LGP Announces Majesty is Complete

michaelsimms writes "Linux Game Publishing have just received their first stock of Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim. This is the first game ported completely by LGP. Kudos to the lead developer, Mike Phillips, for much hard work to get us all a great game!"

Comments

question

[Joe the Lesser]

Does it run on Win98?.... ;)

Re:question

[fobbman]

Yes. ;)

Re:question

[Anonymous Coward]

No sorry , requirements are Windowx XP2, DirectX11, 2GB ram
4Gb swap and Rabbits foot.

Rock and Roll.

[13Echo]

The game is a few years old, but is an excellent title. Play the demo, which is downloadable from their site.

I ordered mine a while back. $37 isn't too much to ask. It's a very high quality port of a great game.

Simms- I'm looking forward to the future titles!

Re:Rock and Roll.

[Photon01]

The parent said the game is a few years old....

Did they start porting it straight away? Can anyone give an idea of the average time taken to port a game to linux? (just curious)

Re:Rock and Roll.

[sczimme]

Simms- I'm looking forward to the future titles!

In the future, they are called DIMMs.

:-)

Re:Rock and Roll.

[Anonymous Coward]

Get the Linux demo at:

3D Downloads

And as a last resort:

david.hedbor.org

Try it. It's lost of fun!

Re:Rock and Roll.

[13Echo]

I'm not the best source of info on this, but as far as I can tell, they got the contract just last fall or so. It was a pretty quick port, for a small team. It took less than a few months.

Re:Rock and Roll.

[MBCook]

That's a good question. I'd like to know the answer too. That said, it obviously depends on how the game was programed.

If everything is seperate, so that you could just drop in some new files to completely change the sound or graphics subsystem, then it shouldn't take too long.

If, on the other hand, everything is woven into the game tightly, it could take a VERY long time. By this I mean things like having a function like:

void doCPUPlayerLogic(HWND parrent...);

If the logic is like that, you're going to have to rewrite large parts of the game. "Proper" programming suggests that you should program like the first option, but we all know that doesn't happen. Depending on if they origionally thought they would port it (they would have been thinking Mac or console I'd bet), just how hurried they were (often the second solution can be easier to do), etc.

That said, can anyone answer the question well? How long does it take to port the average game to Linux? Does it vary by genre (obviously a FPS that uses OGL would be easier to port than one that uses DirectX)?

Re:Rock and Roll.

[mark-t]

I had first heard of about a tentative port of Majesty to Linux quite a long while back, even before the first Majesty Expansion came out, sometime in 2000 I think it was. Majesty for Windows is easily one of the best investments I've ever made in a game, and I'll be picking it up for Linux almost as soon as I finish typing this.

Re:Rock and Roll.

[IamTheRealMike]

Can somebody bittorrent the demo? LGP seems to be struggling

Re:Rock and Roll.

[Anonymous Coward]

I made an anonymous post with two links, yet, not a single person has modded it up.

Re:Rock and Roll.

[Qzukk]

Well, given that the "average" game is never ported to Linux, I would say that it takes an infinite amount of time...

But seriously, porting applications requires two major sets of changes. First is I/O (this includes everything - display, sound, user input, networking code, filesystem interaction). The second is process control.

For I/O, design decisions can have serious impact on the time it takes to develop a port. Are you writing your own libraries from scratch? If so, these must be ported as well. If not, are there Linux versions of these libraries available? Are there wrappers to fake availability of these libraries (eg, wine's library replacements)?

Process control is a similar situation, however, process control is fundamentally different in Windows and Linux environments (for example, last time I checked windows lacked a process-copying fork() call). If an application makes heavy use of threading and IPC, then there will be more work required in converting these to the "Unix Way" of doing things.

Re:Rock and Roll.

[UnknownSoldier]

> That's a good question. I'd like to know the answer too. That said, it obviously depends on how the game was programed.
> If everything is seperate, so that you could just drop in some new files to completely change the sound or graphics subsystem, then it shouldn't take too long.

Off the record, the game codebase is pretty clean since we had already ported it over the Mac. i.e. I believe they got the "Mac-n-Trans" codebase. (Trans = Translation, or localized.)

Re:Rock and Roll.

[mmol_6453]

The Simple DirectMedia Library supports nearly identical thread, 2D/3D graphics, sound and controller support among several platforms.

Of course, you have to install the libraries, so you may come under fire for taking the "easy way out" if you write a game that uses SDL instead of native systems. Also, there's a bit of a performance hit. I can run a software-mode quake X11 client decently(15-18 fps) on my P166 laptop, but the SDL client causes too much overhead for me to get anything resembling smooth graphics and sound.

Re:Rock and Roll.

[treke]

Two different companies. Tribsoft, the company that ported Jagged Alliance two originally had the contract to port both Majesty and Europa Universalis to Linux. Due to lack of money though, they died off before much of Majesty was ever ported. When LGP got the rights to the code, they largly started from scratch on the port.

I don't know when LGP actually started their work on Majesty, but I think it was sometime around the last half of last year, and it first went beta in early November of 2002.

Re:Rock and Roll.

[msphil]

That was Tribsoft's port. The rights were purchased (or optioned, or something) by LGP in January of 2002, after it was pretty clear that Tribsoft was out of the picture. (IIRC, Tribsoft only ever released JA2, but had announced Majesty and Europa Universalis.)

Re:Rock and Roll.

