The hard work has already been done. In fact, there is a Duke3D port in progress at Icculus.org. The game is playable currently under Linux, even in hires modes (which the original game did not support). There is still a lot of polishing to do and mouse support doesn't work, but being able to play the game within 36 hours of the source release is a good thing.
I have very little respect for all the people screaming "BIOWARE LIED THOSE JERKS", especially when I know that they have never been to Bioware or seen the Linux client until a few hours ago.
I can speak somewhat authoritatively on this issue.
A long long time ago, I emailed John Carmack about releasing the Commander Keen 4 source code. He replied saying he did not know what happened to it.
Later a friend of mine and I attempted to clone Commander Keen 4 from a disassembly. It turns out that the codebase is very very *very* similar to the released Wolfenstein 3D source, which made things a little easier. We eventually gave up, but our work provided the information and impetus to help the community in making original Keen 4 maps, which has now been refined into a fairly easy process, I am told.
While all this was happening, John Romero made a post on the 3D Realms forums indicating that he had all of the source code to the Commander Keen games. I promptly emailed Romero asking him if he would release the source. He stated that he would love to release the source, but he would not do so without Carmack's blessing. I periodically prodded him about it, but with starting his own company and things, apparently the idea got lost in the shuffle.
As far as id offering these games on their website, this is no big deal. All the Keen games (except for Aliens ate my Babysitter and maybe Keen Dreams) have been available on the 3D Realms webstore for a very long time.
Just a question on the "Best Animated Film" category that they put good animated movies in in order to make the Best Picture category otherwise competitive - Which category would you put Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Well, certainly not any category with "Best" in the name.
I wonder if there's any chance they'll sell "preowned" domain names for a significantly reduced price. I've gotten a lot of good DreamCast games that way!
For the record, I have work for a company like that on my resume, and a major game studio paid money to fly me out for an interview. Though they didn't hire me, I'd infer from this experience that some people take this company more seriously than you do.
Also for the record, this was written by Brian Hook, formerly of Id Software. While other things on his resume are certainly more impressive, his association with LGP also goes to show that real people in the game industry take this company more seriously than you do.
Maybe you should read the article.
The development team gets 90% of the game royalties to split amongst themselves. The average publisher today gives the development studio less (probably much less) than 15% of the royalties. If the game sells well, the extra 75% will more than make up for the lack of a salary.
I've been referring to Newsforge as my favorite Microsoft news site for a long time now. The Register may suit this title better, but I don't read it. Anyway it seems to me as a whole that plenty of folks in the community have confused being pro-Linux with being anti-Microsoft, and this attitude has done a great deal to hinder both the adoption and progress of Linux.
I think the entire advocacy movement should do its best to ignore Microsoft altogether and instead focus on improving our own OS. If every dork that thinks they're clever by spelling Microsoft with a dollar sign instead contributed a meaningful patch to an Open Source project, Linux would gain ground a lot quicker.
The game engine has been ported to Linux, and was released with an addon pack called "Virtual Jay Peak" a while ago. The engine plays the normal game just fine. I compiled Soul Ride for Linux just yesterday with no problems at all.
Reminds me of those soldiers that got captured and held in Bosnia a while back.
One of them, a San Diego native, got free lifetime Padres tickets. The ironic part is they got captured not because they were heros, but because they were idiots who were out too late and decided to take a shortcut across enemy territory.
Anyway, free lifetime Padres tickets for a few punches in the face? I think I'd take it.
When I think of Opera a phrase that does not come to my mind is "practically unusable". Neither does the phrase "fantastically confusing" come to mind.
Opera is the fastest and most user friendly web browser in my experience. I use Phoenix at this time, but I often miss Opera's beautiful mouse gestures, which are implemented so poorly in Phoenix that they're just not usable.
There is no perfect browser but Phoenix and Opera are the two closest. You're sacrificing good features using either one, however I think your criticism of Opera is misdirected. There are much bigger problems than the UI.
Give Opera another try, if you can't figure out the UI, try asking the closest 6 year old for help.
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The Dreamcast turned out to be a great money maker for Sega didn't it... good thing it could play copies without mods!
