LINUXGAMES

RealGamer.nl has posted a feature on Linux gaming. Good read, if you can understand Dutch.

Starbuck Zero wrote in to let us know that ZSNES’s author is leaving the emu scene soon, and is going to release the source for ZSNES after the TCP/IP code is done. At which point it looks like they will need some help if it is to be ported to other operating systems. ZSNES and Snes9X are the only real challengers for the SNES emulation crown.

• The “pimp”-fluent crew at Voodoo Extremehas posted the second and third segments of their interview withid Software’s John Carmack, which, as stated before,includes questions from Carmack’s comrades in the FPS industry. Among the myriad of topicscovered are the rationale behind Doom’s single-player focus, 3D visibility algorithms(a side note: Carmack elaborated on Unreal’s method on Slashdot, which prompteda response from Tim Sweeney at Evil Avatar), what will be required from 3D cards when Doom ships (and how the current generation comparesto the hypothetical übercard), C++ and the Doom renderer, DoomTest (“We will probably try to have a test for the next product much closer to full beta time. Don’t hold your breath.”), acrack-addled question from CliffyB, sound enhancements from Graeme Devine, id’s future and game content versus engine technology, and the insanity inherent in the modern US Patent and Trademark Office.

• To re-launch Q3A @ Stomped, JCal conducted a brief interview with Grame Devine, who discusses his work on Q3A, Quake’s legacy, his favorite mod (Action Quake, which I’m starting to play again aftera two year hiatus), and the upcoming Team Arena Q3A expansion pack.
  
• Finally, Linguica received a shortlist ofinformation from id’s Xian “Disruptor” Antkow (with help from Lowtax) concerning the next Doom game.

The Aleph One project pages at Sourceforge have been reactivated after more than half of a year of dormant time. The outdated and unused information has been removed,the formums have been updated, a bug database and task manager have been added, and information related to Aleph One/SDL has been added.

Also, SorceForge’s planned downtime that we mentioned earlier is no longer scheduled for this weekend; it has been delayed untilthe “first half of October.” More information is yet to come.

The Free Star ControlProject has been started with the ultimate goal of writing aStar Control II clone.The FSCP aims to reproduce all features of SC2 and add additional ones including networking, greater customization, and working planet systems.The current status of the project is that much of the reverse engineering has been completed,general pre-production tasks have been completed (APIs, etc.), and development is currently being done on the engine itself. The FSCP source forthe work done so far is available, and if you wish to contribute to the project, join theirmailing list.

• TechTV has posted an article by Loki’s Sam Lantinga which covers the “challenges of porting games to Linux”, and is presumably a summary of what he went over during last night’s editionof The ScreenSavers (as I didn’t get a chanceto watch it :/).

• Nextgame.it, an Italian gaming news site, has posteda review of the Linux versionof Soldier of Fortune.

Well-Rounded Entertainment reported earlierthat Lionhead’s publisher forBlack and White,Electronic Arts, confirmed that the titlewould be delayed until the spring of next year. Yesterday, Peter Molyneux and otherdevelopers from Lionhead participated in a chat held by BarrysWorld to answer questions related to thedelay; I was able to attend to log the following relevant quotes (as the chat degeneratedinto barely-controlled chaos as time wore on):

<Muad-dib> Is been stated in the past that all source for B&W would be opened up to thepublic, it was later said that the source would only be realed if certian sales target where met, is this still the case or are we going to have to wait months after the realse for the source untilyou are happy that every1 who was going to buy a copy has? Also what license restrictionswould be placed on the source and game data (models etc? )
<PeterM> ->Muad-dib: It is my intention to make B&W all open source, with a few tecnicalengine details kept back.

<_o_> is the linux port still going ahead?
<[LH]Jamie-UK> _o_ : I already told you. No deals have been made with any conversion houses, yet

The first reply doesn’t provide many more details on the B&W source release, but the second would seem to indicate Lionhead does not intend to make the Linux version an in-house port… whether this was always the case or was decided due to the factors which created the 2001 delay is unknown.

