LINUXGAMES

I know that NVIDIA drivers and UT 2003 aren’t usually fit for “urandom,” but whatever. Man, Pingus is back? We used to poston that project in 1999!

New Announcements

• FingerTips 1.0 beta, a game configuration framework:download
• Badlands (screenshots), a shareware retro 3d OpenGL arcade game

New Versions

• Allegro 4.0.3, a game programming library:changelog,downloads
• Cosmos of Methos 0.1.2, a sailing adventure game:changelog,screenshots,download
• D2X 0.2.2, a Descent 2 source port:screenshots,download
• Missile Command 1.0.1, a clone of the indentically-named classic:changelog,screenshot,downloads
• NVIDIA display drivers 4363:README
• Orbital Eunuchs Sniper 1.29, an anti-terrorist, pro-Eunuchs satellite sniping game:changelog,screenshot,download
• OSS 3.9.7i, the commercial implementation of the OSS/Free kernel sound drivers:changelog,download
• Pachi el marciano 20030223, a comic-inspired side-view game:changelog,screenshot,downloads
• Pingus 0.6.0, Lemmings clone:screenshots,download
• pyDDR 0.6.2, a Dance Dance Revolution clone:changelog,screenshot,download
• RARS 0.91, a racing robot programming game:changelog,screenshot,download
• Simutrans , :screenshot,downloads
• TORCS 1.2.1, a 3D racing sim:changelog,screenshots,downloads
• Tunnel Fighter 0.4, an action game in a tunnel:changelog,screenshot,download
• Unreal Tournament 2003 2225:changelog,download via Loki Update
• Vendetta 3.2.2, an MMORPG set in space:screenshots

Articles and other news:

• FakeNES, a classic NES emulator, has become an official project of Allyn Games
• The New Penguin Times: a new online magazine
• Reboot The User: a store in Omaha, NE that builds Linux gaming computers and is also carrying LGP titles
• WineX reviewed @ Linux Orbit

The source to Andromeda 9 (screenshots),a multiplayer space combat game, has been released under the terms of the GPL. Andromeda 9 was previously in development andtest versions were released for Linux.The code and continuing development can be found at the Sourceforge project page. This news comes more than eight months after the initial announcement that the developers no longer had thetime/resources to continue development and would prepare the code for a public release.

Thanks to Palle Raabjerg for sending in the news.

Garage Games have released a demo of Orbz 2.0 (screenshots),an “action/arcade game set in Mario-like 3D environments.”The full version is available for purchase for $19.95. There is a full press release available.

Local Mirror of the Orbz 2.0 demo: @ 3D Downloads

A couple articles about S2’s upcoming “Real-Time Strategy Shooter,” Savage, have been published recently:

• Preview @ GameSpot

Interview @ Action Vault with Rick Bosch, President and CEO of S2

Like a new mother, LGP’s Michael Simms wrote in to announce that their first full port, Majesty (screenshots), is now shipping:

Majesty has arrived!

Our long awaited new game is now in stock. Check out the Demo! Majesty is available for shipment immediately.

The game is selling for $37 at TuxGames

Activision et. al. have released a test version of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory to the public as we previously reported was going to happen. I’ve been testing the game asmuch as I could in the private beta (which still wasn’t as much “testing” as I would have liked) and I’ve been enjoying it. The covert ops and new weaponsare nice additions as are the new campaign mode and skill level concept. The official announcement (as pulled from Shacknews):

This is a TEST and players may find compatibility and performance issues that will be addressed before the final release. The purpose of this test is toreport these issues so that we can address them prior to the release of the game. Players should also understand that the system requirements listed below arevery close to what we expect in the release version. You can help us out by reporting any problems you experience with the Multiplayer TEST to us. So, if youhave any questions, comments, or find bugs, please e-mail etbugs@idsoftware.com or visit us at http://www.castlewolfenstein.com.

I’m not sure if we Linux users should submit bugs to that same address or a Linux-specific one, so I’ll see what I can get from TTimo.

ET Test Download sites:

• LinuxGames / 3D Downloads
• FileShack.com
• 3D Gamers
• File Planet

Angry Pixels (the LGP Dev Company) have announced that they haveopened a competition for artists to design their company logo. The logo will be used on the boxes for the games that they produce and on their website.Entries will be accepted for two weeks and at that time judging will be opened to the public. If you would like to submit a logo, send it tologos@angry-pixels.com.

