LINUXGAMES

The increasingly-prolific-but-not-yet-at-Bill-Kendrick-level Ralph Schmeisser unleashed 14 new articles on http://www.gamesforlinux.de. Highlights include Parsec, FlightGear, and the most brilliantly named game ever, Crack Attack.

For whatever reason, gamesforlinux.de doesn’t appear reachable at the moment, but hopefully that will be fixed soon.

Mark D’voo informed us that the Soldier of Fortune II multi-player test is playable under WineX:

Soldier of Fortune 2 Multiplay Demo came out, and it runs perfectly using WineX 2.0 from Transgaming.

The test is available at many locations, including:

• http://bluesnews.com/files/sof2/demos/sof2_test.shtml
• http://www.3dgamers.com/ad/welcome/blues/games/soldierfortune2/
• http://www.sof2files.com/file.info?2373

The original Soldier of Fortune was ported to Linux by Loki Software.

Update: I forgot to mention–Dan Olson, please commence WineX trolling.

The ever-prolific Bill Kendrick has announced the release of version 1.4.1 of ZSC (Zaurus Star Castle). From the announcement:

Version 1.4.1 of ZSC (Zaurus Star Castle), the first ‘official’ release,is now available in “.ipk” form for the Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 PDA.

It’s based on the X-Window game “XSC” (X Star Castle) version 1.4 byMark B. Hanson. It’s been ported to SDL, sound effects have been added,and it was shrunk and tweaked to fit on a PDA screen.

The source code, README, and a screenshot are available here.

James Tinner wrote in with this update on the status of running the release version of Tactical Ops:

Thought your readers might want to know that the release of Tactical-Ops, Assault on Terror works well in Mandrake 8.2. To get it working you need to copy the system files from your Linux version of the beta into the system directory of AOT. The same TacticalOpsLinuxLauncher script launches the game. Be sure to save your old TacticalOps.ini, though. You’ll need it.

Tactical Ops is an Unreal Tournament modification that has also been released in a retail version by Infogrames.

Jan Ekholm let us know that he has released version 0.70 of Civil, his “cross-platform, turn-based, networked strategy game.” Changes include:

• Civil is no longer Realtime
• Civil no longer requires a separate server
• Full support for Linux, OS , BSD and Windows as of this version
• Improved Scenario Editor
• Civil now supports sound effects and background music
• In-game CD playing now supported
• Full support for animation

Civil is developed using Python, Pygame, and SDL.

From the ‘Dear-Lord-We’ve-Been-Busy’ department, approximately eight million people (some requesting anonymity in case their cover is blown) wrote in to let us know that Volition has released the source code to Freespace 2. Oodles of intelligent commentary can also be read here.

Tony DeYoung, the OpenGL Webmaster, wrote in with the following information regarding OpenGL 2.0 source code:

OpenGL 2.0 continues to make rapid progress. This zip file contains thesource code and project files necessary to build the OpenGL 2.0 ShadingLanguage compiler as a standalone executable for Windows platforms. Oncethe OpenGL Shading Language compiler is built, it is capable of parsingand generating intermediate code for vertex shaders and fragment shaderswritten in the high-level language defined by the OpenGL 2.0 ShadingLanguage white paper. It is intended that other vendors would develophardware-specific back ends that turn the intermediate code intodevice-specific machine code.

3Dlabs will continue to move OpenGL 2.0 forward by providing source codeto the OpenGL Shading Language parser and intermediate-code generatorthat we have implemented. They are making this code available in thehopes of encouraging rapid development of OpenGL 2.0 implementations aswell as common tools and utilities.

David Hedbor wrote in with the following announcement:

Eon Games just released new versionof their Sharp Zaurus games. Both these releases greatly improve overthe previous versions.

• Eligo 1.0.1 – apuzzle game similar to Lines. Download / changelogand screenshots.
• Strategic Assault 1.8.2- a real time strategy war game.Download / changelogand screenshots.

Speaking of billiard games, version 1.72 of the OpenGL billiard simulator BillardGL has been released; changes include a bugfix for when a ball was played against one of the cushions next to the holes (it often stayed there not moving) and a third language (Spanish) has been added.