[msphil]

Did they start porting it straight away? Can anyone give an idea of the average time taken to port a game to linux? (just curious)

The LGP port did not begin until Q2 2002, and the work was primarily done in a "second job" situation. That would lead me to call it roughly three man-months (including the beta), but longer calendar-wise simply because I was working around a day job, too.

Even the original port to be done by Tribsoft was started some time after the release of the original game (but, iirc, before the release of the expansion).

Re:Rock and Roll.

[davidhedbor]

Well, did you check the second link to my mirror? It should not be struggling...

Re:Rock and Roll.

[msphil]

Off the record, the game codebase is pretty clean since we had already ported it over the Mac. i.e. I believe they got the "Mac-n-Trans" codebase. (Trans = Translation, or localized.)

Correct. That's what made building it for PPC practical.

Whew!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's good to see someone keeping the porting alive since the demise of Loki...

It's good to see...

[Ratphace]

...some support being given to the Linux community. I am not going to debate the Windows vs. Linux issue, however, I do want to say that my personal feeling is that Linux could easily overpower the Windows domination if there were just more variations of games and applications available.

Unfortunately some of the more prominent applications that people use are Microsoft applications (i.e. ms word, excel, outlook, etc) and will not likely see the light of day for any Linux porting since this would only contribute to the Windows demise.

Will be very interesting to see what the future holds and how the market might react/shift to alternatives such as Linux or even BSD.

Re:It's good to see...

[Aliencow]

I'm so sick of people posting exactly what they think mods want to see just to get a few Karma points. In EVERY DAMN STORY about either office software or games, we get the

"Yeah that's good now if Openoffice gets better than MS OFFICE and if Everquest and (insert games here) I really think Linux could supplant microsoft, it will be really interesting to see what the future holds"

Re:It's good to see...

[RealityMogul]

Karma whore

Re:It's good to see...

[Ratphace]

Well Aliencow, how about you thrall us all with your acumen then. . .I'm all ears.

I see this listed as a 'Comment' section, and anything or everything I said is 'my comments' on the subject at hand.

If you don't like what other people post, I see a few alternatives for you:
1. Stop reading slashdot.org 2. Stop reading the user comments 3. Stop whining when someone wants to chip in 2 cents

Maybe some people don't read or reply to every story that gets posted all day long, and while I am in the window of time that I can read and post I am taking the opportunity to post some of my thoughts and like to hear what others have to say regarding any given issue.

You have a few issues of your own to work out, get some Prozac and relax, life is too short to be so hostile over what amounts to absolutely NOTHING...

Re:It's good to see...

[apoc.famine]

While more games/quality software is the first step, the second step is to promote linux distros that are stupid-easy to setup, with games and drivers that are stupid-easy to install.

The demise of windows won't come until the average user feels comfortable taking a step up from windowz to something else. The problem I see is that for the average user, anything involving a command line and editing random config files is two steps up.

Honestly, I can walk my mom through a win98 install over the phone. I'd never want to consider trying the same with most linux distros, except maybe RH or Mandrake.

While nvidia has made some huge strides with their latest drivers, until we see that same sort of "stupid easy" on everything else, I don't see linux exploding into mainstream use. But at the same time, with the maturity we've seen in just the last few years, I don't think it really will be that much longer before it does explode - Especially with the work people like Ryan Gordon are doing. ;)

Re:It's good to see...

[blancolioni]

I'm so sick of people posting exactly what they think mods want to see just to get a few Karma points.

Hey, you got modded insightful, you big karma whore you!

Re:It's good to see...

[DavidBrown]

I'm so sick of people posting exactly what they think mods want to see just to get a few Karma points.

Hey, you got modded insightful, you big karma whore you!

Hey, you got modded funny, you big karma whore you!

Re:It's good to see...

[Thatmushroom]

I'm so sick of people posting exactly what they think mods want to see just to get a few Karma points.

Hey, you got modded insightful, you big karma whore you!

Hey, you got modded funny, you big karma whore you!

Hey, you got moderated funny, you big karma whore you!

Hey, I just created recursive commenting!

Re:It's good to see...

[Unregistered]

Ok that was really karma whoring. i think this is enough. (Oh and mod me up too ;)

Mutiplatform build/deploys?

[djh101010]

I'm not a game developer, but it seems to me that the amount of effort required to make something run for, say, Linux, may be somewhat high...but once you do that, the additional effort to also build it for the BSDs and for MacOS-X is minimal. Compilers, libraries, and all that, all the hard work is mostly done.

It'd be interesting to see if this sort of trend could be encouraged.

Re:Mutiplatform build/deploys?

[Lussarn]

You could use multiplatform libraries such as SDL or OpenGL to begin with to make the ports 100 times easier.

Just look at all the open source games availailable for just about any platform. Sure, most of them are smaller/not commersial quality but they are also proof of concept that porting games isn't that hard if the thinking is done a few steps earlier.

Re:Mutiplatform build/deploys?

[dalamcd]

But how much overhead would using SDL or OpenGL add to, say, Doom3, which is already going to require quantam computing to load the title screen?

(They might already be using OpenGL, actually--I haven't kept up at all--but I doubt they're using SDL. My point is basically that these cross-platform libraries aren't exactly optimized and while they might work for smaller games/applications they're not exactly great for bigger titles.)

dalamcd

Re:Mutiplatform build/deploys?

[mmol_6453]

IIRC, John Carmack's always preferred OpenGL over DirectX. OpenGL is pretty cross-platform, as is, so I doubt they'd be using SDL.

