Slashdot Mirror
Tribes2 Patch for Linux Out
Tom writes "After Dynamix went under, Tribes2 was unsupported for a while, then Sierra signed a contract with GarageGames (the company formed by several Ex-Dynamic guys), but only for the Windows version.
Those of us who bought the Linux version ported by Loki were left out in the cold -- until today. Linuxgames has the story. Sam Lantinga of SDL fame did the port/patch."
all patches, FAQs, newsgroups and other online support services will continue to operate with a third party host. The Loki domains will be redirected to point to the new host, so you won't need to make any changes to continue to use these services.
It's actually a pretty interesting relationship. GarageGames was founded by the dev team of Dynamix with the idea of making a deal with Sierra for the source code of Tribes2. I don't know what sort of royalties they pay, but $100/developer for a license of the source is a damn good deal, if you ask me.
Because the Torque Engine (used to be called the V12 Engine, but someone had previously trademarked it) is based on the Tribes2 engine, many of the fixes require very little work to make it back into the Tribes2 tree. A great amount of work is going into the Torque Engine for cross platform support, and thus the Tribes2 linux patches are born. =)
Will
There are lots of Porting Petitions on Tux Games website: "Tux Games is determined to see all of the major commercial games ported to Linux. But before this can happen, the major game companies must be made aware of the demand. That is where we come in."
root@aio:~# nmap -sX -iR -p1- # Ho, ho, ho! Merry Xmas, everyone!
There was a petition ... demanding
Try asking politely, and with reasons. Petitions from spotty teenagers "demanding" things (especially free things) are just begging to be ignored.
all patches, FAQs, newsgroups and other online support services will continue to operate with a third party host. The Loki domains will be redirected to point to the new host, so you won't need to make any changes to continue to use these services.
Moderation Totals: Flamebait=2, Troll=1, Redundant=1, Insightful=6, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=12. (not mine)
Tribes 2 is an *excellent* game. After a year, I'm still addicted to Siege, which is a capture-the-flag variation where one team is entirely on defense and the other team is entirely on offense (and then when D captures the flag, they swap places).
It's got great balance to it; there are no powerups or BFG's or invincibility to mess up the game dynamics. And people who focus on deploying and repairing equipment can make as much or more difference than people who act like cowboys.
And the 3-D nature of the game, the ability to fly around with a jetpack and head as far as I want in any direction across the terrain, means I'll never again play one of those games where I'm stuck to the ground in a claustrophobic dungeon.
Tribes 2 is a terrific game. I'm really disappointed Dynamix was scuttled. I'm ticked at Sierra in general for lots of other bad decisions, such as killing off the Mac versions of Tribes 2 and Half-Life when they were all but ready to ship, and also for cancelling Babylon 5: Into The Fire.
(If you play Tribes 2, look for me! I'm 'wow! scotfox'. My tribe, 'wow!' aka Wookies Of War, has been the #1 ranked Siege tribe for most of the time since T2 was released.)