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O'Reilly Showcases PS2 Linux Gear
cascadefx writes: "The O'Reilly Network is currently running an article that showcases the much talked about Playstation 2 Linux distribution. Nice parts of the article include analysis by a Blizzard developer on the Linux PS2 as a gaming platform and a screenshot and pic of the hardware that comes with it."
As cool as this is, I fail to see it providing any significant advantages. Most people will stick with their trusty desktop and not bother forking out. I on the other hand, am due for a pay rise soon.....
John, I'm Only Dancing!
The Blizzard developer quoted in the article is non other than Sam Lantinga, of Loki and SDL fame.
In my very limited email correspondance with Sam, he proves to be a great guy. SDL is an awesome development API, and he already ported it to the Playstaion 2 Linux.
So that's the plan!
;-)
The evil Xbox's main attraction to devellopers is the fact that you can make games that will be a breeze to port back and forth from the PC to that console and vice versa.
Sony fights back with something that makes it as easy to port to and from linux and the PS2!
Wouldn't it be nice if game companies would sell their games along with a dumbed-down linux distro now? With instructions on how to make a partition on your windows formatted machine so "normal" users could cross over...
that's it...I'm starting a game company!
You can't take the sky from me...
A lot of people are saying it's not all that useful because it can't play DVD's in Linux and stuff...I want to get it because it allows you direct access to the PS2 graphics hardware and will give me some experience in programming console games. I would have killed to have gotten a Net Yaroze (for the original PlayStation) just to get to play around with it. With the Net Yaroze, you developed on a PC and uploaded about a meg and a half max through a paralell port. At least now I can develop on the box (through ethernet) and play my game right there, and then send it to other people with PS2 Linux.
Would you want to make this your only Linux box? Not really. Make it a server? Nope, not really. Use it as a way to program PS2 games without paying the extraordinarily high Sony licensing fees? Yep. That's what I'm using it for.
If I want to hack Linux, I'll just hack the linux PC I already own.
Heh i got modded down for being a 'Troll'. I honestly didn't mean it that way. Oh well.
"Actually, that might be exactly why they did it. If you look at the results of the survey that they did prior to releasing the distro, the majority of the reponses indicated that they would use it as a hobby instead of for some professional reason"
I remember something along those lines. I think if that was behind the decision to not include things like DVD support, then Sony misinterpreted people a bit. I think the expectation to porting Linux to the PS2 is that a hobbyist would be able to access the entire machine. But it sounds like Sony crippled it, presumably to prevent ppl from exploiting it.
That's kind of the problem with having a company release a product that has it's own interests to protect.
Pity, Sony could have had a really good reputation for being 'hackable' if they had supported it. I might have bought a PS2 just to play with the apps that other people make.
"Derp de derp."
Does anyone remember the Coleco Adam module?
Do you remember the Intellivision ECS module?
Do you remember the Atari 2600 Piggyback module?
Remember Atari 2600 BASIC?
I do... and trust me: They were all cool 'toys'. I sincerely doubt that much anything useful can be done with this kit, as long as the stipulation remains that you must have the kit to run anything created with it.
I really like SDL. I've submitted bug fixes for mouse and sound issues in the past, and Sam always responded quickly and enthusiastically. SDL really makes 2D programming easy. We'll have to see how good of an OpenGL implementation the kit has before we can venture out of the 2D world. At least Atani or I can now port Bliss32 to it. :)
I do like the 40GB HD though - beats the hell out of the 8GB one in my X-Box. Can I start hoping against hope that MS lets us do the same thing with our X-Box's... er... legally? :)
If any kids are out there, thinking about getting into programming via this module, I would warn you off that path. This is just Linux for the PS2 - it's not a 'Games Creation Kit'. I can't see how it would be any easier to learn programming with this kit than on a real PC.
-J
Most people seem to forget the target audience of the PS2 Linux. It's *not* for desktop or server use, definitely not for average gamer or even typical Linux hacker. It's not for mainstream in any form, if it was it would be available outside of the net as well. It won't be very supported officially, it's supposed to be community-supported. PS2-games and DVDs won't work in Linux. Software made on PS2 Linux can't be run on another PS2 without Linux. Bootable CD/DVDs can't be burned even on PC, because PS2 won't boot from burned discs (at least without hardware mods).
It's for people who already know Linux and possibly programming, and want to play with PS2 hardware, try what it's really made of. Documentation and development tools for processor, vector units and graphics synth are included. And I'm going to get it, because I'm very interested in that very nice piece of hardware.
I think it's quite a smart move from Sony. PS2 has always been criticized as being a very difficult platform to develop to. PS2 Linux will make it possible for a couple of thousand (no, it won't sell much more) hobbyists, and even game developers without previous PS2 experience, to familiarize themselves with PS2 hardware. It won't brew a large community of home-made PS2 games, but it may give a good start for a few of PS2 coders.