LINUXGAMES

The fourth 0.93 alpha version of Exult, the Ultima 7 game engine, hasbeen released; changes include:

• The SI-specific Jawbone and Combat Stats are in
• The keyring from the Silver Seed now works
• The MIDI SFX have been replaced by digital SFX
• The new savegame interface, with unlimited savegames!
• Many, many bugfixes and other improvements

Exult 0.93 Alpha 4 source: exult-0.93alpha4.tar.gz

Emanuele Gesuato wrote in to announce that Nextgame.it has published a review of Myth II, one of Loki’s firstports. The review is in Italian and includes many screenshots.

Jeff Field from NewsForge wrote in tolet us know that he put together a reviewof the NVidia-based ABIT Siluro MX400video card. The review covers documentation and software, board design,and performance, including some Quake III timedemos.

Version 1.45 of the OpenGL space combat RPG framework glElite has been released; changesinclude:

• cleanups
• initial texture mapping support
• new vertex types
• some material system rework

glElite 1.45 source: TeddySrc145.tgz

Version 0.3.0 of the 3D chess program glChess has been released; changesinclude:

• implemented GNU Chess support
• pawn promotion for engine
• fixed some bugs
• added menu entries
• reenabled local Human vs. local Human without the need of recompilation

glChess 0.3.0 source: glchess-0.3.0.tar.gz

Linux.com is continuing their Games Weekevent by posting two more items:

• Colin Mattson has written an article titled Gaming on the Go which covers Linux gaming on laptop systems. He covers audio, video (including framerates), input devices, and battery usage. A comparison of three manufacture’s systems is also included.
• The current poll asks “What type of games do you play most?” and currently has the FPS, strategy, and RPGs genres in the lead.

Loki sent out a press releaseregarding the book that they co-authored with John “overcode” Hall.

WRITE THE GAMES LINUX PEOPLE PLAY
New book teaches how to program Linux games with SDL, Open AL, and other APIs

San Francisco, CA–No Starch Press and Loki Software today announcedthe launch of the complete and authoritative guide to developinggames for Linux. PROGRAMMING LINUX GAMES: LEARN TO WRITE THE GAMESLINUX PEOPLE PLAY (August 2001, 1-886411-49-2, $39.95, paperback, 432pp., http://www.nostarch.com/?plg) guides readers through all theimportant Linux development tools and gaming APIs, with a specialfocus on Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL). Written by the gamingmasters at Loki Software, this book is the ultimate resource forLinux game developers.

PROGRAMMING LINUX GAMES discusses important multimedia toolkits whileteaching the basics of Linux game programming. It includes detailedcoverage of Linux graphics and audio interfaces as well as lots ofreal-world examples. Readers learn how to:

* Use the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) library to build a powerfulscrolling game engine (complete with environmental audio and anembedded scripting system)
* Play sound effects and music with OSS, ALSA, ESD, and OpenAL
* Manage compressed audio streams with Ogg Vorbis
* Build a multiplayer game with TCP/IP sockets
* Write games for the Linux framebuffer console
* Construct professional-quality installation scripts for their games
* Distribute their game to the Linux community

Available in bookstores, from Loki Software(http://www.lokigames.com/orders), or from No Starch Press(1-800-420-7240, http://www.nostarch.com), PROGRAMMING LINUX GAMES isthe ultimate resource for writing and developing Linux games.

Release 20010629 of Wine, the freeWindows implementation for UNIX systems, has been made available; changesinclude:

• Better font metrics support in Postscript driver using Freetype
• Major window management redesign (still in progress)
• Message queues in wineserver to prepare for inter-process messaging
• DDE merged from Corel tree, plus various fixes
• 64-bit file size support
• Lots of bug fixes

Wine 20010629 source download locations:

• www.ibiblio.org
• ftp.infomagic.com
• ftp.fu-berlin.de
• orcus.progsoc.uts.edu.au(FTP)

Jeff ‘Judecca’ Mrochuk let us know about his latest article over at Linux.com, Locating Free Demos of Commercial Games for Linux. This article covers, as it’s name implies implies; retrieval, storage, and playing of demos.

Version 0.6.0 of open source, portable implementation of the Sierra On-Line Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) Sarien have been released. Changes for this release include:

• Redesigned interpreter core
• New sprite manager
• Graphics layer redesigned to work with new sprites
• All ancillary buffers replaced by a single AGI screen buffer containing both priority and visible data
• Implemented sprite repositioning and blocking
• Proper handling of previously unused view table entries and flags
• Several AGI commands fixed, preliminary savegame support added
• Graphics drivers optimized
• PC EGA video controller 320×200 aspect ratio correction added

Download: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=24759

Loki Software andDynamix/Sierra havereleased a new BETA patch forTribes 2. Keep in mind that thispatch is for beta testing and is not supported by any of the above mentioned parties.A changelog can be found at theTribes 2 Central Download site; also, if you used the last beta patch, you will have to revert back to 23115 before applying the new one.

