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Maybe because you can create performant, cross-platform applications like:

    http://www.banghowdy.com/
    http://tribaltrouble.com/
    http://sunflow.sourceforge.net/

...or that in five years it will be hard to find a widescreen, 3D capable cellphone that does not support being programmed in Java?

...or that the iPhone can run Java natively in hardware?
    http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=338

Check out the lightweight java game library (LWJGL) - it powers pretty impressive commercial games like Tribal Trouble and Bang Howdy. They work great on the three OSes you mention, have attractive 3d interfaces and are fast and more stable than many windows games I've played (CC:Generals comes to mind - same genre, but for me crashed about 50% of the games I played). Maybe they're not as gorgeous as something like Source can provide, but I think they show that Java can be a wonderful platform for many types of games.

Come on, this is a whole event. Can we talk about something other than the most violent game there?

What about Darwinia http://www.darwinia.co.uk/? How about Tribal Trouble http://tribaltrouble.com/? Crazy Ball http://www.atomicelbow.com/?

let the entire competition shine, not just the one crappy flash game that gets media attention!

Several games.

Jake2 (Quake 2 clone) as the AC already posted.
Puzzle Pirates
Tribal Trouble (good!)

check out javagaming.org for tons of discussions about the subject.

and tools? how about:

LWJGL: http://www.lwjgl.org/
JMonkeyEngine: http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/
Xith3D: http://xith.org/

And there are probably tons of other games and tools I'm forgetting.

And regardless what the trolls will say, it is perfectly possible to create a 2006-level game in java.

The indepent game developers thrive. Smaller companies are coming into the marketplace. Take a look at the Independent Games Festival

If you look at the titles you will see a lot of reasonably priced games that are great fun, though they may not be as polished as a AAA title.

A little shameless plug for company I work for: Tribal Trouble

We are an independent developer and we intend to bring fun into games again.

Four. You just have to read the system requirements that are next to each game on the original page (or copied into this thread). Barring any errors in the listings, the 4 Linux-running games are:

• DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold
• Professor Fizzwizzle
• Darwinia
• Tribal Trouble

So 40% of the games in the top 10 run on Linux. And cross-platform indie developers report about 10% of their sales come from Linux games. So don't bitch too much.

10) New Star Soccer 3
System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
http://www.newstargames.com/

9) DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold
System Requirements: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, Linux, Mac OS X
http://www.caravelgames.com/Articles/Games_2/JtRH. html

8) Professor Fizzwizzle
System Requirements: Windows or Linux, Mac OS X
http://grubbygames.com/

7) Darwinia
Windows 98/XP/2000, Linux, Mac
http://www.darwinia.co.uk/

6) Democracy
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
http://www.democracygame.com/

5) Mexican Motor Mafia
Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
http://www.scienceoftomorrow.com/mmm_main.htm

4) Tribal Trouble
MacOS X / Linux /Windows NT/2000/XP
http://tribaltrouble.com/

3) Zombie Smashers X2
DirectX 8+
http://www.totallyscrewed.net/newsite/home.htm

2) Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/digital_eel/weird_wor lds/1.htm

1) Oasis
Windows 98/Me/2000/XP
http://www.oasisgame.com/

Oh, and BTW: you are lying about Quake.

Not just me; take a look at the recent 'Quake 2 ported to Java' thread posted on Slashdot.

I've seen the Java version... with hardware gfx acceleration, it runs about as fast as it used to on a pentium. Sure, you can run Quake in Java, now that we have several gigahertz of CPU power and a gig of RAM and a gfx hardware acceleration.

Sorry, but I saw a demo version years ago on much less that that.

Woo fucking hoo.

Well, you could post this, or perhaps discuss bencharks.

nor does it make Java suitable for 3d games... unless you happen to be a disingenuous Java fanatic.

Which is odd, considering new 3D games written in Java are being released all the time. here is a new one:

http://tribaltrouble.com/

And for all linux gamers you might find Tribal Trouble interesting. It's available for both Linux, Mac and Windows. All with a single license.

Plus it's written in Java, how geeky can it get?

tribaltrouble.com

Also crazyball is pretty cool, might wanna check it out too.

This supports most of what you want to do.

you cant be serious in considering that Java is a reputable alternative to writing robust recent good quality 3D openGL apps can you?

Oh, get over it. People said the same thing about C++ several years ago. Back then, no one would have believed that in a few years games like Konami's Metal Gear Solid would be using scripting languages for a lot of their gameplay. Now games are a mixture of several languages - from assembly on up to scripting.

The first commercial game to use Java was Tom Clancy's Politika, and that came out in 1997!

Some commercial games that use Java include:

• Star Wars Galaxies
• Law and Order
• IL-2 Sturmovik
• Tribal Trouble

the benchmarks on this site were for all 800x600? huh? that is so dated. no one writes 3D apps/games using 800x600..and Quake 2?? come on now isnt that a bit outdated?

That's the point. The whole argument is outdated. The language has been capable for years.