LINUXGAMES

ExtremeTech has posted a scathing indictment entitled “Why Gaming Sucks On Linux“, which takes a critical look at entertainment options on the open source OS. Oddly, it mainly examines Loki Software’s old library and the various WINE-related efforts, as opposed to open source projects or more recent commercial native ports.

ATI has released version 8.30.3 of their display driver for 32-bitand 64-bit Linux architectures.Please note the following hardware is not supported under the latestbuild (you can still use an olderdriver however):

• Radeon 8500/9000/9100/9200/9250
• Mobility Radeon 9000/9100/9200
• Radeon IGP 9000/9100/9200

The releasenotes mention various video fixes and known issues; there’s also a FAQ page. This isalso ATI’s first driver release for Linux under the AMD banner.

Download: [ amd.com ]

Another title I’ve neglected to mention before, StepMania is an open sourcerhythm game with 3D graphics and support fordance pads (configurationguide). The project has freesongs available for use with the game; there’s also documentation on creating and sharingyour own music.

Download: [ stepmania.com ]

I can’t recall where I first read about this game, but it’s beenout for a while: SovietUnterzögersdorf is an adventure game created by the art-tech-philosophygroup monochrom set in afictional “lastexisting appanage republic of the USSR”. Soviet Unterzögersdorf was developedwith Adventure Game Studio(there’s only a Linux port ofthe engine, not the editor, unfortunately); the story page relays someadditional info:

Taking on the role of the protagonist, the player’s task is to search forsolutions level by level. These solutions will subsequently develop thenarration and plot of the game. In recent years this kind of game hasn’t beenselling to well: action and combat games have taken over. Less than 1% of allcomputer games written in 2004 were adventure games. To monochrom it was clearthat an almost extinct form of computer game would provide the perfect mediaplatform to communicate the idea of Soviet Unterzögersdorf.

Note that the default language is Russian with German subtitles, but you canuse the setup program to change the subtitle language to English.

Screenshot: [ View] Download: [ sil.at ]

The space combat MMORPG VendettaOnline reached version 1.7.3 earlier this month. Changes:

• storms restrict radar to 500 meters
• storm entry/exit points are always the same depending on which directionyou’re coming from
• Station Visits are recorded in Sensors tab
• Kills and killed-by are recorded in Sensors tab
• Replaced Wraith with Revenant ship
• fixed lua error when docking with capship
• guild creation can last 48 hours now

Vendetta Online has a free trial period, after whichthere is a $9.99 US monthly subscription fee.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download:[ Linuxtrial client ]

As the new ATI site design implies, the graphics chipset manufacturer has been incorporated into AMD. The press release also mentions their future plans:

AMD plans to create a new class of x86 processor that integrates the central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) at the silicon level with a broad set of design initiatives collectively codenamed “Fusion.” AMD intends to design Fusion processors to provide step-function increases in performance-per-watt relative to today’s CPU-only architectures, and to provide the best customer experience in a world increasingly reliant upon 3D graphics, digital media and high-performance computing. With Fusion processors, AMD will continue to promote an open platform and encourage companies throughout the ecosystem to create innovative new co-processing solutions aimed at further optimizing specific workloads. AMD-powered Fusion platforms will continue to fully support high-end discrete graphics, physics accelerators, and other PCI Express-based solutions to meet the ever-increasing needs of the most demanding enthusiast end-users.

Hopefully the “open platform” statement pans out as more than just lip service :)

Version 5.2.7 of Cedega has been released to subscribers by TransGaming. This build fixes recently introduced issues with World of Warcraft; additional information can be found in the release notes.

In other WINE-related news, the most recent GeekNights podcast discusses the Windows API implentation (thanks to Maber for the heads up).