If their past work is any example, I expect they'll be writing their code properly wrt modularity.

Wow

[mackstann]

When they said that the minganalio was herfeterious, they were right! Glad they have come through.

Re:Wow

[MohammedNiyalSayeed]

I think you spelled herfiterious wrong; it should be "herfiterious" instead of "herfeterious". HTH.

Re:Wow

[mackstann]

Sorry, thanks, haven't had my boscamillon this morning yet ;-p

Re:Wow

[MohammedNiyalSayeed]

I know how that is, dude. Sometimes, if my Chronilium levels are low, I can mess up the spelling of the simplest of words. Oh, mariala! 8^)

Re:Wow

[mackstann]

LOL!!!

The dumbest things never fail to re-ortentilate me :-)

Slow progress

[BubbaTheBarbarian]

With all of the comments about Linux catching up to Windows, there are still some front where there is very slow progress, gaming bieing one of them. This is a small step towards catching up, especially from an end user perspective.
Remember, if we realy want to overtake the leader, we must do everything they do and do it better. While that might gall the "power users' out there, it is a fact of life none the less. Ms must be overwhelmed by a superior product before Linus is taken serisouly as a viable choice by the end user.
WAR TUX!

Re:Slow progress

[GigsVT]

You don't have to be better all around to "win".

History is littered with examples of solutions that were argubly not as good winning out over (usually more expensive) but better solutions. VHS/Beta, Windows/OS2, ATA/SCSI/FC (give it a couple years), most MS apps, the list is long.

Anyway, the key to winning is, "Do something that the competitor does, and do it cheaper, and at least acceptably well" That has been MS's long time strategy, except theirs has been "Do something a competitor does, and use monopoly power to bundle it for free". It's hard to compete with free, which is probably why MS is scared of OSS.

Re:Slow progress

[dolson]

But he's such a joker! No one will ever take Linus seriously.

Fantasy Kingdom

[blazer1024]

I spend so many hours playing this game. There was something VERY addicting about recruiting rangers, elves, thieves, warriors, wizards, paladins, healers, monks, etc and watching them run around killing beasts and buying things.

I loved how that economy worked... The houses and inns would just automatically generate money, and heroes could earn money slaying monsters, then spend it at the market, blacksmith, Wizards' Guild, etc. Then your trusty tax collectors went around collecting money.. It's pretty simple, but it's fun to watch.

Re:Fantasy Kingdom

[13Echo]

Yeah. It's one of the first RTS demos that I've played over and over again. It's only a single level demo, but it's great fun.

Re:Fantasy Kingdom

[mcworksbio]

I loved how that economy worked...

I agree, and would add that in a multiplayer game you had expanded economic activity from allied/enemy players spending cash on your goods. You could practical cripple an ally's/opponent's economy by pledging out more money on flags than your opponent could. Unlike most RTS games you could inflict fiscal pain on someone to pressure them to fall in line without actually having to spend tons of money flagging their palace.

Does it need Xfree ?

[Anonymous Coward]

I run several servers at Works, does it need Xfree to be played ?

so what

[kipsate]

What I really don't get is why the Linux-community gets all carried away by having a game ported.

I couldn't care less under which OS a game runs. For CPU intensive games, the OS is even in the way, hurting performance. Yes, Linux as well, albeit maybe marginally less than Windows.

There is a reason you don't find many games under Linux. Graphic card drivers are much better optimized for Windows systems. Porting a graphics intensive game to Linux is a waste of resources.

Re:so what

[Anonymous Coward]

"I couldn't care less under which OS a game runs. For CPU intensive games, the OS is even in the way, hurting performance. Yes, Linux as well, albeit maybe marginally less than Windows."

uh. would that be why i've gotten generally higher framerates for most linux games than for windows?
i'd have to say that the nvidia drivers aren't particularly different from the windows ones. they definently get a lot of driver releases. it's not a 'release once to shut them up' effort.

try before you buy, geez.

ashridah

Re:so what

[Lathi-]

Why do I care a game has been ported to GNU/Linux? Because I like playing games and don't have any MS-Windows boxes.

I don't dedicate the time to play a lot of games, but if a good title becomes available to me I'll probably buy it.

Re:so what

[Kadagan AU]

Man, if you don't see the big deal, then you have never played Majesty! I recently bought the Gold edition for windowz, and love it. I've been eagerly awaiting the linux release!!

Re:so what

[Archie Steel]

"For CPU intensive games, the OS is even in the way, hurting performance. Yes, Linux as well, albeit maybe marginally less than Windows."

Also, in Linux, you can run a "barebones" Windows Manager (twm, blackbox, WindowMaker, etc.) when you play games in order to minimize use of resources - this can give an extra performance edge against Windows.

"There is a reason you don't find many games under Linux. Graphic card drivers are much better optimized for Windows systems."

Well, that depends on the video card. For NVIDIA cards, the Linux drivers are as optimized as the Windows ones. It's the ATI ones that lag behind, IIRC.

Re:so what

[Daniel Phillips]

There is a reason you don't find many games under Linux. Graphic card drivers are much better optimized for Windows systems. Porting a graphics intensive game to Linux is a waste of resources.

That's the reason, huh? And it doesn't have anything to do with Linux being relatively young, having only recently broken out of the server-os category, and still being on the shallow end of the desktop growth curve?

Anyway, it's not a concern, there are already more games coming out on Linux than I have time to play.

Re:so what

[sik0fewl]

Porting a graphics intensive game to Linux is a waste of resources.

