Jagged Alliance 2 for Linux

Vesper writes "Sir-Tech Canada announced that there will be a Linux port of the popular turn-based strategy game, Jagged Alliance 2, ported by Tribsoft. Saw a blurb on this over at AVault. The game will be bundled with the expansion, "Unfinished Business", and available in Spring 2000. The rate at which publishers are announcing games for Linux seems to be increasing. "

Comments

more games

[Sublimed]

i think it's great that more and more games are being released for linux. I personally think it's something that is really needed. I mean, alot of people who run linux may not be interested in the gaming aspect, but with the recent rise in console and PC gaming, it's becoming a more and more important aspect. I mean, more games == more users == more support? At least, that's the way i'd like it to happen =).

The turnaround has yet to happen

[Sludge]

When I choose games to buy/play for the PC, usually I choose them based on how they play, not based on the Operating System they run under.

That being said, Linux has a ways to go until games can be chosen before the platform becomes an issue.

Every little bit helps. Between JAL2 and Loki's latest additions, I could game my ass off all year if I purchased all those titles.

Encouraging

[HoserHead]

I'm very encouraged by the number of games being ported or already ported to Linux. I've made a point of buying games (from Canux) for Linux which I might not have bought before, simply to show both Loki and Canux support. For example, I certainly wouldn't have bought Quake III so early after it was released had it not been important to me to show the numbercrunchers at id and Activision that Linux is a valid platform.

I'm very discouraged, however, by the fact that one very important game to me hasn't been ported or announced by Loki: Half-Life. Valve have to know that this'd kill, and that more people would buy that port than would buy Quake III, probably. I know I'd snap it up right away. And I've made it very clear to a number of companies, when inquiring as to their Linux port status, that I wouldn't buy their games if they weren't available for Linux.

It might sound a little crazy - support for only games for Linux - but, simply put, it needs support. I'm the biggest Free Software advocate out there. Hell, I don't even like the term "Open source." But games are sort of different - I'm not so sure that Free Software will work for all games.

And, in the end, by buying Linux-ported games the market itself is expanding, and more people will get into Linux - and isn't that what we all want?

JA2 delay...

[mpinard]

I've noticed that a lot of people complain about the delay to bring games to Linux. The big delay for JA2 was more about starting our business...

In the future, we will try to release games more quickly on Linux (what about 2-3 months later). However, JA2 is more a game with deep game-play that you can play for months so I feel it's great to make it available for Linux.

Mathieu Pinard
Tribsoft Inc.

Let there be Standards, and it was good.

[fishlet]

Well if me rusty brain recollects correctly, it wasn't until DirectX became ubiquitous (sometime after DirectX 3) that gaming really took off on Windows 95. I remember just a few years ago, there were still lots of games being written for DOS and DOS extenders like those available from Rational. Then DirectX started to improve... and now almost all games are written for Windows. What Linux needs is a graphic/audio/3D standard that everyone agrees on. It looks like OpenGL will be the winner for 3D (judging on the number of windows developers adapting OpenGL, it seems migrating to Mesa would be easier). Still, there hasn't been any bright shining star in the form of a unified gaming services library. Not to say they don't exist, theres CGI, XFree86 v4, and plenty of others... but not clear winner yet.