LINUXGAMES

• Silvio Tischer sent in word (a while back, sorry Silvio) that the multiplayer portion ofFountainhead Entertainment’stotal conversion Sidrial works under LinuxQuake 3: Arena after installing it viaWine. Unfortunately, there was no luck with single player portion.
• Beta 2.5 of the Q3A tactical combat mod Urban Terrorwas released (changes) as an upgradeto Beta 2.4 (required). Screenshots can be found here.
• A Beta 1H server-side fix was released forQuake 3 Fortress, which can be found aquí.
• The Unreal Fortress guys have postedan update on the status of their mod and posted aprofile for the marksman class.
• Finally, IGNspoke with the developersof Tac Ops: Assault on Terror, the mod forUnreal Tournament which is going retail, similar to the HL mod Counter-Strike. Fortunately, the article statesthat the retail release won’t affect updates of the mod proper, which will allow Linux users to continue to playas patches appear online.

Ralph Schmeisser announced that Gamesforlinux.de is in need of some people to help out with the news there. If no one steps up, it could be curtains for the German-language Linux gaming site. So if you know what the hell “Wie geht es Ihnen?” means, help a brother out.

Rob Sweet dropped us a note announcing the release of his ClawConfig for Linux, a configuration utility for The Claw. The Claw is an uber-funky FPS gaming controller. Screenshots are available here, and “terse instructions for the impatient/illiterate” (my nominee for clever phrase of the day) are here.

Better late than never, most of you have probably read about the bnetd debacle that went down this past week. Lots of well-reasoned (*cough*) and impassioned discussion occurred on Slashdot in this original aritcle and the subsequent follow-up.

As far as I can tell, the salient bits are in this post, explaining why Blizzard‘s legal counsel sent the letter the project received.

Ant let us know that Monolith announced a Linux server for Aliens vs. Predator 2.

We’re also preparing to open our Linux servers to the public for play. These will be indicated by [LXBETA] after the server name. Assuming all goes well, we’ll have the Linux servers available a few weeks later. The Linux server will be compatible with 1.0.9.4, so once you’ve got 1.0.9.4, feel free to stop by the beta servers and play. We’ve set up an email for Linux bugs: avp2linuxbetabugs@lith.com.

The FreeCraft design team fired in the following news:

The FreeCraft Media Project has just released its first version of newgraphics and sound for the FreeCraft RTS game engine. Version 0.2.0 marks thefirst release since the merging of separate graphics and sound projects.

This highly anticipated release features over 250 graphics and over 450 soundswhich make up the fantasy RTS setting of the current project, and gamers whoare familiar with the Blizzard game WarCraft II will feel right at home.

They also need help from the community developing additional graphics and music, especially for additionalraces (Amazons, Elves, Goblins, and Daemons).

Freecraft Media 0.2.0 Installer (Note: you’ll need Freecraft proper to use this):
http://freecraft.sourceforge.net/snapshots/freecraft-020218-linux86-installer

Version 0.44 beta 24 of the QT-based XMame launcher Qmamecat has been released; changes include:

• Qt 2 is no longer supported (update to Qt 3.0.0 or above)
• the old font-specification method has been replaced with Qt’s way of
• handling fonts
• the settings dialog has been totally redesigned
• support 8 different GUI-styles now
• the ROM status parser is less CPU intensive now and generally more
• reliable
• the catalog format has been slightly changed
• emulator processes are no longer fork()’ed directly, instead there is
• a new process management system, which is based upon QProcess
• the search-widget is a combo box now
• any changes to the window layout are recognized now; qmamecat will ask
• you to save the layout if applicable

Qmamecat 0.44 beta 24 downloads: @ mameworld.net

Version 0.2.0 of the Wing Commander-inspired space combat sim Vega Strike (screenshots) has been released; changes include:

• new missions
• joystick support for a full featured joystick
• sound effects
• bolt weapons with glowing lighting effects
• cloaking that renders a ship partially/fully invisible
• customizable Alien Race logos

HellcatV, the lead developer for Vegastrike, writes:

The new release has over a hundred unique star systems, many craft and starships, and some challenging and fun missions that take players into and out of nebulae, asteroids, and even the face of an alien drone. The question is…can players discover the hidden superweapon before they are shot down!

Vegastrike 0.2.0 downloads: @ sf.net

Version 0.7.9 of the shufflepuck game TuxPuck has been released; changes since version 0.7.7 include:

• switched to PNG graphics and OggVorbis sounds
• Homer and Cartman have been removed due to legal reasons
• fixed major memory leak

TuxPuck 0.7.9 source: tuxpuck-0.7.9.tar.gz

ZioBudda sent in word thatZioBudda.net (an Italian Linux portal) hasreviewedMandrake Linux Gaming Edition, whichincludes TransGaming’sWine fork and a copy of theThe Sims.

Mads Bondo Dydensborg wrote in to announce that he has released version 1.1.0 of Xarman (screenshot). Xarman is a two player cross between Minesweeper and Dyna Blaster.

