in one go in the initial map creation.	2010 / 2016	18 games
Loading	Any tags related to how the game loads data.		0 game
Loadless (Background loading)	After the game reaches the point where the player can actually play, there are no notable pauses for loading thenceforth, anywhere.	2010 / 2018	14 games
Locale limit	Works properly only with specific locale settings.	2006 / 2013	2 games
Login queue	Uses a queue mechanism to ensure those who want to play can log in to the server even under high load, though after a largely unpredictable wait period.	2009 / 2013	4 games
MAME not playable	For arcade video games emulated by MAME but not yet playable.	1970 / 2009	276 games
Manual Lookup (Manual Copy protection)	At least one release of the game required the use of the game's original manual or a similar document provided with the game, to identify a specified letter, word, or symbol requested by the game to allow it to be played. This would either involve looking	1988 / 1993	4 games
Map shadows	Geometry shadows are part of the map design rather than projected or dispelled by lighting conditions.		0 game
Markup languages (Data serialization formats)			0 game
Media check removed	Game's requirement for the game media to be in drive during play has been removed in a post-release patch.	2000 / 2001	4 games
Media: Download(Digital distribution)[Downloadable]	Full game legally distributed as digital download.	1982 / 2024	14554 games
MegaTextures(Virtual Textures)[megatexturing;virtual texturing]	A texture allocation technique that involves mapping an extremely large single texture into memory and clipmapping it for display purposes, originally developed by John Carmack. Virtual Texturing is a later more advanced version of MegaTextures.	2011 / 2017	4 games
Mesh network	Multiplayer games are formed as mesh networks, each player is connected to everyone else. Increases total upstream needs of all players but does not fall over if the "host" disconnects.	2006 / 2015	10 games
Metaballs	A technique for rendering organic looking n-dimensional objects.	2003 / 2006	4 games
Mixed display resolution (Half resolution)	Uses or allows using mixed display resolution, commonly with UI at much higher resolution than the game world itself.	1983 / 2014	12 games
Mod support	Has inbuilt official support for modifications, possibly with tools included to create some or all of mod content.	2002 / 2020	57 games
Modding	Any tags relating to game modding. All of these require that they can be shared with other players somehow.		0 game
Mode 7 (SNES mode 7;GBA mode 1 and 2)	Uses the SNES mode 7, any similar hardware capability on other platforms or simulates the effect on software.	1990 / 2016	74 games
Modifiable	Existing game logic can be modified or replaced.	1979 / 2016	66 games
Monte Carlo Methods	A broad category of algorithms that use repeated random sampling to obtain numerical results for problems that are probably deterministic.	1970 / 2015	6 games
Morphological Anti-Aliasing(MLAA)	An anti-aliasing technique invented around late 80s or early 90s that accomplishes its goal via edge detection and filtering based on detected shapes.	2007 / 2013	15 games
Motion blur		1992 / 2018	142 games
Multi Instance	Game supports running multiple copies on the same system for some purpose (usually multiplayer).		1 game
Multi-executable	Uses multiple executables besides additional launcher or external tools like level editors.	1992 / 2009	2 games
Multi-Frame Sampled Anti-Aliasing(MFAA)	An anti-aliasing method exclusive to Nvidia Maxwell GPUs and newer.	2006 / 2007	6 games
Multi-process	The game is split into multiple processes that work simultaneously.		1 game
Multi-resolution Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion(MHBAO)			1 game
Multi-window[multiple windows]	The game info is displayed spread out in multiple windows or window-like containers rather than single one. Primarily if the windows share the OS window decor rather than the game's own.	1990 / 1997	7 games
Multiplayer: Custom communication port	Allows setting custom port for accepting incoming connections. Usually only needed by the person hosting a game, but can occasionally be needed by others as well.	2008 / 2015	5 games
Multiple buffering[double buffering;triple buffering]			0 game
Multiple Game Engines	These games use more than one game engine. Often for different gameplay sequences they may be of different genres.	1994 / 2017	5 games
