LINUXGAMES

Just a minor thing, but the official DOOM sequel site,UA-Corp.com (a reference to the original DOOM, which took placeprimarily in facilities owned by the Union Aerospace Corporation on Mars’ moons), has had a cosmetic change:a new logo for the UAC (was there one in the originalaside from the DOS prompts?) which prominently features the Red Planet. It wasrevealed earlier this year that thegame would take place, at least in part, on the surface of Mars. The UAC logo was alsoevident during the DOOM footageshown at this year’s Quakecon.

Eh… this has been a bizarre month, with Quake 4 beingannounced with the Wolfenstein andDOOM sequels still in development,Loki requestingChapter 11 bankruptcy protection,Kohanshipping, andDRI’s continued development beingin danger of slowing. I’m still trying to makesense out of everything that’s occurred, but what do you guys think of the events from the past thirty days?Our chances as a viable gaming platform (short-term, long-term)? What’s needed to raise us up by our bootstraps, asit were? Is there still hope (I think so, but I’d like to know if I’m alone in my optimism or not…)?

Adam fired in notice that both theCreatures Docking Station andCreatures 3 can now be played on Linux:

It has come to my attention that when one registersonline to play Creatures Docking Station (it’s a freevarient of Creatures 3), one is now offered a standaloneLinux version to download in addition to the MSWindows one!I heard that this Linux version was in testing quite a whileago, but it looks like it quietly got released. Anothercommercial game for linux — cool.

http://ds.creatures.net/

The Linux FAQ also offers a link to a script to allow you toplay Creatures 3 under Linux using the Creatures DS engine(ie. it’s the same engine).

I played Creatures DS a while last night and it’s quite bafflingand fascinating and cute and quite pretty also…

The (unsupported) Creatures 3 installer can be found here;note that you need to join the Creatures Linux Yahoo! groupbefore you can get to the files. As noted above, you can register to download Creatures Docking Stationhere.

More news concerning Neverwinter Nights:

• The log from last week’sBioWare chat has been posted atNeverwinter Vault.
• There’s also apreview of NWNup at PC GAMEPLAY (thanks NW Vault).

Loki sent out the following press release regarding the shipping and availability of Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns:

Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns Now Available for Linux

TUSTIN, CALIFORNIA – TimeGate Studios, Inc. and Loki Software, Inc. announce that the hit fantasy and strategy game, Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns, shipped for the Linux platform on Saturday, August 25.

The two companies partnered to expand the existing line of notable titles available to those operating on the Linux platform. Adding Kohan to the line of commercially available games for Linux is a milestone in computer gaming, as it is the first to be included from the immensely popular real-time strategy genre.

The game has received much praise for many of its dynamic features such as:

* An intriguing storyline that emphasizes discovering the history of the Kohan
* Unique company-based combat system, that allows players to build companies from the ground up, mixing and matching over 40 different units to create thousands of combinations
* Classic military concepts, such as morale, supply, terrain, formation, and more that affect how each company responds
* Unique, simple to manage upkeep-based economic system that takes the micromanagement out of RTS economics.

Kohan has an MSRP of $49.95 (USD) and is now available for order from the Loki webstore at http://www.lokigames.com/orders/. A listing of resellers can also be found at http://www.lokigames.com/orders/resellers.php3.

Linux gamers are welcome to sample Kohan by downloading the free demo at http://www.lokigames.com/products/demos.php3.

For more information about Kohan, please log onto the official site http://www.kohan.net.
[snip]

The Tactical-Ops team has added serverdocumentationwhich will help admins get aUT Tac-Ops dedicated server running.

Also, Tac-Ops’team leader, Laurent “Shag” Delayen, wasinterviewedby Portugal Arena recently.

Pedro Branco wrote into link the Storm project, hismulti-platform 3D engine. Pedro states that Linux versions of theirdemos will be releasedin the coming weeks, as well as technical docs and core source code. The engine’sfeatures can be perused here.

Version 2.86 of theUnreal Tournament modInfiltration, which features military-themedtactical combat, has been released(screenshots).Nine new or revised maps were also released; agame manual is available here.

Infiltration 2.86 Download (Zip):
http://www.planetunreal.com/infiltration/downloads280.htm#game

Infiltration Map Pack Downloads (Zip):
http://www.planetunreal.com/infiltration/downloads280.htm#map
Note: If you don’t have any of the map packs, there’s a full package at the very bottom of the page.

• The Q3F mod team has updatedtheir site with new map screenshotsof levels that will be released with Beta 2 of theirTeam Fortress-inspired mod (thanksStomped).
• Silicon Ice, the authors ofUrban Terror, updated their dev team siteabout their future release deliberations. A possible newskin can also be seen.
• Finally, Polycounthas posted all of theentries in theQuakeconMap Model Contest(there’s also a gallery mapstill available). One of the models was done by fellowCombat developer Goreld, so be sure to check them out.

Thanks to Quake3World for those last two items. On a side note,Stompedaskedid Software’s Robert Duffy about the status of the nextQuake 3: Arena patch:

Yeah should be in the near future. It is in test at Activision right now. There were only a couple of very small changes from 1.29H.

Tux Games’ Michael Simms sent in the following:

The Tux Games stock of Kohan: ImmortalSovereigns has arrived, and we are now shipping. The stock isselling fast, which is good news for both us andLoki.

