Danger from the Deep - Today's Time Waster

There are plenty of space shooters, racing games, and puzzles... But how many sub simulators are still out there? Danger from the Deep is a sub simulator, it's open source, and it's free. Right now it's only for Linux and Windows, but it uses SDL and OpenGL, so in theory could be ported to nearly any *NIX-based OS (sorry Be). The graphics are really beautiful. If you've never been in a sub, they convey the cramped, rough life that used to be a WWIII sub. You'll have to have some moldy sock soup and rusty bolts nearby to simulate the smell, but the overall ambience is fantastic. DD isn't ready for primetime as a game however, as damage isn't realistic (one shot and a ship sinks immediately). But it's pretty cool to see just how boring underwater travel can be. Just kidding, what's neat about DD is the ability to tinker with such an interesting machine. Subs are fascinating to me, and in WWII they were finally getting the things right to a degree where they really became deadly. The German subs (which is what you're driving) were particularly effective. And if just running around has you bored, you can create your own missions via simple text files. Dive, dive, dive!

Tags: freeware, opensource, simulation, submarine, timewasters, wwII