Maybe so (I disagree), but if game designers/programmers wrote the game from the ground up to work with Linux (as well as Windows) the "waste of resources" would be minimal. And on top of that, I don't have to boot into Windows just to play computer games.

Re:so what

[dinivin]

It's the ATI ones that lag behind, IIRC.

Not really... The R200 & R300 cards are supported by ATI's FireGL drivers, and really kick ass. UT2003, NWN, etc. are as playable as they are under Windows (and look just as good). Earlier cards have pretty decent support with open source drivers. The Rage128 cards have even been benchmarked higher under Linux than windows (don't know if that's still true). The R100 radeon cards are well supported, but the open source drivers don't support S3TC, making ut2003 and Neverwinter Nights not so nice looking (though still playable).

Dinivin

Re:so what

[Anonymous Coward]

uh. would that be why i've gotten generally higher framerates for most linux games than for windows?

No, it's because your copy of "Windows for Idiots" didn't help you configure your system properly.

Linux zealots spew this shit constantly, and the only explanation is that they don't know how to use windows.

Re:so what

[zulux]

still being on the shallow end of the desktop growth curve

Not only that, but the quality of the desktop seems to be increasing exponentially.

6 months ago - I would have placed Linux on the desktop at the Win95 level. Mostly functional and ugly.

The latest Mandrake is simply kick-ass. It's beautifull, integrated, feature filled and stable. It's well past Windows XP on almost every level.

Ive had the joy of placing it on two friend desktops and they *love* it. I thought that they would grudgingly tolerate it, but they *love* it.

The're starting to act like Mac users: ther're rabid, I tell you!

Re:so what

[Anonymous Coward]

Ive had the joy of placing it on two friend desktops and they *love* it. I thought that they would grudgingly tolerate it, but they *love* it. The're starting to act like Mac users: ther're rabid, I tell you!

Uhh, they probably already wiped their machines and reinstalled XP and they just dont want to tell you, because they know your a fsckin zealot and would hang them by they're toes for doing that.

Seriously, this game is awesome

[GMFTatsujin]

I recommend you pick it up if you haven't yet. It kept me glued for weeks, and the wife and I come back to it every couple of months. Well worth it. I've been emulating it in WineX and it's been spiffy.

"WineX! Oh no! Support linux gaming, man!" Well, I'd love to. It's just too bad I already paid for the game once. $80 for a $40 game? I mean, Majesty's good, but not *that* good.

Ditto with Kohan, the Sims, Neverwinter Nights, etc... I'm all for the parallel development though - go UT2003!

Re:Seriously, this game is awesome

[_Sprocket_]

It's just too bad I already paid for the game once. $80 for a $40 game?
...
Ditto with Kohan, the Sims, Neverwinter Nights, etc... I'm all for the parallel development though - go UT2003!

My understanding is that one can use the Windows-only copy of NWN and simply download the Linux client (albeit still beta).

I suppose its a kind of lagging parallel development. ;)

Re:Seriously, this game is awesome

[Daniel Phillips]

"WineX! Oh no! Support linux gaming, man!" Well, I'd love to. It's just too bad I already paid for the game once. $80 for a $40 game? I mean, Majesty's good, but not *that* good.

Glad I waited. From my point of view, a game doesn't exist until a native version is available for Linux. Till then it's just an interesting demo.

Re:Seriously, this game is awesome

[GMFTatsujin]

That is, in fact, true. You install the linux client and snarf the rest of it from an existing Windows application. Which sort of sucks, actually, becuase it means you have to install it on Windows before you can play it on Linux. Bah.

On the other hand, they aren't charging extra for the Linux client -- you just have to register with Bioware (free). I think Bioware almost got it 100% right -- pay for the content, make the engine free.

Re:Seriously, this game is awesome

[dolson]

There is an unofficial installer for it, but you would know that if you looked on BioWare's forums.

Re:Seriously, this game is awesome

[GMFTatsujin]

There is an unofficial installer for it, but you would know that if you looked on BioWare's forums.

Yes, and then there's the supported method which is recommended by the company that made the product. If I wanted an unofficial install that may or may not work and would certainly not be supported, Id' run NWN in Winex3. But you would know that if you didn't assume I was an idiot.

Thanks for playing.

Re:Seriously, this game is awesome

[AugustMoon]

Actually, there is no "official" installer for legal rather than technical issues. NWN is simply not allowed to release a linux-based unpacker for the proprietary installation mechanism they used on the windows side.

Re:Seriously, this game is awesome

[Xerithane]

If I wanted an unofficial install that may or may not work and would certainly not be supported, Id' run NWN in Winex3. But you would know that if you didn't assume I was an idiot.

Information wants to be free. You bitch about the installation procedure, someone gives you insight that in the forums there was an alternate method to installing it, and you turn into an asshole.

Nice job.

Re:Seriously, this game is awesome

[Alex Thorpe]

It's a fun game, and I've enjoyed the MacOS version for a long time. Unfortunately, it's not been Carbonized, and MacPlay told me last month that they have no plans to, though it runs well in Classic mode, if slower. But perhaps someone could port the Linux version to MacOS X? It's a 2D game, so it shouldn't be too complicated. On the other hand, I'm sure every version of the game uses a different protocol: DirectPlay for Windows, AppleTalk or TCP/IP for the Mac version, and probably a third choice for the Linux version. The site doesn't say anything about multiplayer.

