Game Bundle3 Linux games on the Be Mine Anniversary bundle
by muntdefems February 14 at 11:42 pm
Linux native games Eschalon Book II, iBomber Defense Pacific and Livalink are being featured right now on Groupee's Be Mine Anniversary bundle.


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That's not true! It's already started!





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For a minimum of $1, you get:


Eschalon Book II
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Available on Linux as a DRM-free download.


iBomber Defense Pacific
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Available on Linux as a Steam key and a DRM-free download.


Livalink
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Available on Linux as a Desura key.


Party of Sin
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Not yet available on Linux but it will be sometime, as stated on the game FAQ and reported earlier by avarisclari.


Major Mayhem (unlocked bonus game)
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Not yet available on Linux but the developer will be working shortly on it, as they stated on the game's Desura page and reported earlier by avarisclari.


There's also music on this $1 tier: Be Mine Anniversary Special EP, Recalibrated Vol. 1 (unlocked bonus) and Square Tactics (unlocked bonus)




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Pay $5 or more and get the following games & OSTs (all games are in the form of a Steam key and none of them are ported to Linux as of today):


Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes
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Men of War: Assault Squad
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Planets Under Attack
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Two Worlds II
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Party of Sin OST (bonus OST)
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Two Worlds II OST (bonus OST)
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And that's not all! There's still 3 more bonus to be unlocked, the first of them being the game Dungeons: The Dark Lord.

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avatar A Linux user for more than 10 years, I've just recently rediscovered the passion for gaming. Couldn't have chosen a better time than now: the second Golden Age of Linux gaming.

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Comment by muntdefems Editor on February 15 at 2:20 pm Link To Me
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Shortly after publishing this article I contacted the developers of all the $5 tier games. So far I've received two answers:

1) Daedalic Entertainment, developers of Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes, replied:

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Thank your for your interest in our games. We forwarded your request to our sales compartment, which replied that they are observing and considering it. In any case, do not expect anything, at least not very soon.


2) Kalypso Media, publishers of Dungeons: The Dark Lord (which is about to be unlocked as a bonus game at the time of writing), replied:

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Thank you for your inquiry. Currently, there are no plans to create Linux versions for the games you have mentioned.


So at the moment there's no Linux support on the $5 level, don't bother to pay more than this (unless you think the 3 native Linux games deserve it, of course! )

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Comment by muntdefems Editor on February 15 at 2:22 pm Link To Me
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Quote from muntdefems
So at the moment there's no Linux support on the $5 level, don't bother to pay more than this (unless you think the 3 native Linux games deserve it, of course! )

...or you fancy the OSTs!

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Comment by muntdefems Editor on February 15 at 6:37 pm Link To Me
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More news!

First of all, Dungeons: The Dark Lord has been unlocked on the $1 tier, although with no foreseeable Linux port as I reported earlier today.

And secondly, I've just received the answer from Topware Interactive, publishers of Planets Under Attack and Two Worlds II:

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I´m very sorry, but there are no plans for the moment.

I'm still waiting for the answer about Men of War: Assault Squad, but I guess it's gonna be the same as the other ones.

Next bonus item is an EP, but there's still another game to be unlocked (the Mistery Game on the $5 tier). Let's hope it's a Linux title and thus another reason to get this bundle (or raise the paid ammount).

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Comment by berarma on February 18 at 12:02 am Link To Me
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Disappointing so far. I've tried Eschalon Book II but it won't work on Debian since it needs libc2.15. This problem is getting more and more common and it sucks, and they don't even care to warn about it. I can't even find and email address to ask for support.

There's a trend of game developers giving a fuck about their customers arriving to our platform lately. :-(

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Comment by muntdefems Editor on February 19 at 12:14 am Link To Me
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Quote from berarma
Disappointing so far. I've tried Eschalon Book II but it won't work on Debian since it needs libc2.15. This problem is getting more and more common and it sucks, and they don't even care to warn about it. I can't even find and email address to ask for support.

Ew, that's not cool. On my end I can only confirm that it works flawlessly on Ubuntu 12.10 64bit.

They warn about this in the README.txt file, but I agree that they should say it on their website.

