Slashdot Mirror
Tribes 1 And Tribes 2 Free Downloads Available
James Cho writes "Starsiege: TRIBES (typically known as "Tribes 1") and Tribes 2 for the PC have been released for free download via FilePlanet by Vivendi Universal Games [also try the Tribes 2 BitTorrent link]. The two games stand as pioneers of the outdoor combat sub-genre of first person shooters and of all multiplayer games, influencing Halo and UT2004 among other games. Tribes 1 was the first multiplayer-only shooter, whereas Tribes 2 extended the core unique elements of its predecessor to a greater scale and depth. With this [previously mentioned on Slashdot] free release, VUG is stirring up anticipation for the release of the third Tribes game, Tribes: Vengeance." You'll need to enter a form to get a CD key to play Tribes 2 online.
You know it might not be cutting edge graphics or anything but these two games are good. I remember playing Tribes a long time ago and it was such a unique style of play that drew me in. I haven't found a game quite like it yet and I still don't mind playing the original Tribes every now and then.
Tribes 2 of course had some problems at the beginning, but it's pretty solid now. The game is still fun, supports up to 64 players on a server, and if you like using a lot of vehicles this game is pretty awsome.
I would definetely suggest downloading either or both of these games and try it out, very fun.
Boy! I sure am glad I shelled out $50 for this 3 years ago!
what's with the cynicism? Isn't this exactly what gamers want? The whole abandonware scene is based on the premise that companies aren't making money on a product anymore, therefore freely trading it doesn't impact the company. In this case it's officially sanctioned freeware (which is a not-in-anyway-subtle marketing campaign for the next in the series).
apparently, companies can't win, even when they give stuff away for free.
Lost my Tribes 1 CD several years ago, and Tribes 2 was just never the same (even w/o considering bugs). Tribes 1 has such clean, refined gameplay, and I love the way you can drop into a game and instantly be a contributing member of the team. I'm sure other games must have that, too, but now that I can play Tribes again, I don't care!
I know Loki made the Linux version of Tribes 2 and they are out of business now and a quick scan didn't show any free Linux client downloads. Since all the game data should be the same does anyone know of a free binary for Linux?
My Hello World is 512 bytes. But it's also a valid Fat12 boot sector, Fat12 file reader, and Pmode routine.
For tribes2, I recommend getting some updated scripts to help things out. Panama Jack has some good scripts for T1/T2. I use Writers also.
Also not sure if they removed the cd check, but I used the no-cd patch tfc_t2v24834. I would figure they would, but I actually bought 2 copies of tribes2 for lan parties back in the day. Bot play is still fun, and on 2ghz+ machines, large bot matches with AA/AF turned on is smooth.
See you on a server soon!
For you new Tribes2 players out there that are just coming online. A great resource for information is at http://www.houstonvehicles.com/modules.php?op=modl oad&name=phpBB_14&file=index&action=viewforum&foru m=15 . Please bookmark this page as it contains many many excellent strategies for playing on Houston of Miami Vehicles.
Not so much a dupe, since the release hadn't actually happened at the time of that previous story. I'll update this story to reference the old one and then everyone will be happy bunnies, hm?
They can win. I was just expecting it to take a bit longer than 3 years for a full game to become free.
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
Boy! I sure am glad I shelled out $50 for this 3 years ago!
Tribes2 is the game that actually burned me enough (Thanks Sierra), I never buy games on release date anymore. I pre-ordered 2 copies for a lan party release date, only to find out it wouldnt run on most of my computers. About 6 months later, I was finally able to play, also had to drop my voodoo5 for a geforce3.
Yes, its nice that Sierra released the game, but they screwed the pooch on this release. Basically it came down to money, they released knowing it was crippled, and had bugs. They fired developers, they really treated employees and gamers like shit. If it wasnt for the developers working on their own time, and working on weekends to fix this, it would of been even worse.
Sierra killed the Tribes market, a 3rd party developer had to show an almost finished product to get Sierra to release a new game.
So yes, people can be a little pissed about the whole Sierra Tribes experience.
Not to be dense, but is there a way to get an online key other than waiting in line at fileplanet? They usually don't give you a key unless you run their installer these days.
I downloaded the stuff from one of the mirrors right away, but can't play online without a key I assume.
I filled in the form on fileplanet, but didn't get an email within half an hour, so I don't know if they are emailing me one or if it will require the FP installer.
I don't know about T1, but T2 definitely had a version for Linux that I've been trying to find for about a year now. I've looked through these links and can't find anything relating to a download of it--has anyone else seen if there's a Linux download?
I bought tribes2 back in the day and I loved it, unfortunately as time goes on the ammount of good servers goes down.
Hopefully this will reintroduce a lot of players to the game and get those servers back up there!
(@n s0me0ne p05t the|r tr|be5 key. | \/\/@nn@ p|@y. Woot!
E.
Never rub another man's rhubarb - The Joker
For some odd reason you have to use a seperate link to actually get your Tribes 2 CD Key.
. .
The link for generating the key is http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/tribes2_cgw/
And yes, you do have to veryify your email address on your Fileplanet account BEFORE you go to that page.
Maybe today is a good day to frag noobs ^_^
True warriors use the Klingon Google
Darn, it seems the mac version and 'nix versions aren't available to us. Either that or I am really wrong. Some one correct me please.
