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Good Old Games and Linux
Hamish Sep 28, 2010
Good Old Games and Linux

Recently Liam Dawe posted a news item featuring a list of games available from GoG than can be made to work on Linux, either through native ports or through the use of emulators or similar solutions such as WINE or Dosbox.

[url="http://www.gamingonlinux.info/news.php?view=87"]http://www.gamingonlinux.info/news.php?view=87[/url]

This comes shortly after Good Old Games' marketing stunt, in which they pretended that they were forced to terminate the service and take the website down. In actuality they had simply taken it down as the service is now out of beta and they had to do some final revamping to the website. This has caused much confusion amongst some, and anger from others, but it has succeeded in bring up the topic of GOG and Linux again.

Frank Earl, a Linux developer and game porter whose work includes Caster and work on Ballistics, has been in discussion with GoG over the idea of shipping some of their products for Linux. Given the majority of the titles they sell for Windows run through the use of utilities such as Dosbox and ScummVM, it would be fairly simple just to take them and ship them with the Linux versions of these applications. I would like it if they also tried to gain rights to some of the native ports of these games, such as being able to dig up the rights to some of Loki Software's titles, but this might be too much to ask, though there are several games in their database such as Postal, Postal 2, Shogo, Kingpin, UT2003, UT2004, and the like where it would be easier to acquire the rights to sell them as native Linux versions.

At any rate, speaking at one of his frequent haunts, the Phoronix Forums, Earl has made a few comments about the current situation between himself and GoG. Also included is some references to some of his current projects, namely updates to Caster and his port of Cortex Command.

QuoteIt's still an IDIOT thing they pulled there. They shouldn't have played it the way they did (Though they sort-of made up for part of it with the way they did the announcement...chuckle...)- and it leaves it open for concerns about them pulling similar stupid things down the line... Having said this, I think I'll work at getting in touch with them again after a few of the other projects get out or into full beta proper. (Yes, I've got an RC3 release of Caster (the previous two were boggled because I just hadn't fully set up right down at the Contract location yet...) and a Beta of Cortex Command to launch (and QUICKLY- go sign up for the beta. I need more than the four or so that've signed up so far for this test.).


QuoteI'll be talking with GoG and their parent CDProjeckt here shortly on the subject of their products probably in a month or so. I'm a bit busy with getting up to speed with a new job, making sure one beta finishes up smoothly (it was delayed because of the prior day-job) and making sure another takes off and is largely done in about 1-2 weeks' time. Once I get that off my plate, I'll be taking back up some leads I had and rattling some cages with some publishers and studios.


Finally, going back to the list that Liam posted earlier, several of the games mentioned have Linux native versions that were not mentioned. Rise of the Triad has a native source port and Kingpin had a native port created by a Xatrix Entertainment employee. Jagged Alliance 2 has both a full native source port as well as a commercial port from Tribsoft, as does Heroes of Might and Magic 3, which was one of Loki Software's titles and is currently being source ported by the VCMI project. So with the fullest respect to the guy behind that list, he could have looked a bit deeper at the subject than he did.
MaximB Sep 28, 2010
Re: Good Old Games and Linux

Nice news man ... you could just win the contest I've made several months ago ... ho wait ... you did win !

Anyways this idea would be great although it's the same to me to run the game via Dosbox (Linux version), the only benefit is a Linux sale.
I bought "One unit Whole Blood" and it has very low performance (frame rate) on DosBox, other people had the same issue.
Today I've bought the legendary game I've never tried called "Baldur's Gate" , the graphic is very outdated but it runs perfectly via wine.

BTW the native post of Heroes 3 is NOT the same thing as playing Heroes3 complete like GOG sell.
In fact Heroes3 without the automatic map generator which available only via expansion is not worth it, it's like playing 30% of the game.
The maps are everything for that game and the map generator is a critical part which Loki didn't port.
Hamish Sep 29, 2010
Re: Good Old Games and Linux

Quoting: MaximBNice news man ... you could just win the contest I've made several months ago ... ho wait ... you did win !

:P

Though I have not actually done much with my copy of Osmos, I never got around to installing it again after I upgraded to Fedora 13. When we get around to setting up or living room computer to run Fedora (the copy of XP on it has developed this annoying habit of beeping for no reason at random intervals), I will probably install it on there for my Mother, she would probably enjoy it more than I would. She was most upset when she reached the last level of Frozen Bubble. Just need a place to backup that machines files, which wont become available until November at least when I upgrade the hard-drive in mine for Fedora 14.

Quoting: MaximBAnyways this idea would be great although it's the same to me to run the game via Dosbox (Linux version), the only benefit is a Linux sale. I bought "One unit Whole Blood" and it has very low performance (frame rate) on DosBox, other people had the same issue. Today I've bought the legendary game I've never tried called "Baldur's Gate" , the graphic is very outdated but it runs perfectly via wine.


The benefit will mostly in Linux sales numbers I do agree, as well as the more positive image it will give Linux as a gaming platform (for games from the late 80s and 90s, but still, nothing wrong with that). Of course we should not treat this a definite deal, so far we have only seen "shared interest" from both parties concerned. But it does seem to make a lot of sense, since Frank Earl is offering himself for the job and GoG's only real concern would be doing all the work involved in packaging.

