LINUXGAMES

A minor release of Nexuiz has been brought to our attention. Changes/fixes in this release include:

• 1.2 serverfix is included
• Runematch and domination support for all maps
• Additional map to play CTF on
• Possible to control the server from any connected client (password protected)
• Changed menu to show correct default values

Download: [ Nexuiz 1.2.1 ]

Linux Game Publishing’s contest to guess the title of their next game has now concluded, and a reader was able to determine the answer from the final image:

Now that the image over at the LGP Game Competition is a bit more clear, I was able to find a match at GameSpy. The radar indicator matches the one found in screenshots of X²: The Threat.

http://media.pc.gamespy.com/media/482/482379/img_1988479.html

This is most likely the game that LGP is promising to announce soon. We love you, LGP!

X²: The Threat is a space sim developed by Egosoft; additional screenshots can be found here.

The developers of Crystal Space, an open source 3D engine, announced a pseudo-stable release recently:

The latest stable release (0.98r004) is getting old. More and more I have to tell people to use the latest CVS because bugs have been fixed there and CVS is simply a lot better. On the other hand many people are afraid of the instability and indeed from time to time the CVS version doesn’t compile or work properly. So normally it would be time for another release. The next stable release is supposed to be 1.0 but we are not ready for 1.0 yet. A lot more work has to be done still. So we decided to have more regular intermediate pseudo-stable releases. These pseudo-stable versions are not as well tested as the real stable release but we are pretty confident that they are okay and most things are working properly.

It was also noted yesterday that 1.0 is a month or more away (the roadmap is online); bugs can be submitted here.

Crystal Space Downloads: [ crystalspace3d.org ]

After 1.5 years of hard work, Boson 0.11, a real-time strategy game, has been released. Major highlights in this release include:

• LibUFO port for user interface
• graphical improvements such as realistic water, new effects
• fully operational multiplayer support

The authors are very busy and are looking for additional help. Interested parties may wish to look at their job listing for additional information.

Download: [ Boson 0.11 ]

Version 1.0.1 of Tremulous, an open source modification that blends a team-based FPS with elements of a RTS game, has been released. This release fixes several game balance issues and some bug fixes. This will be the last mod release of Tremulous; now that the full source code to Q3A is available, it can become a stand-alone project.

Download: [ Tremulous 1.0.1 ]

Speaking of GC 2005, Lightkey let usknow about some additional things he saw at the show:

• He heard that Razer may beplanning to open source drivers utilized to create macros for theprogrammable buttons on their mice products.
• Runesoft plans to release Northlandthemselves in the coming weeks (their contract with Linux Game Publishing wasrecently cancelled); a demo is also planned.
• Cold War was being shown; sign-ups for a Windows beta were beingconducted, but it’s unknown at present when a Linux beta would begin(at lastreport a port was still planned).

Epic and Midway attended last month’s GC 2005, an industry trade show held inLeipzig, Germany, to show UnrealTournament 2007, the next title in the semi-annual multiplayer FPS series.Several news sites were on hand to gather impressions:

• IGN -screenshots, videos, and quotes from Epic’s James Brown regarded optimizedlevel load times due to new streaming tech.
• BeyondUnreal- photos of the booth area and presentation
• inUnreal.de- video of the presentation
• GameSpy- screenshots, level impressions

UT2007 utilizes UnrealEngine 3; favorable comments by Epic’sMark Rein during this past E3 (in the context of PS3 development) imply that Epic will be continuing it’s historical support for Linux with this title.

Edited by Crusader – Tuesday Sep 06 16:42:43 2005 – There’s also a good summary article of everything known about the game to date at BeyondUnreal.

The latest build of VDrift is out. Changes to this version include:

• New track: Road Atlanta
• Nurburgring Grand Prix track has more realistic terrain now
• New car like a late eighties Porsche
• Fixed some S2000 settings
• Added treemaps, modeled trees, background foliage, ground shadows for trees
• Fixed several crashes and other bugs

Download VDrift Linux source: [ VDrift-2005-09-01.tar.bz2 ]
Download VDrift Linux binary: [ vdrift-2005-09-01-bin.tar.bz2 ]

• Version 1.52 of the CommunityExpansion Pack (download)for NeverwinterNights has beenreleased; v1.52 isfully compatible with NWN v1.66 and includes 71fixed human female heads.
• Neverwinter Vault conducted aninterviewwith Chandigarof the Community Tileset Pack (gallery)regarding the content he’s created for that project.
• A few Piratesof the Sword Coast(a BioWare premium module) items:
  • Characterprofiles for the crew of the Midnight Rose
  • Wallpapers
  • Aninterview with BioWare’s Todd Grenier about his work creating art for themodule.
• There’s a profile ofthe Dragonsong persistent worldserver. The origin and unique features of the module are discussed.
• Finally, there’s also a two-part article (PartI | PartII) at BioWare’s site with advice and tips for running an ongoing campaign.