Also, the announcement mentions their “new artists” so it would seem as if they have chosen, or are close to choosing, artists for the team.

TuxGames‘ Michael Simms wrote in with this nugget ofinformation regarding Tux Games’ sales figures:

One of the most requested bits of information from Tux Games is ‘Whichgames have sold the most’. To answer that question for everyone we havenow added a box on our front page which shows the top 10 most populargames of all time, and it links to a page showing the complete chart ofall sales since the day we opened.

The “complete chart” that Michael speaks of is the Overall Top Sellers.

Daniel James, Designer & CEO at Three Rings wrote in to point outPuzzle Pirates (screenshots), their Pirate MMP based on Puzzle games:

Avast ye, I thought ye might be interested in our Pirate MMP based onPuzzle games.

The game is written in Java 1.4 — we develop on Linux and it runs bestthere, though also on Windows. Incidentally, we’re using a lot ofopen source software (apache, tomcat) for bits of the game, and wewill be releasing our toolkit as open source sometime after launch.

We’re in free alpharrr testing right now, folks can register and willusually be admitted into the test within a day or two.

Arrr! Let me know if ye has any questions,

You gotta love that attitude.

LinuxHardware.org has published an article, Gaming and Linux in 2003, by Dana Olson about the status of Linux gaming. It covers the past, present, and future of Linux gaming in terms of which gameshave been released, which are being played now, and what we have to look forward to.

Ryan “Icculus” Gordon has announced that he’s looking forvolunteers for a closed beta test of the Linux client for America’s Army.If you’re interested in helping, send an email to betatests@icculus.organd included information on your hardware/software configuration and why you feel that you’re qualified to be a part of thetest.

AmigaWorld is reporting that Hyperion Entertainment has recently signed an agreement with IncaGold to bring many of the company’s titles to Macintosh, Amiga, and Linux. Midnight Racing is the first title to be ported. You can read the announcement here.

Introversion Software, developers of Uplink have announced plans to release a developer CD which will include, among other things,the source code to Uplink and related tools/libraries. This is not planned to be, by anymeans, Open Source or Free source; rather they will be charging for the license to access the code. This isn’t an entirely newidea, but it’s interesting to see a smaller operation opening their source on a smaller scale while the game is still,apparently, still a “commercial product”, as Introversion has put it. Introversion have listed their ideas so far on the licenseand cost and are looking for developer input. So, how much would you pay for this right? What do you think of the proposedlicense details?

Pyrogon has released their second Linux puzzle title, NingPo Mah Jong. You can grab a demo, or purchase the full version from the links below.

NingPo Mah Jong provides outstanding art work, great music, and awesome game play while still retaining the elements that make this game so great - simplicity and fun!

Demo: http://www.pyrogon.com/download/np/ningpo-linux.bin
Demo Instructions: http://pyrogon.com/games/ningpo/linuxinstructions.php
Homepage: http://pyrogon.com/games/ningpo/index.php

Have a good Easter weekend everybody.

• Advanced Strategic Command 1.13.4, a multiplayer turn-based strategy game:changelog,screenshot,download
• Crystal Space 0.96r004, an Open Source 3D Engine:changelog,screenshots,download
• FreeLords 0.2.2, a turn-based strategy game:changelog,screenshots,download
• GtkRadiant 1.3.7, the Q3A/RTCW level editor:changelog,download
• Mah-Jong 1.5.5, a multiplayer and networked Mah-Jong game:changelog,screenshots,download
• pyddr a Dance Dance Revolution clone, :changelog,screenshot,download
• Tower Toppler 1.0.1, a Nebulous rewrite:changelog,screenshots,download
• Wine 20030408, a free Windows implementation:changelog,download
• xmame/xmess 0.67.2, arcade and virtual machine emulators:changelog,download

Version 3.0 of WineX has been released (release notes). This version includes support for additional games, a new graphical interface called Point2Play, enhanced graphics capabilities, improved copy protection support, extended installer functionality and game speedups.

