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Resurrecting the Linux Game Tome

Posted by timothy on from the taking-a-stab-in-the-dark dept.

First time accepted submitter jakimfett writes "On April 13th, The Linux Game Tome will be going dark, but there's hope yet. The admin, BobZ, has an update for the community: 'To everyone who is expressing interest in helping to continue The Linux Game Tome: thank you! But don't tell me, tell the community! After this site is shut down, I will walk away from it. I have no plans to be involved in any effort to continue the Linux Game Tome legacy. If you are interested in continuing the legacy, please organize and make it happen.' Following the announcement was an email with some 'Linux Game Tome 3.0' information. In response to the email, I've set up a site that can act as a discussion platform for anyone interested in contributing to the project."

26 comments

  1. I'll pass... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    I think I'd rather do your taxes than support your linux game tome project.

    I don't know what it is.

    I don't want to know what it is.

    The very idea of gaming on Linux is laughable.

    There are just so many reasons.

    rm / -rf

    1. Re:I'll pass... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      rm / -rf

      Apparently you don't know much about UNIX command line either.

    2. Re:I'll pass... by Deltaspectre · · Score: 2, Informative

      It still works, surprisingly. A decade of using Linux and today is the first day I've seen rm used like this. (Not just once, but TWICE).

      --
      My UID is prime... is yours?
    3. Re:I'll pass... by Great+Big+Bird · · Score: 1

      Not surprising at all. GNU Coreutils has for a very long time (don't know if form inception) as supported command line parameters in almost any order for these utilities. So on Darwin or *BSD, ls / -l will fail, while it works on Linux just fine.

    4. Re:I'll pass... by TobiSGD · · Score: 2

      Then laugh about Gabe Newell (head of Valve) or Blizzard, they have no problem with gaming on Linux. Or maybe Dell/Alienware, they just released a gaming machine with Ubuntu preinstalled. But if you know more than these multi-million dollar companies ...

    5. Re:I'll pass... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      What Linux game has Blizzard released?

    6. Re:I'll pass... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What Linux game has Blizzard released?

      I'd like to know what the GP is referencing here, too. AFAIK, Blizzard has not only not released any games or even any tools on Linux, they shut down bnetd and have been hostile or at least apathetic toward banned players who dared to run their games using Wine and Blizzard's anti-cheat detection screwed up.

    7. Re:I'll pass... by Zemran · · Score: 1

      I am not him so I cannot say what he was saying but I think he is referring to - http://alienware.com/ubuntu/ - if you go down the bottom and select Gaming Services and then Supported Games you will see some of the old Blizzard games but it is not Blizzard that is doing the support.

      --
      I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
    8. Re:I'll pass... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      blizzard did not ban them for using linux in wine, warden has known what wine is for a long time, it was people using a modified wine for.. nefarious reasons.They actually test blizzard games through wine if there is support for that game for each patch to check for false positives

    9. Re:I'll pass... by kermidge · · Score: 1

      "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

      (a version often attributed to Abraham Lincoln)

      How thoughtful of you, AC, for stopping by with first post, professing your ignorance, then your willful ignorance, and finally your insupportable ignorance, bestowing said gifts on us all owing to your lack of interest, favoring us with your... ignorance. Gosh, golly, thank you, I'm sure.

      Shame, really, that the résumé command hadn't a bit more scope.

  2. Sad panda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Shutdown of Linux Game Tome makes me more sad than the end of Windows XP.

  3. gametome.exe by jimmetry · · Score: 1

    I'd be interested in taking this on eventually, but not for a few months or so. Turns out Google owns www.gametome.com, so either it'll happen quickly or get drowned out by The G.

    1. Re:gametome.exe by MareLooke · · Score: 3, Informative

      The URL for the Linux Gametome has always been happypenguin.org and the site focused heavily on FLOSS games.

      It's a real shame but not really unexpected, the IRC channel (which used to be very active with both gamers as well as game developers) has been pretty dead for a few years now and it seems to have died around the same time maintainership of the website died down. My guess is that many active members in the community got sucked into this "real life" thing (quite a few of the most active people, at least on irc, were students at the time) and the "new generation" has little interest in FLOSS gaming it would seem.

