LINUXGAMES

The Real-Time Strategy, Globulation 2, which minimizes micro-management during gameplay, has been updated to alpha 5.Changes for this version include:

• Fixed pathfinding
• Fixed network desynchronisation
• Map editor can delete flags
• The player can choose which ressources are cleared in a clearing flag
• Clearing flags don’t request units when there is no ressource inside
• Lots of minor bug fixed

Download: [ Globulation 2 version alpha 5 ]

The Neverwinter NightsCommunity Expansion Packhas been released bytheCEP team,which is a single package containing the highest-rated playercommunity-developed content available to date. Features:

• Over 440 community creatures
• 14 completely new weapon types
• New components for thousands of unique weapons, armor and clothingtypes
• Over 1,400 new placeables
• 121 new NPC portraits

A FAQ page isavailable; a package with just the 2DAfiles for content developers is also up for download. Moreover, BioWare hasestablished a forum for CEPdiscussion.

Neverwinter Nights Community Expansion Pack Download: [IGN.com ]

• Trackballs 1.0.0 has beenreleased (screenshot); a forum forthe game can be found here.Binaries and source downloads are available.
• Scorched 3D v37, inspired bythe classic DOS title Scorched Earth, is nowavailable (screenshots). Changesinclude variable landscapes (including trees and waves), an economic model, anew GUI, and various bugfixes. The source code package is linked from theproject’s downloadpage.
• The owners of Linuxgangster.orgwrote in with news that they’ve launched their site, which offers aid inconfiguring game servers among other community features.
• There’s a highlightsarticleconcerning the Linux gamingroundtablewe mentioned earlier in the month up at LinuxWorld. You can also see a coverblurb about the feature (with a UT2004 player model) here.
• Andreas Henningsson let us know that he’s developedEremit(screenshot),a game created using the ClanLiblibrary. Edit (Mar 30 06:01:38 CST) – A reader pointed out the current project no longer utilizes ClanLib; my apologies for any confusion.

LGP announced two news items regarding games that they’re releasing. First is an announcement that the beta testing for Northland (screenshots), an adventure strategy game, is starting soon so applications to participate in the testing are being accepted:

Applications for Beta Testers for Northland are now open. If you wish to join the beta, please go to betas.linuxgamepublishing.com and sign up.For those that don`t make it into the beta, you will be able to send us a proof of preorder of Northland from any of our resellers, and you will be admitted into the beta as a registered owner.

Secondly, Hyperspace Delivery Boy (screenshots), an adventure puzzle game, has gone gold:

LGP is pleased to announce that Hyperspace Delivery Boy has now gone gold. We expect to have HDB in stock in 2-3 weeks.

A demo for HDB will soon available.

You cannot currently order HDB from us until it is in stock, but please feel free to check out our resellers who may offer the ability to preorder it.

Pre-orders @ TuxGames:

• Northland ($44)
• HDB ($20)

[other LGP resellers]

• The last version of SAS has beenreleased for Unreal Tournament 2003; subsequent releases will be for2004. Changes include the addition of an Objective gametype. You can downloadv1.1 here.
• The BBC has a short review of thefirst-person shooter up.
• UT2004′s publisher, Atari, is nowoffering a dedicated serverrental program. Public servers cost $8 (US) per allocated player slot and private serverscost $4 per slot.
• Epic’s DrSiN pointed out ananti-cheating mutator for UT2004 server admins: AntiTCC(download) from Wormbo,which blocks aimbots and skin cheats among other things. DrSiN released ananti-cheating mutator of his own,UTSecure,but based on the announcement thread it’s had a few teething problems thatshould be fixed in the next version.
• For the curious, BeyondUnreal posted this breakdownof UT2004′s contributors from Epic’s Steve “ReaperBot” Polge.

id Software’s John Carmack gave akeynote speech at this year’sGame Developers Conference in San Jose,California last Thursday. GameSpy posted asummary of the talk,which covered his usual topics: game development trends and currentid projects. Of note is this section on their convergence, where risingcontent production costs can hamstring design decisions:

On that topic, Carmack mentioned that they were hoping to re-usesome of the assets created for DOOM 3 to help speed up development of whateverthey do next, but even that would have a tradeoff. “That sort of gives us arestriction on our possible game designs,” said Carmack, “it would have to besome present-day or near-future thing where we can re-use the fireextinguisher or wastebaskets or things like that on the game.”

HomeLan Fed has their own abstract up, wherethey mention Carmack stated Doom III is “pretty close” to going gold. Thanks to Doomworld for the news.

