LINUXGAMES

Kayt Sorhaindo from Loki wrote in to announce the following items for this holiday season:

• Place your orders on the Loki webstore by December 7 to ensure arrival by Christmas.
• Act now and get the Rune/Halls of Valhalla bundle for the special price $49.95.
• Buy Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2, and blow your mind with its immersive storyline and 3D special effects. This dimension-altering title has the low SRP of only $29.95.
• For a limited time only, make any purchase from our webstore, and we’ll offer the following items to you at these special prices:
  • The official Loki Demo CD for only 99 cents!
  • The Learning Debian GNU/Linux book with CD for only $9.99. This book retails elsewhere on the net for $34.95!
  • Eric’s Ultimate Solitaire for only $9.99. This classic title runs not just on Pentium systems, but PPC, Alpha and even Sparc!
• Purchase a multimedia system from QliTech by December 12 and receive a free copy of Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns. Kohan is the extremely well-received real-time strategy and fantasy game for Linux. Visit the QliTech website at www.qlilinux.com for details on this promotion. [ Or take a look at our previous news item. -Al ]

Ray Sanders from QliTech wrote in with this press release:

Moline, Illinois – November 30, 2001 – QliTech Linux Computers is proudto announce it will include a complimentary copy of the popular LokiSoftware title “Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns” with every multimedia systemand laptop purchase between now and December 12, 2001.

Kohan, developed by the entertainment wizards at Timegate Studios, is areal-time strategy and fantasy game, and has received much praise forits many dynamic features including an intriguing storyline, a uniquecompany-based combat system and classic military concepts. For moreinformation about this exciting title, visit www.kohan.net.

Version 0.17 of the Nibbles-like game Heroes has been released; changes since 0.16 include:

• fixed segfault introduced in 0.16
• very basic testsuite
• explosions of dead players happens on the full trail (the last five squares used to not explode)

Heroes 0.17 source: heroes.sourceforge.net/download.html

Version 0.1.1 of the turn-based strategy game FreeLords has been released; changes since 0.0.9 include:

• ported to ParaGUI (SDL)
• no more flicker when redrawing screens
• code cleanup => almost all rewritten
• added a dialog when searching a ruin
• fixed a zero pointer reference in check_path and improved the function
• bugfixes

FreeLords 0.1.1 source: freelords-0.1.1.tar.gz

Version 1.9.5.4 of the multiplayer turn-based strategy game Advanced Strategic Command has been released; changes since 1.9.5 include:

• AI can now be used as a benchmark
• fixed crashes
• units that can never move wont be displayed in gray prior to attack
• added game options disable searching for all starting positions when changing a units height
• if max num of mines exceeded, no icon is displayed for placing a
• new one
• changed: airplanes cannot land into buildings any more
• adds replay to the AI’s moves
• bugfixes

ASC 1.9.5.4 source: asc-linux-1.9.5.tar.gz

Karl T wrote in to let us know that he recently mailed the PowerVR team to ask about the status status of the Kyro driver. Kristof Beets of PowerVR responded to his mail with:

A PowerVR Technologies Driver Team is currently developing Linux driversfor KYRO. An initial beta driver offering accelerated 2D (X Server) andaccelerated 3D (OpenGL) is expected to be ready for a public release inFebruary 2002. No decision has been made about an Open or Closed Source release.

Build 0197 of the Parsec LAN-test has beenreleased. This version offers better support for low end graphics cards andfixes some sound issues and other bugs. For more information about the LAN-test, take a look at the README.

Parsec 0197 downloads: parsec.org/lantest_download.html
Local mirror: 3ddownloads.com/?directory=/linuxgames/parsec/

Jeff Freedman of the Exult project wrote in to let us know that Exult has reached its first Beta.

Users should now be able to play both ‘Black Gate’ and ‘Serpent Isle’to completion, provided you have the data files from the original game.

During the Beta period, we will continue to fix bugs in preparation for a1.00 release; and we will also continue development on ExultStudio, whichprovides a map-editor and script compiler that will allow users to modify U7and (eventually) create new games.

