LINUXGAMES

For the past five years LinuxGames has been the hard work of Al (Alkini), Dustin (Crusader), and myself with the generous help from others at times. Gradually it has become harder and harder to maintain the same quality of work that we once were able to put in to it. People change, some of us are married now, and we all have greater responsibilities aside from LinuxGames.

This is where you come in — we need some help. We want to take LinuxGames back to the level it was before and beyond. If you want to help us with our goals, email me. Let us how you want to help, what you think would work to make LinuxGames better (besides a new look), and anything else you think is relevant. Thanks.

Eric Williams was the first to write in informing us that ATI has released a new set of their drivers for Radeon 8500 series and above video cards. Changes in this release include:

Fixed Crash with Savage from S2Games
RHEL 3.0 support
Improved FSAA
Support for MOBILITY FireGL T2 support

Download from ATI

Icculus has announced the availability of a demo of Postal 2: Share the Pain. This demo includes one abbreviated single player level, and a few multiplayer maps to give you a feel for the game. A dedicated server is also included in this release. Before you run out and get the Windows version, you might want to wait for the possible Linux box version as the full version of this game will be released shortly.

Downloads: 3DDownloads

Serveral people have pointed out that the fact that NVIDIA has released a new set of display drivers.Neverinter Nights fans should hold up on installing these driver as the game is unplayable after installing these drivers. Changes in this release include:

• Supports latest GeForce FX and Quadro FX GPUs
• Added support for UBB and FSAA Stereo.
• Improved GLXPixmap support.
• Added support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0.
• Added support for GLX_SGI_swap_control.
• Reduced CPU usage when OpenGL applications are syncing to vblank.

Downloads: Linux Display Driver – 1.0-5328

J.P. Morris (who has several hilarious game walkthroughs up at www.it-he.org) has developed a Linuxport of Head over Heels(screenshots),anisometric puzzle game (you can read more about the game’s lineagehere).

One brief note from J.P.:

Unfortunately this is a binary-only port for x86. It was built ona stockMandrake 8.1 installation, and should theoretically work on anything withglibc 2.1 or better.

Head Over Heels 1.0 Download – [sgn.net]

Version 3.2.1 of the Wine forkWineX has been released byTransGaming Technologies. Changes:

• Several different possible crashes in Half Life. Someof which were generic race conditions.
• Homeworld 2 cut scene and intro movies now work.
• Multiple sounds playing at once when starting a newgame in Homeworld2 no longer happen.
• Most web pages launched in game should now actuallylaunch.

Moreover, apress release was fired in announcing a new partnership betweenthe aforementioned TransGaming and the German Linux distributor SuSE:

TransGaming Technologies announced its partnership with SUSE LINUXthis month to bring SUSE LINUX users access to high-demand PC games on their desktop with Wine Rack. The SUSE LINUX Wine Rack is an add-on package enabling buyers of SUSE 9.0 – Personal or Professional – toenhance their Linux experience by being able to run Windows games onthe Linux desktop through the power of TransGaming’s WineX 3.2. WineRack also includes other exciting applications.

I try and abstain from the political debate WineX usually seems to generate,but feel free to discuss (in a civil manner) the ramifications below.

One final note: as before, the pre-packaged build of WineX is only availableto TransGaming’s subscribers, hence the lack of a download link in this post.

Battle for Wesnoth, a turn-basedstrategy game with a fantasy settingscreenshots,is now at version 0.6.1. Featuresinclude persistent unit experience; the changelog can be foundhere.

Battle for Wesnoth 0.6.1 Source – [wesnoth.org ]

id Software’s Timothee Besset hasreleased version 1.4.0 of GtkRadiant,the map editor which supports several Q3A-engine titles, such as Quake III:Arena and Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

This release includes q3map2 2.5.11, and a new ‘background image’ pluginwhich can display a layout image in your 2D views.

We created a radiant-announce mailing list which receives all theannouncements related to qeradiant.com. New releases, test builds, newgame packs, and important features:

http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/radiant-announce

GtkRadiant 1.4.0 Download – [ qeradiant.com ]

Version 1.14.1 of Freeciv, a projectwhich began as an effort to develop an open source game similar toCivilization IIscreenshots,was made available not too long ago. Change summary:

• The GTK+-2.0 client is now built by default.
• Lots of improvements to the GTK+-2.0 client.
• The GTK+-2.0 client should now compile for Win32.
• Teams are supported.
• Civserver now works on UTF-8 locales.
• Lots of bug fixes.