Cybrid, this time, has taken a look at the Emilia Pinball Project. This game is in need of some assitance so if you are interested in computer based pinball simulation, i recommend you check it out.

An update to JuggleMaster has happened bringing it to up to version 0.3. Notable changes this release include:

• Fixed licensing issues
• Downloading updates is now clean
• Proper OSX support
• Lots of other miscellaneous stuff including more patterns.

The full changelog of this release can be view here

Download: [ JuggleMaster 0.3 ]

First, some notes from Ryan Gordon’s.plan:

If you’re installing the retail version (DVD or CD-ROM) on Linux,please note the following:

1) If you don’t have Joliet support in your kernel, the thing will ask you toinsert the disc and not be able to find it, and thus will just keep promptingyou to insert it. Rebuild your kernel with Joliet.

2) If you are on an amd64 chip running a 64-bit OS, you’ll get the amd64binaries installed. If you wanted the 32-bit ones, install on a 32-bit OS orrip up the installer (email me for details on this).

3) amd64 build is broken for net play…win32 developer broke it rightbefore we went gold, but the fix is trivial. It’ll be fixed soon.

Second, Chris Blundell hasreleaseda new Onslaught map set among skyscrapers, ONS-Icarus (thanksBeyondUnreal).

Epic announced that they will bemerging with Scion Studios, whosefounder was lead designer for America’sArmy, also available for Linux. The press release can be foundhere.Also, as per apostby Epic’s DrSin on the official UT2004 forums,Epic will ban players from UT2004 entirely for cheating, a policy nowreflected in the revisedEULA. Everyone with atleast one brain cell dislikes cheaters, so be sure your online victories are on theup and up.

The official UT2004 site linked a fewonlinereviews of the title, which has an average 94% rating atGame Rankings.

For server admins, the Unreal Admin Page has severaltutorialsupdated for the retail version; please note that the “Running as a Service”documents only apply to the Windows version.

Finally, feel free to post impressions and war stories from your gameexperience to date below!

XQF (a game server browser) version 0.9.14 is now available:

Here is the list of what’s new – some of which were only available previously by downloading the CVS version:

• New games: UT2004, Postal2, BF1942 (Wine). All without official master.
• Improved –launch parameter. Now only requires IP address and asks for type if needed. It’s possible now to use this together with e.g. XChat.
• Add –add parameter to just add a server to favorites
• Fix LAN browsing
• Add LAN masters by default
• Support password on Savage servers
• New server properties: Comment and “this server sucks”
• Add exec function for Hexenworld (anyone ever played that game?)
• Switch to intltool for i18n
• Install desktop files

XQF 0.9.4 Download: [ linuxgames.com ]

We’ve received word that Battle for Wesnoth has reached the long-awaited version 0.7, a release that is considered stable. Battle for Wesnoth is a Free Software turn-based strategy game with a fantasy theme. In addition to the GNU/Linux port, it has been ported to MacOS X, BeOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, and something called “Windows”. The changelog lists the following updates:

• New sounds, unit images, and attack icons have been added
• Unit descriptions for recently added units have been polished
• The old tutorial strings have been removed
• The Lieutenant to General advancement path has been fixed
• Multiplayer out of sync bugs have been fixed
• Swedish translation has been fixed

Download: [ Battle for Wesnoth 0.7 ]

QuakeForge has announced an upgrade to their Quake2Forge project. This release allows for a pluggable sound architecture with support for ALSA driver, a libao driver, SDL sound driver and OSS driver. Also a bug in the joystick code has been fixed.

Download: [ Quake2Forge 0.3 ]

SuperTux version 0.0.6 is a massive rewrite of the original SuperTux code so that it will be easier to build upon.The game is still at a very basic level, but has now reached a point where it can be considered playable, though only as a simple jump-and-run platformer. Still, this is progress.

A level editor is now built into the game which is functional and yet easy to use. The SuperTux team encourages you to pick up the game and its editor and develop some well written levels, so that they may build them into upcoming releases.

Download: [ SuperTux Release 0.0.6 ]

TuxGames has announced a partnership with the UK-based game retailer Game 23. The nub of the press release follows:

Tux Games will provide Game 23 with access to its mature e-commercesolution, allowing Game 23 to expand from a successful brick-and-mortarcompany onto the Internet. In addition to the e-commerce solution, TuxGames will also provide Game 23 with shipping and end-user supportservices.