A good way to celebrate the first release

[mental_telepathy]

Slashdot the site...

Awesome....now where is the Shadowbane client?

[Anonymous Coward]

Man If someone ports Shadowbane to Linux this will be a great seller. I now boot into windows just to play this game. On top of that Shadowbane will be around for a long time so the value in porting this game will be very high!!!

Fun game. Glad Linux has another.

[5n3ak3rp1mp]

Something about this game is really cute. I bought it when it came out on Macintosh last year. The game itself is not that hard to beat, tho- but definitely a lot of fun. The idea of indirect control over your heroes is interesting. Spells are fun to watch, animations and sound are high-quality.

Old Games = Good Thing

[lysium]

Perhaps this is just a personal Emerson-ish retreat from modern gaming, but I am very glad to see older, modest games being released, or re-released, for Linux.

Many linux machines out there are older desktops and laptops with limited system resources (certainly not 3-D!) The best games for Linux are either venerable classics (nethack) or cutting edge ports (MOHAA, UT2003). Let's not forget older games, made back in the days when People Were Nice, and Money Wasn't Everything. Anyone up for a port of MOO2?

----------

Biased Slashdot reporting

[Anonymous Coward]

I never see "kudo's to the developers on creating great Windows programs"...

Re:Biased Slashdot reporting

[moc.tfosorcimgllib]

I never see "kudo's to the developers on creating great Windows programs"...

12 4 $0.10

Re:Biased Slashdot reporting

[standsolid]

yeah, but this isn't because it's a great game, it's a great port. I'm quite sure that the slashdot reporters* will gladly report on a great windows game in the near future. As to wether there will be Linux port of it, don't hold your breath too long.

*hehe he called them reporters

Re:Biased Slashdot reporting

[Anonymous Coward]

Great Windows program? Has that ever happened?

Re:Biased Slashdot reporting

[13Echo]

But it's a great game, too. It's not cutting-edge, by any means, but it's one of the better RTS games in this style.

The obvious line...

[mark-t]

"Your Majesty, a new building is complete!"

1999

[jd142]

So the game is 4 years old already. If it is a good game, then it doesn't matter.

Re:1999

[PunchMonkey]

So the game is 4 years old already. If it is a good game, then it doesn't matter.

Good point. And it *is* a good game. And it really doesn't matter how hold it is. The take on RTS is very original (to me anyways) and very fresh. Not directly controlling units, but only influencing them with money (what else?) is cool, and the hilarious phrases characters say when dying is hilarious and icing on the cake.

Direct Download

[Mister.de]

screens: http://www.cyberlore.com/Majesty/screens.htm demo: http://demos.linuxgamepublishing.com/majesty/majes ty_demo.run

Depends

[jvalenzu]

The games with the least portable code I've ever seen took about 6 months. Most take less than 2. I find it interesting that our native ports at Loki took about as much time (or less) than transgaming's "ports" to winelib.

Re:Depends

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe because you had the source code, and they had to reverse-engineer binary?

Re:Depends

[jvalenzu]

I was talking about the ports they did with access to the binary, like Kohan or the Sims.

Re:Depends

[alienw]

You do know that transgaming only has 2 or 3 full-time programmers, right? AFAIK, Loki had at least a dozen, probably many more. Maybe that's why Loki went out of business a long time ago and Transgaming is doing quite well.

Also, when Transgaming ports a single game, its common Wine codebase improves. As more and more games are ported, the libraries become better and better. This is not true with native ports; you have to invest virtually the same amount of resources in each port. In a tiny niche like the Linux gaming market, you have to be extremely efficient to survive, at least until that niche becomes several times larger.

Also, care to tell me how you can play games like starcraft, GTA III, Everquest, or Counterstrike on Linux without going to Transgaming? For some reason, most hit games never get ported. Most native ports are either old or weren't that great in the first place.

My point: don't bash Transgaming until you can at least match what they have done. Their business plan is the only promising one in the Linux gaming arena.

Re:Depends

[davidhedbor]

So Loki had more people there - well, they also worked on more titles at the same time. I'd say, not having worked there as jvalenzu, the typical game had between 1 and 3 ppl actively working on it (not counting minor contributions etc).

Great game

[FurryFeet]

Majesty is a great game, and well worth 40 bucks. It's a little on the short side, but has a really interesting multiplayer component (nothing like placing a huge reward on your opponent's buildings and watching his own heroes destroy them). I'd advice anyone who hasn't played it to do it.

Re:Great game

[GMFTatsujin]

Majesty Gold has both the original missions (~15 I think) and the Northern Expansion (another 10 or so).

The official missions are short, but I've really had fun with the Freestyle game generator. You can generate just about any kind of mission imaginable, including monster types, map size, building restrictions, economic factors, starting heroes, and so on. It's amazingly easy, complete, and fast. The only thing you don't get with the freestyle game is the mission briefing voice-over.

Give Up

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux will NEVER overtake Windows, It's even loosing on the server side of things. You really think some old Windows game will make any difference? Go on masterbating to Linus all you want, the rest of the real world is moving on.

Re:Give Up

[BubbaTheBarbarian]

Sweet, a bitter bitch!

Chapter one, your first period...tell us all about it! Read the comment. I make that exact point, that one game does NOT make that much of a difference, but since the demise of Loki there have been NO GAMES except those developed on the Linux platform itself.

