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OS Independent Games?

Posted by Cliff on from the why-not? dept.

Jakyll asks: "Why aren't there [more] games for the PC that come on a BOOTABLE CD-ROM? Use Linux and autodetect the hardware - it would make DirectX and Microsoft irrelevant. Boot the disk just like your PC was a Playstation or an XBox - what is the main reason this isn't happening?" A few publications have been released like this: Gentoo has done this for UT 2003 and America's Army (they have their own site but it appears to be broken at this time); and there are the ScummVM Live CD ISOs, out there. Does anyone know if the major game studios have plans on doing something similar, or if not, the reasons why they aren't?

3 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. It's because... by timothv · · Score: 5, Insightful

    nobody wants to reboot their computer. Rebooting often takes a while because you have to save, close apps, and it can sometimes strain hardware such as harddrives.

  2. Drivers? by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The reason consoles do it so well is because one X-Box has the same everything as the next X-Box. This isn't so with computers.

    --
    Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
  3. Drivers? by schmink182 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would think a large factor in the decision against making games on bootable CDs is that the companies would have to provide a lot of drivers: for video, sound, networking - you name it. Even with basic drivers, people couldn't use there gaming machines to their full capability without the installed drivers from nVidia and ATI. To the game publishers, it's much easier to release a game for PS2, GameCube, or XBox.