LINUXGAMES

After some downtime, both the Linux Game Publishing and Tux Games websites are accessible again (at least for me). We had some readers commenting about it earlier this week, so I wanted to make sure everyone knew they were back up – thanks!

Also, for some reason it was never mentioned outside of the podcast what LGP’s next title is: X³: Reunion, the space simulator from Egosoft. X²: The Threat was previously ported to Linux by LGP and is available for ordering.

Linux.com has posted a review of Frets On Fire, an open-source musical skill game:

You suck on electric guitar. If you are not aware of that now, you will be after playing Frets on Fire — a cross-platform, GPLed music game from Unreal Voodoo, where your PC’s keyboard is the instrument and you play lead.

Download: [ kempele.fi ]

Missed this earlier: version 0.49b ofTrue Combat: Elite, atactical-themed modification for Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory, was released in January. Changesinclude numerous gameplay and rendering fixes; you can read more about themod’s features here.

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

Jay Dolan sent in the following concerning Quetoo and theNokia N800, aLinux-basedinternet tablet:

Thought you might be interested to know that Quetoo builds and runs onthe Nokia N800 right out of the box, thanks to its flexible and portableAutoconf build scripts. The build was accomplished by kkito, who waskind enough to upload a capture of demo1 to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPh2Os0D8pY

Quetoo is a Quake2 source port that focuses on security, speed, and stability.

Version 2.2.3 of Nexuiz, anopen-source first-person shooter based on the DarkPlaces engine, wasreleased last month; changesinclude a security update.

Screenshots: [ View ]Download: [ alientrap.org]

Stendhal, a MMORPG developed with the Arianne multiplayer game system, is now at version 0.57. Changes include fixes to the reward and deathmatch systems, and new monsters.

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

Linux.com has posted a review of Kobo Deluxe:

If you still dig the old-style arcade games, you owe it to yourself to check out Kobo Deluxe, an improved version of XKobo with sound and better graphics. I ran across Kobo Deluxe when I was looking for a game similar to Namco’s arcade classic Bosconian. Your mission? Blow up the fortresses and move on to the next level, to … blow up more fortresses. OK, so it’s not exactly Shakespearean story development, but what do you want from a retro arcade-style game anyway? Right — fast-paced action and an ever-increasing high score, which Kobo Deluxe delivers in spades.

Mednafen, an OpenGL and SDL multi-system emulator that supports Atari Lynx, GameBoy, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, NES, PC Engine(TurboGrafx 16), SuperGrafx, Neo Geo Pocket, and Neo Geo Pocket Color, has been updated to release 0.7.2. This release fixes and changes the following features:

• WonderSwan emulation
• a memory editor(accessible from the debugger)
• settings to enable configurable motion blur.

Download: [ Mednafen 0.7.2 ]

Version 1.4 beta of Quake 4 has beenreleased by id Software. Changesinclude:

• Refined hitboxes
• Optimized sound and network code
• Configurable fps caps
• Weapon balancing
• Server direct autodownloading
• Addonpak fixes
• Spectating via Q4TV

This build is not compatible with version 1.3; you’ll only be able to play onother v1.4 beta servers, or use savegames created with this release. Pleasereport bugs to q4bugs@idsoftware.com; also,developers can now download the updated SDK from idDevNet.

Download: [ idsoftware.com ]

There’s been a lot of news related to the various iterations of Quake Ihaven’t gotten to yet; apologies for the delays:

• Congratulations to id Softwareand John Carmack for winning two Emmy awards from the National Academy ofTelevision Arts and Sciences in recognition of their pioneering work in 3Dengine development and rendering breakthroughs.
• Community level designers have submitted 34 maps to id for the Quake 4 Community Map Pak contest;the maplist will be whittled down to a dozen or so eventually, but id hasreleased all of the submissions for play prior to voting. [ Download ]
• There’s also discussion about the map pack entries at Quake3bitsand MyLyCon’s Domain.
• ComputerGames Online conducted an interview with Splash Damage’s Paul Wedgewoodconcerning the upcoming multiplayer shooter Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Thegame’s backstory and gameplay nuances are discussed.
• Finally, GameInformer recently interviewed id’s Carmack and Todd Hollenshead about amyriad of topics, such as id’s current (and unannounced) internal project.