Exult is available from http://exult.sourceforge.net/download.php

As an aside, I’ve been following Exult for some time now, and consider it a really great project. I’ll be getting out my Ultima 7 disc this evening to try it out.

Andy “God, I Wish I Was In LA Watching Lakers’ Games” Mecham sent word that NVIDIA released new Linux drivers this morning. The changelog lists:

• nForce 220D/420/420D Integrated GPU support (see products supported list)
• OpenGL® 1.3 with NVIDIA extensions
• Support for accelerated offscreen rendering via SGIX_pbuffer and SGIX_fbconfig extensions
• Improved Viewperf and Quake performance
• Enhanced mobile support
• Improved AMD support
• Performer multi-threaded support

These drivers apparently support the graphics adaptor on motherboards designed around the new nForce chipsets. NVIDIA has also released a script called NVchooser.sh that determines which files you should download if you’re unsure.

You can download them from the new NVIDIA Linux Drivers Page.

TransGaming has announced that new packages of WineX have been made available. Changes include:

• Support for running SafeDisc protected games, like Alice, Sacrifice, etc
• Support for running SecuRom protected games, like Diablo 2
• With the SecuRom support, Diablo 2 Battle.net now works
• Several installer bugs have been resolved, including problems with the full version of Alice, and window order issues
• Improving sound playback in many programs, including Quake engine games like Half-Life, and Alice, as well as many others, including Tony Hawk Pro Skater, and Dave Mira BMX
• Improving DirectInput handling of Joystick devices to cease claiming that we support force feedback (we don’t for the moment). This fixes launch problems with Tony Hawk Pro Skater
• Fixing mouse grabbing issues with OpenGL games that try to go into full screen mode at lower resolutions like 640×480. This was one of the more serious issues with Alice
• A merge with WineHQ code, which fixes color issues with 2D games like RollerCoaster Tycoon, among other changes. We have worked around a speed reduction issue that cropped up in the WineHQ merge
• Updates to the shell integration features, which should now automatically install menu entries and desktop icons when installers add them
• Reverting to using asynchronous updates for 2D drawing. The initial WineX release used synchronous updates, which can be slow under some circumstances. This should speed up games like Starcraft

Note that the pre-packaged WineX downloads are only available to TransGaming subscribers.

WineX downloads: www.transgaming.com/download.php

Woody Hughes has posted a review on Newsforge of Loki Software’s recent port of Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2.

id Software has released the multiplayer Linux binary for Return To Castle Wolfenstein. The announcement was made in Christian Antkow’s .plan file. Big ups to Timothee Besset. The 4.57M download is available at:

ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/wolf/linux/wolfmp-linux-1.0.b2.x86.run.

Disclosure: I am an employee of Activision, Inc.

Here are the install notes:

This setup will install the linux binaries for Wolfenstein Multiplayer in /usr/local/games/wolfenstein (or any other location you request). It WON’T INSTALL ALL THE FILES REQUIRED TO RUN WOLFENSTEIN MULTIPLAYER. You will need to manually copy a number of files to the /usr/local/games/wolfenstein/main directory.

From a win32 Wolfenstein installation, copy the following files to your /usr/local/games/wolfenstein/main directory:

63211149 Nov 13 22:14 mp_pak0.pk3
4449596 Nov 13 13:45 mp_pak1.pk3
1118 Nov 13 16:59 mp_pak2.pk3
315823656 Nov 13 12:50 pak0.pk3
293887431 Nov 12 17:20 sp_pak1.pk3
11026123 Nov 12 17:27 sp_pak2.pk3

ENTERING THE CD-KEY:

The first time you run the game, you will need to go to ‘Options’, and click on ‘Enter CD Key’ button. Enter the CD key (it’s on your CD Jewel case).

NOTE: you don’t need to give a CD key if you are installing a dedicated server.

SINGLE PLAYER:

This release doesn’t contain the single player binaries of the game. The menu command to switch to single player is present in the interface, but it is completely inoperant.

