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Loki to Distribute Quake III Arena
Everyone in the known universe has been submitting the news that Loki Software will be publishing and distributing Quake III Arena for Linux. The game will be published Dec. 27. The box will be a limited-edition collector's tin box and will include SuSE Linux 6.3. Asking price is 50$.
...someone make a "gaming" distro for Linux. Please!!!!
(1st p0s7)
+&x
Personally, I might buy it just so I can play with the new improved BFG, but I'd rather see some good flightsims/stragety games come out for linux... thou I know none of that is gonna happen till after Xfree 4.0 and DRI. So hurry up, Xfree! :)
David
bash: ispell: command not found
This sig left intentionally blank.
Wow! I can buy a game and get the OS for it too! Brilliant.
A great marketing idea, sell the Linux version of the game with the OS, so that increases uptake of Linux ("Oh, I won't buy that version, 'cos I can't be bothered to get Linux") and it makes the box heavier, so you must be getting more, right?
Just buying the game would mean that you could update all those slightly old programs you have for little effort. And it is a great coup for SuSE, as everyone who buys Quake III will have a copy of their distribution, and wouldn't you try it out on a spare partition just because?
Why isn't it just going to be bundled into the Win32 box? I thought that was id's original idea -- to have both the Win & Linux executables on one CD. Has Activision pulled a GT, i.e. they're not willing just to include an /unsupported folder on the CD?
Well, until I find a box (tin or not) that has both the Win32 & Linux executables's bundled, I'm not gonna buy.
https://www.lokigames.com/
Here's to hoping Loki makes some serious cash on this. They've done a damn fine job.
Question about the Suse bundle tho: can you order q3 without Suse? (I can't seem to find any info on loki's site...)
This sig is false.
The game will be in *stores* on the 27th, but we're shipping CDs as soon as we possibly can, by 2nd day Fed-Ex. You'll get your box later. See
http://quake3.lokigames.com/ship.html
m.
Programmer, Loki Entertainment
"Sebastian you're in a mess. They called you King of all the Hipsters, is it true or are you still the Queen?" -- B
Can we expect to see better distribution to brick and mortar stores
for Quake 3 Arena than we have for previous Loki games?
I've picked up CTP, MythII and RT2 directly from Loki at tradeshows
because they simply can't be found on the shelves. I'm very happy
with the work Loki is doing to make games available on Linux, but
distribution has always seemed the weak link. In my area I'd
expect to see the games at Electronic Boutique and Best Buy at a minimum,
but hopefully also at WalMart, Target, Sams Club, etc. This is a
college town with a very active LUG.. it is a shame that Linux
titles aren't available in the stores.
I was hoping that with the release of Q3A for Linux that we'd see
wide distribution, but with the announcement that Loki is going to
distribute it I'm less than encouraged. Hopefully, Loki is planning
something special for Q3A distribution..
Check back through old slashdot articles. Not including it in the box was a plan to give specific numbers to Linux purchases, to try to convince other retailers and distributors to carry other Linux games. This was reported in great detail a couple weeks ago.
Not at all. Think about it, you've got thousands of computer geeks who have been given Windows apps from their well-meaning but non-techno savvy relatives who have little or no idea about the differences between Linux and Windows. So they return "Pokemon Print Studio" and "Tomb Raider: The Implants Are Leaking*", or pull out gift certificate from other relative who realized they didn't know what to get, and what can they buy, but Quake III.
Heck, a bunch of geeks will return stuff they *can* use, just to get Quake 3...
---
* Other possible tag lines: "It's Just a Padded Bra", "The Lawsuit Against Dow Corning", and no doubt many more...
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Is it just me or is this the single worst day of the year to release a product?
It's you.
The stores will be crowded, full of people returning/exchanging stuff, pockets full of Christmas money, and there, there, in a shining new heap, Quake III for Linux!
Yeah, honey, wait in line, I'll just go to the 'warez store.
George
How about if we just integrate Quake III and all the other games into the Linux kernel.
Aside from having to install a new OS/Kernel for every game, it should not be a problem.
