The Linux hardware news/review site Phoronix has conducted an interview with Linux Game Publishing’s Frank “Svartalf” Earl about his previous work porting commercial titles, the technical hurdles encountered, and his take on the market.
LordHavoc has released a new build of his Quake-derived DarkPlaces engine, to fix an ogg library bug. DarkPlaces is also utilized by the Nexuiz project.
Download: [ icculus.org ]
Wolfire’s Lugaru sequel, Overgrowth, now has a webcomic which expands on the game’s fighting anthropomorphized animals.
svenstaro fired in a report that the Portalized project has made quite a lot of progress since last we mentioned it: it now features improved portals, portal-though-portal lighting, improved graphics and better physics!
S2 Games, developer of the native (32bit and 64bit) Linux game Heroes of Newerth, currently in closed beta, has released a very impressive video of the gameplay (thanks vadi4!):
More screenshots/info can be found here at the game’s Facebook page.
Thanks to vadi4 for letting us know that S2 Games has released version of their RTS/FPS hybrid Savage 2: A Tortured Soul. The game is free to download and play, forever; the changelog can be found here. You can additionally support the game by buying a premium account ($10 one-time fee). Also, there are live streaming with commentary videos going on (commented by S2Mercenary himself), usually at 2PM US Eastern time.
The developers of Commander Genius, an interpreter of the Commander Keen with improved features, sent in word that they’re at version 0.2.9.7:
This version seems to be the most stable we ever had! So check it out. It even consumes less memory, especially when using HQP, then its predecessors!
Download: [ sourceforge.net ]
Thanks to a reader for letting us know that the free MMORPG Eternal Lands has added a few trailers to their official website.
After 7 months since the DVD was released, this is the first release of YoFrankie since being an open project at the Blender institute.
Version 1.1 brings YoFrankie up to date with Blender, taking advantage of new features. There have also been improvements in the game logic and levels.
Download: [ yofrankie.org ]
The latest development release of Wine, the Windows emulator for Unix, has been released. This release has the following new features and fixes:
Download: [ Wine 1.1.25 ]
A new version of the Commander Keen series interpreter Commander Genius has been released; it is faster, has more features, and the website has new videos.
Download: [ sourceforge.net ]
We received the following press release:
Budapest, Hungary, June 23th, 2009 – Artex Studios, Inc.® is proud to announce the immediate availability of Mahjong Zodiac™ for Linux, a funny and colorful casual skill game. It has a very unique 3-matching and mahjong gameplay.
“Familiar, yet entirely new, Mahjong Zodiac™ will appeal to mahjong and puzzle lovers alike! Embark on a journey through ancient China and Buddha’s life in this story-filled skill game. As you progress from level to level, a beautifully illustrated story is revealed, immersing you in a great gaming experience. Mahjong Zodiac™ is perfect for Linux gamers of all ages!”– said Jozsef Trencsenyi, CEO and founder of Artex Studios, Inc.® and owner of CasualGameStore.com portal.
Artex Studios, Inc.® has released a GNU/Linux version of its Mahjong Zodiac™ game while lowering the price of Windows version. The new GNU/Linux version brings significant improvements and bug fixes to play the game more intuitively. The price has also been lowered to better reflect the market expectations.
“We have got a great Windows game and we want to make it affordable for even more customers and spread to a wider audience” – said Mr. Trencsenyi.
Game features:
- Classic and New Gameplay Elements
- 96 Levels
- Gorgeous Graphics
- Authentic Chinese Music
- Impressive Sound Effects
System Requirements:
- GNU/Linux Operating System with SDL, SDL_image, SDL_mixer and SDL_ttf shaerd libraries
- Pentium II 500 MHz CPU
- 128 MB RAM
Pricing and Availability:
Mahjong Zodiac™ can be purchased from the CasualGameStore.com for US$9.99. A free demo version with 12 levels is available for download.
Screenshots:
http://www.casualgamestore.com/images/mz_screenshot01.jpg
http://www.casualgamestore.com/images/mz_screenshot02.jpg
Demo Download: [ casualgamestore.com ]
The RPG project Monster 2 has reached version 1.0 with the requisite bugfixes.
Download: [ nooskewl.com ]
Reader submission time: dannystaple let us know he has compiled a list of his favorite free software games for Linux.
What do you think are the best ever free Linux games?
After playing games for years, some just seem to stand out as top choices. These are native to Linux, open source and free. Nethack in particular is over 20 years old, and still one of my favourite games. It is still being discovered by players and still in active development.
I let this one sit on the shelf for a while, apologies: Recently all of the submissions for a Blender game engine competition have been bundled for downloading and play with Blender 2.49.
Download: [ blender.org ]