Freeciv 1.14.1 Source – [ freeciv.org]

The first beta release from theOpenML project was announcedearlier this month. The requisite notes:

OpenML media control library BETA 1 adds display control andenhancedaudio support for Linux

http://www.khronos.org/openml/spec.html

The beta release of the OpenML SDK for WinXP and Linux addsenhancements to the audio components of the ML API (digital media I/O,data conversion, and synchronization). It also includes the MLdc APIthat provides application developers a portable and powerful controlAPI over video output devices (monitor, studio display, etc), some ofwhich may not be available through the native windowing environment.Controls includes refresh rate, pixel resolution, externalsynchronization (genlock), and gamma correction. The software is freeand requires no licensing. This is the media API peer to OpenGL (likean enhanced SDL).

OpenML Beta 1 Linux SDK – [ khronos.org]

The ever-prolific Bill Kendrick sent in the following:

So I received some patches to Super Tux lately(my simple NES Super Mario Bros style game starring Tux the penguin),and finally put them into CVS over at SourceForge.

I’ve also created a ‘super-tux-devel’ mailing list.

http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/supertux/
http://www.sf.net/projects/super-tux/

Corey Quilliam wrote in with a link to hisLinux installers for gamesthat run under Wine, such as the JediKnight and Max Payne games. There’s also an installer for the native game Cube.

I also noticed in a /. comment that Ravage has several installers for various native and Wine-compatible games up at his site.

Edit: Quick correction – the first site is maintained by kratz00, not Quilliam. I apologize for any confusion.

Manuel Jander sent in the following about 2 weeks ago (if it’s already out ofdate I apologize, I’m still catching up on my e-mail backlog):

I’m pleased to announce that we managed to get the 3D hardware processorof the Aureal Vortex based soundcards to work. Now we only need to hookit up into OpenAL, or some other user library and we are ready for 3Dsound on Linux ;)

The specific features: 16 sources with HRTF, ITD, ILD and atmosphericfiltering and a crosstalk canceler.

The latest code still isn’t integrated into ALSA, since its notfunctionality to users yet, but all requirements to make it be are setin place.

If you are interested in help hacking, here is the latest snapshot:http://galadriel.mat.utfsm.cl/~mjander/aureal/alsa/alsa-10-12-2003.tgzand show up at OpenVortex.

I hope to be able to announce a Vortex enabled OpenAL soon.

Version 2.6.0 of the venerable Linux kernel was released last week by LinusTorvalds. The changes since the last test tree can be perused here,but changes since 2.4.x is another matter entirely; the schedulerimprovements are probably the biggest changes that concern gamers in general.

A few words of caution: despite this release being marked as stable, there areusually always at least a few issues with a .0 kernel, so you may want to holdoff until at least 2.6.1, especially if you have only one machine. Moreover,there are changes in kernel build procedure from 2.4.x; there’s discussion inthis thread atthe Gentoo Forums for usersof that distribution. Feel free to share tips/tricks on moving to 2.6.0 in thecomments below as well, distribution-specific or no.

Linux 2.6.0 Full Source – [ kernel.org| Mirrors ]

Bioware has announced the availability of Linux binaries for the NWN expansion pack, Hordes of the Underdark. HotU can be ordered from Tux Games for those who are interested.

Changes include:

• added in compatibility for HotU
• added the Demonflesh Golem
• fixed a few rare crash bugs
• added some cheat prevention

You’ll need to login to the Bioware community site for the download URL.

Ten years ago last week, id Softwarereleased version 1.0 of DOOM Episode 1: Knee Deep in the Dead (shareware,which is still available to thisday).Not too long afterthe initial release (which you can read abouthere inthis excerpt from Mastersof Doom), I had a chance to install it on my already aging PC. The lack ofa sound card relegated the various hellspawn to uttering beeps and bloopsinstead of grunts and screams, but I was no less impressed with the gameplayand design.