Jorrit Tyberghein updated theCrystal Space project site to notethat they’ve included (presumably in the current CVS source tree) workaroundfor a bug in GCC 2.96 and up.The bug occurs when level two optimization is selected during the compile process and the floatingpoint to integer cast function returns an invalid result.

Janis Legzdinish, author of theVavoom project, wasinterviewedat NewDoom.com about his DOOM enginesource modification.

Raven Software’s Kenn Hoekstraupdated his .planto announce the release of theSoldier of FortunePlatinum Edition map pack, which includes five new deathmatch maps. You’ll also need the SoF 1.06patch to be able to play these maps.

Soldier of Fortune Platinum Map Pack Download:
http://www.3ddownloads.com/?file_id=151653

Version 1.0.0 of Ancient Domains of Mystery, aRogue-like dungeon hack & slash game, was released. Version changes can eventually be foundhere; thanks to hodad for the heads up.

ADOM 1.0.0 Download:
http://www.adom.de/adom/download/linux/adom-100-elf.tar.gz

Version 1.5.13 of the multiplayer turn-based strategy game Advanced Strategic Command has been released; changes since 1.4.4 include:

• Major AI improvement, especially on small maps
• Terraintypes can now use PNG graphics
• bin2text can now load text files too
• Usability improvements in mapeditor
• BI3 map import more flexible
• Improved error message for .asctxt files
• Map editor can edit a units AI parameters
• New data file: palette.map for terrain selection in mapeditor
• Many bug fixes

ASC 1.5.13 source: asc-1.5.13-beta.src.tar.gz

Version 0.0.3 of the cross-platform game framework LibKSD has been released; changes include:

• Audio
• Reworked drawing code
• A preliminary widget set
• Many other improvements and bug fixes

LibKSD 0.0.3 source: libksd-0.0.3.tar.gz

Version 1.0.1 of the educational typing tutor game Tux Typing has been released; changes include:

• Build process bugfix – build now respects install prefix requests
• Tux4Kids logo now included

Tux Typing 1.0.1 downloads: www.geekcomix.com/dm/tuxtype/downloads.shtml

Also, Samuel Hart wrote to the Tux Typing mailing list to announce that Tux Typing’s sponsor, Tux4Kids, now has a project page on LinuxFund.org, a development grant web-site for Open-Source and Free-Software projects. Samuel writes, “Any funding Tux4Kids receives from LinuxFund.org will go towards development hardware as well as website maintenance costs.”

Version 0.6.4 of the electronic boardgame front-end Q Universal Boardgame has been released; changes include:

• Fixed horrible memory leak caused by launching external windows
• Believed Fixed: build problems related to using Autoconf 2.5x

QUB 0.6.4 source: qub-0.6.4.tar.bz2

Version 010808 of the Rick Dangerous clone xrick has been released; changes include:

• Alpha sound support, Basic sounds are here, including the Waaaaaa of Death, but music is not implemented. The quality is far from being perfect — it’s alpha
• Finished Hall of Fame (“congratulations” banner, etc.)
• Added an “xrick” splash screen
• Various minor bugfixes
• New command line options: -nosound to disable sound, and -vol to set volume to
• Man page (thanks to André Majorel)
• Cheats now an option that can be turned off at compile time
• Updated -help text
• Add “500″ animation when capturing bonus
• Add a switch so that zombies (everything that has been killed) can not be hidden by foreground tiles
• Discovered that initial values for Hall of Fame differ on Atari and PC — fixed

xrick 010808 source: xrick-010808.tgz

Slacker that I am, I just remembered this comment postbyMark B. Allen (author ofChromium B.S.U.) whichMatt Matthews pointed out to me a while back:

One thing of *extremely* important thing I learned at SIGGRAPH (fromBrian Paul) is that the DRI project no longer has *any* funding fromanyone. This means that DRI driver work is only being done in the freetime of DRI developers. This is a *very* bad situation. The already-slowdevelopment cycle of DRI drivers will get even slower, and we may notsee new ones at all.

In my opinion, it is time for the community to put their money wheretheir mouth is. If people want open drivers, I believe they will need tostart paying for it. There’s a couple of ways that this couldpotentially work:
1. A donation site (unlikely to generate enough revenue, because peoplewill simply “forget” to pay)
2. Special, license restricted “extra functionality” drivers thatrequire payment, while basic drivers remain Free.

Since learning about the DRI funding situation, I’ve been rolling thisaround in my head (even though I am more than happy w/ NVIDIA, it is toLinux’s advantage to have drivers for as many cards as possible, andthere are more than a few that believe strongly about the Open/Freeaspect of drivers). I’m not sure how it will work, or whether will bepossible to generate enough revenue to support the DRI developers.

It’s time for the community to start funding the DRI. I don’t have thetime (or really, the motivation) to try and put something together, buthopefully, someone else will make an attempt to get some money into thehands of the people who have the ability to write and maintain Opendrivers.

The Direct Rendering Infrastructure projectdevelops 3D graphics drivers for XFree86 4.x; DRI alsolost one of its core full-timedevelopers, Gareth Hughes, earlier this summer whenVA Linux cancelled his contract (although it looks likeGareth still contributes to the projectin his free time).