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

As we previously announced, S2 Games has ported (in-house) their upcoming title Savage, which claims to be a “Real-Time Strategy Shooter.” Now, our friend StarTux wrote in to point out that he asked about the Linux client in the S2 forums. In reply to his post, S2Slothy(Jon), an S2 staff member, stated that he’s going to make sure that the Linux binary is on the CD and in the box when the game is releasedand that the presale promotional Savage box does list Linux as a supported platorm.

There is also another thread in whichJon writes that they (S2) will likely not offer tech support for the game, but the game is running well under Linux and that he justimplimented anti-aliasing and windowed/fullscreen toggling.

I can’t find any information on the beta testing, but I suspect that it hasn’t begun yet,so feel free to visit the previous URL and sign up if you would like to help out.

Enemy Territory (ET), the free, downloadable, stand-alone expansion for Return to Castle Wolfenstein, has recently gone in to a privatetesting stage for Linux. ET will be multiplayer-only and will feature a new campaign mode in which players can gain experienceand are awarded abilities that persist through the campaign, a series of linked scenarios. A public testing period for ET issupposed to start “soon.” Please, no more “phone home” jokes.

Until you can get your hands on the test, you might want to check out an interview with Paul ‘Locki’ Wedgwood, the lead game designer for ET, from Splash Damage. (article news source: Shacknews)

From BongFish comes the Tommy Brunner-branded, cel-shaded downhill snowboarding game StokedRider. Only a tiny bit of information is available now, but the game screenshots, like this free-software-friendly PNG, all clearly list “linux” as one of the target platforms. According to the spartan information page it will require OpenGL. Although gameplay is probably similar to many other downhill snowboarding games, the graphics in this one do, admittedly, look quite sweet.

This new game seems to present a much more serious and stylish take on the previous iteration of StokedRider, which can be downloaded for Windows computers by clicking the flaming alien on this page.

Given the dearth of information, I’ll simply point you to Inside Mac Games and Gamespot which both recycle the screenshots and information available on the main site. This way it actually looks like more news than is actually available.

The arrival of this new cross-platform game raises several questions, many of which will no doubt be answered in the coming months. Will the funky green alien make a comeback in the new game? Will DRI-using video cards be able to play this game, despite a lack of S3TC texture compression? Will the Linux client be released nine months after the Windows client as each individual mouse issue is hashed out and unforseen video codec problems come to light? Is BongFish related in any way to the venerable Dopefish?

We’ll keep you posted on these, and other pressing issues, as more news becomes available. In the meantime, enjoy these screenshots:
Image #1, Image #2, Image #3, and Image #4.

New Annoucements

• nethack-el 341, a port of Nethack to Emacs (seriously):screenshot,download (thanks Shawn)
• Terror Island, a commercial game that is apparently planning to release a clientfor Linux:screenshots (thanks Werner)
• Live CD Gaming Distros:
  • LinuxConsole 0.3: games include Quake Forge, Tux Racer, Foobillard and more; drivers include XFree/Nvidia, OpenGL, and ALSA
  • Morphix 0.3-4 (downloads include a gaming ISO): changelog, screenshots, download (thanks Joshua)

New Versions

• Advanced Strategic Command 1.13.3, :screenshot,download
• Mah-Jong 1.5.3, a multiplayer and networked Mah-Jong game:changelog,screenshots,download
• nInvaders 0.0.10., an ncurses-based Space Invaders clone:screenshot,download
• Penguin Command 1.6.6, an SDL-based Missile Command clone:screenshot,download
• pyDDR 0.6.0, a Dance Dance Revolution clone:changelog,screenshot,download
• Racer 0.5.0, a 3D car sim:screenshots,download
• Slash’Em 0.0.7E0, a graphical Nethack variant:changelog,screenshot,download
• TORCS 1.2.0, a 3D racing sim:changelog,screenshots,download
• Trackballs 0.9.0, :changelog,screenshot,download
• Yadex 1.6.0, a WAD editor:changelog,screenshot,download

Article/Announcements:

• Lindows Media Computer: Power to Strike Microsoft? (@ LinuxHardware.org, by Kris “Augustus” Kersey)
• Project Smiley, “a weekly gaming parody news magazine designed to help gamers take a break and laugh it up a bit”