The VASSAL Engine

Overview

VASSAL is a general-purpose engine for building online versions of traditional turn-based games.  Any number of players may play either by email or over a live internet connection.  Hundreds of people are using VASSAL every day to play their favorite games online.  Why not you?

Installation

If you are reading this, you have successfully run VASSAL using Java Web Start.  On Windows systems, Web Start will prompt you to create a shortcut on your desktop for you to run the program without going through a web browser.  On Mac-OS-X/Linux, you can launch VASSAL directly with the command line $JAVA_HOME/javaws/javaws http://www.vassalengine.org/ws/vassal.jnlp

You can make a shortcut that runs a module in one step:

Quick Start

The VASSAL executable launches the VASSAL module editing program.  To play a game, choose "Play Module" from the opening screen and select the module.  Choose "Edit Module" to make modifications to a module, or "New module" to begin defining your own module.  Modules are available for download from the VASSAL Modules page.  If you create a new one, send a message to the VASSAL engine mailing list, upload it to the files section and it'll make it from there to the VASSAL site.

See the User's Guide for detailed instructions on playing games with VASSAL.

See the tutorials and Reference Manual for detailed instructions on building modules for VASSAL.


Recent Changes

Version 2.7: Version 2.6: Version 2.5: Version 2.4: Version 2.3: Version 2.2: Version 2.1: Version 2.0:

Recent Changes

Version 1.9: Version 1.8: Version 1.7: Version 1.6: Version 1.5: Version 1.4:

License

This software is free for non-commercial use.  The core engine is supported by an open-source project lead by Rodney Kinney and distributed under the GNU Library General Public License (LGPL). This distribution includes a number of third-party binary libraries, including some proprietary software whose copyright is held exclusively by Rodney Kinney.  Complete terms of use are given in the license file.


For more information, post a question to the Vassal Engine Yahoo Group or send email directly to Rodney Kinney.

Enjoy!

rk