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Interplay updating many classic titles on Steam to add support for Linux

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Interplay Entertainment announced today they're updating many of their classic titles to support Linux. A lot of it of course is thanks to the excellent free and open source DOSBox, which allows thousands of classic to play on modern systems without much hassle.

First of the announcements was that Battle Chess 4000 is now available on Steam, and it comes straight out of the gate with builds setup for Linux too. On their Twitter, Interplay mentioned:

As part of the drive to bring our classic pool of games to an entirely new generation of gamers, we will also update our back catalogue today, providing Tux & Apple support for heavyweight titles such as Earthworm Jim, Stonekeep and Descent!

Tux and Apple being Linux and macOS if that wasn't clear.

Going over their list of games on Steam there's quite a few. Here's some that added Linux builds recently:

Worth noting that Descent 3 already had Linux support, as porter Ryan Gordon did some work back in 2020 to re-port the game along with many tech upgrades for modern Linux gaming.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: DOSBox, Retro, Steam
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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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CFWhitman Oct 15, 2021
For Descent and Descent 2 you will get a nicer experience extracting the assets and using them with DXX-Rebirth.
Craggles086 Oct 17, 2021
Quoting: foggerYou can already play those games easily on Linux with DOSBox. I don't know why they are selling those games on Steam or GOG when most of those those games can be downloaded for free, legally, at archive.org.

Battle Chess was released by Interplay for the Commodore 64 in the mid 80’s
So yes, a bit of history there. But better full screen support with upscaled graphics
for modern displays would make the Descent series worthwhile for me.
Looking forward to playing Descent 2 on the Steam Deck.

So does this mean native Linux support, or through Proton?
slaapliedje Oct 17, 2021
Quoting: Craggles086
Quoting: foggerYou can already play those games easily on Linux with DOSBox. I don't know why they are selling those games on Steam or GOG when most of those those games can be downloaded for free, legally, at archive.org.

Battle Chess was released by Interplay for the Commodore 64 in the mid 80’s
So yes, a bit of history there. But better full screen support with upscaled graphics
for modern displays would make the Descent series worthwhile for me.
Looking forward to playing Descent 2 on the Steam Deck.

So does this mean native Linux support, or through Proton?
Descent is already native.
TheRiddick Oct 17, 2021
Someone should use machine learning on battle chest and get it updated to 4k, lol ç
would be cool, maybe.
beko Oct 18, 2021
QuoteM.A.X.: Mechanized Assault & Exploration

Just by the off chance that anyone is still into this and wants to multiplayer: Mechanized Assault & eXploration Reloaded is still out there.

The release is basically fine but very old.
The GIT develop branch has a lot of changes under the hood (mostly moving to SDL2) but we didn't reach release quality [yet]. It also uses CMAKE nowadays so it should be way easier to compile too.

Disclaimer: Yes, that's kinda my baby.
slaapliedje Oct 18, 2021
Ha, someone on Steam was complaining that the sound was terrible on Battle Chess. Yup, having played it somewhat recently on the Atari ST, Amiga and DOS... DOS definitely has crappy sound. The Amiga and ST version aren't great either, but still has better sound.
berarma Oct 18, 2021
Those games were already available for Linux on GoG.
slaapliedje Oct 19, 2021
Quoting: berarmaThose games were already available for Linux on GoG.
Yup, and some were already available on Steam for Linux, weren't they? Is this Interplay or Valve? Doesn't seem like it would be hard for Valve to just add DOSbox native to the games that alreafy wrap it in.
CFWhitman Oct 21, 2021
Quoting: GuestI have Descent3 from when it was originally ported back in the lokigames days. My favorites from their efforts were the Rune games.

I have that too, along with a few other Loki titles.
slaapliedje Oct 22, 2021
Quoting: GuestI have Descent3 from when it was originally ported back in the lokigames days. My favorites from their efforts were the Rune games.
Rune was awesome. Wasn't there going to be another one at some point?
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