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Linux Gaming after Loki
mahdi13 writes "Linux Hardware has a great story about the past, present and future of Linux Gaming in 2003. They briefly touch on the commercial games available and what will be available for Linux in the near future. It is a good read and contains excellent information to keep the Linux Gamers satisfied with what is commercially available."
keep the Linux Gamers satisfied with what is commercially available
Come on! No Linux gamer with his stuffed penguin would say that it is possible for him to be satisfied with what is commercially available for Linux.
Another great place to find loki games that wasn't mentioned in the article is used bookstores. I'm not sure if they're a nation-wide chain, but Half-priced books in columbus, OH usually has a bunch of loki linux games that I guess people probably bought thinking they were windows games. You can get most of them for a buck or two. I also found copies of quake3 a year ago at microcenter for $3! Though, I suppose at this point thats probably what you would expect to pay anywhere...
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
is that sort of like Windows Security?
Karma: Chameleon (mostly affected when you come and go, you come and go)
This must be a new record, /.'ed with only 3 +1 commments!
Linux Hardware not having enough hardware, how ironic.
Linux O Muerte!
The Past
Loki has undoubtedly become a synonym for "Linux game." While the company is long gone, their legacy lives on. Many of their works can still be had for a fair price at online vendors such as TuxGames, or at local shops which still carry older stock. I have found a number of my Loki titles at Electonics Boutique, including a tin box version of Quake 3 Arena. So which Loki-ported games were released? Which ones are still available? Well, the first question has an easy answer. If you look in the table, any game title that is still in stock is a link to its respective page on TuxGames. If there is no link, then the game is out of stock. This is not to say that you can't find it anywhere, but just that TuxGames no longer carries it.
Alpha Centauri Civilization: Call to Power Descent 3 1
Deus Ex 2 Eric's Ultimate Solitaire Heavy Gear II
Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 Heretic II Heroes of Might and Magic III
Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns MindRover: The Europa Project 3 Myth II: Soulblighter
Postal Plus Quake 3 Arena 1,3,4 Railroad Tycoon II Gold
Rune Rune: Halls of Valhalla SimCity 3000 Unlimited
Soldier of Fortune Tribes 2 Unreal Tournament 1,3,4
Legend:
1 - expansion available
2 - unreleased
3 - still in print, not by Loki
4 - downloadable binaries
As you can clearly see, there are still a good number of Loki games available. These titles won't last long, so you should order them as quickly as you can. TuxGames is not the only place that sells Linux games, but they do only sell Linux games, and game-related merchandise. It is possible that some of the titles that are no longer available can be found elsewhere. And there's always eBay, if you are comfortable with online auctions. It is unfortunate that we never got Deus Ex, but circumstances and fate prevented the game from ever being completed.
Rune
Some gamers don't want to buy these games, and that is fine. Not everyone appreciates every genre, and some people refuse to buy games that don't get shoved down their throats on television and Internet ads. However, for the majority of Linux gamers, the series of Loki ports includes some of the best games ever created. There is no telling what games Linux users could be playing if Loki were still around today.
Tribsoft ported a game called Jagged Alliance II to Linux, and has since disappeared from the scene. Their domain name even points to some weird site in British Columbia now. I imagine they won't be porting any more games, but if you want a good strategy game with adventure and role-playing elements, something like Fallout, then look no further than Jagged Alliance II.
Xatrix Entertainment developed a game called Kingpin: Life of Crime. They ported it to Linux, and if you can find a copy of the game anywhere, you may like to check out the unofficial installer, made by ravage, of icculus.org. It's worth checking out, if you like violent first-person shooter games that revolve around organized crime.
So now that we have a good idea of what has happened in the past, let's take a look at what is going on right now in the world of Linux games.
The Present
So we know where Linux gamers got their roots from, but where will they go tomorrow? What is there to fill the seemingly large void left by Loki? Well, as you may have heard, there is a newer company called Linux Game Publishing, often referred to as LGP. What they do is, well, they publish Linux games. This includes titles that they port, and titles that are ported by others, just as Loki did.
So what does LGP have in store for us? Well, for starters, Majesty has gone gold, and should be available any day now. You can pre-order it already. The game looks and plays like a cross between the best parts of Lords of the Realm 2, Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, and Age of Empires. It brings back those same feelings I used to get, and I can get lost in the gameplay for hours on end. definitely keep your eye on this game. Click here for some screenshots.
L
I've always been more into the freely available games out there when it comes to Linux.