Then, just one year later (Dec 9, 1994), id’s Dave Taylorannouncedthe first official DOOM Linux port:

I did this ’cause Linux gives me a woody. It doesn’t generaterevenue.

I doubt I can improve upon that statement, so I’ll refrain from trying. At anyrate, nascent Linux gamers were now able to match wits (and HE ordnance) withhellspawn on the open source platform.

Flash forward four years: id makes the source code to DOOM available(and, eventually, under the GPL), allowing fans to developnew features such as TCP/IP client-server support, and starting what’s becomea gratifying industry trend: releasing commercial game source code once the licensingrevenue stream is no longer viable.Many revolutions around the sun later, the second full sequel,DOOM 3, is on the verge of release, and the original’sprogeny have come to dominate the PC gaming action genre.

I thought I had more to say here, like how much of an influence DOOMwas for me, crazy multiplayer anecdotes, how I nearly soiled my chair fightingthe Cyberdemon the first time, that sort of thing, but none of it isparticularly interesting or compelling entertainment in and of itself, so you get nothing!

Ok, I lied. Here’s a blurb from an ancient Wired magazinearticlethat I think does a fair job of summarizing the mark the game made on ourcollective hobby:

But for most fans, there’s nothing academic about id’s games. Several Doomdiehards who came to id one afternoon to perform beta testing demanded thatTim Willits customize their mouse and keypad configurations in accordance withhighly specific instructions. Willits complied, commenting, “You know, none ofus use these weird configurations.”

“Are you a Doom fan?” one beta-tester asked.

Tim stared at him. “Uh, I work here, remember?”

“No, man, you don’t understand. Doom is my life!”

Some of you out there may have missed out on DOOM. If so, I’m here to help. Ifyou lack the retail versions of DOOM or DOOM II, you can still grab theshareware WAD linked above (the game data: maps, monsters, level textures, and soforth) and one of the myriad of DOOM code forks (usually referred to somewhatconfusingly as “source ports”), such as PrBoom (or, if enhanced multiplayeris what you want, DOOM Legacy).

DOOM 1 Episode 1 Shareware WAD: [3ddownloads.com]
PrBoom 2.2.4: [SourceForge.net]

Here’s a few commemorative articles of note:

• Doomworld – Discussionabout thedivergenceof the DOOM source tree, the best WADs from previousyears, a DOOM comicthat’s really something awful, and start to crateratings. Doomworld’s 5thanniversary section is still up also, and includes features such as theDOOM Bible.
• Gamespy -catching up with the originaldevelopers,recollections,a timeline,and an interviewcomparing development in 1993 to 2003.

New Versions:

• Scorched3D 3d version of Scorched Earth: Screenshots, Downloads
• Eternal Lands Fantasy based MMORPG: Screenshots, Downloads
• Legends 0.3.6 Online Multiplayer First Person Shooter: Screenshots, Downloads
• BZFlag 1.10.0 Multiplayer 3D tank battle: Screenshots, Downloads Changelog
• JuggleMaster 0.2 Juggling siteswap animator: Downloads
• Avanor, the Land of Mystery 0.5.7 Rogue-like game with ADOM-like user: Download, Changelog

Misc News:

• A Petition for Matrox Parhelia for full-featured Linux drivers has been setup.
  
• JadeWare has announced the release of the tools’s source code for Halloween.These tools can be used to create new maps/objects for this game.
  
  

Our very own hosted GLHeretic has been updated to release 1.2. Changes in this release include the following items:

• fixed compile problem of opengl gfx target
• fixed compile problem of soundsrv (errno)
• fixed wad loading bug (FONTA_S not found bug)
• added support for numeric keypad in x11(fast) gfx target

DownloadGLHeretic v1.2 Source Code

Matt posted some curmudgeonry at CG on what he considers to be some of the gaming disappointments for 2003. Topping the Linux gaming-related list are the TransGaming/Aspyr Partnership and the lack of a successor to Loki. What do you guys think — did the TG/Aspyr deal do anything to change your previous opinions of TG? How well is LGP filling the Loki void?

iGames Publishing sent out a press release announcing special holiday pricing ($29.99) on S2 Games‘ RTS-meets-FPS gameSavage.