There's been nothing for me in this one, but I do enjoy the Fanatical Bundle Fests a lot. Hopefully next time there'll be more of my sort of games in the mix! :grin:

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Quoting: gbudnyI know some people here used Linux before 2010 or earlier. I don't think that is the majority of users on this website.

My experience has been that most people I encounter here are in the 40+ bracket like myself, and quite often much older. Obviously I don't know how it breaks down beyond the regulars I often see who make comments that give some clues about demographics, though. :tongue:

Quoting: gbudnyUnfortunately, I have doubts that people know what was released back then because more Linux users knew about ID software, Epic games, and a few other companies. That's it.

Got any citations for what "more Linux users" knew, or is that just anecdotal experience? :wink:

Seriously, on every platform, most people are going to know the "big names" - that's not specific to Linux.

Quoting: gbudnyYou had to use websites like holarse, linuxgames.com, or happypenguin.org to get only some news. Tracking promotions was also almost impossible because you had to use the RSS feeds. You didn't have a store that had no more than 60 titles for Linux on sale. I suspect users share their opinions based on the LGP/Runesoft resellers. The Linux games lists were sometimes the better source of information.

Now you have wishlists and big online stores with games for Linux.

Yeah, I know.

Here's an interesting one for you from one of the indies who used to sell direct from their site back in the day: http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/The-state-of-Mac-and-Linux-gaming [External Link]

Quoting: gbudnyUsers cared more about the AAA titles for Windows or the game consoles than indie games for Linux. We have Linux as the gaming platform that has existed for 30 years. The Linux retro community is tiny compared to the other platforms like Amiga or Mac.

People like what they like. No sane person is going to buy something they don't enjoy just because it's for a particular operating-system - that's not how to get support for what you actually want.

A person who likes genres not represented on a platform won't get them to appear by buying other unrelated things just because those unrelated things are made for a particular OS.

Quoting: gbudnyWhy did Amiga and Mac users know more about the gaming history of their systems?

Because they were actually officially pushed as gaming platforms at various points. It's only relatively recently that a major entity started investing in doing the same for Linux.

Quoting: gbudnyI know about a few issues with it.
It had something to do with the prices of games, shipping costs, and customs duties. We had a community of Cedega users who also strongly believed it solved all their problems, just like Proton users today. I think it will always be the version of Wine that people think about too seriously.
It's a repetitive process thinking about Linux with the different versions of Wine as the new OS/2. IBM had the source code from Microsoft, and it didn't help.

If it solves your issue it does, and if it doesn't it doesn't. It not solving your issue does not invalidate the tool.

Quoting: gbudnyLet's say that Wine/Proton is the future of Windows games on Linux.
Linux need Microsoft to support Wine to see the radical change in the market. Otherwise, Linux will be in the same position as Mac OS X for many years. I don't know if Microsoft will ever do it.

Why they should do it is the better question.

Yet again with the Microsoft promotions. Microsoft hasn't done anything, and yet through the efforts of Valve and those they work with we've got a tool that's almost as seamless as Apple's Rosetta. And anyone who used that (so to speak - it was automatic and embedded into the OS at the time) will know how incredibly good Rosetta was, so Proton being close to that is high praise indeed.

Proton is part of the future of games on Linux. The PC-gaming part of the video games industry pie sits at 22% currently, which is smaller than the 28% console lump, and much smaller than the 50% that mobile telephone/tablet gaming takes up; Linux is an ultra-tiny fraction of that 22% that belongs to the collective of OSes in the PC world - it only recently surpassed MacOS gaming, which has been where it is for decades. Like it or not, tech-adoption is driven by gaming, and Proton has proven itself necessary to smoothly get the numbers to rise.

Quoting: gbudnyCan you give me an example of a system, or a game console that achieved success based mainly on games created for their competitors?

The Amstrad CPC. It had similar guts to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and got a lot of Spectrum ports with slightly prettied-up graphics. Though some complained about this, most people didn't care, and the machine was very successful in both its native Britain and in Germany under the Schneider brand. (Hilariously, later, Amstrad bought Sinclair, and this still kept happening.)

Indeed, we can somewhat expand out from that example and name pretty much all of the 8-bit microcomputers that ruled the roost in the UK and EU throughout the 1980s and well into the mid-1990s, because a large part of their adoption into homes came from conversions of arcade-games that the platforms' creators had no ownership of and which were competing for players' time. :tongue:

And then there's the Famiclone rabbit-hole, where clones of the Famicom/NES became even more ubiquitous than the real thing!

Quoting: gbudnyI don't care how buggy or unstable are some Linux games because you can see this issue on other operating systems or game consoles. That's the part of the gaming experience on every platform. Users can accept this situation, or reject it.

It's really not a part of the gaming experience on every platform, and especially not on Linux. I think it's fair to say that a hell of a lot of us here value Linux for its stability, and that extends to gaming on the OS.

I literally never encounter instability with anything I play on Linux, be that native, run via Proton, or emulated. Of course, it's your choice what you do for fun, but why would you choose to subject yourself to bugginess and instability during your leisure-time?