Antti J. Salminen wrote in to letus know that Diversions Entertainment, currentlyworking on a sequel to One Must Fall 2097,are looking for additionalcoders for a programming position where Linux knowledge is a “big plus”.

Loki updated their page to notethat Sam Lantinga, a member of their vaunted coding staff, will be onThe Screensavers, ashow on the techtv cable network(formerly ZDTV), tonight at 2100 Eastern Daylight Time to speak aboutLinux gaming. Information on repeat airings can be found here if you’re not goingto be able to catch it.

Stephane Magnenat of Ysagoon wrote in with word that they’ve released a shareware multiplayerNibbles-like game called SnakeMe.More info on SnakeMe (including screenshots) can be found at

http://www.ysagoon.com/snakeme/presentation.html

SnakeMe Demo Download:
http://www.ysagoon.com/snakeme/download/snakemedemo.linux.tar.gz

The XRally team have released version 1.0pre5 of their overhead 2D racer. Changes:

• New interface look
• New routines for choosing options
• It’s now possible to view the hiscores
• Game logo on main screen
• New in-game window
• Show a quick abstract about your score at the end of the level
• New splash screen (featuring a scrollbar)
• Tells the player about each level before he chooses one

XInvaders a game for X in the style of the classic arcade great, Space Invaders, has reached version 2.1.1

XInvaders 2.1.1 source:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/games/arcade/invaders/xinvaders-2.1.1.tar.gz

Voodoo Extreme has begun a multi-partinterview withid Software’s John Carmack, which includesquestions from his counterparts throughout the gaming industry. The first chapter has Carmack discussing the flexibility the new Doom engine offers (it seems Carmack is much farther along in development than I originally thought, as he consistently refers to the Doom renderer in the past tense), how his new engine will ease new user content creation by utilizing text files for most game data (reiterating what he went over at QuakeCon), project management, what wider broadband access will allow him to offer in terms of new networking features, and the pros and cons of starting a new codebase from ground zero.

0verkill, an ASCII (!) multiplayer deathmatch game, version 0.11 is now available. Changes:

• Armor
• Complete X support

0verkill 0.11 Source:
http://artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~brain/0verkill/release/0verkill.tgz

NaTaS of the Altered God project, which is creating an isometric adventure game, wrote in to let us know they’ve posted concept art for fournew characters. Earlier in-engine screenshots can be found here.

The Mushroom interviewed Captain John F. Mullins (USA, ret.) recently, who served as a consultant to Raven during the development of Soldier of Fortune (and whose mercenary exploits ultimately served as inspiration for the game’s protagonist). The topics covered range from Mullins’ military background to his recent introduction to the world of computer gaming.

LinuxIt! has announced their Hypernova series ofLinux PC’s, which are designed with gaming in mind. System specs (which are customizable to some degree) include an AMD Athlon CPU and a 32MB DDR GeForce 2.

Version 0.1.0 of GMonsters, a “small game where you train, breed, and battle monsters” has been released. GMonsters is also looking for developersto join the project; if interested, head over to the GMonsters site at SourceForge.

GMonsters 0.1.0 Source:
http://download.sourceforge.net/slaktool/gmonsters-0.1.0.tar.gz

Anand Shimpi’s venerable hardware site Anandtech hasposted a review by Jeff Brubakerwhich pits the Matrox Millennium G450 againstthe NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX in Linux. Jeff gives somebackground on the XFree86 4.0.x architecture, provides2D and 3D benchmarks, and concludes that the GeForce 2 MX is the clear winner unless yourequire the G450′s DualHead features.

pc.ign.com has posted three new screenshots from Dynamix’s upcoming sci-fi multiplayer FPS Tribes 2. There’s also the second portion ofa fictional story set in the Tribes universe entitled Prophecy of Tears. A Linux dedicated server for T2 will likely be released; in addition, a client port may see the light of day as well.