Useful files in this installation:

- see CHANGES for a summary of wolfenstein linux changes
- see QUICKSTART for quick instructions to configure your dedicated server
- see Docs/Dedicated Server Notes.html for more dedicated server information

How to get help and report issues:

- A FAQ with known issues and information about the linux binaries of Wolfenstein Multiplayer is maintained at the following address:
http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/linux

ttimo@idsoftware.com

id Software’s Todd Hollenshead updated his.plan with brief news about the Linuxbinaries for the recently releasedReturn to Castle Wolfenstein:

Return to Castle Wolfenstein should be on shelves across Europe (except forSpain and Italy) by this coming Friday. Spain and Italy will get theirsthe following Friday. I’m still waiting on info for Asia/Pacific.

Other news:

Mac is still “soon” (i.e., before Christmas) and the Linux binary release is”sooner”. So don’t harass Timo and Graeme too much – they’re working hard.

Timothee “TTimo” Besset also let us know that the initial release will just be for multiplayer (asRTCW uses separate executables for the single and multiplayer games); moreover, as the CD does nothave the pakfiles as stand-alone files, you’ll have to initially install the game to your Linux machine viaWine or Win32 proper.

Sunspire Studios has given notice that the retail version of Tux Racer has been completed. The posting on the Sunspire website was made almost two months ago, on 2 October 2001, but it wasn’t brought to the public’s attention until this Slashdot story. Sunspire states that the retail version will contain low-detail options for less powerful computers and a split-screen mode for head-to-head competition. However, Sunspire still requires a publisher as well as funding for direct online sales.

The retail version of Tux Racer will contain Windows, Linux, and MacOS binaries.

Slashdot pointed outthat O’Reilly’sLinux Devcenter is runningan articleon the development of Freeciv, the open sourceCivilization II clone. I’ve been playing Freeciv off and on since LG was founded back in 1998, and it’sgreat seeing how far the game has come over the years.

Trac has sent in 4 screenshots of RTCW under WineX CVS from 20011122. WineX is a derivative of the Wine project from Transgaming.

Defendguin, a clone of the classic Defender game with the penguin twist that all linux user love, has been updated to version 0.0.8. This version includes minor tweaks in graphics and documentation.

Sarien 0.7.0, a portable Sierra AGI resource interpreter engine that lets you play Sierra AGI version 2/3 games has been updated. Major changes include suport for Amiga Gold Rush! 2.05 game ID, added mouse event support and a MacOS x port.

Tux Games’Michael Simms fired in the following:

Tux Games now has the following new-in-stocks and new pre-releases foryour pleasure

Heavy MetalF.A.K.K.2 is now in stock
CreaturesInternet Edition is now listed for pre-order
Return toCastle Wolfenstein is now listed for pre-order
Return toCastle Wolfenstein Strategy Guide is now listed for pre-order

Tux Games will report each copy of RTCW sold by us as a Linuxpurchase. We would appreciate it if you all helped to ensure we donthave to go to id Software and say ‘ummmm, we sold five Linux copies’.That would be embarrassing, and we wouldnt be happy, and I doubt itwould help convince them to make more Linux games available.

X-Mame 0.56.1 with a new designed website has been released. Changes include the following:

• Everything from MAME 0.56.
• The svgafx driver is working again–it was broken by the removal of 8bpp support from the core. (Henri and Jason)
• Numeric keypad support is now much better. (Andre Majorel)
• Added arbitrary height scaling, available via the -arbheight option and started sanitizing the blit core. This currently only works with the X11 (windows, DGA1, DGA2) and svgalib drivers. (Adam Moss)
• Added support in makefile.unix for the Intel C++ compiler, and also a sample wrapper script in contrib/tools. (Adam Moss)
• Added -usbpspad/-pspad switch for support of the direction buttons on the Playstation gamepad. (Bill Adams)
• Added support for SDL under BeOS. Sound is not currently supported, however. (Jack Burton)
• Fixed a bug that prevented romalizer from working. (Shyouzou Sugitani)
• The xgl target should work much better. (Sven Goethel)
• The -hotrod/-hr and -hotrodse/-hrse should actually work now.
• Fixed a bunch of warnings that occurred when linking with GNU binutils using -warn-common.
• Added DGA2 documentation: src/unix/doc/dga2.txt. (Shyouzou Sugitani)