Xarman 1.1.0 downlaods: @ sf.net

Version 0.0.6 of the ncurses-based Space Invaders clone nInvaders (screenshot) has been released. In this version the aliens are animated and look better.

nInvaders 0.0.6 source: nInvaders0.0.6.tar.gz

Version 0.8 of the Tetris Attack-like game R-aTTaCK (screenshots) has been released; changes include:

• added Combo system: multiple, and serial delete
• added i18n: en and fr
• added command line options
• added cheat-mode
• put new block gfx style

R-aTTaCK 0.8 downloads: http://r-attack.tuxfamily.org/#download

J sent in a link to thisinterviewat Shadowbane Warcry withthe developers of Shadowbane, a MMORPG currently in beta testing. Of noteis this exchange:

Nimrangul: Several users have asked, “Earlier in Shadowbane’s development Warden spoke of a possible Linux port, is this possible for after release? Or at all?”

Ashen Temper : It’s possible… but not currently on our plate. Who knows what will happen after release, though… Much of that depends on the demand for it. There was a huge demand from the Mac community (and obviously the PC one).

Vosx : Some people are running the Windows client on Linux in Beta. From all reports it works very well, it doesn’t even crash the OS when the client crashes, so it’s possible.

As it’s not explicitly stated, the method being used to run the Windows client is Wine.

Version 0.9.0beta11 of the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture has been released; changes include a new directory structure for the alsa-driver package synchronized with the latest Linux 2.5 development kernel (yes, ALSA has been integrated to the official Linux 2.5 tree) and the alsa-lib code is more documented.

ALSA 0.9.0beta11 downloads: ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/

Keith Whitwell wrote in to the DRImailing list this weekwith good news:

Just a note that I’ve committed the bulk of a functional tcl radeon driver tothe new ‘tcl-0-0-branch’. This is basically my code as of about a 10 daysago, which exercises most of the t&l hardware but doesn’t have any cooloptimizations. Since then I’ve been working on cool optimizations, butthey’re not ready yet.

I’m now running a compile on what I committed & there will probably be a fewmore commits before it’s all up & running. I’ll post when I think it’s in areasonable state.

Then a few hours later:

OK. Things seem to be more or less working now. Over the next week or soI’ll be finishing and checking in code for the following:
- Array (rather than vertex) based dma of vertex data. This will probablyhelp q3 performance.
– Fast code for immediate (begin/vertex/end) mode rendering.

Until then, people who are interested should feel free to check the code outand have a play. I don’t expect it to be too robust yet, but bug reports arewelcome.

Anybody doing development on the Radeon (hi Michael, Ian, others) shouldprobably work off this codebase as it is somewhat divergent from what’s on thetrunk in terms of the way state is managed. I’d very much hope to get thisstabilized and merged sooner rather than later.

A big thanks to ATI for allowing us to release this code and to TungstenGraphics for having the vision to persue it.

Thanks to Joe Drew for the heads up.

The annual id-sponsored LAN party/tournamentQuakeCon has been officially announced for this year:

Prepare for the annual pilgrimage to the holiest spot in interactive entertainment, Mesquite, Texas, as id Software has announced the dates of QuakeCon 2K2. Set for Aug. 15 – 18, QuakeCon will be more intense than ever, as thousands of gamers descend on the Mesquite Convention Center and Exhibit Hall at the Hampton Inn, in Mesquite, Texas, to wage virtual war against 1,250 of their closest friends in the 35,000 square foot bring-your-own-computer (BYOC) LAN party, or compete in nerve-defying QuakeCon tournaments.

This year players can battle in two main-event tournaments; individual players will take to the hallowed halls ofQuake III Arena for the definitive deathmatch frag-fest, while teams and clans will compete on thebattlefields of id Software’s newest team competition classic,Return to Castle Wolfenstein, PC Gamer’s “2001 Multiplayer Game of the Year.”

Signups are traditionally in April; we’ll post as soon as a date for that is announced. You can still read my Quakecon 2001 report here.

A reader pointed out thisforum post byBioWare’s Derek French:

Sorry, its been a super busy day here and I haven’t had much time for the boards. Yes, at this time the Mac and Linux versionsare still happening. Sorry for not getting back to you sooner.

zakk fired in notice that faqs.lokigames.com now points tohttp://www.icculus.org/lgfaq/loki/, where, as the nameindicates, you can find answers to frequently asked questions about the titles Loki ported to Linux.

Version 0.7.9 of the free, open-source flight simulator FlightGear (screenshots) has been released; changes include:

• added additional aircraft
• added support for retractable gear
• additions and improvements to the sound effects
• added basic man pages
• removed old remnants of plib-1.2.x support. Plib-1.4.x is now required
• added support for building mandrake packages
• better support for gcc-3.0
• bugfixes

FlightGear 0.7.9 downloads: http://www.flightgear.org/Downloads/