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Forum: Future Ports of Games to Linux
It's been a long time since I posted an open forum like this, but I'm curious what people think on this one. What games do you most want to see ported to Linux in the next few months? Of course, for me personally it's StarCraft and Diablo 2, but I'm curious what games have come out or are due soon that people would most like to see a port of (and note that WINE doesn't count. ;)
How about all those good old Infocom games? I'm sure the source code could be had for a song, and someone could bundle a nice CD filled to the brimmed with the greatest text-based games all capable of running on Linux!
As far as recent stuff, I'd have to go for Half-Life and Starcraft.
-V
Hosting for Creators: http://rpg-works.net
The PSX2, as those of us who spend too much time thinking and talking about games are fond of mentioning, is going to be this monster of a machine.
If you want to talk about the future of porting games to linux, you really need to consider the next sony console as a primary source for the games. I know, i know, console games lack the depth and intellectual demands of pc games, bla bla bla, but that's all going to change, and quickly, with this machine.
I have no idea what the dev kit for the psx2 is like, and I don't know how often games get ported from a console to linux (ever?). But windows-to-Linux isn't the only porting that's going to go on, going forward. Which is nice.
god is just pretend.
I for one would like to see a lot of older stuff ported. Some people have mentioned the Wizardry series, for instance, and Starcraft. I think if a game is fun, its worth having (and given the price of HD space these days, no big deal keeping an extra 20gig around for games and junk).
Especially for games with a lot of depth (Ultima for instance). I've forgotten enough of it to make me want to replay it - without screwing with emulators and such. Seems like a huge untapped market to me: release a CD of older games, ported and possibly "prettied up". I am sure some people would buy them for nostalga alone (I would).
Of course, as someone said, the possibility of games is bad - I saw my productivity go WAY up when I moved to Linux, since there were no games. Now I can just stop what I am doing and play some UT or HOMM3, rather than solve those pesky problems.
ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
I don't think you understand the roaring mass of people who want starcraft ported.
Just because it's new doesn't mean it's fun. Starcraft is one of the best games I have ever played, and has a lot of life left in it.
I've noticed a lot of people asking for Games like Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft etc. I'm wondering if these people know that WINE has been running these games since barely after they came out. PEOPLE: go download WINE. Maybe the game you want ported works already!
A little note: Most DirectX games will work flawlessly. Last I checked Direct3D did not work well.
Joseph Elwell.
Yup all of 'em
Now lets all go over and post on the Battle.net suggestion forums...
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Quake 3 uses the same OGL code on all 3 platforms - Windows, Mac, and Linux. Mesa is that good :-)
The original Diablo would also be quite cool... it had just the right amount of complexity and playability for my tastes. It seems to me that the sequels to good games sometimes try to cram in twice or thrice as much complexity into the game, and just learning the usefulness and function of all the new features/abilities/characters takes too long for me to remain interested. (even GT2- it has over 500 cars? how'm I ever going to find the one I can drive the best??)
Alternately, if the WINE people could emulate DirectX enough to play these windows games on my desktop (and if my X would gain the ability to do full-screen, which it mysteriously has never had [slackware X funny in any way?]), then I'd be happy and noone would need to port anything. :)
</end long-winded rant>
There are so many newer, up-and-coming games that Loki could be spending their time on:
- Halo
- Oni
- Tribes2
- TeamFortress2
- Warcraft3
- . . . et cetera . . .
After all, why don't we aim our proselytizing at games BEFORE they come out? Have you seen the Halo trailers? Good lord, we need to have that game on Linux.. . . of course, I could be wrong . . .
I have no
that's the only true computer game. all others pale in comparison ;-)
(yeah, this was a test. anyone 'old' enough to remember the Wumpus?)
--
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
The title says it. I'd buy Ultima 9, Monkey Island 3, Wing Commander 5, and anything similar. Unfortunately, I'm not interested in the current crop of ports, which consists entirely of strategy and FPS's.
I'd really prefer to see new titles as opposed to older titles ported. Oh, I wouldn't mind if some of my old faves got ported, but I'm not expecting it.
I pretty much skipped MS-Windows altogether--went directly from DOS to Linux. So I can't name a bunch of MS-Win-based titles that need porting. But I do know what kind of games I like!
I want flight sims. Combat flight sims. I used to spend considerable sums buying new flight sims for DOS. Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. Birds of Prey. Red Baron. Falcon. And my all-time favorite, for its balance, smoothness, and complexity--Domark's AV-8B Harrier. Man, that was a sim! On Linux we have, what, ACM and FlightGear? Both nice, but not in the same league.
I want space sims. I actually bought WABI so I could play MS's Space Flight Simulator. It was so pretty it made me drool. But just drooling can get boring after a while if there's nothing much to explore and no way to blow things up. Oh, I'll take the things in the Wing Commander, Mantis, and X-Wing category, too, but as far as I know, there isn't an existing full-bodies physics-based (that's also not afraid to allow a little plausible SF) space-flight and -combat sim out there to be ported.
And I want tactical combat sims. Something that will make me think of the old hex-based board wargames, like Squad Leader. I understand that there are actually a few MS-Win combat games out there, but I don't know any names. So, port those, I guess, or make something new especially for X.
Now, that's quite a shopping list, I know. And I'm not just sitting on my fat rear hoping someone will come along and feed my jones--I'm actually doing something about it. I have preliminary design work done, and some prototype code, for a space sim and a tactical combat sim. Both will be GPL'ed, will use X and OpenGL, and will be done as soon as my little fingers and my schedule permit.
I encourage everyone with the proper skills to do the same.
Oh, and lest I forget, I have played and loved Myst and Riven, too. But those are almost trivial from a programming standpoint--I made a "Myst clone" in a couple of days using Gtk and Python. But one needs actors, graphic artists, musicians, and storytellers to do justice to the concept, and I ain't none of those. So I'd love to see them, but I'm not holding my breath.
Hi I'm working for Tribsoft (we are porting Jagged Alliance 2 to Linux).
Linux IS becoming a major gaming platform. We are currently writting contracts for some extremely interesting games (I mean AAA games).
In 2000, there is a lot of GREAT THINGS coming for Linux. (Damm NDAs...)
Mathieu Pinard
Tribsoft Inc.
www.tribsoft.com
Mathieu Pinard
Tribsoft Inc.
Right now I'd settle for the Quake3 arena point release, and mod source for linux.
I thought id was planning on keeping all platforms in sync? It's been about 2 weeks since the win. point release came out, and us Linuxers don't get to play any mods or have the benifit of the new serverbrowser or anything... Lets get that thing out the door!
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.
The project is freeciv.
The website is
http://www.freeciv.org
The newer versions have much nicer tiles and use gtk instead of the athena widgets. It looks nice and is alot of fun.
It has been statistically shown that helmets increase the risk of head injury.