Slashdot Mirror
Gentoo Games
TheSurfer writes "Today, Gentoo announced the creation of Gentoo Games, 'a gaming technology company created to deliver innovative Linux-based game technologies to the public'. They also released a GameCD with the full version of America's Army. For more information, see the threads in the forums here and here."
Their logo looks very like the Nintendo Gamecube logo.
Are they going to produce a super optimized distro for games?
Are they planning to aggressively port popular games to Linux?
Are they planning to develop games from scratch?
From the announcement, it suggests that they're doing 1 and/or 2...
There's just nothing as good as the BSD game collection :)
*goes for another round of mille bornes*
but I cann't seem to find one! A couple forum threads about the game doesn't really count.
Anyone got more information about the company?
Its nice that Gentoo includes America's Army, but the story should mention that Ryan Gordon(icculus.org) is the one that did the port.
For some reason I just don't think this is going to make that much of a difference to your Linux user/Gamer. Unless they can get the game developers to actually develop Linux ports at the same time they are doing their Windows design then we will just continue to see a few old games ported over. By old I mean like 1 year of course.
I think this is a great idea, and I love Gentoo, but I know I will be keeping a Windows partition around to dual boot until more companies like id (read Valve!!!) release for both Windows and Linux at the same time.
Daniel Robbins and the rest of the Gentoo crew have done an amazing job with Gentoo as a Linux distro, and even though it's a relative new-comer, it has exploded onto the scene as a force to be reckoned with. I really believe that they will be as huge a success in the game industry as they were in the Linux distro field, they are competent coders and they know what the average Linux user wants, because they ARE your average Linux users. Also, I've had a few chats with drobbins in #gentoo on freenode. When was the last time you saw the head of your favorite distro kick it wif da homies on #IRC. He was even providing basic support for total newbs. Maybe that's why there's so many of us Gentoo zelouts who just won't shut up about it :)
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
Anyone else find that America's Army game kind of sick? Sort of glorifies the horrors of war by caricaturing it through a cartoon-like portrayal. Plus, it makes it look like war is a cakewalk for a teenage audience. Reality is people dying, not losing 20 points off your health.
The Welkin: Online Music Reviews
Gentoo has several high paying sponsors such as IBM. They also sell gentoo branded merchandise on their web page. Personally, I'd like to see the offer some enterprise support, but it's really just not that kind of distro (yet).
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
How does this work? Ideally it would the CD would have the following: - A micro kernal with just the services needed by games (LAN, video, sound, disk management, not much else). This would install itself on your HD for future use, auto-update if the one on the CD is newer. - Smart driver finder (searches the disto currently installed on your machine for the necessary drivers) - Game files (obviously) This would have a number of advantages, from console like loading (stick the CD in, turn PC on, quick boot and run). To optimizing the operating environment (no unnecesary services running, should be easier to agree to standards for a micro-kernal like this). Could also be run in UML so you don't have to reboot. Hopefully this would give games developers at common target to aim at whilst also making the games easy to install and run (would only really use HD space if needed, shouldn't be a problem at all) Quick, I'd better patent all that ;o)
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Gentoo Games, Inc.</title>
</head>
<body>
<center>
<img border="0" src="gentoogames.png">
</center>
</body>
</html>
you can download the ISO using this bittorrent link: http://gentoo.twobit.net/misc/aa-20030513.iso.torr ent
I don't know about "cunning ploy." They are pretty open about the purpose of the game, especially as they have to justify the cost of its creation to the taypaying public. Recruiting is needed to run a volunteer army the size of America's; this is not any markedly different from TV or mailing campaigns.
I suspect the government (and parents who buy their kids the game) see it this way: if kids are going to play violent games anyway, why not get the kid a game where violence is at least being carried out for a "positive" goal, as opposed to games like Postal or Grand Theft Auto which depict criminal acts, or games like Quake and Unreal where the violence is mindless and the only point. There are other objectives in America's Army, and, while there may be some discrepencies, it is not a totally inaccurate and unrealistic idea of military service [i.e. you can't take 40 hits before dying]. Most Americans respect members of the armed forces, whether you agree with it or not, and see it as having a positive influence. Any good parent would have a serious talk with their child about the armed forces before their kid decides to march into the local recruiting office based on a video game.
I suspect most of those who play are quite immune from the propagandizing effect anyway, and simply enjoy the game.
Care to be asshole buddies?
Which, of course, is:
Yrma Eht Nioj!
All that game needs is belly dancers to sing it ad nauseum.
Just create a mod for q3a that turns quake console into a shell terminal, make a boot CD with it, and I'll use nothing else. :P
Please, I *need* this mod!
Just 6 hours to reach into the future and compile UT2006? Hell, where do I sign up!
Perhaps I can download other classics from the distant future, like Doom 4, Red Alert 7 and Duke Nukem Forever...
Beep beep.
But the main reason I love gentoo is a good, working BSD style ports system. I've uninstalled Windows on my desktop, which was the last place I had it running... thanks Gentoo, and everyone in the Linux community. I will only buy games that have a native Linux port, and since UT2003 and NWN will last me a long time if nobody ports, I'll keep my money, and donate some to Gentoo and others who are advancing the cause of Freedom.
My Linux Command of the Day site : LCOD
Doom 4? No problem, our "Way-Forward Machine" will handle that.
Red Alert 7? Childs Play, the "Way-Forward Machine" has that too.
Duke Nukem Forever? Sorry, we're still waiting ourselves...
Do you Gentoo!?