LINUXGAMES

Mike MacCana forwarded the following e-mailfrom Slingshot concerning a Linuxport of Soul Ride, asnowboarding game:

I have a working Linux port. I need to do a little bit of hacking to getit up to date, and then we’ll release the executable along with theupcoming virtual resort downloads. There are still a couple of openquestions about how to install the mountains from the retail game, but thevirtual resorts at least should be playable. So it’s definitely on myagenda. I have a few pressing items to take care of first though, soit’ll be several weeks before we release any Linux stuff.

Thanks for your interest,

-Thatcher

P.S. I used SDL as the porting layer, and I’m developing under RedHat 6.1at the moment, using the NVidia OpenGL drivers. I’m not sure what kind ofcompatibility problems we’ll run into though, with distributing binaries.Let me know if you have any opinions/experience with that…

You can download a trailer for Soul Ridehere.

During the last OpenGLArchitectural Review Board meeting(notes)3Dlabs proposed the creation of an OpenGL 2.0 spec, in order”to take a decisive step” towards advancing the API. Their presentation (inPDF format) can be found at

http://www.3dlabs.com/opengl/ogl2.pdf

Thanks to Tomas Blaha for the heads up.

Bernhard Kuhn has sent in an additional workaround fora lockup issue with NVIDIA’s Linux driverswhich occurs under heavy system load:

http://www.linuxgames.com/articles/morenvidiatips-20010930.txt

UPDATE: A response from NVIDIA on this issue can be found in the comments below.

Version 1.30 of Quake 3: Arena has been releasedby id Software. Changes can be foundhere, although most were already included inthe last few beta patches.

Quake 3: Arena 1.30 Patch:
ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake3/linux/linuxq3apoint-1.30.x86.run

Version 24834 of Tribes 2 has beenreleased by Loki Software (thanksto Loki’s joshua and tarquin for the heads up); the massivechangelog can be found here(the majority being gameplay/scoring changes introduced by Dynamix before the dev studio wasterminated by Sierra). If you encounter any issues with this patch,please report them via Fenris. You can updateyour copy with Loki Update (which should run when youstart Tribes 2 anyway), or manually:

Tribes 2 24834 Client Patch:
ftp://ftp.lokigames.com/pub/updates/tribes2/tribes2-24834-x86.run

Tribes 2 24834 Dedicated Server Patch:
ftp://ftp.lokigames.com/pub/updates/tribes2/tribes2-24834-cdrom-x86.run

Slashdot posted areview by WrinkledShirt earlier this monthof Programming Linux Games, which waswritten by Loki’s John “Overcode” Hall.The article goes over the pros and cons of the book, and links other Linux game programming resourceson the web.

Evil3D.net has posted areview ofLoki Software’s Linux portof Rune, the third-personViking-themed melee-action game. The review spans four pages and includes analysisof the various aspects of gameplay.

RUST pointed out thata new GtkRadiant 1.1.1 release candidate is up in the level editor’snightly build depository.This build has several new features when compared with the last stable Radiant release, as well as the usualoptimizations and bugfixes.

GtkRadiant 1.1.1 Release Candidate 2 Download:
http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/nightly/linuxq3sdk-full-1.1.1-RC2.x86.run

Version 2.4.10 of the Linux kernel has been released; the changelogcan be found here.

Linux 2.4.9 to 2.4.10 Patch:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/patch-2.4.10.gz

Linux 2.4.10 Full Source:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/linux-2.4.10.tar.gz

Kernel.org Mirrors: http://www.kernel.org/mirrors/

Version 0.9.6g of the Linux FPS game server browser XQF has been released;changes:

• Internationalization (gettext) support, Spanish and German translations
• Initial Return to Castle Wolfenstein support
• Tribes 2 support
• Support for Q3A protocol v66
• Added “Quake3″ preferences page which allows the protocol version and other options to be changed
• Added “General” preferences page which hosts many of the options which were in “Appearance” previously
• Added “game type” filter
• New man page
• New documentation in html format (docs/xqfdocs.html)
• XQF now requires qstat 2.4c

XQF 0.9.6g Download:
http://3ddownloads.com/?file_id=152242

Niels Wagenaar has also released version 0.22bR1 ofBoyCott Advance/SDL, his GameBoy Advance emulator.Changes:

• Insync with the latest BoyCott Advance 0.22b tree
• 16-bit output, no slow 32-bit anymore as in the previous version
• Rewritten scaling/scanline code
• Improved soundcode
• Optimised and restructured some code (not much)
• Fixed sound support under Linux with OSS modules
• Fixed annoying WIN32 error and Linux core dump with sound
• Fixed pause/continue, sound didn’t stop while in pause
• Fixed gfx-output-stop when frameskip is set to 0 using in emulator frameskip decrease using F6 key
• Implented Savestate loading/saving
• Implented Throttle option/switch for a maximum of 60FPS which is usefull for fast machines and for proper sound output
• Implented Autoskip option/switch which is handy for slow P.C.’s and keeping the emulator at a stable 60FPS
• Included latest GBA Freeware game Pongfighter release

