The long delayed Linux version of Apex Design’s Payback is available….for the GP2X. GP2X.co.uk has the demo, and an order form for the full game.
Updated for the GP2X with all new graphics, sound, special effects and music creating an awesome next gen handheld game which will quite literally blow you away – with a shotgun, a rocket launcher or even a tank.
Payback GP2X Demo Download: [ 3D Downloads | GP2X.co.uk ]
NVIDIA has released
There are also user guides for
Download: [
The Unreal Tournament 2004modification Defense Alliance 2reached their Beta 1.6 milestone earlier this month. The
Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ planetunreal.com ]
Jay Dolan sent in notice that he’s released version 0.5.0 of Quetoo, a Quake 2 source port that focuses on security, speed, and stability. New features include location file (.loc) support, wildcard pakfile (*.pak) loading, new crosshair and console character graphics, andvastly improved console editing. The complete listing of changes can be perused here. There’s also a project wiki.
Screenshots (Retexture project): [ View ] Download: [ dyndns.org | tastyspleen.net ]
The latest Linux Games Podcast episode is up. Podcast 6 brings you an informal interview with Michael Simms.
Joining myself (and my poorly aimed mic which sounds horrible) on this episode are: Dustin “Crusader” Reyes, and Fabio “Lightkey” Till. As on the last episode, we have Love Invaders advertising. Remember to send your advertisements for free-as-in-either-beer-or-speech games to zacharyslater@gmail.com.
URL dump from this episode:
iTunes users can click the iTunes Only link below, or drag and drop the feed link to iTunes, or click Advanced – Subscribe to Podcast and copy the feed url there, or just hit update if you’ve already subscribed. The podcast is also in the iTunes Music Store. For any other podcasting programs, you’ll need to insert the feed url into it.
Enjoy, leave feedback here, in the new forum, on iTunes, and tell your friends!
Linux Games Podcast 5 Download: [ iTunes Only | MP3 RSS Feed | Straight MP3 | Straight Ogg]
The Tux Paint developers have announced version 0.9.16 of their award-winning open source drawing program for children. Tux Paint 0.9.16 debuts a new simple-to-use Slideshow feature allows you to select your favorite works of art and play them back at various speeds. Also, a brand new animated brush feature cycles through a sequence of images, and directional brushes change shape depending on which direction you draw.
Download: [ Tux Paint 0.9.16 ]
Name/Version: Curses Lines 1.0.4
Summary: Curses Lines is a standard “Lines” game, implemented as a curses application.
Download [ Curses Lines 1.0.4 ]
Name/Version: E.V.E. Paradox 1.2
Summary: E.V.E. Paradox is a game suite with four different games: Flick, Orbit, Arena, and Parity. Flick is a turn-based puzzler, Orbit is an arcade puzzler, Arena is a top-view action game, and Parity is a turn-based arcade puzzler.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ E.V.E. Paradox 1.2 ]
Name/Version: Pang Zero 0.15
Summary: Pang Zero is a clone of Super Pang, a fast-paced action game that involves popping balloons with a harpoon.Changes in this release include:Two new ball types are the Seeker Ball, which tracks the player, and the Water Ball, which floods everything with little balls. There are three new weapons: the power wire, the machine gun, and the “Half Cutter”. There’s a new difficulty level for the lovers of Death Balls, and also some bugfixes, improvements to the menu, and visual enhancements.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Pang Zero 0.15 ]
Name/Version: Pengupop 2.1.9
Summary: A networked multiplayer game in the vein of the puzzle classic Bust a Move/Puzzle Bobble! Beat your friends in this addictive game, or play against a random opponent! Remember to sign up to participate in the score system.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Pengupop 2.1.9 ]
Name/Version: Powermanja 2006-10-14
Summary: A Java port of “powermanga”, which is an arcade 2D shoot-em-up game with 42 levels, 14 guardians and more than 200 sprites. It runs in 320×200 or 640×400 pixels.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Powermanja 2006-10-14 ]
Name/Version: Rebound 0.9.1
Summary: Rebound is a reimplementation of the game called Diamonds which existed for the Macintosh in the early 90s. It is a cross between a puzzle and an action game.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Rebound 0.9.1 ]
Name/Version: Risk 1.0.8.8
Summary: This is java version of the classic RISK board game, with a simple map format, network play, 1 player, hotseat, 5 user interfaces and many more features, it works in all OSs that run java 1.4 or higher.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Risk 1.0.8.8 ]
Name/Version: Wah!Cade 0.13.2
Summary: Wah!Cade is a front end for the M.A.M.E. arcade game emulator, and has been designed with arcade cabinet controls & projects in mind.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Wah!Cade 0.13.2 ]
NVIDIA has released version 1.0-8776 of their Linux display driver for 32-bit and 64-bit x86 architectures. The main change is a fix for a previously disclosed buffer overflow vulnerability; NVIDIA also has a knowledgebase article about the issue:
In summary, the accurate history of this issue is as follows:
1. NVIDIA was made aware of a problem with our 1.0-8774 driver that caused an X Server crash on July 2006 through a posting on nvnews.net. The problem was not identified as a security risk.