Multisample Anti-Aliasing	An enhanced version of SSAA (supersampling AA) that only supersamples parts of the scene rather than the whole thing (though supersampling of the whole scene may happen depending on scene complexity).	1999 / 2018	35 games
Mutators(Micromods)	Supports and likely includes few basic mutators. These mainly introduce minimalistic (in terms of code/content) changes to the game that drastically change how the game plays that usually only need to be applied server-side.	1999 / 2017	2 games
Name generator		1998 / 2017	43 games
NE executable (NewEXE;New Executable;Segmented Executable)	Comes in the NE .EXE binary executable format, associated with DOS 4.0, 16-bit Windows, & OS/2. Designed to replace DOS MZ, it was quickly replaced by PE.		1 game
No anti-aliasing	Uses no anti-aliasing for some reason. Mostly notable in games available on multiple platforms where it is omitted on some.		1 game
No camera pan[no camera panning]	Despite not using 90 degree top-down view (and being 3D), there's no way to pan the camera.	2009 / 2013	8 games
No diffuse maps[No texture maps]	Does not use diffuse maps that wrap a color texture around a 3D model, instead each face of the model uses lone texture/sprite that can sometimes overflow the model creating detail that is not possible with diffuse maps.	1998 / 2000	2 games
No pointer capture(No pointer grab;No pointer confinement)[No mouse capture;No mouse grab;No mouse confinement]	An unusual omission in action games playable in a window, where the pointer is allowed to go outside the window without any restriction, possibly causing misclicks outside the game window that cause it to lose focus.	2004 / 2016	44 games
No sprite scaling	Despite obviously benefiting from sprite scaling, these games do not use it for whatever reason. Instead rendering pre-drawn variations of the same sprites at different distances.		0 game
No volume control	Player has no control over the game volume. Possibly even lagging mute option as well.		1 game
Non-scaling graphics	Graphics do not scale with increased resolution. Instead, these likely allow larger view of the playing field.	2011 / 2015	3 games
Nonauthoritative host[Inauthoritative server]	The host/server does not function authoritatively, making anything that player sees to be the real thing. Usually not used in servers that run competitive games to not give unfair advantage to those who lag (via lag teleporting and similar).		1 game
Normal Filter Anti-Aliasing	A shader-based post processing anti-aliasing method that applies normal filter for edge detection.	2010 / 2015	3 games
Not a Linux game entry	Listed in the Linux platform until a better place is found for them. Can be used to [url=/search?ftag=-notlinux&fplat=106&ipp=c]list only actual Linux games at UVL[/url].		2 games
Nvidia FleX	A particle based visual effect library by Nvidia, part of GameWorks.		1 game
Optional framerate cap[Optional FPS cap;Optional frames per second cap]	Offers optional framerate capping besides turning VSYNC on or off. Useful in limiting system resource usage, and in case of laptops and such, limiting battery drain and overheating.		1 game
OS Wrapped	Any step before actually running the game requires use of an operating system or platform other than the target platform or target OS the game runs on	1995 / 2003	3 games
Palette swapping		1994 / 2021	5 games
Parallax scrolling	A 2D graphics technique that gives an otherwise flat background a sense of depth by moving the background layer(s) at different speed (usually slower) than the foreground (game area).	1982 / 2020	74 games
Parallel loading	Loads data from multiple sources in parallel to reduce loading time, such as from hard drive and removable media.	2013 / 2015	5 games
Partial loading[texture popping]	The game loads only bare necessities before shoving player into game, finalizing the load during play.	2008 / 2015	16 games
Pillarbox	Uses pillarboxing - placing usually black "pillars" to both sides of the screen - to allow unsupported screen aspect ratios to display correctly.	1998 / 2014	15 games
Pixel art scaler	Uses any pixel art image scaling algorithms, like EPX, Scale2x, Eagle, SaI, or such.	2011 / 2018	4 games
Playable loads(Playable load screens)	Loading screens are playable in some fashion or another, regardless if this has any useful purpose.	2013 / 2014	2 games