:)
For big flashy commercial 3d games and such, I generally prefer Windows anyway since I know it'll work right off. (Well, usually anyway
In Linux, I like those games made by people with creative minds, but not the money to try to produce a big budget game. These games are frequently much more interesting, and sometimes even more graphically appealing.. (I like cheezy 2d graphics better sometimes, especially if it's a fun game)... in fact, one of my favorite Linux games ever, Koules, had very simplistic graphics, but four of us would huddle around the KB and a joystick and play that game for hours!
I bet you that game had a budget of $0. Development tools, graphics programs and all sorts of useful apps exist for free in Linux.. so anyone with an idea and enough spare time can make something that could be more fun to play than a game with a 10 million dollar budget.
Give the playable demo a try and see for yourself. Though most of my Linux gaming involves xmame or zsnes, when I'm not doing actual work.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
because Mac users have been playing Neverwinter Nights and UT2003 for months and us Linux users have been waiting for so long... Oh, wait...
What, no mention of Transgaming? Sure they don't actually port the games to Linux, but if it works it works. The only big problem is that the Transgaming versions have to deal with all of the copy protection crap the Windows users have to deal with. Has a CD Key ever kept someone from pirating a game? Do any games with SafeDisc (which don't work in my computer) actually avoid being 0-day Warez? How many hours of my life have I wasted installing games only to realize that it's got another CD protection scheme that breaks in my DVD drive? How many hours of tech support time have I wasted with these problem (at least Blizzard fixed it in a patch, unlike most companies that just ignore you)[1]?
I think Loki got it right. Too bad they were probably a bit too early (not enough users with cash) to make money. It's a shame, because the Loki versions usually ran better than the Windows versions on my machine.
[1] Well, not too many, I usually just return the game instead.
I read the internet for the articles.
I really see gaming as the last area where Linux is seriously behind Windows. We have things like WineX which allows some games to be run and of course people like ID activly support Linux. However I have a number of games that I like to play that force me to reboot into Windows just to play them.
:)
Ask anyone and they will say that the availability of games, and even decent graphics drivers on Linux is really behind that of Windows. So if you have the ocassional home user who want to play a games, even a demo off a cover disk they aren't going to be going for Linux are they? Mind you they could just as easy go for a PS2
rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Still no stable NWN client. On top of that, WineX 3 is horribly broken. On my system (at least) GTA3 no longer works and WC3 performs worse.
No major advances and a few steps back as far as I am concerned.
Why bother.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I am completely switched to Linux & FreeBSD for my home PCs, but my co-worker will not switch (he wants to) until he can play games like DAOC, EQ, BF1942, PlanetSide (Yes I know you can use Wine and WineX) in linux. I think the syngergyst (sp.) that could cause a switch would be a Linux Based Gaming Console. Games are the only thing keeping home M$ Windows sales up.
...would come from a Playstation 2 running Linux. Or am I wrong? At least that's what I suppose, personally I don't use neither.
Whilst the field of Java gaming is pretty sparsely planted, there are a few efforts.
We're developing our game Puzzle Pirates on Linux in Java 1.4. It also runs on Windows and OSX (sorta, pending apple's swing fixes). It's an MMP based on Pirates and uh Puzzle games, in free alpharrr testing.
Back in the day, the only games you ever found on a Unix system were the hacks/hobbies of the system administrators.
The Personal Computer is where we disovered commercial game software. Until recently, the line between Unix and the PC was very distinct.
Linux is torn between the Unix world and the PC world. On every turn we see people trying to pull it entirely one way or the other: Linux on the Desktop! Linux as the uberserver for $dirt!
There must be a boundary before we can set expectations.
"If I were to ask you a hypothetical question, what would you like it to be about?"
Thank you for playing!
Karma whorin' since 1999
I see no mention of ut2003 in this article. It is one of the best ports i have seen. It runs nativily on linux. The installer is even included in the retail, which imho is great.
/Esben
"Nobody really checks their email any more. They just delete their spam"
"What if Microsoft changes their architecture so much that Wine and WineX are rendered useless with new software?"
They can't change their architecture to break Wine w/o breaking apps on windows 2000, too. MS isn't willing to do that.
Yeah, that's true...and I have spent many a night playing Gran Turismo drunk as an Irishman. But for different sorts of games...like RPG's? (No, final fantasy doesn't count). First person shooters? RTS's? All these are fun games to play, and those of us who are married (see fellow geeks! You *can* get laid!), playing all-night drunken-playstation ain't an option, so some solo gaming will occur. And then what? Because as you point out, the strength of the console is multi-player.