By the way, I do have One Unit: Whole Blood (the classic version, not the one from GoG) running through Dosbox right now (actually, that is a bit of an understatement, it has been running ever since Fedora 7 in 2008) and I do agree it could run better. The problem as far as I can surmise is that Dosbox is not liberal enough in the amount of memory it takes for itself, I get a warning saying it is only using 14 MB of my RAM when I launch Blood, which is less than 15% of the total amount available according to my system monitor. You can force Dosbox to grab more memory, but considering by default it is only using 14 MB of 4 Gig I should not have to bother. Though it does seem to be less of a concern with other titles. Still, comparing Blood's performance to that of Duke using a native build of EDuke32, it does make one want to cry that the source code was never released doesn't it?

Quoting: MaximBBTW the native post of Heroes 3 is NOT the same thing as playing Heroes3 complete like GOG sell.
In fact Heroes3 without the automatic map generator which available only via expansion is not worth it, it's like playing 30% of the game. The maps are everything for that game and the map generator is a critical part which Loki didn't port.


I was aware of the failings of the Loki port, which is why also brought up the VCMI port as well. I have never played Heroes of Might and Magic, but I have heard good things about the project.
Liam Dawe Sep 30, 2010
Re: Good Old Games and Linux

Well that list isn't complete by any means but there are a lot of Linux fans on that website due to a fair amount of their games working well/ported for Linux.

This reminds me that i need to update the GOL.info item database to have a fields about needing dosbox or another form of VM for it to work. Which be pretty useful I think.

I signed up for the beta of Cortex today, hopefully not too late and since he needs testers I'm hoping to get picked so i can get some shots up for a GOL post on it.
In regards to him talking to GOG.com about setting up some of their games for Linux downloads I am certainly not holding my breath on that one -> I'm pretty sure it's not just their decision they would probably have to speak to the actual developers/rights holders for the games but it may create a good starting point I suppose for even more Linux gaming coverage.
Hamish Sep 30, 2010
Re: Good Old Games and Linux

Quoting: liamdaweIn regards to him talking to GOG.com about setting up some of their games for Linux downloads I am certainly not holding my breath on that one -> I'm pretty sure it's not just their decision they would probably have to speak to the actual developers/rights holders for the games but it may create a good starting point I suppose for even more Linux gaming coverage.


I can see what you are thinking, but since they are probably just going to ship say, Blake Stone, with a Linux Dosbox version instead of just a Windows one, I do not see why they would need to renegotiate the rights for this. All they had to do was get the rights to sell the original Dos versions of these titles, then whatever wrappers they choose to use (Dosbox, SummVM, etc) is their own business. I do fail to see how switching the platform versions of one of these is going to make any difference legally. It would be a different manner if they did my ideal, which would actually being able to dig up the rights to old Linux ports, such as Loki Software's, Hyperion's, Hopkins FBI, Theocracy, Inner Worlds, and the like. That I would certainly not hold my breath on. Still a cool idea though.
MaximB Oct 4, 2010
Re: Good Old Games and Linux

Quoting: Hamish
Quoting: liamdaweIn regards to him talking to GOG.com about setting up some of their games for Linux downloads I am certainly not holding my breath on that one -> I'm pretty sure it's not just their decision they would probably have to speak to the actual developers/rights holders for the games but it may create a good starting point I suppose for even more Linux gaming coverage.


I can see what you are thinking, but since they are probably just going to ship say, Blake Stone, with a Linux Dosbox version instead of just a Windows one, I do not see why they would need to renegotiate the rights for this. All they had to do was get the rights to sell the original Dos versions of these titles, then whatever wrappers they choose to use (Dosbox, SummVM, etc) is their own business. I do fail to see how switching the platform versions of one of these is going to make any difference legally. It would be a different manner if they did my ideal, which would actually being able to dig up the rights to old Linux ports, such as Loki Software's, Hyperion's, Hopkins FBI, Theocracy, Inner Worlds, and the like. That I would certainly not hold my breath on. Still a cool idea though.


Will I get the "GNU/Linux Version" of the game if I've bought the DOS/Windows one already ?
;)
It would be a shame to buy again those wonderful games just to support GNU/Linux.
Hamish Oct 18, 2010
Re: Good Old Games and Linux

Quoting: MaximBI bought "One unit Whole Blood" and it has very low performance (frame rate) on DosBox, other people had the same issue.


I may have a solution for you Maxim. It appears that when using DosBox 0.73 and above they finally had the good sense of having an editable configuration file available. I tried the old approach of generating one myself and trying to make DosBox use it at one point using an older version but it did not work too terribly well. Happy to say that this issue has now been solved, and so has my memory hell.

First load up the DosBox configuration file for the version you are using, it should be in /home/user/.dosbox with "user" being replace by your account name. Once this is done load up a file called something like "dosbox-0.74.conf" in your favourite text editor. Once the file is open search for the line "memsize=" and replace whatever number is in that line with "64", as that is the largest amount of memory DosBox is willing to take.

After doing this Blood plays beautifully with no slowdowns or performance problems, and it no longer complains about low memory when loading up.
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