LINUXGAMES

We’ve been notified that the BrisKola, a clone of Italian card game Briscola, has been resurrected with a new release under the GPL.

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

EbonHack is a graphical (Qt-based) NetHack client with networked play; features include high scores, drop-down menus, and spectating. Feedback should be sent to the author.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ junction404.com ]

The author of BOH, a retro-inspired action game, let us know about a new update with the following changes:

• adds one-way passages
• adds flying enemies
• changes the functioning of teleports: weapons are not inhibited anymore; enemies are not scared away anymore
• the activation wait is shorter; enemies are destroyed if they touch the character during teleporting
• improves the visual feedback of hits in theme “vectors”
• increases the intensity of shot lights
• fixes some minor glitches in the themes “C64″, “default” and “vectors”
• adds the mission “skill challenge”
• retouches several missions (also making use of one-way passages)
• adds the Norwegian translation
• re-assigns some map characters for an even more logical arrangement and, therefore, an easier development of missions
• adds graying-out of the menu interface when another application gets the focus
• extends/improves the manuals
• applies some other changes/optimizations

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ bohthegame.com ]

AMD released their monthly Linux ATI Catalyst display driver package for their graphics cards; the requisite release notes delineate the changes in this build:

• RHEL 5.4 support
• openSUSE 11.2 early look support
• [Ubuntu 9.04] Animated busy mouse cursor no longer disappears or flickers in Clone mode
• Corruption no longer occurs after hot plugging a display and doing a Virtual Terminal switch
• With CrossFire enabled, system no longer becomes unresponsive when switching to DC (battery) mode with full-screen applications running
• [SUSE 11.1] Unplugging the secondary display and terminating the X server (Ctrl +Alt + Backspace) does not cause the primary display to become blank and display corruption
• Playing full screen Flash video on a secondary display no longer causes screen corruption
• Screen corruption no longer occurs when Open GL screen saver is enabled with Desktop effects

There’s also an unofficial Wiki and bugzilla if you run into issues.

Download: [ amd.com ]

Thanks to c3rb3rus for letting us know that Codeweavers released their latest version of Crossover Games, nicknamed “Zombie Mallard”. Most notably this release supports Left 4 Dead 2:

“Frankly, that’s all we need to support to justify a new release,” said Jeremy White, bloodless President and CEO of CodeWeavers. “We had the zombies practically beating down our doors to be able to run the sequel. We’re particularly pleased that we were able to support Left4Dead 2 as soon as it was released. In this way, Linux and Mac users can also do their bit to stave off the effects of the apocalyptic zombie plague sweeping this nation.”

Crossover Games can be purchased from Codeweavers for $39.95 US.

Version 2.5.0.5 of the DOOM source port PrBoom+ was released last week:

• Added an “sdl_video_window_pos” config variable.
• Access violation emulation for the “S1 Floor Raise Donut (changes texture) (9)” action in demo compatibility mode. “-donut floorheight floorpic” – takes custom values, overriding the program’s default values (“-donut 0xF1000000 7″, for DOSBox behavior). Disabled by default.
• Updated to newest SDL libraries: SDL.dll v1.2.14, SDL_net.dll v1.2.9.
• The “Sky Mode” GUI setting and “gl_drawskys” config variable have been removed. Now “SkyBox” is used if mouse look is enabled, “Standard Sky” otherwise. There is no more sky stretching with “SkyBox” mode.
• Fixed stat screen animation for The Ultimate Doom and the Doom II cast BOSSBACK after MAP30 when using ‘not adjusted’ rendering.
• Fixed detail walls when “GL_ARB_multitexture” extension is not supported or gl_compatibility is used.
• Fixed bug where music doesn’t change after IDMUS is used and a New Game is started.
• Fixed bug where using the “End Level” key while a demo is paused breaks the “End Level” feature.
• Fixed vertical scrolling of sky texture in SkyBox mode.
• Now the mirror flag for MBF skies is used in SkyBox mode.

Download: [ sf.net ]

Guild Software, the developers of Vendetta Online, has released a HD trailer to celebrate the Linux-native massive multiplayer space combat game’s five years of operation. Moreover, they are running a free trial promotion with MMORPG.com:

MMORPG.com and Guild Software are pleased to present this very special trial offer for Vendetta Online – the sci-fi space MMORPG! These trial keys will give you 21 days of unlimited access to the game world! Get your key while supplies last!

These keys give 21 days of free play, along with access to a special edition, limited-access ship (Vulture Anniversary Edition). The ship is made available to any characters created on the account where the key is applied, from now on. Be advised, the lower-level anniversary ship is only available in Capitol stations, so the player must progress out of the initial “training” sector before they will find it. There is also a high-level version of the ship in Corvus space.

Gamerizon has requested the assistance of the Linux community in beta-testing their upcoming 3D physics-based puzzle game QuantZ:

After the PC and mac version, our dream was to create a Linux version. And we did it. Before the release, we are looking for Linux users to test the game.

Please e-mail support@gamerizon.com with your feedback; you can download the most recent beta files from:

• http://gamerizon.s3.amazonaws.com/QuantZ-beta_1.1.2-1_i386.rpm
• http://gamerizon.s3.amazonaws.com/QuantZ-beta_1.1.2-1_i386.deb
• http://gamerizon.s3.amazonaws.com/QuantZ-beta_1.1.2_i386.tar.gz

The latest development of Wine has been released. This release has the following new items to report:

• Gecko now installed at wineprefix creation time.
• Better support for certificates in crypt32.
• Improved sound support in mciwave.
• Some more Direct3D 10 functions.
• Many cleanups for issues spotted by Valgrind.
• Various bug fixes.

