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Ryan "Icculus" Gordon On The Linux Game Industry

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6A85exfRtA
Ryan Gordon has an hour long presentation on the Linux game industry full of interesting views and it makes for some good listening. Be warned though it's probably not safe for work with swearing.

If anyone has seen a show called The Big Bang Theory does anyone else think he sounds like Sheldon? Just me? Oh.

I didn't realise he has been working on ports for 15 years which is crazy to think it's taken 15 years for Linux gaming to get where it is now. The whole talk is a bit of a history lesson and it's quite amusing at times.

He mentions things like his work at Loki (an old game porting house), Linux Game Publishing (the successor to Loki) and more.

SDL what Ryan claims is the Linux answer to DirectX was created by Loki for example who he used to work for.

So, who here played xbill mentioned at the start? Hadn't heard of it myself, so I guess that was a bit before my time.

Here's to another many great years of Linux gaming. Hopefully we will still be alive and kicking and playing Ryan's ports in another 15 years. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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16 comments
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gbudny Jun 28, 2014
I had a chance to play Xbill ten years ago, but I have never liked this game. I know that was one of the most popular games for Linux.

@liamdawe
Really? 15 years? I remember that Doom for Linux was published in 1994, and later other commercial games were published for Linux e.g. Abuse, Doom, Inner Worlds, Quake, SimCity and so on.

I believe that you should write:

"it's taken 20 years for Linux gaming to get where it is now."
Liam Dawe Jun 28, 2014
My comment was directly related to how long Ryan has been doing it for, not the overall time. If you read that entire paragraph it does make sense...
Speedster Jun 28, 2014
xbill was one of the most popular games of its day?? It sure didn't hold my interest for long, can't imagine how it could have beaten out original Quake...
Hamish Jun 28, 2014
Quoting: scaineWhy do you think he's anti-OpenGL?

He is not anti-OpenGL, but he does mention that he thinks the future is in lower level APIs such as a Mantle, Metal, DirectX 12, and interestingly enough OpenGL 5, which he seems to think will go in a similar direction as well.
pd12 Jun 30, 2014
I really like this guy's talks and resume =P
His Steam Dev Days talk is also interesting! (and more techy) =D
Nice to know his insight and experience in Linux gaming history. =)
Attila2099 Jul 1, 2014
Loved xbill was a go to game for when I was bored. I still have my boxes for rune and quake 3 arena where its in a special full size box tin. Good times glad business is picking up for icculus too :). Great talk.
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