LINUXGAMES

The groundbreaking open-sourced first-person shooter DOOM reached 15 years of age last month; meanwhile, new features and content for the game continue to appear:

• Chocolate Doom, which aims to replicate the behavior of the original DOOM builds for DOS, had a new release with various bugfixes.
• Freedoom, which aggregates openly licensed art assets and maps for DOOM, is at version 0.6.3.
• Doomworld pointed out that a sequel to The Plutonia Experiment has been made available twelve years after the original IWAD’s retail release with Final DOOM.

Platinum Arts sent in the following update concerning Sandbox, their educational game design tool:

The moddb.com mod/indie game of the year awards are currently underway.  The first round of voting ends on January 16th and then starting on the 17th the finalists are voted for.  So if you vote for us please remember to do it in BOTH PHASES!  To vote for us you can go to http://www.moddb.com/games/platinum-arts-sandbox and click vote in the profile, registered voters count more!  Please consider voting for us :) Thanks for your support!!

We have a ton of goodies for you in this new release dubbed 2.3.

• New 3D sidescroller Mario like mode!  Also there is a seperate RPG project, check the wiki!
• Hotkeys that make it easier to save games, add materials, and lots more!
• New in game help section that displays all of the binds/key commands!
• Snow has been tweaked and updated :)  Be sure to check out the new version of house :D
• Maps now generate cfgs on save!  Also many various map tweaks.
• New main menu theme!  To try other themes check out the options menu.
• Loads of new textures and new player skins.
• Tons of under the hood bug fixes and features.
• Thanks to ZKAT of virtualdarkarts.net there is a brand new great looking launcher!

Be sure to check out the new Sandbox video courtesy of NoesisInteractive.com and moddb where I talk about the mission of Sandbox, my success of using it with kids, useful development software, and a lot more!  Check that out over here at:

http://www.moddb.com/games/platinum-arts-sandbox/features/noesis-presents-moddb-tv-sandbox-interview

Download: [ platinumarts.net ]

Tycoon Games let us know about Heileen, a historical-fiction visual novel game with multiple endings:

The game tells the tale of a young girl from the 17th Century, Heileen. Her merchant uncle leaving her no choice, she undertakes a voyage to the New World. She’ll meet old friends, like her childhood friend Marie, and get the chance to befriend other people, like John, the young, dashing sailor, Marco, the ship’s cook, and Lora, the shameless mistress accompanying her uncle on the voyage.

The game features over 4500 screens of dialog, 8 chapters and 3 different endings.

A free three-chapter demo is also available.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ heileen.com ]

This post was submitted by rei1974.

Version 0.9 of DeSmuME, the popular Nintendo DS emulator, has been released. This version focuses on a complete rework of the 3d core which fixes a number of bugs which leads to better compatibility and speed.


Download: [ DeSmuME 0.9]

A new version of Cstat has been announced. This tool allows you to gather real-time statistics from Cube and Cube engine 2 game servers which includes the following games: Cube, Sauerbraten, AssaultCube and Blood Frontier. Changes in this release includes:

• updated AssaultCube support
• updated Sauerbraten support (CTF Edition)
• updated Blood Frontier support

Download: [ Cstat 0.5.4 ]

The latest development version of Wine, version 1.1.12, has been released. Changes in this release includes the following items:

• Some simple 64-bit apps should now run.
• Support for subpixel font rendering.
• 64-bit code generation in the IDL compiler.
• New version of the Gecko engine.
• Various bug fixes.

Download: [ Wine 1.1.12]

At Andrew Min’s blog, there’s an entry advocating game development for Linux as being crucial to wider adoption of the platform:

Finally, Linux companies also need to start paying attention to the open source gaming community. Why? It’s lacking. However, gamers can get excited about free games. They just have to be up to par with commercial games. The problem is, commercial companies pay hundreds of employees to build a game for several years, while many competing gaming projects only last several years before the developer moves on. It’s time for open source developers to start getting paid for their jobs. Who better to pay them than the companies that benefit most?

I can’t say I think it’s likely Canonical or Red Hat would start sponsoring game development, and I think the apathy of the game publishers in general towards Linux is unlikely to change until there’s a bigger audience. It’s a chicken-egg issue, but unfortunately in this case I believe we’ll have to muddle through expanding the userbase without game parity with Windows; Mac OSX has at least twice as many gamers, and they have the same problem.

Another item I should have gotten to before now, this one from Linux Game Publishing:

Today is a day that we at LGP have worked towards for over two years. We are very excited to announce the launch of LGP’s new site, PenguinPlay, a Multiplayer matchmaker for Linux.

Linux gamers can use PenguinPlay to find other gamers to play against, post about games on the PenguinPlay forums, and keep track of just how good they are on our highscore tables.

Coinciding with this launch, we are releasing patches for Knights and Merchants and Ballistics, to incorporate the new PenguinPlay library into these games. Patched for other LGP games are forthcoming, and our new titles, Jets’n'Guns and Sacred will be released with PenguinPlay support.

The developers of Vendetta Online, Guild Software, notified us that they have partnered with MMORPG.com to offer free one-month trial keys to the massive multiplayer space combat game. As of this writing, 335 keys remain.

Moreover, version 1.8.52 was released to subscribers recently:

• Demand for mined minerals and ores in stations now increases at a drastically higher rate (over twice as fast for low-value ores, a little less for high-value ores).
• Fixed storm fog bug with grey asteroids.
• Fixed storm fog bug when changing resolution/window mode/antialiasing mode.
• Fixed crash on startup for video cards with greater than 256 megs of RAM.
• Fixed crash when logging out with Behemoth Heavy Miner ship and logging back in without restarting the client.