Tribes 2 Beta 23559 Download:
http://www.tribes2centraldownload.com/?section=download=description=33=192

LBJM let us know that Jim Page wrote in to theXFree86Xpert mailing listin response to a request for a status update on the LinuxKyro 2 driver:

I no longer work forIMG, or have anything to do with softwaredevelopment for any of their products. The current state of the KyroXserver as I left it was a more-or-less complete 2d only XAA server,with some VGA and multi-monitor issues to be resolved. I do not knowwhat their plans are. I suggest that IMG/Guillemot have the arms thatmust be twisted.

Writing a kyro driver is not a straightforward undertaking. Though GPLdriver source _MAY_ one day be released, there is a lot of proprietaryknowlege required to architect the driver correctly. I say this not todenigrate Kyro, it’s a great product and it’s descendants will rule theworld (etc etc), but because it is not a job that anyone could take on(however competent) without IMG’s direct sanction. Frankly, it needs tobe done by them or one of their OEM customers who have access to theexisting source tree.

FYI Patrick, think of an X server (in this context) as a device driverfor a particular hardware device that allows it to accelerate X.

I will forward this mail to IMG since I have now had about 30 differentmails asking for Kyro info (not that I mind that much, but I can’thelp!), and see if someone can write the mailing list with their currentplans.

The Tribes Shoutcast Networkconducted an interview with Sierra’s new”brand manager” for Tribes 2,Alex “Marweas” Rodberg, last week about Sierra’s plans for Tribes 2 and the Tribesfranchise in general. You can download the mp3 archive of the interviewfrom here.

Moreover, Web Sports Broadcast Network interviewedDave “Diamondback” Meddish, who was let go fromDynamix after T2 was completed, concerning his experiencesdeveloping the sci-fi teamplay-oriented shooter. The archive from this Q&A session canbe downloadedhere

Finally, in response to Diamondback’s interview, WSBNwill be speaking to Marweas tonight at2100 EST.

Version 0.0.5 of the space combat sim Vega Strike has been released;changes include:

• Major AI code modifications
• A “Fly By Wire” interface has been completed conceptually
• The computer is completed
• A system for interacting with the computer is also underway
• A system for humans interacting with the control computer via keyboard has been completed

Vega Strike 0.0.5 downloads: vegastrike.sourceforge.net/download.html

Version 0.9 of the educational typing tutor game Tux Typing has been released;changes include:

• Fixed the tutorial screen crashing bugs (yahoo!)
• Fixed “yellow outline” graphic bug
• GIF->PNG image transition
• SDL & cross-platform (non-POSIX) build fixes
• Added Keyboard Support in Menu
• Fixed Tux anim bug (when keys held down)
• “Congrats” bug fix
• Many, many, many bug fixes

Tux Typing 0.9 source: tuxtype-0.9.tar.gz

A new stable version, 1.4.1, of Steve Baker’s Portable Game Library (PLIB) has beenreleased. The 1.4 tree marks the first stable versions in over a year and theyinclude improved stability and increased functionality.

PLIB 1.4.1 source: plib-1.4.1.tar.gz

This week, Linux.com is running LinuxGaming Week. They have a list of articles and fearures lined up for everyday this week, and they have already published two new articles: ProgrammingLinux Games: An Introduction to SDL Development and LinuxGaming APIs: Chapter 3 of PROGRAMMING LINUX GAMES.

Also, John “overcode” Hall (author of the latter of the two articles) iscurrently participating in a Live!Event answering questions regarding his book Programming Linux Games.The event began at 11am PDT and to participate, join #live onirc.openprojects.net.

Thank you judecca, keerf, hendersa, and everyone else that pointed all ofthese events out.

Pete Shinners wrote in to announce Version 1.1 of Pygame. There is a huge list of fixes and/or changes to this new release. Two new features added though for this release are:

• Full OpenGL support through pyopengl
• Transform module for image scaling, rotation, and flips

Download: http://pygame.seul.org/download.shtml

id Software’sTimothee “TTimo” Besset has posted aKnown Linux Quake 3: Arena Issues list at

http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/linux/

As implied, common problems and solutions for the last betapatch (1.29f) are presented. Thanks to Joshua for the heads up.

Version 0.6.6 of the Gnome-based Bomberman clone BomberMaze has been released.This version includes new translations: Danish, German, Spanish, Italian,Norwegian, Russian, and Ukrainian.

BomberMaze 0.6.6 source: bombermaze-0.6.6.tar.gz