C-Dogs

C-Dogs

Company type	Video game
Industry	Video games
Founded	1997
Founder	Ronny Wester
Products	Shoot 'em up video game

C-Dogs, the follow-up to Cyberdogs, is a shoot 'em up video game that includes both cooperative missions and a competitive "dogfight" deathmatch mode.

Gameplay

Players in C-Dogs undertake campaigns composed of diverse missions with goals such as defeating enemies, gathering items, demolishing targets, or saving hostages. These campaigns can be played solo or with a partner cooperatively. The game incorporates elements like color-coded keys for accessing locked areas, allied NPCs, and neutral civilians who impose penalties if harmed.

The title features a 2-player split-screen deathmatch mode named "dogfight," where participants face off across multiple rounds using keyboard, joystick, or gamepad inputs.

Relative to Cyberdogs, improvements include:

• Five built-in campaigns plus additional user-generated missions available online
• Diverse map designs accompanied by narrative briefings
• Introduction of deathmatch gameplay
• Broadened NPC categories: allies, hostages, and neutral bystanders
• A campaign editor for custom mission creation
• Increased arsenal variety, including different grenade types

The original’s weapon purchase and sale system was eliminated.

Development

Ronny Wester created Cyberdogs in 1994 and subsequently released its sequel, C-Dogs, between 1997 and 2001 as freeware, addressing the initial version’s 16-bit constraints.

Open source

In 2000, Wester published the Borland Pascal 7 source code for Cyberdogs (excluding proprietary libraries). Two years later, in 2002, he made the C-Dogs source code publicly available. Although the official website was discontinued by 2007, ongoing development persists through the C-Dogs SDL project hosted on GitHub. In April 2016, Wester licensed the game assets under a CC-BY agreement.

C-Dogs SDL

Following the release of the source code in 2002, Jeremy Chin and Lucas Martin-King ported the game to SDL, distributing it under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later as C-Dogs SDL. This open-source iteration introduced enhancements such as support for high resolutions, local multiplayer accommodating up to four players, upgraded graphics, and LAN multiplayer capabilities. The project transitioned to SDL2 in October 2015. Version 1.0.0 was launched on August 21, 2021, adding compatibility with missions from Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny.

Ports

Using the original source and SDL adaptation, C-Dogs SDL has been ported to numerous platforms including Android, GCW Zero, GP2X, Dingoo, PlayStation Portable, Dreamcast, Nintendo DS, Wii, Amiga OS, and UIQ3 devices such as Sony Ericsson M600, P1i, P990, and Motorola RIZR Z8.

Reception

In May 2017, Hardcore Gaming 101 published a review covering C-Dogs.

See also

• List of open source games

External links

• Ronny Wester's archived official C-Dogs website (2005 snapshot)
• C-Dogs SDL – Original SDL port
• C-Dogs SDL fork – Continued development fork