One of our most sharp-eyed readers, vadi4, sent in the following:

Interesting article by Jeff of Wolfire games about supporting Macs and Linux. Includes a very nice cake.

Wolfire developed the third-person action title Lugaru for Linux; the blog entry mentions that the Linux port generated additional interest in the game, and that Linux users made up 5% of their sales (which is pretty much unchanged from the Quake III sales over 10 years ago if I recall correctly). Wolfire’s next game is a sequel to Lugaru, Overgrowth. You can find more info about it on Facebook.

We missed this one for quite a while: Out of the Park Baseball 9, the latest installment in an award-winning series of baseball management games, has been released for Linux. Features:

• Multiple styles of play
• Solo or online
• Realistic statistical engine
• Complete general management
• Unparalleled customizability
• Play-by-play model

You can try the game in a demo mode, then purchase the full version online. Also, there’s a holiday sale price lasting until January 1st (two days from this writing).

Download: [ ootpdevelopments.com ]

We received the following announcement for a new PyChess build:

The release is named after Howard Staunton, who is regarded as the world’s strongest player from 1843 to 1851. And while we are still using the old theme for the chess pieces, we hope to get a real Staunton theme before going final.

The release contains a lot of general improvements, but the two most important changes in this release are the possibility to play different variants of chess, as well as chat on the online chess community, FICS.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ gnomefiles.org ]

A new version of S.C.O.U.R.G.E., the popular open source rogue-like game, has been released. Changes in this release includes the following items:

• The storyline is complete; the game can now be finished and you can upload your final score.
• Substantial frame rate improvements in all areas of the game. Scourge should now be playable on low end systems, too.
• Monsters and NPCs actively fight each other.
• Full Spanish translation, in addition to German and Italian.
• New icons, textures, item models and music.
• More outdoor themes, and new house models for outdoors.
• New inventory-like container UI.
• New “Call for Help” spell (summons a monster).
• Loads of bugfixes and optimizations.

Download: [ S.C.O.U.R.G.E. 0.21.1]

We’d like to wish everyone reading a Merry Christmas. If you’re looking for something to spend that Christmas cash on, we found Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for $4.99 at Circuit City via the CAG forums.

The latest development release of Wine, which gives you the ability to run Windows binaries under Unix, has been release. This 1.1.11 release has the following changes:

• Numerous fixes for IE7 support.
• Support for 64-bit cross-compile using Mingw64.
• User interface support for crypto certificates.
• Better support for MSI installation patches.
• Various Direct3D optimizations.
• Various bug fixes.

Download: [ Wine 1.1.11 ]

TORCS, The Open Racing Car Simulator, a highly portable multi platform car racing simulation, is now at version 1.3.1. It is used as an ordinary car racing game and as research platform.

The new version features reworked and new tracks and cars, and the requisite bugfixes.

Download: [ torcs.org ]

revearek sent in word that on the Myst Online URU Live main site there is a news item about releasing the source code for the servers, client and tools:

So, Cyan has decided to give make MystOnline available to the fans by releasing the source code for the servers, client and tools for MystOnline as an open source project. We will also host a data server with the data for MystOnline. MORE is still possible but only with the help from fans.

This is a bit scary for Cyan because this is an area that we have never gone before, to let a product freely roam in the wild. But we’ve poured so much into UruLive, and it has touched so many, that we could not just let it whither and die. We still have hopes that someday we will be able to provide new content for UruLive and/or work on the next UruLive.

This is also a bit scary for the fans. We realize that this could turn UruLive into the “wild west” and lead to many fractured and diverse MystOnline servers. But it is our hope that with the help of dedicated core fans (if you are reading this, it probably means you) that a safe and secure MystOnline server set (many servers from around the world working together as one) can be created that will let people explore and live in UruLive.

We also are pretty sure that releasing MystOnline will result in some pleasant surprises for us. Our fans have always been so innovative, creative, and resourceful!

A Linux client would have to be developed, but with source available I’d expect a community project organizing to that effect in short order.

vadi4 pointed out that exosyphen studios posted on the Ubuntu forums to announce an upcoming Linux client for Hacker Evolution: Untold:

The game is for Windows, but it installs and runs perfectly using WINE under Ubuntu. A native linux build will also be available shortly.

The game seems similar to Introversion’s Uplink, so I look forward to checking it out.

A few readers let us know about Polychromatic Funk Monkey:

Help the eponymous monkey of funk to bring order and rhythm to his chaotic land; arrange blocks into towering staircases to reach the sky and beyond.

Polychromatic Funk Monkey is powered by Tuxcap.

Download: [ tweeler.com ]

LordsAWar version 0.1.4, a clone of the turn-based strategy game Warlords II, has been released with the following changes:

• added new road, bridge and signpost imagery (by J. W. Bjerk).
• roads now fade out at their ends, instead of ending abruptly.
• now connecting bridges with roads on randomly generated maps.
• now displaying a log of the hero’s activities in the hero information dialog.
• added bigger explosions for city battles.
• fixed shortest path algorithm to consider boat loading/unloading movement penalties.
• fixed crashing bugs wrt quests and dead heroes.
• fixed bug wrt changing players from human to computer, and vectored units not showing up.
• fixed bug that caused giant worms to be purchased when pegasi was intended.

Thanks to the contributors who made this release possible by reporting bugs on the bug tracker.

Download: [ nongnu.org ]