LINUXGAMES

PS2Faction’s KungFu let us know thatthe PS2 Linux Kit site hasadded a screenshotof Linux running on the game console (withWindowMaker and theGimp present). Moreover, alist of compatible monitorshas been provided (a longer list @http://iridium.tripod.co.jp/list.html is also linked from the page).

Andreas Henningssonhas released version 0.5 ofRace(shots), a 2D overhead racing game.Changes:

• Delayed camera movement
• texture filling of road and water
• Rewrite of the sound system to allow all cars to make noise.

Race 0.5 Download:
http://race.sourceforge.net/download.php3

• id Software’s übercoder John Carmack wasinterviewedby Gamespy last week, in which he reflects onindustry changes, future directions in 3D gaming, consoles, androcketry.

• Furthermore (thanks Shacknews), the Evil Dr.Jim Dosé was interviewed@ Quakeidge… in between the flippant responses, Doséhints at Doom III’s (still an unofficial title) status:
  

  …working on the first few levels of the games and getting the gameplay prototype up and running… working on getting the AI scripting system up and running

• Finally,VoodooExtreme had a conversation withGarageGames’ Tim Gift about their preparationsto license theTribes 2 engine for one hundreddollars.

Bad_CRC fired in this note:

Heimdall from Loki Games dropped by theLinux Tribes forum to mentionthat the Linux Showwill be hosting a live game on-air with most of the Loki Crew.

The show will take place on Tuesday, May 8th, @ 2100 EST, and it seems anyone using LinuxTribes 2 isinvited to play :).

David Bellows sent in a link toElectronics Boutique’s PC games page, which includesalistof their five top selling PC game titles. Since EB began a $10 (US) sale forLoki’s titles, theirport of Quake 3: Arena has climbedto 5th place. Unfortunately, it looks like EB is sold out at present, as they haveLinux Q3A listed as being on backorder. You can still order Q3A from Loki’s other resellers, although the sale in question only applied to EB.

Bill Kendrick sent in the following:

My friend Mark has begun building an adapter that lets me connectreal Atari 2600 paddles to a PC’s joystick port. (Instructions andschematics are part of the documentation to “Stella,” the Atari 2600 emulatorfor Windows/Linux.)

My game “Circus Linux!” is a clone of “Circus Atari,” which used paddles,so I’ve added support for this adapter in the latest release, 1.0.3.

http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/circus-linux/

Instructions for building an Atari paddle controller adapter can be foundhere.

Circus Linux! 1.0.3 Source:
ftp://ftp.sonic.net/pub/users/nbs/unix/x/circus-linux/circuslinux-1.0.3.tar.gz

After a brief downtime caused by Tribalwar’sserver move, Linux Tribes is back up with a newURL:

http://hosted.tribalwar.com/linuxtribes/

Be sure to update your bookmarks.

Anthony Kruize wrote in to announce a new version of Abuse-SDL. Changes and or fixes for this release include:

• Stopped Abuse using 100% CPU time in certain places.(Ed Snible)
• Fixed problem with saving games on some systems.
• Added missing documentation about the abuserc file.
• Configure script now handles the X libraries not being in ld’s default library path.(Arto Jantunen)
• Fixed compile problem when SDL isn’t installed in a /SDL directory in the include path.
• Fixed the -window_scale option to set the size of the window properly. Performance when using this option is still bad.
• Can now use the mouse to skip the intro story.

Download: abuse_sdl-0.4.8.tar.gz

Version 0.5.0 of the game SDK ClanLib has been released (This is a development release). Changes and fixes include:

• Fully themeable GUI toolkit
• Ogg Vorbis support
• TTF font support
• PNG and JPEG support
• Lua scripting support
• Full signal system
• Borland C++ support
• Much easier installation and compilation under Windows
• Loads of bug-fixes
• Many, many other features

Download: ClanLib-0.5.0-1.tar.gz

Just a quick reminder that Tux Gamesbegan shipping copies ofTribes 2 to customersearlier this week. The Sid Meier’sAlpha Centauri Planetary Pack (which includes the Alien Crossfire expansion pack)also began shipping earlierthis month (you can also order both as a bundle).Other resellers for both titles are listed here;you can also order directly from Lokivia fax (Loki’s webstore is downfor the moment because of technical issues; we’ll let you know it returns ASAP).

• The official SonyPS2 Linux Kit sitehas added more questions to their FAQ pageand the dmesg output froma PS2 Linux kernel boot.

• ps2.ign.com has postedsome info about the kit(thanks rts); IGN mentions thatVGA monitors will need “Synch on Green” compatibility to be used with the adapter, andthat Sony will be releasing a list of working monitors shortly.
• Finally, since Sony still seems skittish about releasing the kit in the US andEurope, the English version of the petition which prompted the Japanese releaseis still up at http://www.fakeroot.net/ps2linux/.There are over 2000 signatures at present, so feel free to add your name to the list if you wantto see Linux on your Playstation 2 on this side of the pond.

