LINUXGAMES

Introversion Software wrote to let us know about the upcoming release of their WarGames-inspired online multiplayer simulation of global thermonuclear war, DEFCON:

“Introversion Software, ‘the last of the bedroom programmers’ and creators ofthe award-winning hit PC game – Darwinia – will be releasing their thirdtitle, DEFCON, at the end of September 2006. DEFCON will be retailed onIntroversion’s online store at £10 for download, and £12.50 for a downloadwith a boxed copy (sent by post). A fantastic pre-order offer will go livemid-September, running for two weeks, where customers will have theopportunity to buy DEFCON for £10 and receive a complimentary boxed copy ofthe game. DEFCON will also be offered in a bundle pack with Introversion’stwo previous games Uplink and Darwinia for £30.”

According to the game’s site, the Linux version should be out in November and even though the team’s confidence in this date is listed as “low”, we rely on Introversion’s resident Linux guru, John Knottenbelt, to bring us this game as soon as possible. Stay tuned for more news about Defcon on LinuxGames.com.

Forgot to mention this earlier: there were a fewLinux games among the finalists for the Independent Games Festival Awards;subsequently, the winnerswere announced at GDC:06. Congratulationsto Introversion, who receivedthree awards for Darwinia, and to the Last Man Standing team, who won best Doom 3 mod.

Also, congratulations to Lotus.Arts who won best UT2004 mod for their project, Path of Vengeance. The currentversion is untested on Linux (I tried running it myself and hit a textureissue), but I contacted the developers and they anticipate having anopportunity to test the next build.

Edit – Sunday Apr 09 15:09:14 2006: Whoops, forgot to mention that Rose of Eternity – Chapter 1 won in the best Neverwinter Nights module category. There are interviews with the developer @ BioWare.com and Neverwinter Vault.

Eurogamer conducted an interviewwith Chris Delay of IntroversionSoftware (the developers of Uplinkand Darwinia,both available for Linux) abouttheir next game, Defcon. Defcon is areal-time strategy game inspired by Cold War strategic nuclear warfarescenarios, such as the simulation depicted by the movie WarGames:

Chris Delay: Points are scored by successfully nuking the enemy civilianpopulation into oblivion. This is an extremely difficult task becauselaunching an attack on the enemy makes you very vulnerable – Ground Silos andSubs and Bombers all give away their positions the moment they launch nuclearweapons.

We’re playing this game every day and people keep coming up with newstrategies – but the bottom line is it’s very difficult to win convincingly.Games often end with both sides obliterated. It’s a fascinating and nervousgame to play.

It’s anticipated that the game will be completed this April.

The Independent Games Festival has announced the finalists for their 2006 competition awards. Several Linux games have been nominated:

• Darwinia
• Professor Fizzwizzle
• Tribal Trouble

All finalists are eligible for the IGF 2006 Audience Award, and Darwinia and Professor Fizzwizzle are up for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. The winners will be announced on March 22.

PCBurn has posted a review of Darwinia. A blurb from their review:

Darwinia’s story goes something like this. You happen across an AI experiment that has apparently gone awry. It seems you’re just in the nick of time, as the systems administrator is about to pull the plug and reset it loosing all his work in the process. With your help, though, he might just be able to get the experiment back on track and put an end to the virus that has been threatening his virtual creation.

Version 1.3.0 of IntroversionSoftware’s (who also developed the Linux game Uplink) real-time strategy game Darwinia (screenshots) has been released. Theretail version of Darwinia can be ordered here; there’s also a newdemo available:

The new demo is designed to be two things at once- on the one hand its a blazing introduction to Darwinia for new players who’ve never seen it before, complete with scene-setting introduction andtutorial, but on the other hand it’s also the next chapter in the story of theDarwinians. The action takes place AFTER the full game has concluded, meaningthe new demo serves as both an introduction (to new players) and an epilogue(to old players). So even if you’re a Darwinian veteren we’d still like toencourage you to play the new demo through to completion – there’s stuff inthere for you, and we’re sure you’ll have a good time.

Darwinia 1.3.0 Downloads: [ Demo 2 | Retail Patch ]

The Darwinia site was updatedearlier this month to note a few additions to theirextras section,includingan alternate intro music track. Darwinia is a real-time strategy gamewith classic game sprite-esque units and maps (think TRON). Thesoundtrack isalso available.

Moreover, there’s been several reviews posted:

• James
• TheUnderdogs
• Ferrago
• DIYGames

Darwinia Demo Download: [ darwinia.co.uk]

Andreas sent in word that he has written a new review; this one takes a look at Introversion’s latest game, Darwinia.

Fans of Introversion‘s latest have reason to be excited today; Darwinia 1.21 is out in both patch and updated-demo forms for Linux. Instructions for the updated Linux version-for-the-full-game are here. The Windows demo still isn’t updated, so we’re getting a bit of a bonus with the demo being updated. Changes from the developer’s mouth:

The changes include a brand new mouse selection system (which is much better than the old one), massively improved Radar Dishes (they were a bit unreliable in the initial release, we have to admit), performance enhancements, new modding features, and a bunch of bug fixes and difficulty tweaks. There’s a lot of stuff in this patch.