Linux Game Publishing’s Michael Simms informed us of the new LGP contest going on right now to guess the title of their latest game. Winners will receive the first copy of it when it is done. This competition is rather interesting in that you have to deduce the game from an image of static pixels, wherein one pixel is cleaned up a second to reveal an image relating to the game.

Linux Game Publishing contest site

I’ve been meaning to mention this for some time now (sorry ‘goose): Freyja is a 3D modeling utility (screenshots) whichfeatures polymesh and animation editing, as well as support for several modelformats via plugins. Instructions for downloading the current source tree orbinary snapshots can be found here.

The 3d remake of the popular DOS classic Scorched Earth, Scorched 3D has been updated to release 39.1. This minor release has the following changes and bug fixes:

• Fixed client crashes due to boids turned off
• Tanks not moving during multiplayer games
• Saved games not loading correctly
• Re-balanced some weapons
• Speeded up some of the larger weapons

Download: [ Scorched3D version 39.1 ]

Hundreds of thousands of people have had their lives affected by this week’s hurricane along the United States Gulf coast; please take a moment of your time to donate what you can to aid in the rescue/relief/recovery effort:

• American Red Cross (Via Amazon)
• Other charities

If you’re in the US and interested in finding out how to volunteer for assistance, information on contacting your local Red Cross chapter can be found here.

Grubby Games has released a demo of Professor Fizzwizzle. The game’s focus quoted from their website is:

Professor Fizzwizzle is a fun, mind-expanding puzzle game, where you take control of the diminutive genius, Professor Fizzwizzle. You must help the professor use his brains and his gadgets to solve each exciting level. Do you have what it takes to get past the Rage-Bots and bring the prof back to his lab?

The game may be purchased for $19.95, if you wish to obtain the full version of the game.

Download: [ Professor Fizzwizzle Demo ]

After more then 2 years, an updated version of NVClock has been released. This beta release contains numerous fixes and enhancements including the following items:

• GeforceFX/6/7 support (experimental overclocking: Coolbits + low-level)
• Pipeline modding for NV4x cards
• Smartdimmer support for 6200Go based laptops
• Hardware monitoring for LM99/MAX6659/F75375S/W83L785R chipsets
• Support for internal NV43/NV44/NV47 temperature sensor
• Ability to enable disabled temperature sensors used on NV43/NV44/NV47 boards
• Fanspeed adjustment for FX5900/6600GT/6800GT boards and F75375S/W83L785R sensors
• OpenGL options using NV-CONTROL extension
• Rewritten GTK2 interface
• Bios parsing (GeforceFX/6/7)
• X86-64 support

Download: [NVClock 0.8 Beta ]

Version 0.2 of Balazar: Arkanae II – Reforged Scepters (screenshots), an open source game written in Python which utilizes the Soya 3D engine, has been released. Here’s the description from Nekeme Productions:

Are you sure the Elven forgers’ secret has been lost after the first Arkanae ? Thousand years later, it comes back! In this 0.2 version, go through the Pompon forest to find a mysterious reforged scepter… Fights, traps, enigmas and treasures are waiting for you! Thanks to the Tofu network engine, multiplayer is available.
People that want to participate to the game development are welcome! Join us on the mailing list or the IRC channel #nekeme on Freenode.

Balazar 0.2 Download: [ gna.org ]

A number of Quake 3 projects have popped up after therecent source release including one maintained by our fellow LinuxGames editor, zakk. Hosted at icculus.org, zakk’s icculus.org/quake3 has had contributionsfrom Ryan Gordon, Ludwig Nussel, Ian Kumlien, Andreas Schneider, Aaron Gyes, andmore. Currently they’ve managed to improve upon the initial source release byimplementing x86_64 support, SDL for sound (ALSA users rejoice!) and input, PowerPCsupport, and much needed security fixes. .

icculus.org/quake3: [ Project Page ] [ Subscribe to the mailing list ]