After all, I wouldn't pick windows to run a server that needs to be rock solid, I didn't get a PS2 since I thought it could run photoshop, why would I pick a nice developer-friendly *nix box to run games? Sure, having a big collection of games native to Linux would be nice, but I got into Linux knowing that wasn't likely to be the case for a good while. (Heck, if I can get XFree86 to come up with the new video card I got -- to play game(s) under windows -- to check mail and surf the web, I'll be happy enough.) It is starting to sound like the 'beggars being choosers' thing.
I saw their first title, Space Tripper, in an old /. article about Linux Games but, IMO, Mutant Storm is much more deserving of some publicity.
Laws are for people with no friends.
21-6 Productions is one of the studios developing games with the Torque Game Engine offered by GarageGames. It's a bit of a shameless plug, but today is the launch day for our title Orbz 2.0, which is being released for Linux, Mac, and Windows simultaneously, along with a demo for each platform.
We really believe in developing fun and interesting games for both the Linux and Mac platforms. We don't just believe in doing so just because it's "the right thing", but also because there is money to be made. The article mentions Marble Blast, another TGE-powered title, and the Mac and Linux sales have been substantial. Certainly nothing for a small, independently-financed game studio such as ours to turn our noses up at.
The subject is commercial games.
I'm amused by trolls when they are clever. Guess that counts this AC out.
Laws are for people with no friends.
1) Buy a gamecube or PS2
2) Just accept the fact that PC games means Windows games. This wont change anytime in the near future. Linux just doesnt make even a decent gaming platform, let alone a suitable replacement for Windows and DirectX.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
"Linux on the Play Station, which is already available, is one step of something many predict will only become bigger."
Hardly. You can't even burn a disc and play it on the PS2. The only way you can get a game to somebody else is if they have the $200 Linux kit for PS2. Sorry, Linux on the PS2 gets you nowhere into making games a bigger market for Linux.
Linux gaming could happen, but it takes a great deal of effort to make it interesting. The first step would be to make a dev enviornment interesting to gamers. Something like Director for Linux would go a long way. Make it easy for somebody to pick it up and make their own games. Then, get a few games passed around via shareware. Be persistent, and suddenly it becomes interesting to people to have Linux available to play with these games. Imagine going to Ham fests handing out free CD's with a Linux gaming distro on them.
The problem is that we're talking years of development here. Frankly, though, until Linux appears on millions of desktops, it ain't gonna happen.
"Derp de derp."
I agree. If you want to play all the games that you think you *need* to play so badly, use Windows or Mac or Xbox or whatever it is that they are coming out for. The article wasn't one of these "Linux is everything" and "you must run Linux because it has these games" but rather it was pointing out what is out there, and what will be out there in the future.
I have a Playstation and three Linux computers. I like to know what games will come out for Linux, and I'm sure I'm not the only one, and hence I wrote the article.
"If you want games, buy a machine that has games."
Sounds reasonable... $33 for a game, and $293 for an operating system to play it on. Now why didn't I think of that when I was choosing software?
I believe the future of games as we think of them now is consoles. There was a huge gap between console games and PC games for a while, and there is still currently a gap, but it's shrinking.
How many people own a PS2 versus and up to date capable of running Doom 3 PC?
I'm sick of FPSes (which I hate on consoles due to lack of mouse for aiming) and that's about all that gets released for the PC of any caliber anymore (with some exceptions) or rehashes of older games and genres that don't add much (Diablo vs Nethack) except for fancy graphics that I don't care about and won't until we hit photorealism.
I don't even touch my PC for gaming anymore, which is why I run single-boot Linux on everything in the house. My PC is for work, coding, hobbyist stuff, and tinkering. I can do anything with it, modify software to suit my needs, etc. My consoles are for gaming (PS2 and a Gamecube). I don't need to install stuff, I don't need to worry about it working or not working, or even check the box for hardware requirements. I don't need to buy a $300 video card to eek more performance out of it or to run the latest games (I got both consoles w/memory cards used for about the cost of a new Nvidia or ATI card!).