Complete ChangeLog

Darwinia 1.21 Downloads: [ patch | demo ]

Introversion, the authors of Darwinia, updated their website yesterday with news of an upcoming patch to Darwinia. In their words:

We have been working carefully on Darwinia since launch, and plan to release a patch with a number of fixes and enhancements soon. We have improved some of the more flaky systems that took some flak in our reviews, and we have fixed a number of small bugs and problems. You can read a complete change list here.

Today we have started beta testing this new patch on Windows, which will bring Darwinia up to version 1.2. Currently only our beta testers have access to the patch. We will soon begin beta testing for Mac and Linux. If you are a Darwinia beta tester (phase 1 or phase 2, either is ok) then please go to the Beta Testers forum for instructions on how to download and test the new patch.

A reader pointed out that Introversion has dropped the price of Darwinia (demo) for European and US residents; the price is now £19.99 in the United Kingdom (+ £1.50 shipping/handling), 29.99 euros in the rest of Europe (+ 2 euros shipping/handling), and $29.99 (+ $3 shipping/handling) in the US:

We are in the process of building a new online Introversion store, which will be coming online soon. We’ve relied on Worldpay for long enough and we all feel its about time we had a proper shopping system with cart, checkout, order tracking etc etc. We actually have a number of different products for sale over the Introversion site now (Uplink, UplinkMac, UplinkDevCD, Darwinia, DarwiniaPoster), and more to come, so it really was a requirement. We’ve seperated the delivery costs out for the first time (normally we include them directly in the price), because the new store will be dealing with seperate delivery costs allowing people to order multiple products and save a little money.

Additional info about ordering the Linux version can be found here. Moreover, IGN recently posted a review of the retro-inspired RTS.

Introversion Software has released the Linux demo, and binaries to go with the retail Windows cd of their second indie game, Darwinia. I’ve tried the demo and it is fun, though it takes a bit of getting used to after wondering where the hacking is.

Darwinia Demo Download: [ 3D Downloads | 3D Gamers | Darwinia.co.uk ]

A reader sent in word that PC Zone, a UK PC gaming magazine, has devoted two pages of their January issue to Introversion Software’s Darwinia, which is about a tribe of video game sprites trapped in a modern 3D game world (screenshots). Darwinia is currently in beta testing for Linux and other platforms; Introversion’s last title was the cyberpunk game Uplink, which was also released for Linux.

Introversion Software, the developers of Uplink, sent in the following announcement:

Darwinia, Introversion’s second title, is now being ported to Linux and we would appreciate some help testing it. We would like to encourage interested LinuxGames readers to come on over to http://www.darwinia.co.uk/betatest and sign up for the beta test phase 1. The goal will be to test the demo level of Darwinia and to check hardware- and Linux distribution compatibility. More information about Darwinia can be found at http://www.darwinia.co.uk.

Darwinia is about a tribe of video game sprites trapped in a modern 3d game world; screenshots can be found here.

One of our forum posters pointed out that Strategy First, publisher of Guild Software’s Vendetta Online and Introversion’s Uplink, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection:

Strategy First, the company which publishes “Uplink:Hacker Elite” in America and Canada, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as of late August, reporting a debt of over $5 million. The company suspended all royalty payments to Introversion Software during Spring 2003, and we have not received anything since.

At this date Strategy First owe us tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid royalties. We have decided to announce this now that their financial situation has been made public. Although this has placed considerable financial strain on Introversion it will not affect the release of Darwinia as we have known about this information for over a year and have planned accordingly.

Introversion will survive to put Darwinia on the shelves, but your support along the way is greatly appreciated.

Darwinia, Introversion’s next title, has a Linux port planned, as evidenced by their Linux forum and this FAQ:

> Will Darwinia be Linux compatible, from-the-box?

We don’t know the answer to this yet. Mac and Linux versions will be coming, but we’re not sure when. Again it’s all down to time.

Uplink is a neat game; I recommend trying out the demo if you haven’t already.

I wrote Guild Software to determine how this will affect the release of Vendetta Online, which went gold recently. John Bergman sent the following reply:

We’ve been aware of Strategy First’s difficulties for some time.We don’t anticipate it negatively impacting our game. SFI is exclusively aretail-distribution and marketing partner, and only in North America. Wedirectly handle all recurring billing income, so in the worst-casescenario, we simply are left in an online-only distribution model. Thegame will still go on, as long as we have subscribers.

Also, for what it’s worth, Strategy First has been very supportiveof us, thus far. They’ve bent over backwards to help us out and get thingsdone for us, despite their difficult situation. They also have quite anumber of games launching this fall, so I think there’s a good chance thatthey’ll pull themselves out of their economic state.

Strategy First also released the Jagged Alliance 2 source code earlier this year, as noted last week.