Version 2.4.4 of the Linux kernel has been released;the list of changes since 2.4.3 can be foundhere. The patch or fullsource can be downloaded(mirror list) from

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/

Linuxuser (German) hasreviewedLoki’s Linux port ofTribes 2. The requisite screenshotsand evaluation of various game elements are included; the reviewer ultimately gives the gamea 90% rating.

Andy Wettstein pointed out that theDirect Rendering Infrastructure projecthas added daily CVS snapshot packages for download:

http://dri.sourceforge.net/download.phtml

As the page states, these packages are under development and are not stable releases, so don’tbe surprised if you encounter issues with their use.

A.T. Hun sent in word about his completed review of Hyperion Software‘s port of Shogo. The review it self has some nice screenshots of the game (and of the box that the game arrived in). The review also talks about the install, gameplay, the price, and of course A.T.’s own conclusions.

chromatic wrote in to give word about this new article @ NewsForge focused on TransGaming, the company enhancing Wine’s Win32 game support. The article itself describes the project and takes a look at their business model. Give it a read here.

David Hedbor sent in the following release announcement:

SDLmm is a C++ glue for SDL, or the Simple DirectMedia Layer, which isa generic API that provides low level access to audio, keyboard,mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL, and 2D framebuffer acrossmultiple platforms.

SDLmm aims to stay as close as possible to the C API while takingadvantage of native C++ features like object orientation. We will alsoaim at being platform independent as much as possible. I.e we’ll tryto support ever platform supported by SDL.

Version 0.1.5 was just released. This is the initial public version andyou can get it from https://sourceforge.net/projects/sdlmm/.Documentation is available from http://sdlmm.sourceforge.net/.

SDLmm 0.1.5 Source:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/sdlmm/SDLmm-0.1.5.tar.bz2

Loki Software has released the build 22460patch for the Linux version of Tribes 2(or just thededicated server, if that’s all you’re running on your Linux box).Changes:

• **GAMEPLAY CHANGE** Spider clamp turrets need more surface area for legal deploy space now
• Minor tweak to improve long-term server stability.
• A new voice codec, ‘GSM’ was added to allow voice communication between Linux and Windows users.
• Minor sound system tweaks and fixes.
• Minor BOT navigation and seeking improvements.
• Fix removing BOTs counting toward the Vote Meter representation.
• Improvement for vehicle physics, particularly instances when vehicles would get stuck on their edge.
• Fix for BOT’s skins not dynamically updating to correct team skin, when Admin team changed them.
• Fixed bug where certain cases would cause cursor to vanish when it should not.
• Minor server query improvements.
• Fix players can be added to the ‘Admin List’.
• No more voting to BAN, only Super ADMIN may now BAN.
• Various GUI improvements, notably the Voice Com. elements in the Lobby, and some minor pointer icon improvements forcertain cases.
• Linux ‘Penguin’ symbol added for Server List Screen when joining, so users may identify Windows and Linux servers ata glance.

It is recommended that you use Loki Update toautomatically patch yourT2 install (especially considering that there’s been several patches since the gamehas gone gold); if you prefer to do it manually, you can download this patch and its predecessorsfrom

ftp://ftp.lokigames.com/pub/updates/tribes2/

PS2Faction’s KungFu fired in a linkto a story@ Game Watch(Japanese) which states that Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.of Japan has announced(surprisingly, they mention thepetition we pointed out previouslyas a factor in the decision) that they willbe offering a Linux-based PS2 dev kit(http://www.jp.playstation.com/linux/)for 25,000 Yen (around $200 US) with the followingspecs(shot):

• Linux beta edition installation disk (DVD-ROM)
• External HDD unit (40GB)
• 10 BASE-T/100 BASE-TX Ethernet
• USB keyboard
• USB mouse
• VGA adapter

Unfortunately, it seems that this is just meant for sale in Japan at this point, although the press releasewould seem to indicate (I’m working from a Babelfishtranslation; if anyone that reads Japanese could clarify this, please do so) that it will be offered to the worldat large sometime in the near future. This product will allow Linux game developers to try their handat creating content for the PS2 console; however, I would assume that you would still have to jumpthrough Sony’s various stringent hoops for PS2 software developers (with regards to publishing the games you create)… if this changes, we’ll post about ithere.

Version 0.31a of the Linux Raine emulator, which runsM680x00-based arcade game software, has been released. The changelogcan be found here;the source code can be downloaded from

http://www.rainemu.com/linux/raines-0.31a.tar.bz2