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As usual, Wikipedia is a decent starting point, but doesn't include all the relevant information. Yes, the game was developed by Neversoft, however the PS2 port was done by Budcat Creations (see: http://www.budcat.com/games.htm) and the Wii port was done by Vicarious Visions (see: http://www.vvisions.com/games/details.cfm?ID=105). I suspect that the lack of DLC for Wii is a combination of limitations of the store and the Wii's small internal storage. A single DLC pack would take up over 10% of the Wii's internal storage space.

There was such a game, called Terminus. It was released around 2000 for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS all on the same disc. It promised a lot of what Eve:Online is doing, and infact the two games are very similar. Its just that this game has Newtonian physics, which people found out rather quickly isn't all that fun.

XBox for sure, ported by Vicarious Visions The release date for that one was beginning of October IIRC. I'm looking forward to the game, and I do need a PC upgrade, but I may wait for XBox version

Since I don't have the game installed anymore, I wasn't able to try out the code, but it did successfully compile under MSVC 6.0.

Is this the complete source code of the game and if so, why couldn't the author try out the code without having the game installed?

Also, I had never heard of this game before now (I live under the third rock on the left) so I'm wondering if it is still available for sale somewhere or if I need to start scouring the web for a used copy? From the screenshots, Freespace 2 appears to be similar to Homeworld and Terminus. The latter is noteworthy as a there are versions for Linux and Mac OS 9. I was quite suprised (and very pleased) to find all three versions included in the same box.

I've been following the development of this, and it's nice to see a game being developed simultaneously for Linux and Windows, rather than being released on Linux a year or more after the Windows counterpart.

I would certainly hope that a game starring Tux, the Official Linux Penguin, and originally developed on Linux, would not be available for Windows before it's available for Linux.

I also like the fact that the binaries for all platforms will be on one CD. I'm tired of buying two copies of games if I want to run them on both Linux and Windoze.

Yes, it's certainly nice when the game is developed, and originally released, as cross-platform. (Like Terminus.) Unfortunately, that's not really an option when a separate company like Loki does the porting after the game has been released, and it's kind of unfair to blame Loki for that. If gaming under Linux is important to you, then send a message by not buying Windows-only games; that way, you'll certainly not pay for the same game twice.

I certainly hope that Tribes 2 plays better under Linux than it does under windows. I can't count the number of problems I've had with it, not to mention how many my friends have had. That's one piece of software I regret buying.

There is at least game that does play better under Linux. I found that Terminus (http://www.vvisions.com/terminus/) ran better under Linux than WinXX. Despite applying the most recent patches, the Win32 version kept locking up on me.
--

"Why not release a product that supports Windows, AND Linux, AND MacOS all in one freaking package?"

Actually, this has already been done. Several month ago "Terminus" was on the shelves (unfortunately not many shelves). It supports the three OS's you mentioned off the same CD. One of the main developers on that project is a good friend of mine and I know they put alot of work into it. It is a real shame that it didn't receive a large acceptance. I personnaly think the game is pretty cool.

Check out the official page or the fan site.

Your arguments are good, but they are not arguments against video games in general. They are arguments against the video games you have played, or at least against only the particular ones you are talking about.

The fact of games not being sufficiently similar to real life are completely bogus. Nobody complains that chess doesn't give you the full experience of the sights, sounds, and smells of the medieval european battlefield. It doesn't have to.

Maybe you should try Terminus, where there are no cheat codes, and an unintentional, living experiment in organized anarchy is taking place on the main popular server. Or you should try Bolo, which also has no cheat codes and will teach you that situations that look simple can become amazingly complicated. Oh yeah, it'll also teach you teamwork and the importance of communication. Not to mention that it's a big barrel of fun. (Please note that both of these are multiplayer; this is no coincidence!)

So, to recap, 1, 2, and 3 are wrong points. They apply only to a limited subset of games. Many good games, in particular multiplayer games, and especially multiplayer games that involve more than point-and-shoot, avoid all of these problems. 4 is totally irrelevant, since if it were important, nobody should ever read a book, listen to music off a tape or CD, or play-fight.

Noone seems to like space combat except me. They might lump it with flight sims, but they're really different. Fly! isn't half as exciting as TIE Fighter. I still play that, even though I've gone throught the entire set of campaigns something like 10 times. I haven't seen many space combat games recently. Where have they gone? The only ones I see right now are Parsec(which is a free project yet to be finished) and Terminus(which is commercial). Are there others like me, or am I the only one who wants more space sims?