As far it losing out on the server side, most server side projects that I know of currently in development are Linux or BSD as thier base, not Windows, due to the high price of dealing with Redmond. You never know when MS will try to claim your idea as "thiers". No small Development shop will fight them, and all of the big ones are trying to switch internet appliance development to POSIX based platforms in order to avoid that situation.

In the grand scheama of things, no, one Windows games is not realy that inportant. However, it could open the way for others to follow should they chose. That is why it is looked upon as a positive.

The only constant in the universe is change. Some folk just don't like that...

Re:Give Up

[tuffy]

As far it losing out on the server side, most server side projects that I know of currently in development are Linux or BSD as thier base, not Windows, due to the high price of dealing with Redmond.

Here's some non-anectotal info about where the server market is going. And it's not to Windows.

Re:Give Up

[molarmass192]

I don't really care if Linux overtakes Windows or not. I use Linux exclusively and I think it's way better than Windows in almost every respect. I'd like to see Linux (on the desktop) get around a 25% share. I think this is the critical mass required to compel application vendors to put out ports for Linux of their main apps.

I don't really want to see Linux go beyond the 25% number because then clueless dipshits like yourself will start using it and inevitably dumb-it down. Linux does require a level of computer savviness, at least from an administration perspective, above that which most Windows users display. I'm not saying there are no computer savvy Windows users, just that the vast majority of them wouldn't know the difference between a driver and and application if you explained it to them twice. I think these clueless masses should stay with Windows and keep up the good work surfing porn, sniffing glue, and huffing PAM.

Oh, and about the server market, Windows will wither and die there. You really need to lower your crack dosage if you think otherwise.

linux gamers are out there

[mgbaron]

Looks like their site couldnt take the heat. It's already /.ed. I guess this goes to prove that there are oodles of linux gamers out there...

Re:This is a good thing.

[Kadagan AU]

Fervus and Krypta together... a match made in heaven... or was it hell?

.:|Jon|:.

P.S. That's Fervus, the temple in Majesty, not Fruvous as in Moxy Fruvous ;-)

it is a bad game folks...

[hashmap]

Sadly this game sucked real bad. For the gory details read the Greyk Analysis

Re:it is a bad game folks...

[Anonymous Coward]

Or, for a balanced view, you can check out the rebuttal to this review on the same site -

The Rebuttal

Re:it is a bad game folks...

[polyp2000]

Whats bad about it? Try to be a bit more positive
about this, its the first linux port dude!

Re:it is a bad game folks...

[Kadagan AU]

wow, that rebuttal is awesome. I'm not "gay/doctor/investment banker/another doctor". I think I'd like majesty because of that. =D

Re:it is a bad game folks...

[dolson]

Frankly, when this game came out I ignored it because it sounded really dumb. (Ooooh, "the fantasy kingdom sim!") Plus it didn't have a lot of ads in game magazines, which is how I judge games.

Good to know that the media forcing opinions into our heads is the only way to go about forming individuality.

Re:it is a bad game folks...

[Alex Thorpe]

The initial review there is the worst attempt at a game review I've ever seen, including the ones people write on Amazon.com. The rebuttal is a little better, but not much.

It's a very good game where you hire heroes that act like PEOPLE, not disposable shock troops like in most RTS games. If they're hurt, or think the monsters are too tough, they try and run home, or to the nearest inn to recover. It's Warcraft II crossed with The Sims. They get money from the monsters they kill, spend it on better equipment and healing potions, and take the rest home to their guild halls, where a cut gets picked up by tax collectors and taken to your treasury. You spend the money on building construction, hiring more heroes, some tech research, and certain spells that the temples make available for a gold cost per spell.

The main strategic part of the game is picking the heroes that are right for your current mission goals. Large map to explore? Get rangers, they love to explore. Wolves and bears? Get Cultists, they charm nonintelligent monsters so that they fight for you. Dragons? Get Priestesses, the skeletons they animate are difficult to hit with ranged attacks, including dragon fire. Minotaurs? Wizards have the long range heavy firepower, if you can protect them.

Re:it is a bad game folks...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called irony, dimwit. He doesn't actually believe that games have to have a lot of ads in order to be good.

Re:it is a bad game folks...

[pavlovian]

The initial review there is the worst attempt at a game review I've ever seen, including the ones people write on Amazon.com. The rebuttal is a little better, but not much.

Agreed. The breathless and rambling writing sytle makes both of them sound like ten year olds with ADHD and on speed who just finished off a pot of coffee and are now starting in on a few lines of coke.

Mod +1 funny!!

[Kadagan AU]

LOL! That was great =D

Ideal components for a Linux gaming machine?

[Urkki]

Something that works with least hassle to get things to work.

- Which display card?
- Which sound card?
- Which distro gets them to work without tweaking, or at least with minimal tweaking?

Re:Ideal components for a Linux gaming machine?

[Kadagan AU]

well, I'll attempt to answer this, since no one else has.

first let me point out that I'm more into linux coding than linux gaming, but one day (hopefully sooner rather than later) when there's as many great linux games as windows games, and when you can easily network a linux system to a windows system to play multi-player... I hope to be into it ;)

ok, now I'm not sure what video card would be best. I've heard that ATI cards have better linux drivers. I'd also suggest staying a step or two behind "bleeding edge", to give time for drivers to be made. This also saves a LOT of money.

audio - I've never had a single problem with my onboard AC'97 audio that is on just about any mobo I've ever owned.

