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Hyperion to Bring IncaGold Games to Linux
An Ominous Cow Erred writes "Just wanted to let everyone know that Hyperion Entertainment will be bringing IncaGold's game lineup to Linux (as well as AmigaOS and MacOS), starting with Midnight Racing. On a personal note, I'm happy we're giving Linux another shot, being a devout Gentoo user myself! (I should also point out that while the Linux section of the website is kind of old and crusty, there should be more info on the new titles soon!)"
The Midnight Racer game looks good. Are there any tentative pricing information or timeframes though?
Go calculate something
Forget targeting MacOS and Linux, and let's assume doing either or both is viable. But AmigaOS ? That's a business plan gone seriously awry and I have to conclude this company is doomed to failure. And I write this as a guy who is looking at a working Amiga 1000 on his dining room table right now...
This oughta add a couple more genre's to the native linux market. Comercially speaking of course.
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
While it's nice to see Linux and even my old favorite Amiga OS get some new software Midnight Racing is a terrible game.
I picked it up for the equivalent of about $2.50 US and felt thoroughly ripped off. While the screenshots look fine it plays like it was written by someone who's never been in a car much less driven one! On the bright side the DVD style case could be reused after throwing the game out.
I hope their other titles are better but given Autobahn racing looks like it uses the same game engine I don't hold out much hope.
Cheap DVDs - Amazon with all the crap filtered out
Someone has to lead the way. Gamers more than any other subgroup are behind the technology's dizzying upward spiral. They're also the most technically literate non-professionals out there, happily scripting away game binds and running servers. Gentoo's new gaming kernel is chock full of low-latency patches for your gaming pleasure and will provide a much, Much, MUCH better impression of the platform's potential than Redhat or Mandrake, both fine distros themselves.
First the best, then the rest will follow.
Titles like Tropico, GTA, etc. cost large sums of money just to get the privilage to port them. This is part of the reason why Loki went under in the first place- too many top titles too soon. You probably won't see a port of Tropico unless one of the LGP people win the lottery in their respective locations as the publisher and studio want way, way too much (which is their right, afterall) for it to be economical to port it. The same goes for Warcraft (and anything else from Blizzard), any part of the GTA franchise, sports games from EA, etc...
To be sure, while I'm glad Hyperion's back in the Linux porting business, I'm a little confused as to why they're working with what is basically a valu-soft style company. However, if they're priced accordingly, they'll probably do okay at it all the same.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
(I should note here that all of this is just my personal opinion, and has nothing to do with Hyperion's position on anything.)
:-).
:-) And c'mon, doesn't "Paintball Heroes" sound fun to you?
Unfortunately I think that the days of people like Loki (and us for that matter) shelling out massive amounts of money to license absolute-top-tier games for Linux are over for the forseeable future. Loki did this and crashed and burned. We were burned hard by the Linux market as well. I think it says something when Amiga games outsell Linux ones.
What you see here is Hyperion trying a different tack. IncaGold targets the "casual gaming" market. They don't produce epic RPGs or multi-million-dollar budget extravaganzas. Interestingly enough, these "casual" games in fact do quite well, at least in the 'doze market. Now I know the Linux market is different, but certainly Midnight Racing is a nice alternative to TuxRacer (which is not to say that I don't enjoy TuxRacer -- my favorite course is "Who Says Penguins Can't Fly?"
The only way I think you will see break-the-bank games released on Linux now are when the originating company produces its own port. Look at NWN, Doom 3, etc... These games are simply too expensive for license by a third party porting house like Loki (R.I.P.) or Hyperion.
Look at it this way, now you have some fun, casual games you can use to play while you're bored.
...that all the Linux users keep on shooting down all the games that Hyperion considers porting. I mean, why should they bother? No one has anything good to say about it, and the same jokes are being said over and over again.
We could have had a port of Tzar, but no, everyone had to complain about it, and now we could get a racing game, but it's not good enough...
I recommend Hyperion to just go the way of Tribsoft and forget they ever considered Linux.