PNG images(Portable Network Graphics;PNG's Not GIF)	Uses PNG images. A lossless, DEFLATE compressed raster image format in 8-bit indexed or 24/32-bit true color with or without (binary or alpha) transparency, created as a replacement for patent restricted GIF images.	2012 / 2020	5 games
Pointer toggle(Pointer mode cycle)	Player can freely toggle, cycle, or otherwise change what their pointing device or similar controls, such as toggling between UI pointer to manipulate items and mouse look.	1984 / 2017	34 games
Portal-based game engines(Portal engine)	Game engines that are primarily portal oriented. Usually optimal for indoor scenes.		0 game
Preloading	Loads certain assets before they are actually needed.		3 games
Procedural content generation	Any tags describing various types of algorithmically created content.		0 game
Procedural texturing	Uses programmatically generated textures, possibly even generating them on-the-fly.	2006 / 2014	5 games
Proprietary network[Private network]	Online games require access to (and possibly login at) some proprietary network.	1996 / 2015	81 games
Proximity voice chat(Proximity VoIP)	Voice chat is only heard by players in close proximity to the speaker in the game world.	2004 / 2018	12 games
PS4 Pro Enhanced			1 game
Python	Python is a computer programming language often used to build websites and software, automate tasks, and conduct data analysis. Python is a general-purpose language, meaning it can be used to create a variety of different programs and isn't specialized fo		0 game
Quincunx Anti-Aliasing	An anti-aliasing technique that involves 5 samples arranged into a cross, usually somewhat tilted.	2009 / 2011	2 games
Radial blur	An effect that blurs vision the farther away from the center of your screen (the focal point) you look.	2010 / 2017	10 games
Radial menu (Pie menu;Ring menu)	Includes menu(s) where the cursor or selector originates in the center & items are displayed around it.	1986 / 2023	102 games
Ragdoll physics		1998 / 2020	46 games
Random seed[random seeding]	Player is asked to provide a seed for the random number generator in some manner. Possibly with the game generating one or more by default as well.	2011 / 2023	18 games
Raw input(Raw controller input)	Supports using raw input for controllers (usually limited to mice, though).	2004 / 2015	8 games
Real-time Ray Traced	Graphics are rendered on-the-fly using ray tracing.		1 game
Requirement: Swap file (Paging file;Virtual memory)	Requires that the system has swap file in use.	2006 / 2011	6 games
Run-time environments (Virtual machines;Interpreted languages)			0 game
Save copy lock	Prevents copying of the game saves to back them up or to spread them to other players/systems by any means, be it DRM, OS specific functionality, saves being hardware signature locked, or by any other means.	2009 / 2017	5 games
Save incompatibility	Game saves are incompatible with different versions of the game, but not counting platform differences.	2007 / 2015	5 games
Save Passwords (Level codes)	Continuing game progress works via a password system. Often used in systems with no permanent data storage available & carried over to other platforms via crude ports	1976 / 2017	1078 games
Save to external media (Save to removable media)	Saves are stored on removable media, such as floppies or memory cards.	1986 / 2004	19 games
Save to online storage (Save cloud)	Game saves and possibly other information are placed in online storage.	2004 / 2019	47 games
Saved RNG seed(Saved RNG state)[Saved random number generator seed]	Random number generator seed is stored with the game saves, causing game load and identical actions following it to have identical results despite supposed use of random chance elements.	2014 / 2018	7 games
Saves: Cross-platform	Allows cross-platform saves, generally by giving the player an easy way to import / export saves of the game from one platform to another.	2012 / 2018	12 games
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion	The first real-time technique for ambient occlusion developed by Vladimir Kajalin at Crytek for Crysis (CryEngine 2).	2004 / 2020	142 games
Screen space reflections(SSR)	An imperfect but extremely fast reflection drawing technique that was introduced by Crytek as part of their DX11 updates for Crysis 2.	2011 / 2016	6 games
Screen-Space Bias Compensation(SSBC)			1 game
Scummvm Work-In-Progress Games (Scummvm Unsupported Games)		1985 / 1997	57 games