Like this one?
Experimental support for Duke3D 1.3D shareware files appears to have just been added to CVS.
1.3 support will most likely be in CVS soon anyway.
The hard work has already been done. In fact, there is a Duke3D port in progress at Icculus.org. The game is playable currently under Linux, even in hires modes (which the original game did not support). There is still a lot of polishing to do and mouse support doesn't work, but being able to play the game within 36 hours of the source release is a good thing.
I have very little respect for all the people screaming "BIOWARE LIED THOSE JERKS", especially when I know that they have never been to Bioware or seen the Linux client until a few hours ago.
A long long time ago, I emailed John Carmack about releasing the Commander Keen 4 source code. He replied saying he did not know what happened to it.
Later a friend of mine and I attempted to clone Commander Keen 4 from a disassembly. It turns out that the codebase is very very *very* similar to the released Wolfenstein 3D source, which made things a little easier. We eventually gave up, but our work provided the information and impetus to help the community in making original Keen 4 maps, which has now been refined into a fairly easy process, I am told.
While all this was happening, John Romero made a post on the 3D Realms forums indicating that he had all of the source code to the Commander Keen games. I promptly emailed Romero asking him if he would release the source. He stated that he would love to release the source, but he would not do so without Carmack's blessing. I periodically prodded him about it, but with starting his own company and things, apparently the idea got lost in the shuffle.
As far as id offering these games on their website, this is no big deal. All the Keen games (except for Aliens ate my Babysitter and maybe Keen Dreams) have been available on the 3D Realms webstore for a very long time.
Well, certainly not any category with "Best" in the name.
I wonder if there's any chance they'll sell "preowned" domain names for a significantly reduced price. I've gotten a lot of good DreamCast games that way!
Considering that approximately 500 LoTR-themed games have been made in the past 20 years, it's safe to assume that one is an RTS I'm sure.
Also for the record, this was written by Brian Hook, formerly of Id Software. While other things on his resume are certainly more impressive, his association with LGP also goes to show that real people in the game industry take this company more seriously than you do.
My bad, it's 70% instead of 90%, but my point still holds.
Maybe you should read the article. The development team gets 90% of the game royalties to split amongst themselves. The average publisher today gives the development studio less (probably much less) than 15% of the royalties. If the game sells well, the extra 75% will more than make up for the lack of a salary.
Don't insult your audience.
Seriously, this letter is so poor that even if I was a top Microsoft VP and I wanted the XBox to run Linux, I'd be tempted to ignore these guys.
I think the entire advocacy movement should do its best to ignore Microsoft altogether and instead focus on improving our own OS. If every dork that thinks they're clever by spelling Microsoft with a dollar sign instead contributed a meaningful patch to an Open Source project, Linux would gain ground a lot quicker.
You've been playing it for two months? Impressive. I got sick of it after two hours.
The game engine has been ported to Linux, and was released with an addon pack called "Virtual Jay Peak" a while ago. The engine plays the normal game just fine. I compiled Soul Ride for Linux just yesterday with no problems at all.
One of them, a San Diego native, got free lifetime Padres tickets. The ironic part is they got captured not because they were heros, but because they were idiots who were out too late and decided to take a shortcut across enemy territory.
Anyway, free lifetime Padres tickets for a few punches in the face? I think I'd take it.
Opera is the fastest and most user friendly web browser in my experience. I use Phoenix at this time, but I often miss Opera's beautiful mouse gestures, which are implemented so poorly in Phoenix that they're just not usable.
There is no perfect browser but Phoenix and Opera are the two closest. You're sacrificing good features using either one, however I think your criticism of Opera is misdirected. There are much bigger problems than the UI.
Give Opera another try, if you can't figure out the UI, try asking the closest 6 year old for help.
There are a lot more than 50,000,000 people in China who think that Communism rocks, despite the fact that they're being oppressed because of it.
Oh, support for alternate operating systems justifies software's existence? Cool! Be sure to buy my clone of Pong for the DEC Alpha when I finish it.
Hopefully they'll make the menus even more annoying than the original Matrix DVD!