id Software’s Timothee Besset updatedhis .plan to announce the release of DOOM 3 version 1.3.1. Changes include:

• Fix a potential crash in physics
• Fix an issue with pak downloaded being immediately appended without filesystem restart
• Fixes to DNS lookup, reduced the stalls
• Updated the code to gcc 4.0 compliance, for Mac OSX universal binaries and GNU/Linux x86 binaries
• Threading implementation for Mac and Linux is more compliant with the Win32 behaviours
• Fix Alsa sound backend
• Fixes to tty code

There are also several fixes for the SDK utilized to develop mods.

Download: [ DOOM3 1.3.1 | DOOM 3SDK | BitTorrent ]

Version 0.1 of Tactical Rogue, a graphics-based roguelike, is now available.

Download: [ mine.nu ]

Version 1.6 of TO:Crossfire, a total-conversion modification for Unreal Tournament 2004, is now available. New features:

• A new map, OBJ-Infernum
• Improved weapon balance
• Map fixes for performance and bugs
• Tracer fire for the AK47 and M4A1
• Directional exit wound effects
• Different weapon muzzleflashes
• Bugfixes and exploit blocks

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ to-crossfire.net ]

A reader pointed out this demonstration video (YouTube link) from Virgin America, an US airline which aims to begin flying this year. Their In-Flight Entertainment System is Linux-based and they mention that Linux developers will be invited to create entertainment software for the open platform in the near future.

Name/Version: Goblin Hack 0.97
Summary: Goblin Hack is an opengl-based smooth-scrolling ASCII graphics game! Inspired by the likes of NetHack, it opts for a simple interface that appears to appeal to kids (and adults) and fires the imagination in today’s world of over-rendered games.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Goblin Hack 0.97 ]

Name/Version: Kimboot 0.74
Summary: A sick and addictive arcade game. You control a hand holding some very heavy ball on a rope (physics simulation included), and there are a lot of enemies trying to eat your hand. You won’t let them! Crush’em all with the ball!
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Kimboot 0.74 ]

Name/Version: Loemu 0.1.0
Summary: Loemu is a free application that provides a simple frontend for various game emulators.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Loemu 0.1.0 ]

Name/Version: pychess 0.6.0 beta
Summary: Chess game written using pygtk. Should be able to do most things xboard does, but in a nicer gtk/svg enviroment.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ pychess 0.6.0 beta ]

Name/Version: Risk 1.0.8.9
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 1.0.8.9 ]

Name/Version: Tiffanys 0.3
Summary: Tiffanys is a java written chess engine, including a Swing GUI and Xboard/Winboard interface. Tiffanys is still in early stage!
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Tiffanys 0.3 ]

Name/Version: Xcpc 20070122
Summary: Xcpc is a portable Amstrad CPC464/CPC664/CPC6128 Emulator written in C.
Screenshots [ View ] Download [ Xcpc 20070122 ]

The Light Weight Java Gaming Library has finally reached version 1.0, the library gives great power to the Java Programming Langauge, by giving it access to OpenGL, OpenAL and additionally LWJGL provides access to controllers such as Gamepads, Steering wheel and Joysticks. All in a simple and straight forward API.

The library is very stable and already has a few commercial games under its belt, including games like Tribal Trouble and indie award winner Titan Attacks. Its available for all 3 major platforms Windows, Linux and Mac under the BSD license.

Being a huge Java supported, I would like to personally congratulation this group on their 1.0 release.

We have received word of a remake of the classic Ghouls and Ghost game that makes use of the Allegro library. This release has the following changes:

• New weapon added (arrow).
• Fixed some graphic elements.
• Memory usage was reduced.
• Some minor bugs fixed.

Download: [ Ghouls and Ghosts Remix 0.32]