Secondary control bindings(Alternate control bindings)	Same actions have multiple buttons, keys, or other controls bound to them on same controller (though binding them to multiple controllers may be an option on top). Especially notable if player can fully customize both primary and secondary controls.		1 game
Self-update (Auto-update)	Either automatically updates itself to latest version or informs the player of availability of newer version and where to get it or requires manually running separate update tool/check that comes with the game, without having to use third-party updater.	1998 / 2018	111 games
Server browser (Master server)	Uses a master server mechanism to register and list all available game servers/hosts, thus providing a server browser for the end users.	1999 / 2016	25 games
Shadow maps(Shadow mapping)	Uses the now outdated shadow mapping technique of producing shadows.	1999 / 2003	4 games
Shadow volume	A shadowing technique proposed by Frank Crow in 1977 and expanded on by Tim Heidmann in 1991.	2004 / 2015	15 games
Shaped sprites (Detailed sprite props)	A way to create props from sprites by having same sprite duplicated 2-3 times in 90-60 degree angles intersecting each other.	2011 / 2015	11 games
Single file(Application bundle)	The game is just a single file (likely its executable) that bundles all its required data inside of itself rather than outside as separate files.	2012 / 2016	6 games
Skeletal animation		2007 / 2017	20 games
Social platforms			0 game
Soft body dynamics(Soft body physics)		2018 / 2021	2 games
Soft particles (Volumetric particles)		2007 / 2016	17 games
Software renderer	In addition to hardware accelerated rendering, the game also supports rendering through software.	1992 / 2016	227 games
Source Code Available	The source code for these games have been published but likely or definitely remains proprietary.	1971 / 2021	953 games
Source Code Concepts	Groups pertaining to source code.		0 game
Source Code Escrow	The source code copyright holder has contracted to keep archival copies until re-licensing or specified circumstances allow it to be published or transferred	1980 / 2000	14 games
Source Code License	These games specifically provide notice that their [i]source code[/i] is covered by a license.	1987 / 2009	2 games
Spatial anti-aliasing(Full-scene anti-aliasing)[FSAA]	Uses some form of spatial anti-aliasing (not texture anti-aliaising).	1991 / 2011	1 game
Spatial audio			1 game
Spawn copy (Spawn installation)	Supports spawn installations: reduced functionality copies that often limit the game to its multiplayer mode (no singleplayer campaign/storymode available).	1996 / 2000	7 games
Sprite flip(Sprite mirror)	A simple method to producing sprites facing multiple directions by flipping sprite facing one direction to cover the other. Creates a visual artefact where asymmetric designs swap sides for things (e.g. left-handed character becomes right-handed).		1 game
Sprite morphing(Texture morphing)	Sprites/textures are morphed within themselves, or the containing polygon is morphed, giving the illusion of movement without having to actually animate the sprite/texture itself for it.	2007 / 2017	12 games
Static pixel scale	Changing display resolution does not alter pixel scale of displayed elements, so a 10 pixels tall character will be 10 pixels tall on 320×240 resolution as much as in 1920×1080 resolution.	1999 / 2015	11 games
Static resolution	Uses only single resolution and allows no configuration for it.	1995 / 2017	28 games
Stipple transparency(Stipple binary transparency)[stipple alpha;texture stippling]	An early and fast method of producing transparent surfaces by stippling the surface.Such as by creating a checkerboard type pattern of opaque and fully transparent pixels (checkerboard binary transparency).	1989 / 2017	28 games
StormRaid Engine	A 3D grand strategy game engine by Aartformgame		1 game
Subsurface scattering			1 game
Supersample Anti-Aliasing(Super-sampled Anti-aliasing;Super-sampling Anti-aliasing;FSAA;Full-Scene Anti-Aliasing;High-Resolution Antialiasing;HRAA)	The simplest form of anti-aliasing in existence that simply renders everything multiple times larger than the output resolution before resampling it down to match the output. Replaced by MSAA and other techniques for the most part.	1991 / 2018	20 games
Supersampling	Includes separate setting for supersampling from normal anti-aliasing options, allowing it to be used in addition to other anti-aliasing instead of solely.		1 game
