LINUXGAMES

phime studio wrote in to announce availability of their interLOGIC puzzle game, which is still in development and based on the old Amiga logic game Balls.

interLOGIC 1.0 Download: [ phime.com ]

Eat the Whistle version 3.2 (screenshot) was released last month; ETW is an open source soccer game developed with SDL.

Eat the Whistle 3.2 Download: [ sourceforge.net ]

Edited by Crusader – Thursday Oct 6 08:56:12 2005 – I should’ve mentioned this initially, but Eat the Whistle was initially a commercial (now GPL’ed) Amiga game developed by Hurricane Studios. Also, version 3.2 is the first release of ETW as a full game distribution.

The developers of Oolite (screenshots) have sent in a description of their Elite-like space combat and trading game:

Oolite is a new, expandable recreation of this space trading game. The game is open ended, and there is no set role for the player. The player can trade to make money to upgrade their ship and buy upgrades, or choose a less honorable method of making their fortune. There are several missions, and additional missions are available as add-ons.

The game’s home page is http://oolite.aegidian.org. The Linux project page and downloads are housed at http://oolite-linux.berlios.de. The binary installer contains a dependency pack and should run on all recent Linux distros straight out of the box. Source is available through either a source tarball or anonymous SVN from the berlios.de project page. The game is currently at version 1.52 RC4, and RC4 is expected to form the first non-beta release of Oolite-Linux since the port from Mac OS X was started.

Oolite 1.52 Download: [ berlios.de ]

The Phoronix crew let us know about a new review at their hardware site:

DFI’s 855GME-MGF motherboard has been receiving a fair amount of attention in recent months due to its Socket 479 Pentium M support. When an Intel Pentium M is utilized in conjunction with one of these Socket 479 desktop motherboards, the high performance level can be quite shocking. Although we’re running the Pentium M 750 notebook at stock speeds in this article, we’ve posted some results to demonstrate Intel’s mobile capabilities under Linux. Hitting the bench today is an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad R52 with 1.86GHz Pentium M processor, i915 Express Chipset, 512MB DDR2, and an ATI X300 utilizing GCC 4.0 and the Linux 2.6.12 kernel.

The first PyWeek Game Programming Challenge has finished; Richard Jones, the contest’s coordinater, had this to say:

I consider it a success, and I’ll be running it again. I’ll be making some small changes to the challenge format (mostly to do with the theme selection) and I’ll definitely be providing more information to competitors next time about how to compete (how to plan, etc).

Phew. And there’s some cool games in there too :)

The results list is available at the contest site.

PlanetPenguin Racer, a fork of TuxRacer 0.6.1, is available in version 0.5 alpha. Changes in this release include the following:

• Replaced TCL with Squirrel
• New scripting format for courses, cups and events
• Experimental multiplayer support
• Added ukrainian, hungarian and swedish translations

Download [PlanetPenguin Racer 0.5 alpha ]

A very interesting DOOM III mod called DungeonDoom has been brought to our attention. This mod incorporates roguelike features into DOOM III with levels created by a pseudo-random number generator. Levels have stairs which allow players to go between higher or lower levels of the dungeon.

Download: [ DungeonDoom 6 ]

Biloba, a turn-based game for 2 to 4 players, has been updated to release 0.2. In the game, each player moves their pawns on a hexagonal board and attempts to eliminate opponents’ pawns. The game supports both network/local and an AI opponent.

Download: [ Biloba 0.2 ]

Version 8.16 of X-Plane was released (screenshots). If you haven’tpurchased the retail version of X-Plane, the new patch acts as a demo. Alsoworth noting: Laminar Research is currently having a $39.99 US sale forthe retail X-Plane 8 DVD. A reader also pointed out this OS poll for users.

X-Plane 8.16 Download: [ x-plane.com ]

By now, you would almost need to be living underneath a rock to not have heard about the upcoming NVIDIA Rel80 GeForce display drivers. Although a majority of this preliminary information has been Microsoft Windows centric, today we’ll be sharing with you some of the features that should be on the horizon for Linux users and the 1.0-8XXX drivers, one of which feature is the long awaited SLI support. Continue reading here.

xmame and xmess have been updated to version 0.100:

• Everything from MAME 0.100 (http://x.mame.net/changes-mame.html) and MESS 0.100 (http://x.mame.net/changes-mess.html).
• Using “make install” no longer strips debug symbols from the executables.
• Improved support for OpenBSD, including fixing audio on 8-bit sound cards. (Claudio Castiglia)
• Improved the SDL joystick driver so that it will work better with components identified as hat switches or trackballs. (Dave Ahlswede)
• Increased the maximum number of joystick axes from 8 to 16 to support the Gravis Xterminator joypad. (Dave Ahlswede)

The first release canidate of the 1.0 series of the Battle for Wesnoth has been brought to our attention. It should be noted that only languages for which the core packages are translated completely will be included in 1.0. The changelog can be viewed in full here
Download: [ Battle for Wesnoth 1.0 RC1 ]

Version 3.2.1 (contact!) of ET Pro,a competition mod for Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory, was released last month. Changes and additions since thelast release can be found here.