Name/Version: Childplay 0.84.1
Summary: Childsplay is a ’suite’ of educational games for young children. This release adds support for the new game called letterFlashcard. It’s a game to teach the alphabet to very little children.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Childplay 0.84.1 ]

Name/Version: JGame 1.2
Summary: JGame is a small 2D game engine that runs on any Java 1.2+ platform. It provides a very high-level framework, enabling “classic” type arcade games to be developed with a minimum of code and effort. It is based on sprites with automatic animation and collision detection, and a tile-based background with easy sprite-tile interaction facilities. JGame games can be run as both applications and applets, and can be scaled to any resolution or run full-screen.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ JGame 1.2 ]

Name/Version: Letter Hunt 0.0.2
Summary: Letter Hunt is a Seven Day Roguelike written by Jeff Lait. The original idea came from a discussion at the end of the 2005 7DRL challenge with Antoine, the author of Guild.
Download [ Letter Hunt 0.0.2 ]

Name/Version: Python Kye 9.2
Summary: Kye is an unusual little puzzle game, with a variety of different types of objects. It takes a little time to figure out all the objects and their normal behaviour.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Python Kye 9.2 ]

A bug fix release of ScummVM has been announced. This version, not directly interesting to Linux users, includes offical support for 3 new platforms: Nintendo DS, GP2X and GP32. Other new features and bugfixes include:

• Many fixes for Humongous Entertainment games and better support for international versions of the games
• Improved detection of the FM-TOWNS version of Indy3
• Several fixes for The Feeble Files and more non-English versions are supported now
• Some parts of the Kyrandia engine were rewritten so the game needs less CPU power now, and thus works better on lower-end devices

Download: [ ScummVM 0.9.1 ]

My Game Company sent in a press release announcing the release of Dirk Dashing: Secret Agent 1.0 for Linux. Dirk Dashing is the number one operative in the top-secret organization called G.O.O.D. (Government Operatives On Duty), whose mission is to protect the world from terrorists and power-mad megalomaniacs.

Features:

• No blood, no gore, no fist-fights - Dirk throws knockout gas grenades and uses non-lethal means to defeat his enemies
• 30 huge levels to explore, including 3 secret levels - each level is packed with secret areas and hidden treasures
• Cool spy gadgets that help you complete your mission
• A wide variety of hand-drawn, animated characters
• Spectacular hand-painted graphics, done with acrylic paints and watercolors
• Parallax scrolling with up to 16 graphic layers, for an exciting 3D look
• A rich collection of zany cartoon sound effects
• An original, upbeat music soundtrack
• Play using keyboard, joystick, or game pad
• Ability to save your game progress at any point

The full version of Dirk Dashing costs $19.99 (USD).

Screenshots: [ View ] Download Trial: [ swmirror.com ]

The popular Ubuntu Linux distribution has reached version 6.10. The release notes enumerates the major new features as including GNOME 2.16 and Firefox 2.0.

Download: [ ubuntu.com ]

A new version of OpenCity, 3D city simulator game project, has been released. This build includes features such as building roads, electric lines, electric plants, trees, and the three standard RCI zones.

Screenshot: [ View ] Downloads: [ OpenCity 0.0.4]

Version 2.0 of the highly addictiveFrozen Bubble has been released. Changes include:

• new 1-player game mode: multiplayer training; uses identical game rules as multiplayer, generated alus bubbles are counted as points - what score will you be able to reach in the 2 minutes time frame?
• network (Internet) game: up to 5 players in a game (net game system has logic able to transparently handle players behind a NAT)
• LAN game: similar to network game except that no connection to Internet is made, substituted by polling the local network
• fully revamped graphics, including now 3d-based smooth penguin eyecandy
• revamped intro and 1p music into fully digital productions
• full joystick support: just move your joystick(s) or push buttons in the “change keys” dialog (analog joysticks handled as digital for fair play)
• recording and playback of all games with non-predefined levels (1-player in random and multiplayer training, local 2-player, and network/LAN game with 2 to 5 players)
• realtime graphical effects in the menu screen (if your computer is fast enough)
• anti-aliased and localized messages

Download: [ Frozen Bubble 2 ]

Wine, a free implementation of the Windows API on Unix, has been updated to release 0.9.24. Changes include:

• Support for multiple monitors using Xinerama.
• Various MSI fixes and improvements.
• A ton of memory leaks fixed.
• Many common controls fixes.
• Lots of bug fixes.