OS - I'd guess Mandrake, since it has wonderful support for all sorts of hardware. You might want to look into the (now slightly out dated) mandrake gaming edition. It's on their site if you care to check it out. It comes with the Sims. If it can handle that, then Majesty wouldn't be an issue at all. If I recall, Majesty only requires like a 90 MHz processor! Another obvious choice is RedHat, since it's the most prominent distro, I'm sure that the manufacturer tested on it at some point. Lastly, I'd *hope* that the company making Linux games gives out good instructions, and have good tech support.

that's all I can think of, but it's all my personal opinion, feel free to prove me wrong.

-Jon

Re:Ideal components for a Linux gaming machine?

[Svartalf]

Good questions- unfortunately, there's only approximate answers for you. I can give my personal advice on the subject, but your mileage may vary.

Which display card?

A previous poster said ATI. Not a bad choice. ATI's cards have DRI drivers for them and full-featured (but somewhat twitchy still) binary only drivers from ATI. The medium to the top of the line Radeons will be a good purchase.

However, NVidia's also a very good option to consider. A GeForce2, GeForce3, or GeForce4 will work well under Linux- with some caveats. NVidia's drivers perform at the same basic level as the Windows counterparts and have packages for all the popular distribution versions. Because it's a closed source binary, most distributions do not include or install the drivers for you- you have to do a few manual steps on your own (they're really easy). However, if you use the boxed version of Mandrake (there are liable to be others doing this- so ask around...) you will get a stable version of the drivers installed for you at installation time. Having said this, not everything is rosy with using NVidia cards. The drivers have been known to have lockup issues in the past, there's some bad rendering errors that crop up with some games (such as Chromium and BZFlag...) that do not show with DRI or ATI drivers, and there's at least one known instance of the sleep mode selection killing two KDS 19" monitors (My friend's machine...).

Which would I choose? Depends. If you're looking for maximum game playability right now, go with an NVidia card (I recommend a GeForce4 MX series for those on a budget and the Ti series for those with money to burn...). If you want absolute peak performance and can afford to take a chance and wait a bit for the drivers to gel, ATI's 9700 is the way to go (The 9700 series currently trounces most of NVidia's offerings at fairly good prices...). If you're looking for all open-sourced support, a middle of the line ATI is the way to go, but don't expect playability with everything out of the box- they're still working hard on working correctly at peak speeds with UT2k3, NWN, etc.

Which sound card?

Somewhat tougher question. Many popular and obscure sound cards work. For most stuff under Linux, they all work equally well. Having said this, hardware OpenAL support's largely not present. The framework's there, but there's pretty much nobody there. Creative supports OpenAL under Windows. So does NVidia with their NForce2 motherboards. Rumor has it that UT2k3 uses OpenAL pretty extensively. So, why doesn't Linux have the support? Your guess is as good as mine. If you're dual booting or are willing to wait for the support to arrive an NForce2 motherboard or an Audigy card may be a good choice. Otherwise, stick with something cheaper, like a SoundBlaster 16PCI. Cheaper, no-name cards may work well, but it's a crapshoot on stability- just like it is in Windows.

Which distro?

This is something more of a personal taste issue. For ease of installation, lack of tweaking, Red Hat 9.0 and Mandrake 9.1 come immediately to mind. Both do a good job of detecting what you have (Keep in mind that closed source drivers will not be installed with the GPL downloadable distributions...) and setting it up. With the boxed edition of Mandrake, it will detect at least the NVidia card (personal experience...) and install a stable version of the driver. I don't know what Red Hat 9.0 does from the boxed edition since I've not bought it in recent times.

Having said this, I've heard that SuSE does a really good job at this stuff as well. (I, however, can't reccomend it since I've not used it in ages...)

Re:Ideal components for a Linux gaming machine?

[manly_15]

If you decide on Mandrake, go with 9.1. It is much more polished than 8.0-9.0. I have a simple integrated Intel i810 Video Card, and mandrake configured it properly for 3D automatically. I downloaded the Linux client for Quake III, and was fragging within 10 minutes. There is no performance difference between Linux and Windows 2000 (on my machine). I'm sure that it would be the same with any other native linux game.

Also, the Sims Edition of Mandrake uses WineX, so it's not actually a native port. It might make more sense to use Mandrake 9.1, install WineX, and run the Sims on that.

If you want to learn more about gaming on Mandrake, check out www.mandrakeusers.org. They have a game forum which will help you towards linux gaming nirvana :-)

Re:Ideal components for a Linux gaming machine?

[Unregistered]

Display card: ia assume enything w/ accelerated drivers. im an nVdia boy, but Radeons are supposed to be as good if not better now.
Sound Card: anything that works. i've had good experiances w/ onboard sound. AC97 and cmpci iirc.
Distro: i wouldn't pick a distro based on gaming. As much as i hate to say it winXP is probobly the best gaimng os. So just use your favorite and im sure you can get it working pretty easily.

Sequal is in the works too

[shione]

Cyberlore, the developers are already in the the process of making the sequal. screenies which can be viewed here: http://www.cyberlore.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ub b=get_topic;f=4;t=000099

If this port sells well cyberlore might even work first hand on the linux version. Lets hope hope they don't charge too much for it and a lot of dosh changes hands because on pc majesty is dirt cheap.

slashdotted

[Anonymous Coward]

HULK VISIT SERVER!
HULK SMASH!

Re:su -c "rm -R /opt/gnome"

[arose]

KDE the desktop of choice for AC's.

this is it - almost

[tka]

This is what Linux really needs: games that run natively on Linux not trough an emulator (wine).