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
"A while ago, Hyperion Entertainment ported both Sin and Shogo: Mobile Armor Division to Linux. While they haven't ported any games to Linux recently, they were considering porting Tzar, but Linux gamers rejected that idea. That is sad, because Linux doesn't have an overabundance of real-time strategy games at the moment. I think that we shouldn't be so choosy when it comes to what we get ported, as we are a very small market as it is. I would have liked to buy Tzar, or any RTS game for that matter. I hope that Hyperion find something to port in the near future, as well as a publisher willing to support them. The more games we get, the better!"
Shogo had clipping issues, pretty large ones....Tzar was rejected because we're getting Disciples 2, wehich is similer but much better. Tzar didn't really offer anything unique.
StarTux
I am the lead server developer for Magicosm, a java/java3d persistent online world. Sun showcased us at the Game Developer's Conference last year. There are also several very nice java games by FullSail as well as a few others.
Magicosm won't be available for purchase for at least a year, but we hope to have a closed beta test late this year or early next.
Come visit our forums and say hi.
if i score, you score ;)
Fuck you bitch, he's mine! *smack!*
You can have WineX hon. :-)
Why bother.
I'm holding out for Java3D games like Magicosm. Windows, Linux, Mac gamers unite!
It's possible to hack DS to work without the servers: Use the login disabler at http://mainframe.chani3.com/
Hyperion just completed an agreement with IncaGold to bring their games to Amiga, MacOS, and Linux, the first title being Midnight Racing. Here's to giving Linux another shot. ::raises glass::
Yeah, inflate your point by linking to the "Pro" version. The thing is, sh|t generally costs money. The alternative is to take what you can get for free or do it yourself (the latter of which isn't strictly free, accounting for your time being worth something). You sound like you either:
1) think the world owes you something (get over it; life isn't fair) based on your choice of OS
2) didn't do your homework when you bought the game
I generally prefer Consoles anyway - because even if a games doesn't work right (xbox-007), it can still be useful (hacks around drm features).
--TRR
(also a fan of cheesy 2d stuff - yay frozen crystal!)
What about it? I don't see the significance of that....
Both games were mentioned in the article. I liked Space Tripper better, but that's just me.
Both are great games, and yeah, they are worth the money.
You clearly haven't tried either of the games.
They are actualy high-quality, and they aren't Linux-specific.
I suggest you not run your mouth about things that you know nothing about.
It was pasted above... not really hard to look... it's that long-ass comment up there...
A small company called Spiderweb Software released a game for Linux called Exile III - it is similar to the classic Ultima IV or Ultima V style. It is shareware, so you can try before you buy (even for Linux). I am kind of disapointed they only released one game for Linux as they released so many for both the Mac and the PC - including scenerio design tools - and this was way before Neverwinter Nights. Sure the graphics are not overwhelming but worth a look. Here is a link to the game.
I personally bought and played Exile I-III on the PC around 1998 and was very satisfied. Currently, there is NWN and Everquest and many others to choose from, but I felt it was the best comptuer RPG at that time.
But the reason I bring this up is that apparently it did not sell well under Linux - perhaps it was piracy, perhaps just not enough of a user base (note: I did not play under Linux maybe it is ultra buggy or something) but for whatever reason an ideal candidate for producing Linux games was turned off.
a war on terrorism? How can we end a war on a method?
... Gaming takes on a whole different meaning, where Windows Gaming is not what anybody wants...
Infuriate left and right
You are incredibly, unbelievably wrong.
Windows is not "the best OS for gaming". It is the worst, and will continue to be the worst for many years to come.
It simply has the most commercial games available. That is important, don't get me wrong. But it's easy to imagine many of those, if not all, having superior stability and/or available resources on anything other than windows. Windows is a bad joke, and I wish you subhuman microsoft groupies would quit telling it.
Since UT2003 is available for linux, the engine has already been ported so Unreal 2 should be an easy port. The only reason why they may not publish it for linux is due to an estimated lack of demand making it not financially worthwhile, but I suspect that even then it should be possible to just borrow the engine from UT2003 and use the Unreal 2 data and game code to play the game, since the developers seem to write everything in UnrealScript these days.
All uninformed speculation, of course.
I distinctly remember the conversation about DirectPlay amongst major developers being about both sides of the equation- server and client side. It was as much about console support (DP8 only runs on Windows- hence it's an X-Box only play from the console world...) as it was about servers. Sadly, there's a lot of nifty/cool games out there produced by smaller studios that just can't afford to roll their own network layer code and don't know/care that there are several cross-platform layer libraries that are as good or better than DP8.