Quote from README.txt
RUNNING THE GAME ON LINUX
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Eschalon: Book II was compiled and tested using Ubuntu 12.04LTS, and we can only verify that it runs on that version of Linux. Many people have managed to get the game to run on numerous other versions of Linux, but we do not, and cannot, support every Linux variation. Please check our forums for information on running the game on other variations of Linux.

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Comment by muntdefems Editor on February 19 at 12:37 am Link To Me
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Well, the Mistery Game was finally revealed last weekend and it's none other than AirBuccaneers. At the current rate of purchases it will be unlocked pretty soon.

At first I was very excited since it's a game built with Unity3D and I read that they had recently upgraded to Unity4, so a Linux port seemed a matter of (little) time. The game's FAQ isn't very definite about this question, though:

Quote from AirBuccaneers FAQ

1.9 Will there be a Linux version of AirBuccaneers?

We have moved from Unity 3.5, which didn’t directly support Linux, to Unity 4 which does. AirBuccaneers has been seen running on Linux.


Quite an ambiguous answer, by any standard... So I decided to contact them by email and that's the answer I've got:

Quote from LudoCraft Marketing Department

I'm sorry to inform you that we've currently put the AirBuccaneers Linux client development on hold.

We do aim to return to it as soon as possible, but can't really give any kind of estimation of when it might be done.

Nevertheless, have a great week!


While I appreciate their good wishes I'm a little disappointed to read this. So as it is we can only hope they retake the porting tasks ASAP so a native Linux port can finally see the light of day. If you're as hopeful as I am remember that this game will fit under the $5 tier, so you might need to raise your payment to get it.

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Comment by berarma on February 19 at 9:33 am Link To Me
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RUNNING THE GAME ON LINUX
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Eschalon: Book II was compiled and tested using Ubuntu 12.04LTS, and we can only verify that it runs on that version of Linux. Many people have managed to get the game to run on numerous other versions of Linux, but we do not, and cannot, support every Linux variation. Please check our forums for information on running the game on other variations of Linux.

That's a pretty dumb statement, and you'll only get to see it when you buy the game. Normally, I can run every game compiled and tested on Ubuntu 12.04LTS as long as it hasn't been linked with a glibc newer than 2.13. I bet no game needs the newest glibc version.

On Windows, these games are usually compatible with Windows XP (11 yo?), Vista (6 yo?) and 7 (3 yo?), but they won't make them compatible with a fundamental GNU/Linux library that is only 2 years old! Great!

We shouldn't buy the argument in the statement above about so many variations because truth is they don't care about GNU/Linux as they do for Windows. I'm not surprised but it's still unfair. I regret having paid for that since it seems I won't even get a support contact. I'm sticking to games by good known sources or with working demos, i.e. HIB et al.

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Comment by Someone on February 19 at 1:28 pm Edit Link To Me
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Quote from berarma
Disappointing so far. I've tried Eschalon Book II but it won't work on Debian since it needs libc2.15. This problem is getting more and more common and it sucks, and they don't even care to warn about it. I can't even find and email address to ask for support.

There's a trend of game developers giving a fuck about their customers arriving to our platform lately. :-(

You can play libc2.15 games even if your distribution uses libc2.13. Try this:

1. Download the glibc 2.15 package from packages.ubuntu.com
2. Extract it with "dpkg -x". Note I wrote "extract", not "install".
4. Add the lib/i386-linux-gnu folder to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.

5. Play.

It worked with all the games I tried so far, both 32 and 64 bits if you choose the proper package.

If you want to ask for support, Basilisk Games provides a lot of channels: http://basiliskgames.com/about-us

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Comment by berarma on February 19 at 3:38 pm Link To Me
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Quote from Someone

You can play libc2.15 games even if your distribution uses libc2.13. Try this:

1. Download the glibc 2.15 package from packages.ubuntu.com
2. Extract it with "dpkg -x". Note I wrote "extract", not "install".
4. Add the lib/i386-linux-gnu folder to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.

5. Play.

It worked with all the games I tried so far, both 32 and 64 bits if you choose the proper package.

I tried this using glibc 2.17 from the Debian experimental repository and it didn't work, I got a crash. I'll try again with the Ubuntu package. I'm used to fiddling with libraries but replacing glibc is more complex than other ones.

Quote from Someone

If you want to ask for support, Basilisk Games provides a lot of channels: http://basiliskgames.com/about-us

Thanks, I'll use that, although I expected some kind of sale support from the bundle.

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