System notifications(Pop-up notifications;Toastings;Desktop notifications)	Provides alerts about in-game events even when the game is not the top-most application, such as in form of system tray notification pop-ups.		1 game
TCP/IP (Internet Protocol Suite)	Uses TCP/IP protocol stack for networked multiplayer games in addition to any other outdated technology.	1981 / 2007	27 games
Tech demo	Developed to function as a technology demonstration.	2006 / 2014	2 games
Technical innovation (Technological innovation)	Innovately uses technology to produce something that hasn't been done before (at least on the platform).	1983 / 2015	16 games
Telnet / SSH	Uses Telnet/SSH text-based network protocol, likely meaning any basic Telnet/SSH client, including more advanced clients such as MUD clients, can be used to play the game.	1984 / 2001	9 games
Temporal Anti-Aliasing(TXAA;TAA)	An anti-aliasing technique that uses undisclosed hardware-based anti-aliasing with selective filtering via shaders and cross-referencing earlier drawn frames.	2012 / 2017	14 games
Temporary saves (Expiring saves)	Some or all game saves are [i]designed[/i] to expire/erase. Such as by normal system reset, power off, or game is unloaded		1 game
Text chat	Provides a chat interface for interaction with other players.	1973 / 2013	11 games
Texture atlas(Sprite sheet;Tile map)	Uses texture atlas, a single large graphics file with multiple objects and/or states of an object instead of each their own, for storing and accessing textures and sprites.		3 games
Third-party login	Not built on top of a system provided by the third-party, but offers login via them (but does not require a specific one).	2011 / 2014	3 games
Tile-based	Uses tile sets to construct levels.	1979 / 2020	441 games
Tooltips	Info dialogs that pop up when pointer is held over certain UI or gameworld elements, usually providing more in-depth info that does not pop up an actual window (disappears usually as soon as the pointer is moved away) or enter a modal screen for it.	1996 / 2023	115 games
Turn-based	Video games, in which the player must play within a certain space, and then it is the other player's turn to play	1970 / 2024	132 games
UI pointer(HUD pointer)	Uses a (mouse, trackball, touchdisplay, etc.) pointer to manipulate the UI/HUD without entering separate screen to do so.	1992 / 2017	23 games
Universal binary	Distributed in universal binary format, making the game playable on both PPC and x86 hardware.	2004 / 2012	3 games
Usage reporting[usage statistics;usage tracking;anonymous data sending]	Reports, either as is or has an option to for it, usage statistics or similar metrics to developer and/or publisher for the purpose of usage analysis and any action based on the results of that. Usually stored anonymously.	1981 / 2017	14 games
Uses it's own System Files	Rather than using files provided by the operating system, these games use copies or replacements usually contained within the games own directory	2003 / 2019	3 games
UVL: License Pending	With intent to define a license later, an author has notably granted public access to some or all aspects of his game beforehand.	2014 / 2015	2 games
Viewport (Projection)	Any tags relating to the viewport (not graphical [i]style[/i]).		0 game
Virtualization incompatibility(Sandboxing incompatibility)	Exhibits issues of varying severity with any virtualization (sandboxing) in use.	2013 / 2015	3 games
Voice board	Uses voice board-like method of producing spoken sentences by combining several short pre-recorded voice overs.	1981 / 2013	21 games
Voice chat: Lip synchronization	Lip synchronization is done to voice chat.	2017 / 2018	4 games
Voice chat(Voice over IP)[VoIP]	Has integrated voice chat functionality.	2004 / 2020	167 games
Volumetric lighting[volumetric light]		2008 / 2014	4 games
Wii U Virtual Console	A specialized section of the Nintendo eShop online service that allow players to purchase and download games and other software for Nintendo's Wii U.	1983 / 2016	141 games
Wii Virtual Console (Wii VC;WiiVC)	Distributed through the Wii Shop Chanel for play on official Wii Emulators.	1980 / 2011	437 games
Window restore(Game refocus)	Refocuses and restores itself to foreground under certain circumstances, such as when player attention is immediately required (for example, when multiplayer match is about to start).	2010 / 2015	8 games
Yaga Engine	By Humongous Inc (not Humongous Entertainment). It was used in several games beginning in 2002.	2002 / 2014	6 games