In return, Game 23 will immediately begin to sell Linux products in their physical and online stores on behalf of Tux Games, giving England its first physical retail outlets for Linux games since 2001. Game 23 will place advertising for Linux products in their physical stores, and pay a royalty on all products sold through their new website to Tux Games. In addition, Game 23 pledges to convert every Windows computer in the group to Linux within a 6 month period.

The news from the TG page states that this will increase the availability of Linux games and help bring them in to the mainstream. Part of the deal also includes Game 23 paying TG a percentage of all of their online sales, thus increasing revenue to TG from non-Linux games.

Just a reminder thatUnreal Tournament 2004 hasbegun shipping to retailers. As stated before, Linux binaries are includedon the installation CD (or DVD); the requisite penguin mascot even makes anappearance on the box!

Epic has also released afreededicated server package (777MB) to allow admins without the retail versionto setup multiplayer host servers.

There’s an entry in the Linux Gamers’FAQ for enabling Text-to-Speech in UT2004.Moreover, warp has compiled a UT2004VOIP HOWTO(although its for the demo, I’m assumingthe steps are still valid for the retail release – let me know if your mileagevaries).

Gamespy put up screenshots of the Onslaught and Assault game mode mapshere.

Once I’ve had a chance to play for a bit I’ll post some initial impressions.

LinuxWorld conducted aroundtablesession with several Linux gaming luminaries:

• Ryan “icculus” Gordon
• Gavriel State (TransGamingTechnologies)
• Timothee Besset (idSoftware)
• Joe Valenzuela (OpenAL)
• Chris DiBona (DamageStudios)

The current state of Linux support in the gaming industry, driverfunctionality, and areas for future improvement are discussed.

As promised, Gav from TransGaming addressed somerecent issuesregarding the Linux gaming community’s perspective of the WineX commitment to us. He did this in his latest Gavriel States… column. The main issues he addresses are their “Macintosh product” and their original business model.

In addition to that column, the new President’s Message column lays out the “dire need” for “software ubiquity” and argues that “WineX is not dissuading developers from producing ‘native’ Linux games.”

All of this news comes to us via the Transgamer newsletter of which the most space was dedicated to the headlining “Who cares about Linux anyway???” section. In the section they assure us that they “strongly support” the development initiatives of Ryan Gordon, LGP, GarageGames and others.

This time Cybrid, our loyal reviewer, has taken a look at TORCS, an open racing car simulator. If you would like to suggest something for reviewing, let Cybrid know.

id Software issued a press release regarding the date and location of this year’s QuakeCon LAN party/tournament:

9th annual QuakeCon video game festival and tournament storms into town August 12-15 at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas. This annual fan pilgrimage to the largest, most awe-inspiring North American LAN event will be a four day adrenaline-pumping party with 5,000 of your closest friends. With 24 hour-a-day entertainment, action, and activities QuakeCon is open to video game fans worldwide completely free of charge. First-come, first-serve online registration for QuakeCon 2004 will begin at 9:00 PM EST on Wednesday, April 14 at www.quakecon.org.

The new venue will house the largest-ever BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) area accommodating 3,000 players, an increase of 1,000 seats from last year’s packed house of 2,000. The four-day event will erupt with contests, workshops, hardware and software demos/exhibits, give-aways, loud parties and white-knuckle tournament action – attracting top players from around the globe.

There’s usually a keynote speech from John Carmack as well; if you can make out there this summer I highly recommend attending.

We just received word that version 0.6.0 of the graphical game interpreter ScummVM has been released. This Free software allows you to play LucasArts/LucasFilm graphical adventures like the Monkey Island series, Maniac Mansion, and Full Throttle on various platforms, including Windows 2000/XP, the BSD operating systems (including MacOS X), PocketPC handhelds, the Sega Dreamcast, and of course Linux.

This release represents a milestone in ScummVM development, since all LucasArts/LucasFilm SCUMM-based games are now being supported. Furthermore, the classic adventure game ‘Flight of the Amazon Queen’ (by Steve Stamatiadis and John Passfield) is being released as freeware simultaneously with ScummVM 0.6.0.

New features and fixes in this release include (but are not limited to):

• Dramatic sound and music improvements
• An improved management and option interface
• Two new graphics modes
• Support for: the classic V1 versions of the original LucasArts SCUMM games Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken; Full Throttle; Broken Sword 1 and Broken Sword 2; and Flight of the Amazon Queen.

Except in the case of the freeware games, you’ll need the original game discs to play anything. You can, for example, grab several games from the LucasArts store.

Download: [ ScummVM 0.6.0 ]