Quake 4 Linux

Crusader writes "id Software has released the Linux client and server for Quake 4. There's a FAQ page with installation instructions, notes, and download links."

Comments

Wait

[temojen]

I've been living under a rock... is Quake 4 out yet for other OSs?

Re:Wait

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't you mean go here?

They even changed the ship on their homepage as a tribute ;)

Re:Wait

[SkjeggApe]

God, I hate when games for linux are only available two full days after their windows counterpart. If linux is EVER going to be a viable gaming platform, we need to demand that it's available at the same time as for windows..

Ahhhhh, one day I'll be able to make a statement like that with a straight face....

great job, id!!!!!

Re:Wait

[dada21]

I was at Best Buy this morning, and noticed 40 $10 "prebook" copies of Q4 along the top row of an entire aisle. I asked the kid in blue when it was coming out and he pointed to rows 2-4 of the same aisle.

Doh.

Quake 3 install troll

[Mad Merlin]

Does this mean that the copy and paste troll about installing Quake 3 in Linux vs Windows will have to find a new troll to copy and paste?

Re:Quake 3 install troll

[Vorondil28]

Hey, shutup! I have to type that out every time!

Re: Quake 3 install troll

[Anonymous Coward]

So, I wanted to install Quake 4. I use Linux a lot. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty comfortable with it. I've heard Windows was great for people who want to play games with no hassles. I knew microsoft made it, so I pointed konqeror at microsoft.org, and away I went. Ooops. MS is a company, not an organisation. Microsoft.com! Okay, so I tried to search the website for an .iso, so I could install Windows. Nothing! I realised that it was Commercial Software. I should have known this upfront, but I'm no windows expert. So, for the privelige of *playing games,* I went down to a local computer shop and invested over a hundred dollars in a copy of Windows. (I guess there are a lot of hard core gamers who wouldn't have a problem with putting down hundreds of dollars just to play games, but it isn't something I normally do.)

Installation was pretty smooth. I had to download nvidia binary drivers to get fully accelerated OpenGL, just like Linux. Windows is a supported platform for the drivers. I had to reboot the whole OS after installing them, because Windows won't let you easily drop back to a command line mode and just restart the GUI. No worries - I didn't have a server running on the machine, and it only takes a bit longer to reboot than to just restart a GUI.

Caution - Windows only comes with a special limited feature browser that doesn't support tabs, or anything. It is apparently only provided so you can download the latest version of a real browser after you install Windows. Windows doesn't come with a lot of useful stuff that you expect from a Linux distro...

So, I start reading docs to find out how you install apps on this new OS. I was having a pretty good time. Then, I learned that there is no equivalent of apt-get. If there is free software you want to download and install, you have to do it manually. So, I used the funny miniature "IE" browser to get the Quake 4 source online.

Ooops, bad idea. Windows doesn't come with a compiler. You can download a free version, but the full featured "Visual Studio," costs a lot of money. I didn't feel like investing the effort to understand the differences. I decided to just get binaries. Again, there is no tool to automatically download and install an app, so I had to manually google for windows binaries. Thankfully, Quake 4 is a very popular game, so it was very fast and easy to find, but still, it is an extra layer of inconvenience.

After a flurry of clicking "next" and eventually "finish," I finally had the game installed. Hooray. I tried to run it and I got a "BSOD." (Crash error screen) Of course, I already pointed out that Windows comes with no development tools, so it wasn't like I could try again with the debugger to see what happened. I had no way to see exactly what the issue was. What's worse, I couldn't get back to the system. This *game* had caused the equivalent of a kernel panic. It wasn't just the app that had crashed, but the whole system! this, from a system that is supposedly really great for games! It lets a game kill it!

Okay, so I rebooted into Linux. I already knew of a website with binaries for Quake 4, so I went there in Konq (Which came installed by default! I didn't have to go and download it!), downloaded a package, and that was all there was to it. This "Windows is great for games" garbage is just horrible propaganda.

Now if only..

[inkdesign]

...these things started happening the day a game is released.

YESSSS!!

[Ride Jib]

I can finally get rid of my Windows partition!!

Re:YESSSS!!

[Darius Jedburgh]

I bet you say that every time anyone releasse a game for Linux.

4 ALREADY!? :(

[Spy der Mann]

And I just purchased Quake 3... damn!

id software...

[imboboage0]

Just because you were (and I say still are) a great innovator in the world of gaming (namely FPS), doesn't mean your site can't be slashdotted.

Sinister Voiceover

[Anonymous Coward]

Quake 4 Linux Version! IMPRESSIVE!

Requires Windows Version! HUMILIATION!

Re:Sinister Voiceover

[Anonymous Coward]

But beware! It carries a terrible curse.
Oooh, that's bad.
But it comes with a free Frogurt!
That's good!
The Frogurt is also cursed.
That's bad.
But you get your choice of topping.
That's good.
The toppings contain potassium benzoate. ...... That's bad.
Can I go now?

Re:Sinister Voiceover

[NCG_Mike]

MacOS X Version: DENIED!

In Other News...

[OneByteOff]

Jack Thompson today publically voiced his opinion against Linux and against Quake in all shapes and forms... quoted specifically he said :

"Any group of people who advocate giving a Penguin a helmet and a rocket launcher are a bunch of sick fucks..."

News at 10!

mnb Re:Sinister Voiceover

[Anonymous Coward]

...melee glove

Gauntlet.
Turn in your badge.

No such file or directory

[Fahrvergnuugen]

ncftp ftp.idsoftware.com
NcFTP 3.1.9 (Mar 24, 2005) by Mike Gleason (http://www.ncftp.com/contact/).
Connecting to 192.246.40.185...
ftp.idsoftware.com

Welcome to ftp.idsoftware.com

Connection from 24.195.181.250 logged
You are user 102 of 100 available connections.

Average throughput for this server is 1347.912 KBps.
37581 people have visited this site in the last 24 hours.

Please e-mail xian@idsoftware.com if you encounter any problems.

Logging in...
User logged in, proceed.
Logged in to ftp.idsoftware.com.

ncftp / > cd idstuff/quake4/mac
Could not chdir to idstuff/quake4/mac: server said: /idstuff/quake4/mac: No such file or directory.
ncftp /idstuff/quake4 > echo doh
doh

Re:Too bad the installation is failing for people.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll bet the the warez version works great. Lotsa seeders, so it must be pretty good.
fscking copy prevention shit.

Re:Full review and screen shots

[jonabbey]

Yeah, yeah, optimization, performance, blah blah blah. In Quake 4, your weapons come with _flashlights_ attached! That's got to be the biggest improvement over Doom 3, right there.