BoyCott Advance/SDL 0.22bR1 Download:
http://www.3ddownloads.com/?file_id=152198

Niels Wagenaar has released version 0.38bR2 ofNeoPocott/SDL, his NeoGeo Pocket (Color) emulator.Changes:

• Redone scaling/scanline routines
• Redone keyboard/joystick handling
• Implented FPS counter
• Implented multiple snapshot loading/saving
• Implented multiple screenshot saving
• Implented new scanline option for proper scanline mode
• Implented in-emulator B&W/Colour selection
• Implented/Fixed scaling output
• Implented country select switch
• Implented disable/enable gfx layers selection
• Fixed sticky keyboard bug(s)
• Fixed joystick handling
• Fixed fullscreen output

NeoPocott/SDL 0.38bR2 Download:
http://www.3ddownloads.com/?file_id=152236

Loki Software updated their siteto note that the German Linux gaming site Linux-Spiele has reviewed two recentports: Rune andTribes 2.

Martijn from the Dutch Linux gaming site [LnX] Games also wrote in to announce apreview,but this one is for Return to CastleWolfenstein. The preview is in Dutch and covers the recently-releasedmultiplayer test client, a little background on Nerve Software, game installation, andit includes some screenshots.

Bernd “comrad” Ritter from the German gaming site HOLARSE wrote in to announce that they havepublished a previewof Heavy Metal: FAKK2(in German, natch). The game is being ported by Loki and the preview is based on thethe beta test of the game that is currently in progress.

Version 1.39 of the SNES emulator Snes9X has been released; changes include:

• 16-bit texture support for OpenGL modes was implemented
• a hidden novelty OpenGL mode was added
• Snes9X reverted back to FMod version 3.20 after reports that version 3.33 broke AD3 support
• implemented a better work-around for the broken select system call in the Linux kernel
• OpenGL performance should now be close to Glide perfomance, if not better
• Glide support was (hopefully) fixed
• the original colour blending code
• was restored
• many more games are supported

Snes9X 1.39 source: s9x.linuxc6.139.i386.tar.gz

Thanks goes out to Cort for sending in the news.

Matt wrote in to announce thatverion 0.99.3 of thelaserdisc arcade game emulator DAPHNE(previous news) has been released. He writes:

We’ve just released a new (major) version of DAPHNE, the programthat lets you play laserdisc arcade games such as Dragon’s Lair on yourPC. We support a total of ten laserdisc games now (the last version onlysupported two). The games are: Astron Belt, Cliff Hanger, Cobra Command,Dragon’s Lair, Esh’s Aurunmilla, Galaxy Ranger, Space Ace,Starblazer, Super Don Quixote, and Thayer’s Quest.

No additional hardware is required (a laserdisc playerused to be required). The emulator has full built-in mpeg2 support andworks with linux.

It’s released under the GPL.

DAPHNE 0.99.3 source: daphne-0.99.3.tar.gz

Ratchet wrote in with the followingupdate regarding Kritter Kreator, anOpenSource real-time strategy game projectthat we mentionedback in July:

Kritter Kreator is getting closer to having an Alpha version (forWindows; the Linux Version will be done up to 6 months later)

Windows Alpha Build 1 (for Developers) will be done in November 2001,public Alpha in March 2002 for Windows, Linux and Mac (Linux and Mac maybe in May, Mac may be later) Currently we have a prealpha version of theEngine that will be used available on our project site;http://sf.net/projects/kreator.More information at http://kreator.sf.net.

Version 0.14 of the Nibbles-like game Heroes has been released; changes include:

• most files are now shipped under the terms of ‘GPL version 2′
• new command-line option: –list=levels (list level files)
• check for SDL_mixer in configure
• allow to fall back to LibMikMod if SDL_mixer is not available and to GII if SDL does not support Joystick
• don’t exit with an error code on operations like –version

Heroes 0.14 downloads: heroes.sourceforge.net/download.html

The Linux client for the Return to Castle Wolfenstein multiplayer test has been released by id Software. The version 0.7.16-1 client install can be downloaded in full (65MB), or minus the pakfile (for those who installed the Win32 version in Linux with Wine). Presumably the Linux RTCW FAQ page will be updated with whatever issues players encounter with the test; the test includes one Normandy-inspired level which pits the Allies against the Axis as they fight over war plans.

Linux Return to Castle Wolfenstein MP Test 0.7.16-1 Download:
Client (Full) – ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/wolf/linux/wolfmptest-0.7.16-1.x86.run
Client (Binaries only) – ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/wolf/linux/wolfmptest-nomedia-0.7.16-1.x86.run

3D Downloads Mirror:
http://www.3ddownloads.com/?directory=/linuxgames/wolf/