      Oh, for those interested, it's #gametome on Freenode, some of us oldtimers still hang out there, though, as I said, it's mostly dead.

    2. Re:gametome.exe by jakimfett · · Score: 1

      I've linked to the IRC channel webchat in my "welcome to the forums" post. We had a pretty good conversation there this morning about development platforms and overall site design.

      --
      Bits of code, random ramblings: jakimfett.com
    3. Re:gametome.exe by jimmetry · · Score: 1

      Yeah, real life is doing that. It's pretty crazy. I'm going through my PhD at the moment and realising the system is broken. Time to start a business with some real old timey computer ethics on board. Stay tuned for www.simulatingscience.com and the associated IndieGoGo campaign (when I have better material) :p

  4. The real reason it's shutting down... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah, it was running on Windows XP.

  5. He isn't really helping... by santax · · Score: 4, Interesting

    First off, I love the game tomb and I love the guy for putting it up and making it work. However he is making it harder than it should be to take over. He said he is going to upload the database dump but hasn't done so yet. To make matters worse, he won't give the current source of the site. It would be so easy for me to host this site as is. No problem. But I don't have time to write a complete new site. In his defense though, he is willing to transfer the domain itself. I just wished he would let me or somebody else host the site until someone comes along that does have the time to write a new site for the data. At least we would be able to check the site. Something I do often, even yesterday I found myself looking there for gems I might have missed. This is no way meant to attack the guy, not at all, but it would make things a lot easier.

    1. Re:He isn't really helping... by homb · · Score: 3, Informative

      He just did post the db dump. But I agree with you. It seems he just wants to get rid of it with the least amount of work. Understandable, but unfortunate.

    2. Re:He isn't really helping... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If I was him, I would want the new host to care about the project enough to go through the trouble of writing new site code.. if the new host just provides hosting, the site will rot quite quickly.

    3. Re:He isn't really helping... by MareLooke · · Score: 3, Informative

      The problem is the site was already very bitrotten and was running into regular issues with security. It's probably better to build something new using the data in the database than to use the old code.

    4. Re:He isn't really helping... by Ash+Vince · · Score: 1

      The problem is the site was already very bitrotten and was running into regular issues with security. It's probably better to build something new using the data in the database than to use the old code.

      Also, he may not actually own the copyright on the old code. He may have got someone else to write it for him and they did not release him the copyright. Since the guy who wrote the code did it in 1999 chances are he is no longer in touch to get confirmation regarding copyright even if he wanted to.

      To be honest though, the fact that it was written in 1999 should mean any sensible person would not use it anyway. Throw that crap away and start again like he suggests. The only thing I would do is ask him for an extension on the current site for a month or so while someone figured out how to get the old data into a new site.

      To be honest though it seems like the community should have seen this coming as he mentions things like the forums becoming clogged with spam and such. So he probably is utterly burnt out by this site and is sceptical about anyone actually taking this on. I am sure many people say they might but when it comes to actually putting in a month or so of full time work to make it happen that is very different.

      --
      I dont read /. to RTFA, I read /. to offend people in ignorance.
    5. Re:He isn't really helping... by jakimfett · · Score: 1

      I'd disagree with the "least amount of work" bit. He took the time to write out an extensive explanation of the database schema. Honestly, the site does need an overhaul, and a complete purge is probably the only way to ensure that the new site doesn't fall prey to the same poor design and architecture that made the current site so difficult to manage.

      --
      Bits of code, random ramblings: jakimfett.com
  6. What a piece of nostalgy by Hemi+Rodner · · Score: 1

    I think I heard of this site when I first heard about Linux.. probably before 2000. I think I visited it twice in my life. Then and today.
    That's so old.

    And that's one ugly site. I have nothing against those retro photos, but it's a real bad selection of colors.

    --
    hemi
  7. Your Kidding by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

    I think I heard of this site when I first heard about Linux.. probably before 2000. I think I visited it twice in my life. Then and today.
    That's so old.

    And that's one ugly site. I have nothing against those retro photos, but it's a real bad selection of colors.

    I still check the site daily...its part of my game bookmarks, and the design is surprisingly clean. I always liked it.

  8. Ill build it ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If anyone wants part, let be know.

  9. It failed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let it die.