Download: [ Wine 1.1.33 ]

Ryan “icculus” Gordon updated his .plan file this week with an update on the Aquaria port:

This is almost done, but I’m crunching on something very important. Hopefully I’ll start passing some Linux builds to Bit-Blot for testing in ~2 weeks when this other project is off my shoulders.

Thanks to a reader for pointing out that 3D Realms released some of their oldest games as freeware, with GPL’ed source code, earlier this year:

• Kroz – A text adventure game by Scott Miller (3D Realm’s first game) [ download ]
• Beyond the Titanic – Text based Infocom style adventure game by Scott Miller [ download ]
• Supernova – Text based Infocom style adventure game by Scott Miller [ download ]
• Word Whiz – A text based trivia game from Scott Miller [ download ]

Piper announced to us that tgatb (The Goblin and the Butterfly) is a free to play MMORPG under development in the alpha stage:

If you want to help to develop the game, try to contact piper (thats me) in game (there is a mail feature in game to send mails to offline players. You can find out more about that by reading the help files, type #help).

Piper is also looking for artists and an additional game client programmer (C, SDL).

Portalized has been reborn as the new project Pseudoform (thanks Nemoder!). It is a community-driven collaboration project that aims to create an involving and brain-melting first-person puzzle-solving game.

Pseudoform is also now an open source project; the editor and source code are available for download.

I feel silly, because I remember seeing Machinarium before this week and thinking it looked neat, but somehow assumed it didn’t have a Linux port. Well, I was clearly mistaken, as this IGF award winner for Excellence in Visual Art is available natively. Machinarium is a point-and-click adventure game (I can’t even remember the last one I played, but it, as it was for probably many of you, was my first PC game genre) starring an adorable robot on a quest.

You can play the (Flash-based) demo in your web browser; if you decide to purchase it, it’s available for $20 US (plus soundtrack).

The official blog has also posted a review roundup.

The developers of HYPERTENSION, an EDGE-engine remake of Blood, have released a trailer for the upcoming game (thanks Doomworld).

I have three invites to the Heroes of Newerth beta available still; first-come first-serve to the initial three commenters below. I haven’t played myself in a while, mainly due to a cross-country move, but also partially because I still haven’t gotten the hang of the game (I never played DoTA). To those in it, how are you liking the beta?

A few Quake Live-related items:

• Bethesda Blog interviewed id Software’s Marty Stratton about the genesis of the online shooter.
  

  One of the most requested features in QUAKE LIVE and something that I think would be at the core of any premium service, would be the ability to very easily and quickly start a private match (that only you and the players you invite can join). Right now, all of our matches are open to the public and started by our back end systems. So, what we’re looking at creating is a totally integrated and very easy to use method for starting and running a personalized private match.

• Evil Geniuses posted a four-part “Quake Bible” that has some interesting Bushido-esque philosophical advice for players.

Also, there’s been some consternation over recent comments John Carmack made to Variety (as a side note, I had completely missed that Variety now covered gaming news) about Rage probably not having a dedicated server for multiplayer. While initially disconcerting, my understanding is that Rage is primarily a single-player or co-operative multiplayer game, and not deathmatch-oriented like previous titles.

EDIT: Yeah, here’s the quote I was thinking of from a recent Shacknews interview:

Todd Hollenshead: I expect that we will be online on the consoles. It is a single-player, story-driven game with co-op capabilities, as opposed to a game where co-op is the way in which it’s built then there’s a different version of the game that’s not as fun by yourself… There’s no deathmatch in it now. If you put two people in the same time, they can shoot at each other, but there’s a whole bunch of different stuff that goes into that versus a cooperative campaign.

Here’s an offbeat project: Ars Technica pointed out a homebrew project to create a Metallica-themed pinball game.

“We wanted the audio playback to be CD quality (44KHz 16bit stereo), and we wanted to be able to play a lot of different songs, so I chose an embedded Linux system to run the audio,” he explained. The other challenge? Pinball games are designed to be played roughly, and the team already had to deal with a shaking play field.

“I prototyped with a BeagleBoard, but moved to a Gumstix Overo Earth board for the final system because it is rated up to 90 C and is reported to have passed the 5 year MIL-STD-810F 514.5 military vibration test,” said Klyce.

Here comes the science. “Since the Gumstix Linux board does not use 5 volts on board, I used an Arduino Mega board to interface to the Williams System 11 CPU board. The Arduino Mega watches the sound command signals and translates them into serial commands that are sent to the Linux board over USB.”

What Linux-based game hardware projects have you seen and/or worked on?

Both AMD and NVIDIA updated their graphics chipset drivers for Linux recently:

• ATI Display Driver 9.10
• NVIDIA Display Driver 190.42

jClassicRPG’s new test release is out. Changelog:

• New monsters/humanoids, animations for some beings
• New town types, buildings
• New character voicepacks
• Generated Road System added
• Mouse support added
• Camera set to smooth turning in combat mode
• Options menu completed
• Very basic scenario support with seed choosing at New Game
• Behavior skills are now used in perception
• Easier to use character creation
• World map window enhancements, graphics, town icons
• Displaying percept beings in 3D in walk mode with fade shader
• Top button row for accessing windows
• Tooltip system added
• Many-many bugfixes, optimization, reference leak fixes and more.

The developer also notes that feedback at the project forums is much appreciated.

Download: [ sourceforge.net ]