That would be something to see. In the kernel configuration program you have choices on File Systems, hardware, and games. Recompile the kernel to include Quake and Pacman.
Well, those are my two cents (more than enough to get Linux)
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Of course, you'd also have to be able to run it from your booted system, but it would be a very cool thing (and powerful message?) if the most popular game of 2000 was just boot-and-run, and was powered by Linux.
--
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
Nope. Doom was amusing for about 15 minutes, after which it got pretty boring and tedious. The exploration aspect is cool when you enter a new area, trying to find secret places etc, but it gets old quick. Not enough variety in how to get things done. Tomb Raider (which I know is technically not an FPS) managed to hold my interest longer due to more variety in terms of exploration and things to do to get places (rather than simply "find the key"). But even that got dull after a while. I did win the game, but around by the time I got past The Cisturn(sp?) the only thing keeping me going was the fact that I was so close to the end... and it did improve for the finale. The point being, the same damn thing over and over and over again gets pretty dull after a while. Doom was very very bad in this respect, and Quake hasn't seemed to me to be much of an improvement in any version. Aside from looking prettier, the whole thing still involves running around shooting things and not much else, and with very little variation in how its done (a different looking gun isn't a variation in how its done -- gernades are, but what else?).
What I want to see most is something like C&C, Warcraft/Starcraft, maybe something like Age of Wonders (Warlords done right), and most of all, an update for my all time favorite game: Master of Orion II.
--
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
but I'm postponing Christmas 2 days :))
Chuck
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
If they do well through this, than many other games will be available.
But if they do poorly, than it will be put back a couple of years.
I myself want games for Linux, I am tired of just playing with linux/fs/coda/upcall.c
Loki Loki ra ra ra!
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Am I the only one who thinks this is bizarre?
I don't really see the rationale... Could they really think that somebody who doesn't have Linux will buy the Linux version of a game and install the O.S. to play it?
I don't know about other retailers, but at Fry's the Linux games are in the operating systems section, right next to the Linux distributions. There's no way you'd find them unless you specifically went looking for the Linux version.
Also, I hope they're not expressing a bias toward a particular Linux distribution... That seems like a really bad idea to me. (If I call tech support with problems and they tell me I really should be using SuSE, I'll have some strong words for them)
/* The beatings will continue until morale improves. */
I don't run Linux, personally. I have various distributions (Debian, older Red Hats, older Slackware, even a .86 of Stampede), including a recently arrived version of Slackware 7, but Linux isn't installed on my system.
So why did I order Quake III: Arena for Linux? To support the gaming market for alternative operating systems. That binaries for the other platforms exist will make the game moderately useful (assuming I want to plug in my Windows disk), but in the end I simply want to be counted as having acknowledged that a market exists for all alternative PC operating systems.
If I can't stand with my platform of choice - BeOS - then I will stand with the people who are most likely to understand, if not respect, that choice.
And I would rather have been recorded as having stood for the party I most believed, rather than not having participated at all.
For those of us who can appreciate humor.
[Bringing it back to Quake, which was Sig11's original intention anyway]
The campers were dug in like Alabama ticks,
And the HPB's were up to their usual tricks.
The other gamers in 'doze-land , and I in my GNU,
I can't get any Quake3, what am I to do?
This sig is false.
For companies that don't want to track, or bother with, Linux sales, Loki seems to be invaluable. They can still sell the product to the Linux market, while not distracting themselves from their "core market." And get accurate numbers for the Linux sales. The other methods Carmack suggested using -- letting Linux users download the game binaries and the use a Windows CD, or including Linux binaries in the Windows box -- obscures the true value of the Linux market.
Yay, ID! Yay, Loki!
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
From Here:
On another note, I thought it important to address a security issue with your
Quake 3 config files for the commercial release.
When you enter your CD Key, we store it in q3config.cfg in the cl_cdkey cvar.
Unencrypted. Please treat your retail config files as you would the alarm code
to your house, or the PIN number on your bank card. If you must send your configs
to someone, please make sure to edit out the "set cl_cdkey xxx..." line.
