Together with Ed Zitron, we're taking you back to 1999 to see what determined the success of Freespace 2, one of the best space sims ever.
[url=/en/editorial/editorial_freespace_2/][/url] While many will bang a drum and claim that the X-Wing games ruled the roost of Space Sims, Freespace 2 trounced its relatively unadventurous peers with a slick and grim tale of war that rarely felt winnable. That was the joy, though – it was you against an insidious, unbeatable foe, and you were very much in the thick of it.

Hi,
Could you please confirm whether or not your distribution works with FS2Open?
Thanks in advance.

iam working on finding that out my self but from what i see there should be no reasion why not all the files are there
http://www.hard-light.net/
home of freespace moding and the opensorces projetcs

I tested it last night with FreeSpace Open 3.6.9. It seemed to work flawlessly. I ran it with 1680x1050 resolution and played the first 4 missions or so with no problems at all. FYI I did a manual install of FS2 Open.

Could anybody tell me how this FreeSpace Open thing works? Do I have to install it on my bougth Freespace version?

You can either use the source code they provide, or you can install it on any retail copy (including GOG's, apparently!). It's basically like a giant community patch, lots of cool fixes and stuff. I believe there are installation guides specifically for retail around somewhere.
If you have the SCP, I highly recommend the "Derelict" campaign, it has pretty good voice acting and the mission design is great. If you don't have SCP, then there's a non-scp'd one out there somewhere...
EDIT: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/FAQ/installingfs2_open.html#upgrade Hooray!

I was under the impression that FSO was only for Freespace 2. So it works for both games?

Here's a to a FAQ that deals with Freespace 1 graphic issues. The first question specifically states that FS1 cannot be played in any other resolution than 640x480, but provides information about a [url=http://fsport.hard-light.net/website/]FS1 Campaign conversion for Freespace 2.
Hope it helps!

Alas, I ended up just starting to play through vanilla Freespace in all its 640x480 glory while waiting for an answer. Are original saves still compatible? In any case, I'll give this a try and see if I can get it up and running. Thanks for the tip.

If you'll live with the game in 640x480 play it that way, since when you port it to FS2 you'll miss all the ambient of the game. Depends on what you want from the game :) Pretty or ambient.
Nothing wrong with FS2 but FS music is IMO better and so is the place where you spend the time between missions.
And no Save games won't work.

What is Freespace Open?
The Freespace Open Engine, AKA Freespace_Open, FSO, or as veterans often call it SCP (Source Code Project) was made when Volition, the developer of Freespace 1 and 2 released the source code for the game, Freespace 2.
A team effort was soon made to unify attempts at "refining" the Freespace 2 engine, this was the Source Code Project.
Even after years of development, the team is still goind, with the 3.6.10 version currently undergoing the final bughunt.
The latest stabile version of the game is 3.6.9.
You will need three things to run Freespace 2 under the Freespace Open Engine.
-A legit and installed copy of Freespace 2.
-An Freespace Open "game executable" (either 3.6.9 or if you'd like to help troubleshoot the latest release, one of the new "knightly" executables).
-A launcher application that is used to setup the game the same way the old launcher did.
Finally, you can also download user made in-game-media (graphical upgrades) for the game. This is highly recommended, as they take advantage of the new effects and higher performance of the new engine.
The easiest way to setup FSO is to use Turey's installer, which is available here:
http://www.fsoinstaller.com/
You can ready more about Freespace Open here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeSpace_2_Source_Code_Project
Playing Freespace 1 under the Freespace Open Engine
Freespace 1 has been "ported over" to the FSO engine. This version of Freespace 1 is usually called the "Freespace Port".
The basic Port included only the missions and ships of the old game, the FSO interface and several game elements were left unaltered.
Using only the Port and you own Freespace 1 install, you can however "port" several media files from the old game yourself. Instructions to do so are on the Freespace Port homepage.
The more recent (and in progress) version of the Port promise to bring a lot more back to the game: a revamped interface, the ability to use the old animations and movies from the old game (and even some new cutscenes!)
The newest version of the Freespace Port can be downloaded here, on the Freespace Port homepage:
http://fsport.hard-light.net/website/

Great stuff!!

If I play the FS1 campaigns as a mod using FSO, will I be able to watch the story FMVs after specific missions?
I've only played FS2 years ago, I'm not sure if FS1 actually have any full motion video sequences.

You mean FSPort? If you've installed it correctly and also have the cutscenes (a file called FS1OGGcutscenepack.vp in \freespace2\fsport\ ), the FS1 cutscenes should play on the proper places.