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28.06.06 / [article] Can gamers call Linux a home?
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Yay, my first article on something. Let’s get started shall we?
I’ll admit, I’m a big gamer. With 30+ games laying here, and the fact I could install another 30 if I felt like it, it’s obvious. Another thing? I use Windows, like most hardcore gamers. But hey, I could actually be using Linux if I felt like it with today’s choice and programs…
Most of the time, when people see the words “Linux” and “gaming” together, first things that come to mind are Fortune and Nethack, heh. Many open source developers are making full-fledged 3D games, and even the big companies are making Linux ports.
We’ll start with games that were made open soruce originally. One of the originals is BZFlag. It’s an FPS game with tanks. It currently runs on Linux, *BSD, Mac OS X, Windows, and more. I haven’t played it yet, but the screenshots of the newest version, 2.0, doesn’t look too bad.
A great open source game I’d like to recognize is Cube. It’s a Quake-like singleplayer/multiplayer FPS game. I’ve played it, and damn it’s fun. Even more fun on multiplayer. An upside for developers is that you can edit any aspect of the game physics-wise in the game, by going in to an edit mode. There was a “sequel” made, with more edit modes, more maps, better physics/graphics, and etc. called Sauerbraten (same link as above). Very impressive, worth a download and check out.
OpenTTD is an open source clone of the popular game Transport Tycoon Deluxe. It currently runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, BeOS, FreeBSD, and more.
An infamous game for Linux is SuperTux, a classic 2D sidescroller loosely based on the Super Mario Bros. series, but with Linux’s penguin mascot, Tux. I’ve played it, it’s damn addictive, I’ll say that. Ports currently exist for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, and more.
Fan of Final Fantasy or other turn-based RPGs? Check out GalaxyMage. It’s pretty neat, especially if you’re in to the old school RPG type of things. Contains multiplayer too. Linux, OS X, and Windows ports exist.
Thanks to id Software releasing their source code to many popular games, mods have arrived. A great multiplayer Quake 3 mod is Tremulous. Only Windows and Linux versions are out, but like all the games, the source code is out, so developers, start developing.
Alright, now, we’re gonna look in to popular games made by big companies and their Linux ports. Darwinia, a strategy game, was originally available for Linux. Ever since Valve’s insert of that in to their Steam system, the Linux version is no longer supported as far as I know, since Steam is Windows-only. A version is probably still floating around though.
id Software is a company of much fame. From Doom to Quake to Wolfenstein, all of their titles are popular to some extent. And much happiness arrived when all of their games pre-2000 were GPL’ed, and their source code all released. Doom is one of the most largely ported games ever. So really, it’s a give in… whatever OS you’re on, you’ll probably find a Doom port floating around. Same with Doom 2, widely ported. But Doom 3, one of id’s newest hits, was also made for Linux. The executable is on id’s FTP. Then of course, the Quake series. There is an offical Quake Linux port, same with Quake 2 and Quake 3 Arena. Even Quake 4 made the cut, and the executable is also available on id’s FTP.
The original id paragraph was getting lengthy, so we’ll break it up. On to Wolfenstein. Enemy Territory was a planned multiplayer expansion for the game Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but Activision/id/Splash Damage decided to give it to the public for free, and not needing RTCW. It remains a very popular game today, and is made for Linux, OS X and Windows, same with Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I would imagine Spear of Destiny and Wolfenstein 3D having Linux ports as well.
Other popular games containing Linux ports are Neverwinter Nights, Postal 2, Rune, Serious Sam, SimCity 3000 (under 3rd party patch), the full Unreal series, and probably alot more.
Favorite game not supported? No problem. Cedega will probably do the trick. Cedega is something based off the popular Wine tool, but modified to emulate the DirectX API, used for many games on Windows.
So, that’s it. Just a small article on how Linux may not be made for gaming in any way, the Linux gaming scene is just as active as the normal scene.
25.06.06 / Quake is 10 years old! (Yay for old news)
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The popular FPS game by id Software, Quake, recently turned 10 years old. It was submitted to cdrom.com’s archives on June 22, 1996 in seven 1.44MB disk images, but wasn’t found until the next day.
And why haven’t I posted this earlier? I call it being “fashionably late”, and not paying extremely close attention to Slashdot.
Source: http://games.slashdot.org/games/06/06/23/1755244.shtml
25.06.06 / Freenode IRC hacked
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[Original story: http://tgmandry.blogspot.com/2006/06/worlds-largest-foss-irc-network.html]
The world’s largest FOSS IRC network, FreeNode, was hijacked (for lack of a better term) by someone who somehow got a hold of the privileges of Robert Levin, AKA lilo, the head honcho of FreeNode and its parent organization, PDPC.
[Slashdot link: http://it.slashdot.org/it/06/06/25/1440236.shtml / Other links - paulmer2003.com: http://paulmer2003.com/?p=112]
Ahahahahaha. This was a BIG mistake on Lilo’s end, on whatever the hell he did to screw up like this. He appearantly has the same SSH password, NickServ password (NickServ = IRC service that protects your nickname), services password, operator password, everything. Knowing that practice, it was a disaster waiting to happen. Nice job.
25.06.06 / WinFS dropped
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Before I get to the story, something has been crossing my mind lately: scientology. It’s a full-blown fad on a site called YTMND (For those who don’t know..), and two sites about scientology on YTMND are becoming more popular. For the original site, visit http://theunfunnytruth.ytmnd.com. Be VERY warned that the previous link is NOT for the weak of heart. There are very graphic and disturbing images. http://theunfunnysequel.ytmnd.com/ was later made. And no, there is no graphic images in this site. Well, on to the story, just gives you something to think about, I guess.
[Original story: http://blogs.msdn.com/winfs/archive/2006/06/23/644706.aspx]
Over at the WinFS Team Blog, Quentin Clark states that Microsoft no longer plans to ship WinFS as a standalone software component. Instead, portions of the underlying technology will be included with the next release of SQL Server (codename Katmai) and ADO.NET.
[Slashdot link: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/24/2047214 / Digg link: http://digg.com/software/WinFS_is_Dead]
Not much to say, I haven’t been paying attention much to Vista/Longhorn/etc… but what’s weird is that MS has promised this since the Windows 95 or 98 days, so I’ve heard, and they decide to drop it close to Vista’s RTM? I don’t know. *shrug*Well, that’s it for me announcing day-old news.
22.06.06 / Welcome.
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Thanks to a free domain giveaway and my hosting being approved, here I am.
My name’s Sam, or EvilMalware, or UltimateGeek, and this is a blog where… uh… I write about… stuff, I guess. Thanks FreedomsNET for the good hosting (look on sidebar).
So, stay tuned, something interesting might happen.
- Malware