SDL is more of a wrapper layer for the underlying API's that correspond to Joysticks, Sound, etc. If it were DirectX again, as you put it, it wouldn't run on GGI, DirectFB, X, DirectX, with the same level of performance and ease that it does.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
I knew about it because I had played the Windows version and caught the beta announcement on LinuxGames. The main problem with sales is that they're nearly unknown with a game only the hardcore RPG crowd would want. It's a 2D map game that has simplistic graphics. While the story's really pretty good, it competes in a space occupied by at least 71 other (as listed in The Linux Game Tome) games in the genre, most of which are free.
I doubt it was piracy or a lack of a userbase- it's more likely something more along the lines of a lack of advertising and a lack of desire for the game. Shareware works best if it's on something akin to a BBS or is a very popular thing like PKZip was. This, coupled with the very real fact that they're not much different in quality or eye-candy to a LOT of free alternatives... You get the picture.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Seriously, though, 95%+ of the games I play, even on Windows, are old games with an emulator. The only PC game I regularly play anymore is Age of Empires 2.
;)
Just about all I use is zSNES, MAME, and for Windows, N64 and PSX stuff.
Oh, and bit of trivia: somewhere in the manpage for zSNES is the name The Khan Artist as the original author. That's me.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
--Aristotle
I gotta say, of all the Linux games I've tried, Alpha Centauri is most tight. Not only was there no messing around trying to get the thing to run, it's a big fat game with good graphics that will keep you busy for a long time.
If you want to check out the demo, you can download it here.
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
Wouldn't it be most logical/cost effective to take a look at companies like Aspyr? They port Windows games to OS X, and to judge by the (relative) ease with which I can run Linux or other Unixes' software on my Mac - tools like Fink and X11 lending a helping hand - it surely wouldn't be too hard to do the same thing in the opposite direction, licenses permitting.
Must be better than converting Windows to *nix twice over, surely. And the Mac gaming scene has far more titles than the Linux one (currently), so you'd get a higher release rate.
Hunt the Wumpus and Hangman should be enough for anyone.
Didn't see any mention of RTCW in the article, but it works great on Linux. You have to buy the Windows version and then download the linux binaries though.
On my system the Linux port is more playable than the Windows dito, as it doesn't crash and freeze randomly.
"Yeah, inflate your point by linking to the "Pro" version"
Is there a problem in comparing like with like? I used WinXP pro as the comparaison, because it's most similar, in terms of networking capability and security features, to GNU/Linux. If you're just buying a games machine, you might use the WinXP home, but many people building a computer may have plans to eventually use it as a server, or as a multi-user machine. (remember, XPHome is derived from toy operating systems, as opposed to XPPro, which was derived from NT which was designed to compete with Unix)
GNU/Linux is competing (quite favourably) with the $300 version of Windows in terms of features. Of course, it also competes with the toy version, and even unpaid versions of Windows in terms of price.
Here's my two cents:
- PC/Windows is currently the most popular non-console platform, I don't know what's the status of the Apple/MacOS platform, but I susptect that it's not as big.
- Linux is an Operating System made for a different purpose then games
Fact is, games, at least the most popular, are hardware hungry, Linux is not dssigned to let user applications have it's way with the hardware, and for good reasons: stability and security, which Windows lacks in comparison, but is better for games. Linux is for long run stability, Windows is for short term performance. Still Windows is crap and is unfortunatly the best solution for non-console games.
I think what we need is a NEW OS, DESIGNED just for games. It should be more stable the Windows, have better hardware access/performance then Linux and of course have decent security. This "gaming OS" should be able to play current Windows based games for compatibility, but should give better performance/stability if they are developped natively for this OS.
Here we go again!
Because people are not told about native ports, and they are led to believe that WineX is the only solution for gaming.
I didn't understand it the first time someone messaged me on ICQ asking for help to get it running, but the third person to ask me for help, now that's just ridiculous.
On top of that, I checked on PlanetQuake the other day, and I saw this:
WineX 3.0 For Linux Gamers
Community News | 4/17/2003 | 5:52 PST - Jube
I noticed on 3DAP that WineX 3.0 for Linux has been released, giving gamers access to more Windows games in Linux, with greater ease. The WineX user ratings for Q2 and Q3A are both high. You can find a full list of WineX 3.0 updates here.
Now, last I checked, the Quake 2 and Quake 3 icons on my desktop launch the native ports...
You are an idiot. Windows and Macintosh versions are available. These guys just want to make good games, not get slandered by ACs.
Laws are for people with no friends.