ET Pro 3.2.1 Download: [ anime.net ]

I’m sorry to report that John “overcode” Hall passed away yesterday; Johnhad been battling skin cancer. He was the author of Programming LinuxGames, and a great friend. The staff of LinuxGames extends theircondolences to his family and friends.

Messages to John’s family and friends can be posted to his blog; you can read how to aid the fight against cancer @ the American Cancer Society site.

Stéphane Peter has posted his memories of John at his blog.

Ryan Gordon has also posted a good deal of information regarding his experiences with John at his .plan.

Jamie Fristrom mentions John and his dedication to his latest game over at his blog.

Version 0.2.5 of GemRB (screenshots), an open source re-implementation of BioWare’s 2D Infinity Engine, used in games such as Baldur’s Gate II, was released recently. Changes:

• Save game support
• Effects are now loaded
• Equipping effects in items
• Spawn points in areas
• Textscreen (scrolled text between chapters)
• GameScript is now much more reliable: Action override works, triggers fire once and then get cleared
• Fully working Store screen
• Fixed padding of message window rows (in dialogs)

A FAQ is also (not anymore) available.

GemRB 0.2.5 Download: [ sourceforge.net ]

The ianout project, an open source engine inspired by the one utilized by Black Isle’s classic RPG Fallout, is now known as FIFE: Flexible Isometric Fallout-like Engine. They’re looking for additional developers; if interested, contact them via e-mail or ICQ.

I’ve been slacking on news of late, so here’s a bunch of queued up UT2004 items from this summer:

• Version 1.6 of AirBuccaneers, which features airborne pirate-themed combat (screenshots)was released – download
• The Red Orchestra teamreleased a SummerOffensive map pack, which includes seven levels, weather effects, and evena paratrooper assault.
• Free Monkey Interactive releasedbeta 2 of UT:XMP, which addsthe gameplay from Unreal II’s Expanded Multiplayer to UT2004 – download.There’s also a mutatoravailable for server admins to fix a respawn bug. If you’re looking for morelevels, there’s a GermanForum map pack available as well.
• A new mod was released over the summer: Counter Organic Revolution, which pitstransforming robots against one another (media). It was mod of the month for August over attheMod Database; beta 1.0 and the 1.01 patchcan be downloaded here.
• The TO: Crossfire site wasupdated with screenshots of maps slated for inclusion in the stand-alonesequel to Tactical-Ops.
• There are a few more unit model screenshots at the Unreal Annihilation site. UA aims tore-create the style of the RTS gameTotalAnnihilation.
• The Troopers: Dawn of Destinyis working on the next version of their Star Wars-themed mod, which will havea fullscreen map, 3D iron sights, and a fly-by camera; there’s also ashot of the new R2D2 model up.
• The ChaosUT2: Evolutionteam hasposted a changelog and screenshots of new models for their next release oftheirgameplay expanding mod.
• A new CTF map, CannonFodder2,has been released.

LGeneral, a turn-based strategy engine heavily inspired by Panzer General, has been updated to release 1.2beta-3. Changes in this release include:

• Reinforcements for Warsaw, Low Countries, France, Barbarossa and Ardennes
• Suppression and casualties of a fight are displayed
• Fuel costs shown in advance allow for better movement planning
• A strategy guide has been included
• A lot of gameplay tweaking and some AI seg fault fixes

Download: [ LGeneral 1.2beta-3 ]

The latest version of Battle for Wesnoth has been brought to our attention. Changes in this release include the following:

• The Dark Hordes: there are now more Turns available in the last scenario
• Increased the damage done by the Dread Lich from 6-4 to 7-4
• text input box position now changes if resolution is changed
• fixed scrollbar problems in multiplayer lobby
• better checking if recruiting is possible
• some fixes for Experimental and Default themes
• fixed observer icon corruption
• user campaign translations are now available without a restart
• adjusted multiplayer lobby titles
• don’t show images larger than 80×80 in campaign server list
• fixed progress bar overflow (#14403)
• game names can no longer contain formatting characters
• fix campaign story text overflowing due to narrow width (rest of #13961)
• fixed Flaming Sword missing attack image
• updated Goblin Impaler, Gryphon, Gryphon Master, Gryphon Rider
• ambush and nightstalk now works on turn 1 for leaders
• AI now understands that AMLA units don’t heal on advancing
• AI in multiplayer can now recruit more widely in all eras
• fixed a network related freeze and other networking changes
• fixed memory leaks in multiplayer lobby
• various bug fixes and code cleanups

Download: [ Battle for Wesnoth 0.9.7 ]

The first version of Block Rage, a falling-blocks arcade game, has been released. In this game, you control three-tiled blocks falling from the top of the screen. Your aim is to make the tiles explode by placing three of the same type in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row.Inflicting chain reactions earns you more points. In the two-player hotseat mode it will also send your opponent an unpleasant surprise.

Download: [ Block Rage 0.2.1 ]