I'd say more, but my guild is raiding.
The best free game I've played was Betrayal at Krondor when Sierra decided to give it away to promote Betrayal in Antara. I also would have never discovered Red Baron had Sierra not also given that away to promote, eh, Red Baron 2.
I played a lot of Tribes 2. It's unique as far as FPS games go and it's somewhat an aquired taste. Most FPS games, at this point, I can pick up and be successful in. They are either run fast and shoot accurately, or move carefully shoot accurately. Tribes, is about thinking tactically and moving fast by moving precisely - that's some weirdness introduced by everybody wearing a jet pack.
Unless you're sniping, accurate shooting is less about putting the cursor on the other guy and pulling the trigger and more about watching the other guy's jet pack influenced trajectory and aiming at where he's going to land while at the same time realizing that your projectile will aquire your momentum and compensating for that. Learning to shoot in this game is a painfully slow experience.
That said, you can be extremely effective for your team without ever shooting a shot. That's what makes this game great. Teams need people to lay down defensive turret, and sometimes sensor grids to detect and combat enemies closing in on your flag (capture the flag is alomst the only thing played in Tribes 2).
You team's energy generators, repair stations and fixed turrets will likely come under attack and your team will need somebody to go fix those things.
The vehicles offer another dimension. Some people learn to be great fighter pilots, others use jets and hover bikes as personal transport for stealing flags or hunting down flag carriers. Others like to pilot bombers or be bombadeers. In the category of things a new person can do, a bomber can have a third person who is responsible for tossing flares to divert incoming missles as well as attempt to shoot down enemy fighters. There are tanks too. I used vehicles as personal transport mostly.
The biggest difference is that more often than not, when I'm playing something like Unreal, I'm jazzed up and focusing hard all the time. Tribes can offer a less frantic pace with more thought involved. That said, flying into an enemy base and having many turrets focus on you while you carefully time your jet back boosts for a targetted and safe landing is tense as hell. Then you need to run the hell away with the flag.
For me, games like Unreal peak with a dozen players. Tribes is great with 32 as you can take very specific roles. On some maps 12-16 is still good as it offers more wide open game play.
The only time I've had a large player base experience that was better was in Planetside. But so much of the time Planetside was sub-par. Only occassionaly did I see how good that could be. Meanwhile, Tribes occupied a lot of my college years.
Tribes is something you should give a shot. If the learning curve is too tough, I gather that the upcoming game will be a bit gentler, although I fear that will take away from the game somewhat. We'll see.
Tribes 2 for some reason had a problem gaining a great following. Many of the old fanboys of Tribes complained they weren't the same game (*sings* Cry Me a River *sings*). But to be honest the game modes, maps, and graphics made Tribes 2 a great game at the time. It is one of the few games to appropriately combine normal combat with vehicle combat. (Battlefield and UT 2004 being the others)
I still play Tribes 2 a lot and no matter how much they change the game I will buy Tribes: Vengeance. I think some fanboys need to take the opportunity that these free games provide to see how good Tribes 2 really was/is and they may just see that the changes to Tribes were well worth it.
We will see more changes from Tribes: Vengeance (Dynamix *RIP). However, a game on the UT engine which already has a lot of the vehicle physics in place should make for another great Tribes game and I cannot wait to see it.
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
I remember back in the day I bought Tribes II for 240 NIS (4.5NIS=$1)...how many years ago was that...hm...two months, yup that's right, I bought Tribes II two months ago and now they're deciding to release it for free, well atleast now I'll have people to play with :)
I think it is funny that this is an "old game". I still go back and play on fully populated 32 player servers. guess there will be more now. The graphics don't look too dated for a DX7/OGL game, very nice textures. Infinite size levels are cool (I hate running into the invisible wall in UT2k4). I wish UTOnslaught had T2's bomber as well. Or the HAVOC. 5 Juggernaughts jumpjeting from a Havoc troop carrier amid a rain of Fusion Mortars is still a sublime pleasure for me...
Anyways,
Tribes 2 was a "must upgrade" game for me and required a pretty cutting edge machine to run well at the time it was being patched into completion ('nuff said). It "made" me go from 128MB to 256MB (critical to get rid of the worst of the swapping) and finally to 512MB RAM ( the game + system uses about 350MB I estimated). It ran poorly on a GF2MX (32MB SDR), fair on a radeonVIVO (64MB DDR), good a GF2PRO (64MB), and great on anything faster. Processor speed wasn't as critical, any +800Mhz P3/Athlon seemed to work fine.
Nowadays, a sub 2GHz AMD budget box with NForce2 integrated graphics (and 1/2Gig of 333DDR) should be enough for this game. All those P4Celeron w/ GF4MX420s should love this game. Got a laptop with radeon or nvidia graphics? Try T2.
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
Has anyone actually gotten a CD key out of these pricks? God I hate file planet. All this downloading and they're page constantly errors (says my validated Email need validation, blah blah blah) when I try to generate one.
Pooh on you guys.
It's not nice to make fun of homosexuals. Be fair, they(as a collective group) probably wouldn't hold such a immature grudge against a company, like the original parent.
http://www.filerush.com/torrents/tribes_gsi.exe.to rrent