Search And Rescue II


Search and Rescue II (SaR II) is an open source helicopter simulator game for Linux and OSX. In it you can fly several helicopter and airplane models in some basic scenarios.

SaR II has low graphic requirements while still provide a fun and demanding gameplay where the player needs to locate, pick-up and rescue victims of all sorts in steep mountains, burning buildings or in the sea.

Among the features of the game you will find:

  • 25 playable missions, including training ones in two main locations.
  • Full SDL2 Joystick support with support for pedals and brakes.
  • Configurable simulation options and difficulty, with support for different weather conditions.
  • Game music and realistic sounds effects.
  • Linux and preliminary OSX support.
  • Text file-based mission and scenery configuration. Easy to contribute improvements and new missions.

News

  • August 11, 2023: Search and Rescue II 2.6.0 released. This release includes a new Corsica scenery and a new Eurocopter EC145 model. Check out the changelog for a full list of changes.
  • June 20, 2020: Search and Rescue II 2.5.0 released. This version overhauls a few aspects in the physics engine and adds support for wind and realistic airdrag. We have also added preliminary OSX support. Check out the changelog for a full list of features and bugfixes.
  • May 23, 2020: Search and Rescue II 2.4.3 released. This release fixes issues with lagging on landing events and menus redraws. For more information, see the changelog.
  • May 8, 2020: Search and Rescue II 2.4.2 released. This release provides better display support by fixing a number of issues with menus and resolution selection. For more information, see the changelog.

  • April 30, 2020: Search and Rescue II is now available for download via the Snap store as a convenient method to install and run it in most Linux distributions.
  • April 26, 2020: Search and Rescue II 2.4.0 released. This release provides better joystick support (possibility of using a joystick device for rudder and wheel brakes control). Additionally, a bug that caused the game to lag heavily while the aircraft was landed was fixed.
  • July 15, 2017: The project has its own Github organization now, to be able to more easily accept contributions. Search And Rescue II repository can be found at github.com/SearchAndRescue2/sar2.
  • December 11, 2014: The project has moved to Github!
  • August 6, 2011: We have been very happy to find that Search and Rescue II has been included in Cahilig's 100 best free and high quality Linux games. It helps our motivation to prepare the next release of SaRII, which will come after the summer break. Happy holidays!
  • July 14, 2011: As SaRII gets known, some people has generously prepared packages for some distributions. These have been added to the Download section. Of course, more packages are always welcome. In addition, the SaRII users mailing list has been created for SaRII community to stay in touch. Users can subscribe here.
  • July 1, 2011: Search and Rescue II 2.3.1 released. This release comes with an improved Guadarrama scenario (with many Madrid city buildings) and two new missions to explore it, along with bugfixes and small changes for a better playing experience. See the full changelog for details.
  • June 26, 2011: Added some improvements to the website, like the possibility of getting the news and updates via a RSS feed. Also working on next version of SaRII, which will contain many improvements, improved Guadarrama scenario and new missions.
  • June 13, 2011: Search and Rescue II 2.3.0 released. This release replaces the copyrighted Guadarrama scenery textures with public domain ones in order to avoid licensing problems. The release includes as well small bugixes. OpenSuse packages are available as well in the Games repository.
  • April 25, 2011: Some OpenSuse binary rpm packages are available for SaR II. Try them out here.
  • April 17, 2011: Search and Rescue II 2.2.1 released. This is a maintenance release. Some OpenAL bugs, compilation warnings and the SDL_Mixer dependency (unused by default) have been removed.
  • April 15, 2011: Search and Rescue II 2.2.0 released. This release contains many improvements in the sound system. SaR II now uses OpenAL allowing more realistic engine sounds. For a complete list of changes please check the game's changelog.
  • April 12, 2011: Search and Rescue II 2.1.0 released. This version contains sound improvements and bugfixes.
  • March 7, 2011: Search and Rescue II 2.0.0 released.

Here are some screenshots of the game.

screenshot1 screenshot2 screenshot3 screenshot4 screenshot5 screenshot6

Downloading

Snap release

The snap install should work with most Linux distributions:

Pre-compiled packages

Some people have generously taken the time to package SaRII for some Linux distributions. Note that packages (except OpenSuse) have been created by third parties, so make use of them at your own risk.

Opensuse packages are part of the official repositories: sar2
An Arch Linux package is available the AUR: sar2. Thanks to maintainer Popolon.

If you find packages for other distros or have contributed new ones please let us know.

OSX

It is possible to build SaR II from source on OSX (using XQuartz to run it). Check the instructions in the README.

Source code

Download the latest version tarball in the Github releases page.

Instructions on how to build from source can be found in the main README.

Collaborate

Search and Rescue II is an open source project licensed under the terms of the GLP v2 LICENSE and maintained by volunteers.

You can grab the latest versions of the game from the SaRII Github repository.

You can submit bug reports and feature requests on the issues section.

Search and Rescue II is mostly written in C. There are many ways to collaborate with the project:

  • Designing new scenario files (no deep programming knowledge required)
  • Designing some new missions (no deep programming knowledge required)
  • Designing some new graphics and backgrounds for the menus.
  • Finding and fixing bugs
  • Improving documentation
  • Adding new features
  • Porting SaR II to other OSs

Bundled to the game you will find a HACKING file with some tips on the purpose of each of the source files.

Contact us...

...via Github

Please open an issue in Github.