Download: [ Wine 0.9.24 ]

The first prerelease of version 1.0 of Crystal Space has been release to the general public. This release focuses on getting more people involved in the testing process. The API are considered stable in this release and no more additions will be made.

Download: [ Crystal Space V1.0 Prerelease 1 ]

The first release candidate for glChess 1.0 is out; changes:

• AI options can be entered into the AI configuration file.
• Game defaults to human (white) versus the first detected AI.
• Lightened 3D models.
• Updated German translation from Rosetta.
• Changed AI file IO and animation from polled to event driven to save CPU.
• Fix bug with long castling.
• AI configuration moved into XML file.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ sourceforge.net ]

Croteam’s Vedran Skrnjug has released a second public beta for the Linux port of their Serious Engine, which allows Linux gamers to play Serious Sam II and use the editor.

As this is a test release, please report bugs in their forum. The beta requires Pixel Shaders 2.0 support; known issues include:

• Movies and cutscenes are not playing correctly.
• Mouse wheel is working properly.
• Antialiasing is not supported at the moment.
• HDR rendering is not supported at the moment.
• Sound may not work correctly on some systems.
• The game will not start unless your desktop depth is set to 24 bits (16.7 mio).
• Online gaming is not supported. (GameSpy licence not available by the time of this release.)
• Dedicated server is not supporting online gaming. (GameSpy licence not available by the time of this release.)

Download: [ seriouszone.com ]

DarkWorld version 0.2 has been released. DarkWorld is a space based massively multiplayer realtime strategy game; changes include the ability to attack other players, view events that happened while logged out, and view realtime player scores. Many changes were made on the server side to enable these new features. The server also now supports the ability to constantly save the game to a database, however this new feature is not well tested.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ sourceforge.net ]

Grubby Games has announced the release of their second game, FizzBall The game is described as a game with bounce bubbles, rescue hungry animals, and solve a mystery, all at the same time. FizzBall can be purchased for $19.95.

Download: [ FizzBall Demo ]

GP2X firmware got an update recently. Enormous changelog follows:

• 1) Eliminated flicking on MENU screen after booting
• a) The flicking occured in the process of changing CPU clock from 200MHz to 100MHz in order to save electricity.
• b) By removing the process of changing clock, flicking was eliminated.
• 2) Improved Movie Player
• a) Playback of 120FPS(24/30FPS variable frame compatible) video which is frequently used in DVD animation etc become possible.
• b) Solved the problem of asynchronized captions when continuous playback of video files posessing different FPS.
• c) In case of bookmarking, playback starting point shall be a few seconds earlier to the bookmarked point (formerly it was a little later)
• d) Eliminated freezing which rarely occurred during playback of large size file. According to our own test with AC adaptor, we made sure of 48 hours of repeated playback without stopping or freezing.
• e) Solved the problem of discontinued image when restarting playback after pause in case of playback of XVID file.
• f) In case of video image searching, the bar shall start from the current image. Formerly it started from bookmarkd point or the beginning.
• g) You can set brightness and contrast. Setting shall be done in the MENU of Setting LCD.
• 3) Improved Music player
• a) Solved the problem of stopping instead of playing next music in case of shuffle(random) playback when only one playable file exists in the folder.
• b) When file contains ID3(comment in case of OGG) information, you can choose whether to indicate or not according to ID3 TAG On/Off options.
• d) Repeating method was changed: When is not selected, all the files in the folder shall be played back in turn.
• When is selected, only the current music shall be repeated.
• 4) E-book reader
• a) Bookmarks were increased from existing 5 to 25 bookmarks.
• b) Extended the limit of file size to be read by revising limit of lines. Our own test showed that up to 4MB (170,000 lines) could be read.
• c) When moving pages with L, R buttons while pressing SELECT button, 1,000 lines shall be moved at a time so that you may easily reach the page you want to read.
• 5) Change of UI image format
• a) UI image format was changed for the sake of skin change function which is scheduled in the next firmware.
• Existing skins cannot be used in 2.1.0.
• 6) Addition of skin selector
• a) If you put skin files for exclusive use in GP2X into skin folder in NAND, you can select and implement at Skin Setting in Setting System.

GP2X 2.1.0 Firmware Download