BillardGL 1.72 downloads: http://www.tobias-nopper.de/BillardGL/download-en.html

Version 1.2 of the Atari 2600 emulator Stella (screenshots) has been released; changes include:

• improved performance
• SDL port is available
• added INI file option

Stella 1.2 source: stella-1.2-src.tar.gz

Alsso, version 0.7.0 of the KDE frontend to the Stella KStella has been released; changes include:

• changes to the user interface to take advantage of the new features in Stella 1.2
• data locations for all KStella extras are now customizable
• snapshots/labels are no longer required to be a specific size. They are
• resized according to the current window size
• reloading of ROM’s now works as intended
• added some statistics to the File menu
• delayed selection of items so that drawing multiple snapshots doesn’t hog
• the CPU
• fixed compilation and installation issues
• created an icon for KStella

KStella 0.7.0 source: kstella-0.7.tar.gz

floh wrote in to announce that version 1.2 of the OpenGL billiards game FooBillard (screenshots: 1 | 2 | 3) has been released; changes since version 1.0 include:

• commandline parameter for screen (window) geometry
• darker place-cue-ball-cursor
• SDL support included “configure –enable-SDL” and fullscreen mode for SDL
• simple network game support
• better LOD-determination
• additional detail level
• sound support when compiling with SDL
• bugfixes

FooBillard 1.2 source: foobillard-1.2.tar.gz

The GarageGames team has released a Linux beta client of RealmWars, which utilizes the cheaply-licensed ($100 US) Torque game engine (a Tribes 2 engine fork). RealmWars itself is a demonstrative Torque community project similar to the Tribes games minus the usual sci-fi trappings.

RealmWars Linux Beta Notes and Download:
http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=2557

Dr. Paul Dholakia, Assistant Professor of Management at Rice University wrote in with this information regarding an interesting survey that they are conducting:

I am a faculty member in the Jones school of management at Rice Universityin Houston, Texas (this may be verified using a Google search with “PaulDholakia”, or “Utpal Dholakia”). We are conducting an academic researchproject, studying social interactions online more generally, andspecifically how communities organized around products or brands areformed, from a sociological perspective.

In this regard, we are conducting a survey of people who belong tointernet-based LINUX groups such as mailing lists, websites etc. seekinginformation on different elements of their thoughts, feelings, andmotivations of participating in such groups, and the value of the group tothem…

Our survey is available on the web at the following URL:

http://www.surveypro.com/cgi-bin/surveypro/run_survey.cgi?id=2444

Please note that the survey is targeted especially at those individualswho interact with the more-or-less same group of individuals online withinthe mailing list or on some other online forum, that is, those who have online friends that they interact with regularly.

Of course, this research is strictly academic, and has no commercial linksor interests whatsoever. We hope to publish this research in a sociologyjournal.

As a small token of our appreciation for participants’ time, and in thespirit of the philosophy underlying the open-source movement, we willdonate a total of $500 to the five favorite organizations/ groups of ourparticipants’ choice (we ask the participant’s to nominate their favoritegroups in the survey). Of course, the findings of the study will be freelyavailable from my website or via email (upon request) in approximately twomonths.

Version 0.9.10 of the thin graphics library DirectFB (screenshots) has been released; changes include:

• Sonypi wheel support
• improvements to the multi application core
• API additions
• better documentation
• bugfixes

DirectFB 0.9.10 downloads: http://www.directfb.org/download/

Version 3.9.6d of the Open Sound System, the commercial implementation of the OSS/Free sound drivers included in the Linux kernel, has been released; changes include:

• support for ALI M5451 audio
• fixes for SiS 7018 recording
• fixes for Compaq Presario 7xx (VIA82C68 audio)

OSS 3.9.6d downloads: http://www.opensound.com/download.cgi

Version 0.7.10 of the free, open-source flight simulator FlightGear (screenshots) has been released; changes include:

• work on drawing and animating 3d aircraft models
• overhauled mouse handling code
• added a new environment (as in weather) subsystem
• added a new logging module
• property manager overhaul
• view code overhaul
• overhaul of the sound manager

FlightGear 0.7.10 downloads: http://www.flightgear.org/Downloads/

Version 0.9.4 of the Risk-like multiplayer turn-based strategy game Tenes Empanadas Graciela (screenshots) has been released; changes include:

• added support for Draco theme
• theme support is more verbose
• added polish translation and documentation
• added support for GGZ v0.0.5
• removed support for GGZ v.0.0.4
• status dialog is fully configurable
• options for showing popup dialogs
• chatline support most chars

TEG 0.9.4 source: teg-0.9.4.tar.gz

Version 1.0.3 of the educational game GCompris (screenshots) has been released; changes include:

• added a Tux in a ballon in the algebra board
• now the child must answer within a specific time
• fixed the random misplacement in the shape board clockgame
• changed the cursor to ease the selection
• completed the german sounds

GCompris 1.0.3 downloads: @ sf.net

Version 1.0.4 of the networked battleship game Batalla Naval has been released; changes include:

• added Japanese translation
• added Russian translation
• updated GGZ support

Batalla Naval 1.0.4 source: gbatnav-1.0.4.tar.gz

Version 1.10 of the turn-based fantasy strategy game Dominions has been released. Changes and fixes include:

• Support for scroll wheel mouses in Linux (this will probably work on Solaris too)
• Support for ESD and aRts (sound)
• Curse did not always work properly
• The generation of a military strength report during siege crashed the game in some rare circumstances

Dominions 1.10 demo downloads:
http://www.illwinter.com/dom_downloads.html