Still, Id prefer getting the game on Linux at the same time when it is released on Windows. For that, we need to send well written comments to companies and do pr job at games official message boards. Ask for Linux games at store. You never know, someday you just might get the hottest Go-Kill-Em-All game on Linux.

Re:this is it - almost

[Anonymous Coward]

As Mr. T. says, "Wine ain't no emulator, fool!"

Re:this is it - almost

[friedmud]

"someday you just might get the hottest Go-Kill-Em-All game on Linux."

Well, as far as go-kill-em-all games go we have gotten most of those immediately as of late.

First with Quake3 and Return to Castle Wolfenstein - and then with UT 2003 having the linux binaries IN THE BOX.

We are not hurting in the go-kill-em-all department - but it is things like RTS (which is where this game fits) and racing (which is where games like Midnight Racing are going to fit) that we need the most help.

It is definitely getting better though. Personally the game I am looking forward to the most is: Savage which is going to be released with linux binaries in the box as well.

Derek

Purchase better than praise

[moc.tfosorcimgllib]

As much as a kudos from Slashdot is worth, this company will only make it if you buy their product. If you have this game for windows, or don't want this game but another, the only way it will get published by LGP is if they stay in business. They only way that will happen is if their products are purchased, so buy the game to support Linux companies to get more games on Linux.

Cool, too late

[Jahf]

I bought Majesty a couple of years ago ... great game for laptop'ing on a plane. This was before I switched over to Linux on my clients. I wouldn't mind playing it on my linux boxes, but I'm not going to pay more money for it.

I don't require full parallel development, I can wait 2-3 months for a game to come out on Linux. However, I'm not going to pay full for it twice.

The only game I might consider paying full again would be Black and White ... I never finished it. With that and NWN I'd be set for a long time.

I -would- be willing to pay $10 to enable Linux on some of my old games like Majesty. I can't pull up their site right now to see if this is possible. Or perhaps just copying the full version data over to the Linux demo version if there is one.

Quake3 engine runs better in Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

oops, looks like you don't know what you're talking about!

Is this the same game?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.strategyplanet.com/majesty/m2screenshot s20030424.shtml

Re:Is this the same game?

[Alex Thorpe]

That's the sequel, which word of only started leaking out this week. No official word on it, including which platforms it will be developed for.

What are you guys talking about?

[Anonymous Coward]

Please? I want to be in on the joke :-)

toot

[Anonymous Coward]

yes! yet another success! hopefully, more modern hits such as "tron" and "pong", or dare i say, "space invaders" will be ported as well!

LGP??

[Anonymous Coward]

come on, now, it's LG B , and if you really want to be correct about it, you should write LGBT, so as not to leave out those potentially marginalized transsexuals.

heh heh... :)

Re:This is a good thing.

[Svartalf]

A pretty devastating combo. I use it a lot in my play when they're available- Priestesses generate a LOT of animated skeletons and the Cultists charm all the roaming nature monsters (such as bears, etc.)- you end up with a much larger army than you'd have otherwise. Good against things like Dragons, etc.

Not really possible.

[Svartalf]

Considering that LGP ported the game and not Cyberlore, I doubt that you'll be able to get an "upgrade". They have to pay for the privilege to port the game in most cases and pay royalties usually for each unit sold. $10 to just convert might work out okay for someone like Id (though they're offering that service for free with their games...) who ported the code themselves. It cost them nothing more than the effort to port and to provide a means to obtain the Linux version. In LGP's case, they have to recoup all of the royalties involved, cover the costs of producing the version in a retail box, and paying the employees something. I seriously doubt $10 would cover royalties, pay, and the framework to provide it to you.

Majesty 2 is still in the works as well.

[golemite]

The series has not died and gone away!

Screenshots at Majesty Dragon.

Dear Majesty Fans,

We realize that it's been a long time since we have had any concrete updates on the status of Majesty 2. Most of you have been waiting patiently for the big announcement. While we haven't yet decided on a publisher for Majesty Legends (our working title) we haven't been sitting idle either. The following screenshots show the current state of our work on the sequel.

For the moment we will let the screenshots speak for themselves.

-Jay Adan
Cyberlore Marketing Manager

Ah, someone that works at Cyberlore...

[Svartalf]

Yes, they did get the Mac-n-Trans codebase.

While I didn't do any of the porting work (I'm working on Ballistics from Grin right at the moment...), I did do a little side project for them to see if the blitters were an issue for performance on the PPC version. By the way, thanks for the cool game.

The Demo crashed on my machine

[shadow_slicer]

The demo played pretty well for a few minutes, and attempt to play (it's pretty different than any other game I've played--now how do you get your heroes to protect you? They always just walked AROUND the demon that is destroying my castle....), and then crashed with a stacktrace...

It was incredibly stable until it died though. (and then of course X-windows decided that it wanted to stay in 640x480 mode....gr...)

The game was a little interesting, but the demo seemed a little too limited for me to judge whether to buy it or not...

I hope it will arrive soon.

[Schugy]

I've ordered this addictive high quality game. Well, I'm still waiting for NWN in an acceptable quality.... Loki was just too good, my exspectations are high :-)

Wow, this is pretty new!

[t0ny]

Cool. Now all the Linux gamers can enjoy a game which was released for Windows way back in 2000. Maybe with some advances, they can play current games by 2005.

No Fair!

[Anonymous Coward]

You get it all, and I'm *still* waiting for Northern expansion for Mac. Urrrgh!