OpenSpades

Last reviewed Sep 13, 2026 · 773 words

You cannot self-host OpenSpades, because OpenSpades is a game client. The thing you host is an Ace of Spades 0.75 server, in practice piqueserver, a Python 3 project that OpenSpades clients connect to over UDP port 32887. Once that distinction is clear the rest is easy: a 512 by 512 by 64 voxel map, up to 32 players, capture-the-flag or territory control, and a server process that runs happily on 512 MB of RAM. The client's 1,245 stars are for the improved renderer and cross-platform builds; the server side is a separate ecosystem, and the row's "server software is separate" note is the most important line in it.

The game, for anyone who missed 2011

Ace of Spades was a free voxel shooter, Minecraft blocks with rifles, where two teams of 16 dig tunnels, build walls and fight over a flag. The original developer sold it to Jagex, who rewrote it as a paid game, and the community kept the last free protocol version, 0.75, alive with open-source clients and servers. OpenSpades is the best of those clients: a C++ rewrite with proper lighting, water reflections, model smoothing and a modern audio path, released under GPL-3.0 and available on Windows, macOS and Linux. It is an old style of game, twitchy and low-fidelity, and the pros column ("active server community") is smaller than it was, but a full 32-player match on a good map is still a genuinely different experience from anything modern.

Installing the client is a package manager away

On Debian and Ubuntu it is apt install openspades; on Fedora the package is in the main repositories; Flathub carries a build; Windows and macOS binaries are on the GitHub releases page. Building from source needs CMake, SDL2, GLEW, OpenAL and libcurl, and the first run downloads the original game's assets, which the client needs for models and sounds and cannot legally bundle. That download is the one step that surprises people behind a strict firewall.

The server: piqueserver on a small VPS

piqueserver is the maintained fork of the older PySnip and pyspades servers. Install and run:

pip install piqueserver
piqueserver --copy-config
piqueserver

The first command pulls the server, the second writes a default config directory with a handful of stock maps, the third starts it on UDP 32887. Open that port in your firewall and in the VPS provider's security group, and the server appears to any client that has its address. The config file sets the server name, the map rotation, the player cap, game mode (ctf or tc), and whether it registers with the public master server list; leave that off for a private LAN-party server. Maps are .vxl files plus a small metadata text file, and the community archives hold hundreds. A 1 vCPU, 1 GB VPS handles a full 32-slot server with headroom because the game state is tiny; bandwidth is roughly 1 to 2 Mbps for a full server.

Running it properly

Two things matter beyond the defaults. First, a process supervisor: a systemd unit that restarts piqueserver on crash, because map scripts written by strangers in 2014 do sometimes throw. Second, admin controls: piqueserver has a password-protected admin role with kick, ban and map-change commands, and you want that configured before the server appears on a public list, since griefers with a spade can flatten a map in minutes. If you already run game servers through Pterodactyl, a generic Python egg wraps piqueserver neatly; otherwise systemd is enough. Voice chat is not built in, so a Mumble or Discord channel alongside is normal.

When something newer is the better host

For a shooter you host once for friends, Xonotic has a bundled dedicated server, active bots for empty slots, and no asset-download step, and Teeworlds is lighter still. OpenSpades wins only when the building and digging matter, which is precisely the thing that made Ace of Spades memorable. The games category lists the alternatives side by side.

What I'd do

Run piqueserver on the smallest VPS your provider sells, in a systemd unit, with an admin password set and the master-server listing off until you have played a few rounds and know the map rotation is sane. Point friends at the OpenSpades package for their platform and share the IP. Keep expectations at "2011 free-to-play with a nice renderer", because that is exactly what you get, and for a Friday evening with 10 people it is more than enough.