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Loki Porting Alpha Centauri, Sim City 3k and More
kato writes "Loki has just announced that it will be porting the following games to linux: Alpha Centauri, SimCity 3000, Soldier of Fortune, Interstate '82, and Heavy Gear II. Pre-ordering should begin soon at the standard places: Loki, Handeye, etc. No word on exactly when they'll be released, though. "
So the real question is this: When will Loki go public? They are probably the single hottest Linux company out there in the sense that games are the only sure-bet out there today. People may buy databases at work, but for every database there's 50 employees who go home and play SimKillMyCo-Workers. And then they buy the expansion pack, sequal, cheat books, etc. If Loki can convince the gaming biz to let them do all of the ports, their profits may require a new set of units (the yottabuck may not be sufficient).
;-)
That leaves me to wonder when I'll be allowed to buy in. Either that, or are they hiring?
WRT compatibility, other games have been direct translations, having identical interfaces and look. Saved game compatibility has usually come after patches, but some network stuff is done using MS direct play (eg, Heroes III) which they haven't been able to port. In some cases, they've managed network compatibility with Mac versions.
I'm glad Alpha Centauri's being ported, but I'm not quite so bothered about the others. To each their own, however.
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My oppinion on games under Linux is very simple.
Linux still needs some improvement to make it just as good for games as Windows or DOS.
Compare Windows/DOS with Linux
Windows/DOS :
Single user: no security problems, so coders have much more freedom in accessing hardware
Good libraries: I can tell you many bad things about Windows, but DirectX is a good library
Good hardware support: nuff' said
Linux (or any other unice)
Multi user: coders have less freedom because of kernel design which prohibits direct access to the hardware unless run as suid root.
Libraries: I've got to admit: mesa is getting better and better. It wouldn't be bad if we had mesa as standard for every game developed under Linux
Hardware support: Get's better and better (look at nvidea's fast driver support for it's latest card)
Looking at the differences: Linux is not far from it's goal as gaming platform. But do we really _need_ those games? I don't know for sure, but for as far as I know, most gamers still use Windows as their main platform, and I think they don't really see the need for changing to another os.
This is a replacement signature.
1) I can't find any anouncement on the Loki web site
2) The cool thing I like About Linux is that it runs on non X86 hardware. And many announcement of That kind only care to do the port for the i386 linux crowd - once in a while PowerPC owners will have some chunks and pieces. But Alpha users never get any attention, not to mention other High powered platform running Linux
I whish the computing industry would realise that supporting x86 and only x86 is driving them nowhere because one day ( and Boy I whish this day to be sooner than expected) the x86 platform will die, because One day producing "compatible" processors that are more powerfull than the ones available nowdays will cost too much. Compagnies making games only have x86 expertise and they'll loose $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ the day x86 dies. They should support other hardware, because it costs a bit but with that bit you usually cover all the hardware
sorry for being off-topic
none Yet.
Out of respect for not posting the name and info from a private e-mail I will not list the company or personal name of where I got this information. In the process of e-mailing the V.P. of engineering for a well known game company (on a topic other than games) I asked him about his take on Linux support/development. Note, this was not anyone associated with Id Software as might be implied below.
:)"
"Glad to hear you have enjoyed some of our games. I think Linux has a
chance...but it will be slow going until sales and profits convince
publishers that it's a wise investment to do Linux versions. Currently what
happens, is a Linux porting group will offer to do a port of a Windows game.
The porting group gets a decent royalty for Linux sales and the original
developer and/or publisher don't have to pay for the port...so for them,
it's basically risk-free. (note that this doesn't apply to Id Software
since they mainly support everything for the fun of it (their words, not
mine) because they can).
So everybody support Loki as best as we can and the game makers will respond by making games on Linux.
Do really dense people warp space more than others?
It supports Win32 (either through Visual C or Cygnus's cross-compiler), Linux, Beos and the Mac (although the latter two need some more work). There's lots and lots of goodies in its API: threads, tracked music playback, MIDI playback, CD playback, MPEG music and video libraries, multiplayer net code, threads, hooks to OpenGL (it's possible to write an SDL program which is hardware accelerated under X f.e), hooks to GTK+, and fast access to X framebuffers through a linear surface which can be converted to any colour depth.
In short , if you're looking to write a game or any multimedia kind of app, SDL is the way to go. It is possible by changing a single switch at autoconf time to have your app recompiled for Windows 9x + DirectX 5 or better.
Another great thing is that this lib is being used for Loki's commercial games so it's real-world and any improvements made there go straight back into the source. Likewise all the testing and feedback makes it possible for all those games to be ported to Linux :) I know you have it already but anyone who wants to have a look can find it here
if you like Civ type games Alpha Centauri is a must have, if simply to see what Reynolds and Meier have done this time. I played it through a few times and now try to avoid it, unless I have tons of time to play. It (a true sign of good games) can make entire evening disappear. The tech is cool, the CGI is nice, there's even some inside jokes about M$, all the different factions are really different and should be played that way, the vehicle design and upgrade app is cool, battle is nice and simple, the voice-overs are well done, and there is a plotline. Tweaking your own type of government is fun. The bottom line is that it is very much a sequel to Civ2, the gameplay is nearly identical, just more polished and with all new stuff (albeit does out in much the same way).
+&x
I think it's possible Loki could have a go at a public offering. I was pessimistic about this the last time I thought about it, but Loki is far enough outside of the spectrum of normal game companies for it to work, and they do dominate their (currently small) market.
But I'm still hesitant about that idea, because what they really need to do is secure their place in the market somehow. At some point, when Linux gaming is hot enough, Linux versions of games will ship under the same publishing deal as the Windows version. At that point, Loki has problems. That's what I'm worried about -- they have no ownership of their content, and not enough control over distribution. They need to fix one of those problems somehow.
So what about a buyout? A buyout by a large publisher would completely mess up Loki's current business plan. Then there's a host of non-game companies to pick from. Red Hat seems like a good choice, because they have that synergy thing and a great distribution channel to offer. Although it wouldn't achieve the speculative valuation of an IPO, it would be an excellent growth strategy for Loki.
However, consider this outlandish suggestion. Interplay is already publicly traded (IPLY), and is a mid-size publisher (an endangered breed). If they mated, I believe Loki would be able to enhance their position in the market, be able to take on a few original games, and get pretty good distribution and promotion. You've got a public company, you've got a pretty good distribution setup, you've got Shiny, Interplay's in Irvine, hey, even the name sounds hip. Not too shabby.
However, I gotta go for the Red Hat buyout as the most likely scenario.
AFAIK, just about any Linux system should run these. Civ CTP works fine on both my dual-400 celeron system and my friend's PII (166? | 266?) (although you can tell a noticable difference ;) ). It also runs through X on any other UNIX. Just for fun I tried to run it off his computer, over his T1, through the school network and onto a Sun Ultra 5. The result was slow as molasses, with 16 colors and a nasty green tinge, but it worked.
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