XFrisk is a computerized version of the Risk board game created by Parker Brothers. The Risk writeup contains a reasonable amount of useful game and strategy information, so for more general information, give that node a perusal. This writeup focuses on the specifics of XFrisk.
Unlike many commercial computerized versions of Risk, XFrisk is
fully multiplayer, including its own network daemon for internet or LAN
games. The game also supports single player use, by allowing for AI
controlled players to be added to a game (you can also play multiplayer with AI bots). XFrisk can compile and be used on just about any unix-like system, as it uses the X11 environment to provide its GUI. According to the XFrisk homepage, it has been tested successfully on Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris and HP-UX.
Users can obtain XFrisk either by downloading a binary package, or
compiling their own binaries from source. Both types of tarball can be
obtained from the XFrisk homepage with ease. Regardless of how you get a copy, it will generate three key binaries: friskserver (the network server), aiColson (provides AI players if necessary), and xfrisk (the client binary).
For as much fun as it is to play, the current XFrisk implementation leaves much to be desired, primarily in terms of the GUI. For starters, the application interprets any kind of windowmanager close event as a cue to kill the entire application, and if one player disconnects, the entire game ends, which causes quite a bit of frustration. Secondly, any attempt to resize the game window results in the widgets in the window to be reduced in size to an unusable state. Third, it's drop dead ugly. An attempt to port the game to gtk2 has been started, and progress is being made.