It was brought to my attention that there was a scam with Half-Life CD Keys a
while back where people were asked to e-mail their configs to HLSupport@hotmail.com
or something to that effect, and I'd hate to see an innocent customer unknowingly
succumb to a similar scam with Q3A.
Cheers,
-Xian
Slashdot doesn't seem to want to run this story, so I'm going to point it out here. Tribes2 (being developed by Dynamix) is going to be ported to Linux. If you go to the URL here you will see that they have plans to make a Linux and Mac port and are looking for help on the sound systems for those platforms and such. I am a HUGe fan of Tribes and am EXTREMELY happy that Tribes2 is going to be on the Linux platform.
"Out, OUT! You demons of STUPIDITY!" - Dogbert
There's a lot of Linux/Windows dual booters out there who aren't willing to wait three more weeks to get the right version of the game. The number of purchases of the Linux version thus won't reflect the number of people who would prefer a Linux game to a Windows game, but will more closely reflect the number of people who wouldn't have bought Quake 3 at all if it hadn't had a Linux version.
Which is what companies need to know to make their porting decisions, I guess... but it's still annoying to know that there's going to be some skewed, easily misinterpreted marketing data out there because of this.
Hmm. a lot of the problem is familarity - a person that knows a map well will do much better than someone who hasn't seen it. While variety is good, a new map really means downloading it, going offline and doing serious practice in the new level until you know your way around. A dedicated player would enjoy this, an average one probably just wants to get online and shooting, then wrap up for the day and do the same tomorrow :+) :+)
I *do* like Classic Doom and Doom2 though - mostly because I have enough low-spec machines to set up a lan game at home
--
-=DaveHowe=-
Now that we're getting more OpenGL games than ever coming out for Linux, I think it might be a good time to address the problem of video card hardware support.
Many of us don't have 3D accelerators that work under Linux. While I'd like to have my hardware working under Linux, I realize that it's probably not going to happen any time this millenium.
So instead, I have a suggestion. Mesa currently has only one mode for software rendering--high quality. Is there any way that a low-quality software rendering mode could be introduced into Mesa? How difficult would it be to add this to the libraries, maybe have it switched on/off by an environment variable? How much of a slow-down would it introduce into the libraries, by having forked logic like this?
Because honestly, if I were to buy a copy of Quake III right now, I'd have to buy the Windows version because I haven't the "right" hardware 3D-accelerator. A sped-up, but much less visually correct, version of Mesa might make it easier for someone like me to bite the bullet and buy the Linux version, so that when I upgrade/if I upgrade to a 3D accelerated card, I'll have it under the OS I prefer.
(I realize this is pretty selfish, but it's also one of the reasons why you're not going to see many Windows users switching over to Linux any time soon. If I can't install Linux on someone else's 600Mhz Athalon, and be able to show them a kick-ass 3D game with a frame rate higher than 1.5/s...)
James
No one with a gamepad will ever be able to stop the Mouse+Kbd (Or in my case, ergonomic Cyberman 2 pad) fraggers. I know because I tried. I am actually using only the buttons on the Cyberman with my left hand, and my right hand on the 3 button mouse. It works perfectly, and no hand cramps.>:)
Dreamcast is all good for fighting games like Soul Caliber (Bought DC and SC at once, MMMmmm!), but for FPSs and strategy games like Civ, or Warcraft you just can't beat the mouse. Of course, when the DC mouse and Kbd get popular over here... Well... Who needs a PC? >:)
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
Now that Quake 3: Arena is done and available for Windows already, there's an
important issue to think about as it affects all versions (Win, Mac, Linux) and
possibly the future of software in general: Central authentication servers. The
latest kind of copy-protection for software online. You can only play on the
Internet when your code (usually CD key) is authorized by a special server
that's maintained by the producers. Not a new way of fighting software piracy
but the very fact that now even id Software's Quake is relying on this means it
could become a standard in future times.
