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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
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
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.
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...
but I'm postponing Christmas 2 days :))
Chuck
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
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.
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.
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
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