2. We debugged and fixed the issue, and included it, along with many other bug fixes, in the Release 95 series. 1.0-9625 was released on September 21, 2006 as a beta driver on nZone.com http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_downloads_rel70betadriver.html.
3. We were informed on Monday, October 16th, that the problem posed a security risk. NVIDIA is releasing an updated driver from our stable Release 85 series, 1.0-8776, on Thursday, October 19, 2006, which includes the bug fix.
4. We encourage users of NVIDIA graphics driver version 1.0-8762 or 1.0-8774 to upgrade to 1.0-8776, available here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html
While we have no record of Rapid7 contacting us prior to their announcement, NVIDIA does provide a technical contact to security firms to inform us of potential security issues. We encourage anyone that has identified what they believe to be a security issue with an NVIDIA driver to directly contact our UNIX Graphics Driver security email alias, unix-security@nvidia.com, to report and evaluate any potential issues prior to publishing a public security advisory.
NVIDIA is committed to providing robust, secure graphics drivers for Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD. We encourage anyone encountering issues with our driver to work with us through the http://www.nvnews.net forums to help us collect the information needed to investigate and resolve issues in our driver.
We look forward to working with the professional security community in the future to make our driver more robust and secure.
There’s also the README (although that’s not rendering properly for me at the moment).
Download: [ 32-bit | 64-bit ]
Ars Technica’s current feature article is a look at Yellow Dog Linux on the PS3, whose existence was only recently announced. Included are comments from Terra Soft Solutions CEO Kai Staats and Enlightenment’sCarsten “Rasterman” Haitzler, which provide some additional detail regarding the feature set:
Staats feels that Terra Soft’s relationship with Sony has facilitated development of a well-integrated product: “Our work with Sony has granted us a unique opportunity to have in our possession beta PlayStation units (the same that the game developers have used) in order to work closely with the system to ensure a high quality end-user experience, from bootloader to halt, from installation to playing CDs and configuring the desktop.”
Will the high price of the PS3 deter interested users? It certainly deters me. Staats believes that the PS3 will provide a do-all set-top box, and he shared his own plans to incorporate one into his personal home theater: “I cannot emphasize enough that the PS3 is designed for Linux and [is] far more than a game box,” he said. “Personally, I plan to remove my home DVD and CD decks and use instead a PS3 attached with my home theater for DVD, CD, MP3, and home computer—attached to a 5:1 14 speaker system with HD LCD. Elegant, simple, and powerful.”
[...]
Haitzler acknowledges that e17 is still “pre-alpha” software, but feels that support for rapid application crash recovery diminishes the negative impact of the “few bugs” that still remain. Haitzler also points out that while GNOME and KDE have longer feature lists, they also have much higher resource requirements. Haitzler feels that the PS3′s 256MB of RAM will probably be insufficient for most users that want to run KDE and GNOME and have memory left over for actual applications. According to Haitzler, “e17 shines in raw efficiency” and “can do all its fancy graphics without Open GL, without Compiz, without Xgl, without massively fast CPU’s and tons of video RAM and high-end graphics chips.”
CipSoft has announced the release of a new Linux client for their MMORPG Tibia (thanks linuX-gamers.net):
The beta test for our new Linux client is finally over and we would like to thank all participating players for helping us to test the new client. After a few last bug fixes, the client is ready for the regular game service.
We are happy to announce that the Linux Tibia client is now available and can be downloaded from our website. Please note that it is necessary to download the client completely from our website since there is no patch for the client of the beta version available.
Tibia can be played for free or with a premium account.
Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ tibia.com ]
The Linux hardware site Phoronix has posted a review of Intel’s open source driver for the 965 Express chipset:
In August Intel had announced their new Linux graphics driver website as well as announcing the immediate availability of open-source display drivers for the 965 Express Chipset. This Chipset offers fourth-generation Intel graphics architectures in the form of the GMA 3000 and GMA X3000. Here at Phoronix we have run some tests on the Q965 Chipset and GMA 3000 graphics with their open-source drivers, and have our results to share today under GNU/Linux. We had also compared Intel’s open-source graphics performance against the open-source R300 DRI drivers.
If you’ve got a legit copy of the Windows version, this post on the serious zone forums will set you up.
Release 0.9.12 of glChess has been announced; changes in this version of the ubiquitous boardgame include support for Universal Chess Interface engines.
Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ sourceforge.net ]Adobe has released a beta build of their Flash Player 9 for Linux; the release notes mention known issues such as incompatibility with Opera. I don’t know of too many Flash-based games offhand (although I just received a press release for a RPG called AdventureQuest), but this also means game websites such as http://www.enemyterritory.com/ now function in Linux. There’s also the Penguin.SWF blog if you want to keep track of updates.
A reader sent in the following:
Recently, there was a post on Slashdot about PoxNora. They did not mention that this totally Java-based game runs on Linux. PoxNora uses the new JOGL, which allows Java applications to use full 3D hardware acceleration. PoxNora automatically distributes the pre-compiled binaries needed via Java webstart – all players have to do it click the “play now” button. The artwork is amazing, and the game is really very fun. Its a web based multiplayer mix of a turn-based strategy, RPG, and collectable card game. You can also play totally for free.
The Linux Games podcast now has a dedicated page!. As far as I am concerned this podcast has been a fantastic success in the first few episodes, nearing a thousand total listeners per episode. You can help us to raise that number by getting your friends to listen to the podcast as well, this is why we support iTunes.
Finally I need to ask you folks to think up your questions for our next interview guest, Michael Simms. He is the Chief Warlord of both Tux Games and Linux Game Publishing. We’re recording Friday night if all goes well, so you’ll need to have your questions in before 7PM PST on the 20th. So, leave your questions in the comments, and don’t forget to encourage your developer friends to make podcast advertisements!Update: Podcast recorded last night :)
Tux Games sent in word that they will be attending the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in London, which is being held on October 25th and 26th at Olympia 2. They will be at stand A1 with games to play, games available for sale, and £1000′s worth of giveaways and prizes.
Version 1.0 of ProScrabble, a free scrabble playing program, has been released. Features:
Going through the news backlog a ways, I noticed we neglected to mention the release of The Black Legacy v0.9.9. It’s a fantasy/sci-fi MMORPG developed under Linux which utilizes OpenGL and SDL. The changelog can be read here; there’s also mention of a rendering patch.
Screenshots: [ View ]Download: [ sourceforge.net ]Terra Soft Solutions has issued a press release with details on their Yellow Dog Linux release for Sony’s PlayStation 3 video game console launching this November:
Under basic agreement with SCEI, Terra Soft was granted a unique opportunity to develop and bring to market a complete Linux OS for the Sony PLAYSTATION 3. In development of Yellow Dog Linux v5.0, Terra Soft integrated and enhanced code from Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Sony Group, and Fedora in order to offer the following: - kernel 2.6.16
- gcc 4.1.1 and glibc 2.4
- Cell SDK 1.1
- OpenOffice.org 2.0.2
- FireFox 1.5.0 and Thunderbird 1.5.0
- Nautilus 2.14
… and a suite of Personal Accessories, Development Tools; Sound & Video, Internet, and Networking applications. A simple installer enables absolutely anyone to install without instruction. Post-install, the default suite of applications presents an intuitive, self-guided means of exploring Linux without the confusion of multiple applications in the same family. An Advanced installer mode enables selection from greater than fifteen hundred packages, as is expected from a complete Linux distribution. PLAYSTATION 3 is an advanced computer system designed to provide next generation computer entertainment contents in the home, incorporating the state-of-the-art Cell microprocessor with super computer like power. As a guest of IBM at the annual SC2006 tradeshow, Nov 13-16, Tampa, Florida, Terra Soft will showcase Yellow Dog Linux v5.0, Y-HPC v2.0 beta, and Y-Bio v1.1. Yellow Dog Linux v5.0 for PLAYSTATION 3 will be made available through YDL.net Enhanced accounts, through the Terra Soft on-line Store, retailers, and public mirrors world-wide.
It’ll be interesting to see how gamers who’ve never used Linux before take to the distribution; fortunately, one advantage of uniform hardware is the lack of a need for much installation tweaking.