Another great game, Half-Life, already used it. When I found out about that, I
stopped playing online, and still regret that I bought it. I always buy the few
games I can play in my limited time, modifyable games like most of the 3D
shooters really offer so much that the cost is nothing compared to the fun, and
I recommend that to others as well. But the latest copy-protection crazyness is
so frustrating, warez-dudes simply download the cracked programs for free while
I pay for an original to show my support for the producer, but then I'm the one
who has to deal with the stupid protection stuff and can't even make a backup
of it or use it over the LAN on several machines simulatenously. Yet central
authentication is even worse than that for three reasons:
1. If the authentication server goes down, so does the game, nobody would be
authorized to play. Only cracked games could be played on cracked servers. We
who pay are left out, even if it's temporarily, it is a problem. Especially if
the central servers get flooded or cracked...
2. When a CD key is used to identify and authorize players, legit users will be
locked out if their codes are stolen or generated with a key generator utility.
If all software was protected with unique keys, breaking into a computer and
stealing them would immediately render all your paid software unusable. You
can't use it while the key is used by another user or when it's been blocked
because of abuse or for any other reason.
3. We're, once again, at the whim of the producer. It's very similar to DIVX.
You don't have to pay to play online, at least not yet, but it could be
implemented easily. Pay-per-Play, no thanks, either Pay-to-Own or nothing.
Besides, what about privacy, if your unique ID number is transmitted (with
hardware information, as harmless as it might seem, and who knows what else at
a later time or by another entity) each time you want to connect to a server.
I've been thinking about all of this since I got Half-Life. Now Quake 3: Arena
is coming out and I'm waiting for the Linux Elite Edition. But I'm no longer so
sure if I really want to buy it, of course I want to show my support for Linux,
but I'm not going to support authentication copy protection. Just say no? It's
hard if it's my favorite game! But if I make a mistake now, my next favorite
game will have the same problem, so it's time to choose. We all have to make
that decision. The point of this article is to raise awareness of the issue so
you can make your own choice consciously.
PS: I'm also interested in id Software's opinion on this issue (Johnc and Zoid
are registered Slashdot readers). The latest happenings are so different from
what they did before! Would John Carmack really prefer a world where all
software that's used online requires central authentication servers? In many
ways, id often sets a precedent, think about it...
-- Eavy (: Linux Is Not UniX
Maybe I'm overseeing something, but I'm wondering about one thing. The previous Linux Doom and Quake were distributed over ftp by idsoftware themselves, and they looked for the Windows retail CD for their data files.
If I buy this Loki version, will I be able to use it as a key cd for the Windows version? Cause you just KNOW the Windows one will always be at least one revision ahead.
I don't really care which platform I play it on. I'd like to buy the Linux version to show my support, but if it means that I won't be able to play with all the Windows users just because I have to wait a week longer for the latest patch, then it's not much good. I'd like to be able to switch to Windows just as long as is necessary. Also, the graphic card drivers for Windows tend to be more highly optimised, another reason why I want flexibility. What about authentication, will I get a license number from Loki that'll get me equivalent rights on the authentication servers?
Florin
Here a link to some unofficial Stats reguarding Tribes2. Enjoy!
Tribes2 FAQs...Posted by Star Lord
"I have lost my way in life, because I have lost my mind. I would go and search for it, but I'm afraid of what I'd find
marc@oranje$ cd /usr/compat/linux/proc/ ./ ../
marc@oranje$ ll
total 3
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel - 512 Feb 6 1996
drwxr-xr-x 17 root wheel - 512 Dec 2 02:08
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel - 318 Aug 17 23:37
meminfo
marc@oranje$ cat meminfo
total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached:
Mem: 131194880 128024576 3170304 32817152 2682880 82337792
Swap: 131567616 6393856 125173760
MemTotal: 128120 kB
MemFree: 3096 kB
MemShared: 32048 kB
Buffers: 2620 kB
Cached: 80408 kB
SwapTotal: 128484 kB
SwapFree: 122240 kB
marc@oranje$
You should have posted with e-mail, so I would have sent you this hint.