Abuse (video game)

Abuse
Developer(s)	Crack dot Com Exakt Entertainment (iOS)
Publisher(s)	MS-DOS NA: Electronic Arts EU: Origin Systems Mac OS Bungie
Producer(s)	Dave Taylor
Designer(s)	Duong Nguyen
Programmer(s)	Jonathan Clark
Artist(s)	Murray McMillan Duong Nguyen
Composer(s)	Bobby Prince
Platform(s)	MS-DOS, Mac OS, Archimedes, AmigaOS, AmigaOS 4, iOS, Android, Linux, OpenBSD, IBM AIX
Release	MS-DOS NA: March 1996[1] EU: 1996 Mac OS NA: March 5, 1997 Amiga EU: 1998 iOS August 13, 2009 Linux October 11, 2011 AIX September 26, 1996
Genre(s)	Run and gun
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Abuse is a run and gun video game developed by Crack dot Com and published by Electronic Arts in North America and Origin Systems in Europe. It was released on February 29, 1996 for MS-DOS. A Mac OS port of the game was published by Bungie and released on March 5, 1997. The game's source code, along with some of the shareware content, has been in the public domain since the late 1990s and has been ported to Linux and many other platforms.

The protagonist of the game, Nick Vrenna, has been unjustly incarcerated in a prison where the staff are performing unethical medical experiments upon the inmates. A prison riot occurs and an experiment goes horribly wrong. The people inside the prison - except for Nick, who seems to be immune - are infected with a substance called Abuse that transforms them into monsters. With the water supply in danger of being infected, Nick arms himself and fights through the horde to prevent this, and then escapes from the prison complex.

Abuse resembles a side-scrolling platform game. The keyboard is used to move Nick, while the mouse is used for aiming the weapons. The gameplay consists of fighting various enemies (mostly the various forms of mutants, who prefer to attack in huge swarms) and solving simple puzzles, usually involving switches.

Networked play, through IPX/SPX, is supported.

Abuse had a very different storyline coming out of production. The update for it replaced the original introduction with the current storyline. The original involved an invasion by an alien species called "ants".^[2] The player was a special ops agent, sent into their 'hive' to covertly destroy the aliens by shutting down the cooling system. This story was alluded to in a hidden section towards the end of level 14, where a large area, full of maroon tiles, can be found.^[3] The game was in development for 6 months by three people with a budget of $150,000.^[4]

Abuse was originally released on February 29, 1996, for MS-DOS and Linux, as an incomplete shareware version by Electronic Arts in North America, and Origin Systems in Europe. The game was ported to Mac OS by Oliver Yu of Crack dot Com and published by Bungie on March 5, 1997. The port was largely reworked for Mac, with the graphics partially redone to work better in 640x480 resolution. An AIX port published by IBM on September 26, 1996, is distributed via FTP.^[5]

Approximately two years after the release of the game, Crack dot Com decided to release the game's source code.^[6] Also the shareware release's game data (excluding the sound effects) was handed into the public domain.

Based on the source release the game's community worked initially on maintenance work, e.g. making the game work over TCP/IP.^[7] In 2001 Abuse was adapted to SDL multimedia library,^[8] with other technical refinements such as more than the 8-bit color depth the original version was limited to.

The SDL version allowed easy porting to modern platforms, for instance Microsoft Windows, Linux/X11 and also the Mac version has been updated to run on OS X. Over the years, the game became available for many more platforms, for instance BeOS,^[9] Nintendo Wii via Wii homebrew,^[10] OpenBSD,^[11] and in 2009 AmigaOS 4.^[12] The game has also been ported to the mobile devices, to iPhone/iPod Touch under the name Abuse Classic.

Until 2011 the game was maintained by Sam Hocevar on his webpage.^[13] In 2014 the game was ported to SDL2 and transferred to a GitHub repository.^[14]

In 2016, on the 20th birthday of the game, a community developer released a "20th anniversary source port" on base of the previous works^[15][16] which enabled custom resolutions, OpenGL rendering, and Xbox 360 controller support, and fixed the music.

Reception
Review scores Publication Score Next Generation [17] Computer Game Review 86/100[18]

Reviewing the DOS original, a Next Generation critic said the game "has everything it needs to be a great arcade classic – intuitive play control, a variety of weapons, creatures, devices, and traps ... scores of secrets to be ferreted out". He also praised the inclusion of an accessible level editor, and said the game's strongest point is the depth of its challenging puzzles, though he criticized the lack of story. He scored the game 4 out of 5 stars.^[17] The game was also reviewed in Computer Gaming World.^[19]

Due to its futuristic yet spooky atmosphere, Home of the Underdogs regarded Abuse as a 2D platform equivalent of the first person shooter Doom.

Abuse in its open-source version was selected in August 2011 as "HotPick" by Linux Format.^[20]

• MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.^[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".^[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.^[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.^[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.^[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.^[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.^[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.^[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.^[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.^[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).^[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,^[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.^[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.^[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.^[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.^[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.^[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.^[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.^[17]

• IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

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• Abuse-SDL 0.9a current home page
• Abuse-SDL v0.8 home until 2011 by Sam Hocevar
• abuse2.com official homepage until 2003 (archived)

Warning: Default sort key "Abuse (Video Game)" overrides earlier default sort key "Mobygames".

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