John, thank you for contribution to this discussion. I really appreciate seeing the producer's side of the argument once and a while.

That finished, I'd like to say that I disagree with Id's recent release decisions with Q3, which I view in the same context that the software industry in general supports: it's lack of committment to simply proving a software licence indepenent of operating system platform. The very fact that Id charged money for each platform-specific release of Q3 rather than supplying three versions of the software in one package (take Terminus for example), displays this very same capatilistic agenda.

Note that in the above paragraph, I referenced Id's release decisions in how they can be perceived by the public. It is obvious that from John's post here to Slashdot that he understands and addresseses these issues, a very nice thing to see. I don't want to belittle that point.

Continuing on with the discussion: why would software companies license their product in a platform-independent manner when they can make so much more money by forcing the user to license multiple copies?! It's a great money-making scheme that's not focused on the best interest of the consumer. We all really appreciate Id's commitment to contributing to the Open Source and Free Software communities by releasing the Doom and Quake code, but I would like to keep the context of this discussion to the recent release of Quake 3. (In other words, handing out candy while stealing money out of our pockets is not acceptable, even if we really like the candy.)

Certainly, it costs money to develop software for each platform, but the benefits of a larger market also open up. Will the costs of developing that software be recovered in its sale? Perhaps, but what will the costs of loosing customers because of this ridiculous licencing policy be?

As an avid fan of Id software -- having purchased and played each of the games since Wolfenstein 3D -- I am no slouch when it comes to dolling out another $40 for an excellent quality game. I did so for Quake 3. I rushed out and purchased the version of the game that came out first, Windows. However, as a Linux enthusiast, I'm working on removing any need to reboot into Windows for any reason. Games are the only thing tying me to Microsoft at the moment, and unfortunately for me, Quake 3 is in that category. Not because the Linux version isn't available, but because I'm not going to shell out yet another $40+ just to get the Linux binaries!

The fallback position is to just have hybrid CD?s. I?m pretty sure we can force our publishers to have a linux executable in an ?unsupported? directory. You would lose technical support, you wouldn?t get an install program, and you wouldn?t have anyone that is really dedicated to the issues of the product, but it would be there on day 1.

John, if only Id had done this in the first place, the company would be in a much better light amongst it's consumers than it currently is over this issue, including myself.

Chad Walstrom

"CDR drives are a wonderful thing..."

Terminus is a space combat sim featuring newtonian physics, a persistent universe, dynamic economy, a campaign that can be played both in multi- and single player and from 3 differented "perspectives" (Earth Military, Mars Military and pirate/mercenary). Shipping date is June 27th, and it will ship with Windows, Linux (x86 only) and Mac binaries in one box. You can pre-order the game here. More info can be found at the fan site Station Terminus.

The main page is http://www.vvisions.com/terminus/, not http://www.vvision.com/terminus/.

Although I saw one comment mention Terminus, I think it deserves MUCH more than that.

Terminus is a persistent universe RPG, in space. It is a 3D simulation set in our Solar System, two hundred years in the future. It is scheduled for release on 6 June 2000, for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.

For more on Terminus, check out Station Terminus.
There's an awesome preview at The Adrenaline Vault.
Here's another at Linux.com.
Lastly is the website of Vicarious Visions, the developer of Terminus.

Terminus was at the E3 (or, at least, was supposed to be) - I don't know why the writer of this article didn't see it / didn't mention it.
It hasn't gotten a whole lot of press, but it's been mentioned in quite a few game mags out there. I, for one, am going to buy this game the day it comes out - both to support games on Linux, and because it looks like a lot of fun.

-lw

Neverwinter Nights, a tremendous title that was demonstrated at the show, may be the first AAA game to support Linux out of the box.

Terminus will support Windows/Linux/MacOS out of the box, and it's scheduled to be released June 6, 2000.

Using a cool move like the distribution for Terminus under win, mac, and linux in the same box, you get twice the effect... Linux publicity and cross-platform gaming publicity.

Very bold. And a great game too.

Open Source software is not always an option if you are writing cross-platform code

I mean, if you like Code Warrior, then you're obviously unhappy that they've dropped linux support. But it certainly shouldn't destroy your project!

-Chuck