A few readers let us know that Tom’s Hardware has a review up of WineX 2.0. They discuss a bit of the history of WineX, and then compare native Linux vs. Windows binaries of Quake3, Windows vs. WineX Quake3, and Max Payne Windows vs. WineX. The pithy conclusion? “Windows gaming at half the speed.”
Pete Shinners announced the release of version 1.5 of Pygame. Pygame is a set of Python modules that can be used to easily create high-quality games. Changes in this version include:
Pygame can be downloaded here.
In case you still had doubts DOOM III was coming to Linux (even though this has beenstated several times) id Software’s John Carmack made the following commentin a recentpost on Slashdot:
Unrelated linux note: yes, there will almost certainly be a linux binary for the game. It will probably only work on the nvidia drivers initially, but I will assist any project attempting to get the necessary driver support on on other cards.
Moreover, DOOM III has walked away with the E3 Best of Show award fromGamespot, and theBest Graphics/Technological Excellence awards from IGN.
Version 1.1 of the pygame-based 2D action game has been released. New features, changes and or fixes for this release include:
Download: http://pygame.org/shredwheat/solarwolf
Michael Simms from Tux Games wrote in with some information about an open source games cd. Here is the info from the website itself:
Tux Games will shortly be producing an Open Source Games Compilation CD. Each CD will come with a $10 donation code that can be donated to any group that has a game on the CD.If you have a completed game that is distributed under an Open Source licence, please click here for further information about how to ensure your game is included.
Version 1.1.2 of the game-authoring software The Cog Engine has been released. Changes and or fixes and new features in this release include:
Matthew Miller sent in the following tidbit about his game Icebreaker
Ok, I finally decided that 11025Hz sucks too much, and IceBreaker 1.9.6 nowhas 22050Hz sound samples. (This makes mid-range sounds richer, and high-pitched sounds possible at all.) Available as always fromhttp://www.mattdm.org/icebreaker. This release also has full keyboardsupport, in case you have a broken mouse or are somewhat insane.Usually I don’t bother to make binaries for development versions, butbecause of the sound thing and all, this one comes with a win32 executablefor the compiler-impaired. Us Linux folks can build our own binaries of course, and I’ve tried to make that super-easy — on a Red Hat-like system,”make rpm” should build binary and source RPMs automatically as a non-rootuser.
Also: so far, I have gotten zero (0) themes submitted by ‘net folks. C’mon!I’d like to have a lot more for the upcoming 2.0.0 release.
IceBreaker 1.9.6 downloads: http://www.mattdm.org
Twiddling your thumbs wondering what Linux game to play next? Well, you’re in luck because a new version of Angband, version 3.0, has been released. This version features new items, monsters, artifacts, and spells. Furthermore, the Lua scripting language has been utilized to facilitate future expansion and modification of Angband.
For the uninitiated, Angband is a Rogue-like game with a strong Tolkien-esque theme, which is to say that you play as an adventurer in a dungeon gathering treasures and fighting the forces of evil as imagined in books like The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit. What I find so appealing about Angband is the rich cast of characters (unique monsters) and hoard of artifacts (unique magic items and weapons) that consistently keep me going back for one more expedition to ever deeper levels of the dungeon. This game is an obsession for a whole community of users, despite using only ASCII characters for “graphics”! [ Note: for those of you that must have so-called real graphics, you can get a set of graphical tiles to use instead of ASCII. Losers. ;^) ]
So…has anyone else out there been playing Angband since the old 2.4.Frog-knows days besides me?
Download: Source