Quoting: gbudnyI think every successful gaming platform needs users who will generate enough money for companies to keep it alive. Linux achieved it with mainly indie games.

Is it enough for everyone?

To do that, we need much higher numbers of people who game on the platform. Telling people "Switch to Linux, lose access to all of your games, only play buggy broken old stuff!" is a dreadful idea considering that gaming drives the adoption of technology. :tongue:

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Quoting: gbudnyIt's hard to answer all users because it takes some time. My opinion about the Linux gaming history is different for a good reason. I think about what was happening on less popular platforms before 2010.

You know that an awful lot of people here, including those you're trying to avoid responding to, were there to witness all of that personally, right? :tongue:

We have the views we have on Linux gaming history because we saw how things were on less-popular platforms too; GOL has plenty of people who used those before shifting to Linux.

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It's worth noting that the combined 25 million figure outdid the most recent Pokemon release [External Link] (Scarlet & Violet) by clocking up in about a month, what that game-pair took a year to do.

That's the power of selling a game that people want to play, on the platforms that they want to play it on, I guess. Hopefully that'll get Nintendo's shareholders asking some questions. :tongue:

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyNow that is a name I haven't heard in a long time . . .

:grin:

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Uhh, I usually don't have anything to say about these "issues with Snaps" things, but, well...

Additionally, Shuttleworth also opened an additional forum post to discuss requiring "more comprehensive proof of publisher identity for every publisher" for Snaps. So if you have good ideas for them to implement, to make Snap publishing more secure - drop a reply in the linked post.

... Shouldn't they have thought of this before letting randoms publish to a store? :huh:

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Quoting: pleasereadthemanualWhat do I get if I rented the second game from Blockbuster a few times?

A piece of string, two buttons, and some out-of-date chewing-gum. :tongue:

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Quoting: PyreticYep, hot tip: don't go there for hardware. I've heard mixed results: some friends say it's as good as brand new, others say that it's hot garbage. Since they buy what anyone sells, I guess the wide range of quality makes sense but there's not even any quality assurance to let you know if what you're buying is worth it.

Yeah, I've heard mixed results too! I'd probably trust the local one as long as a unit didn't look totally beaten-up, because I know they really know their stuff in there and actually do refurbish stuff (and I've sold stuff to them myself - that was where I went when I ditched the Switch and all of my cartridges for it), but there's another one a bit further afield that I wouldn't even dare to go near! :tongue:

Quoting: Purple Library GuyOoo! Some of the albums are purple!

And one of them is the soundtrack to Bomberman Hero, which was a big showcase of the N64's audio capabilities [External Link], in its day. :grin:

Quoting: whizseOh gosh! I had no idea that was a thing.

I would be real tempted if they had the art of rally soundtrack on vinyl!

Fangamer are really responsive to what people are after - it's always worth dropping them a line to see if they plan on carrying certain things. :smile:

They're one of my favourite merch-stores (I particularly like their Yume Nikki, Pizza Tower, and Stardew Valley lines, and they've done great stuff based on Bomberman, Metal Gear Solid, Goemon, and a bunch of others) - the only downside is that they're a small company and therefore sometimes have fulfillment delays, though they're always announced at the top of the site.

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Not my genre at all, but I did enjoy watching a playthrough by a favourite YouTuber recently, and as a fan of robot-fiction I quite enjoyed watching while I played stuff I actually do have fun with. Good to hear that it's been de-Denuvo'd! :grin:

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Quoting: PyreticThis. This is the part that infuriates me.

You and me both! :angry:

Gonna show my age here, but I can remember when you could get games from everywhere from your local newsagent to WH Smith to Toys 'R' Us AND had all the specialist stores (nationwide and independent) in between. And there were the likes of Dixons, Currys, and so on, who were never first choice, but tended to offer really good deals if you were making a big purchase like a console*.

*When I bought my Nintendo 64 back in 1997, the system was notorious for having had numerous sudden price-drops since launch. Dixons was willing to promise me that it wouldn't happen, and when it went down again by £50 literally two days later, one phone-call later and their response was a cheerful "You were the one who picked up Mario Kart with it, right? Drop by the store and choose an extra controller!" (which I think were about £35?), which they were in no way obligated to do. Kept me as a customer for many years.

Quoting: PyreticThe only UK store now that sells games is CeX and a few niche shops that close down within a year.

Yep, it's pretty dreadful. I have a good CEX locally, but I know that they're a VERY variable chain.

Quoting: PyreticIt's utterly bizarre. Add that to the fact that, since my Sports Direct no longer advertised GAME, I genuinely forgot that it even existed until I found out GAME is on the third floor. The third floor! It's like they're trying to hide away!

I wouldn't be surprised by that in the slightest. Have you seen the sorry state of their website? Word has it that the high-ups got a good deal with Hasbro, so it's mainly like an online-store for Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Dungeons & Dragons - all stuff that you just wouldn't go to a video games shop for.

I reckon they're just trying to get it over with and bury them already, at this point. :tongue:

As an aside, the Hasbro issue really bugs me - collecting video game merchandise is my thing, and there's so much out there and available in this geographical region, and they're not inking deals to sell it! :shock:

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