LINUXGAMES

For our continuing weekly feature, Cybrid has delighted us with a review of one of the LinuxGames favorites, Pingus. If anyone else would like to contribution a review, let me know.

We molted, and man are we happy that ordeal is over with. Please put all comments about the new layout under this news item, so we can summarily ignore them. Thanks for your cooperation.

The XFree86 group has announced that beginning withXFree86 v4.4.0-RC3 it will be under a new license (version 1.1 at the top of that page). How will this affect you, the average Linux user? I have no blooming idea. It’s true that this may run afoul of the no-advertisement clause of the GPL, thus potentially preventing some interaction between GPL software and X libraries, but I’m not a lawyer and am not willing to dispense any legal advice to anyone on this. Frankly, I’d be happy to see a return to the days of console-only games so we’re all restricted to playing robots and Angband all day long.

Version 2.00 of MOBILITY, a metropolitan traffic simulation game (developed on scientific traffic simulation models) with English and German language support, has been released. Mobility is shareware; if you enjoy the demo, you can purchase a registration key to unlock the full version.

Mobility 2.00 Shareware Download: [ tucows.com ]

Deadly Rooms Of Death is a puzzle game for Linux and Windows (the game’s forum can be found here). One quick note regarding the source tree:

The source code is currently only available from CVS (note that the “relicensed sourcecode” zip-file at SourceForge is *not* the DROD 1.6 source code), and requires some arcane stuff to compile. But don’t worry, a binary installer (for i586 and higher) is available from SourceForge.

Deadly Rooms Of Death 1.6.5 Download: [ sourceforge.net ]

Version 1.0.2 of the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture driver has been released. Changes since 1.0.1 can be found here.

ALSA Driver v1.0.2 Download: [ alsa-project.org ]

The source code for Wolfenstein – Enemy Territory, a free multiplayer FPS, has been released. This code can used to create mods only and is not the full game engine code. Sadly, they have distributed this as an Windows executable only.

ET Source Download: WET_Source.exe @ 3DDownloads

We’ve mentioned Vendetta-Test before, but there’s a new version out (3.3.18, to be specific) and it gives us a reason to mention it again. What is it? Glad you asked. Apparently it’s a closed-source, real time space combat MMORPG (massively-multiplayer role-playing game) in development for Linux and some other operating systems you’ve probably never heard of (Windows, MacOS X). It uses OpenGL, so you’ll need a decent 3D card to play it. As it is a network-only game, you’ll obviously also need a network connection to play, and a 56k modem counts in this case.

You have to sign up for an account to get the software, and you can do that here. If you’d like to see what it looks like, check out their big woofin’ page of screenshots.

As some of you may have noticed, there have been some changes behind the scenes here at LinuxGames. Among the things that I know have been fixed:

• The site now renders more appropriately at antediluvian resolutions like 800×600.
• Comment threading has been made more sane.
• Login profiles can now be updated. You can now change all those clever 1999-era signatures that have lost their comic punch.

The most important feature, however, is the Submit News link over on the left sidebar. This is intended to streamline our news posting process, and hopefully will generate more news posts for you, the information-starved Linux-gaming public. In a nutshell, you can now submit news items semi-directly to our news system, we’ll edit up the newsworthy posts to make them presentable, and then they’ll be posted to the front page. It’s very swank and modern.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled kvetching. Oh, and thanks to Marv, our ever-present task master, for making all these wonderful changes.

Arianne is a game engine designed to facilitate easy creation of massively multiplayer games using SDL, MySQL, OpenSSL, Python, Crystal Space, and Cal3D. It contains a medieval real-time MMORPG similar to Diablo in both 2D and 3D.

The latest release, version 0.4, is focused is on major feature enhancements. Recent changes include a major reimplementation of the framework. The network protocol has been changed to UDP and is compatible with Marauroa. This release also adds a server which uses the new protocol.

Go to: Arianne downloads

Version 1.0-5336 of NVIDIA’s display driver for Linux 32-bit x86 systems has been released. The requisite changelog:

• Support for Linux 2.6 kernels
• Fixed AGP failures on some VIA motherboards.
• Fixed a problem that prevented X from running on Samsung X10 laptops.

Thanks to Abdulla Kamar for the heads up.

NVIDIA Linux Driver IA32 v1.0-5336 Download: [ nvidia.com ]

Cybrid has done it again with an excellent review onCube. Cube is an open source multiplayer and singleplayer first person shooter game built on an entirely new and very unconventional engine.

Garage Games has announced the open beta of Dark Horizons: Lore.Dark Horizons: Lore is a mecha-style FPS that is based on the Torque Game Engine. Players’ stats help determine the outcome of the war in the Dark Horizons Universe which is set during the mid-22nd century. You will need to use ignition code RAYR-R46W-KZ4Z-Z6CW in order to join the beta.

Download: [Dark Horizons Beta version 190104]

TransGaming has updated their graphical frontend to WineX, Point2Play. Changes in this release include:

• Translated into German
• Translated into Portuguese
• Support for multiuser WineX installations

A quick update was released for S2 Games for their RTS/FPS-hybrid title Savage, presumably to fix issues with the previous patch (I don’t have a changelog handy). There’s also an additional dedicated server-only patch for admins. Thanks to everyone in the comments below for the heads up!

Savage 2.00b Patch (Full – 73MB): [ 3ddownloads ]
Savage 2.00b to 2.00c (Server-side Only – 1MB): [ 3ddownloads ]

GemRB, an Infinity Engine clone which allows you to play games like Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment, has been updated to version 0.2.2.8. Another changelog that is too long to post here, but the major points include:

• Dialogues
• Area Travelling
• ACM Audio Streaming

Download [ GemRB 0.2.2.8 Source ]

On the heals of our review, a new release of Epiar has come to life.Changelog for this release include the following:

• All new planet sectors and jump gate links
• Added asteroids, race tracks, and more
• Completely revamped UI and landing dialog
• New ship upgrades including hulls, maps, missiles
• New ships in the shipyard
• All critical bugs + more fixed

Download [ Epiar 0.5.0]

A new version of QJoyPad which allow you to use a joystick or gamepad in virtually any Linux game by converting button presses to keystrokes, has been released Changes in this release include:

• An important bugfix (A cryptic and rare XLib error has been eradicated)
• New layout format that lets you edit your layouts by hand and share them with others (conversion utility available!)
• Autodetection of joysticks and buttons
• You can now swap layouts on the fly from the console or a script
• You can now disable the GUI, saving screen space and system resources

Many thanks to LinuxEmu for pointing this out.
Download QJoyPad 2.0

S2 Games has released a patch for Savage, the popular “Real-Time Strategy Shooter”.The changelog is far to vast to post here, but includes changes such as rewritten network code, two new Healer class units, two new structures, new weapons effects, new items, new maps, and engine enhancements.

Downloads:
Savage Version 2 Patch – 3DDownloads
Savage Version 2 Patch – ShackNews

Fans of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault will be pleased to know that beta 2 of the client has been released by Icculus. Changes include general bug fixes, better mouse support and no expiration date.

Download [MOHAA Client Beta 2]