Patreon Logo Support us on Patreon to keep GamingOnLinux alive. This ensures all of our main content remains free for everyone. Just good, fresh content! Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal Logo PayPal. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.
Latest Comments by Speedster
Trolling Delays Linux Release Of The Stanley Parable
24 Jun 2014 at 3:56 am UTC Likes: 2

Nice article -- noticed it's your first here, feel free to write more :)

We could use more developers like Gran PC, and it is such a shame that angry jerks have been working to ruin his enthusiasm. It does matter whether developers do ports for fun or purely for money: developers having fun leads to less burnout and failed projects, more great work, and the world is a happier place.

It is wrong when people get abused online, just like it's wrong when somebody gets mugged walking in the street. It's something that happens frequently in some places, but it's not good to just give up on making things better and just tell the victims to get tougher, even tough neighborhoods can be improved if enough people care instead of giving up...

Do We Want Ubisoft To Support Linux?
23 Jun 2014 at 5:18 pm UTC

I had over a day just last week where internet was down at my house; being forced offline really is a thing that happens to people that aren't big powerful cyborgs like Beamboom ;)

It definitely would be annoying to have all my games inaccessible during internet outages, but much worse to have a game I still want to play get completely disabled because the authorization server goes away. Some gamers are betting on Valve to not get into financial trouble and get bought out by EA, with their habit of making game servers go away instead of letting the gaming community take them over http://www.ea.com/1/service-updates [External Link] ... but since predictions of the future are rather difficult, not everybody would not want to make that kind of bet and would much rather keep control over games they buy. Actually some gamers get sick of a game after playing it for less than a year and can't imagine wanting to ever play it again, so they probably would just as soon rent games, which is what some of these DRM schemes amount to (rental with an unknown, but fairly long, time limit).

The Funding Crowd 33 (May 13th - June 1st)
3 Jun 2014 at 2:42 pm UTC

Think I ran across it at some other crowdfunding-related forums and probably made that wishful-thinking jump that Unity = Linux support. Now I can't find any explicit promises, so hopefully the project leader answers...

(and answers in the affirmative, or else I set us up for our first retraction :P )

The Funding Crowd 33 (May 13th - June 1st)
3 Jun 2014 at 5:03 am UTC

Hm... that may have been jumping to a conclusion based on it being developed in Unity. Is there any way to contact the project creators like the "contact me" link on kickstarter...

Desura Starts A Race To The Bottom For Indie Games
29 May 2014 at 3:28 pm UTC

Quoting: FireFlower GamesWould probably be interesting to do a survey on the subject. Like choose 5 games and let 100 people set prices for them, or something like that. Anyone interested in being part of something like that?
Yes, assuming the list is known ahead of time so I can make sure they have topics and genres I might actually consider buying. No point in getting ridiculous input from somebody who wouldn't ever buy the game, e.g. -$10 for a Civ-like game (you'd have to pay *me* to play anything that close to those World Civ college classes that I despised)

Why The Porting Method Doesn't Matter For Linux Games
28 May 2014 at 4:38 pm UTC

Quoting: SkullyYou think they actually thought the game would meet expectations? Who ever made that decision should be fired, at best it should of been put in the beta tab. They have to know it's bad right? Could anyone have tried it and thought, yep this is ready for our fans. lmao
No they don't have to know it was bad, they already fixed all the bugs that affected the systems owned by their testers. Those like our own Scaine who are having great results probably happen to have systems like the ones they tested on. It's a brown-paper-bag release because they didn't pay enough attention to hardware diversity, which happens to hardly be a factor at all for the Mac gaming market that these guys (the porters) come from.

GOG.com In Need Of Linux Tech Specialist To Port Games
28 May 2014 at 4:32 pm UTC

Quoting: Anonymous
Quoting: liamdaweAnd yes, we need our money counted for Linux and not Windows. This is a good stepping stone to show developers and publishers there is money in Linux.
To what end?

The time comes to make the sequel. Cool Shooter 2, let's say. I code it with DirectX for Windows because Linux users bought it last time with zero effort on my part.
Ok I'm the leader of a team of devs who made Cool Shooter 1. Last time we based it on Windows-only CoolEngine, but we heard all the cool kids are going cross-platform. As much as we used to sneer that Linux gamers don't exist, being all windows gamers ourselves, some of the money in our pockets now going into Cool Shooter 2 says that perhaps we were wrong. Maybe cross-platformness is actually a feature, like these engine makers are trying to claim, and it should count at least a little bit when we choose the next engine?

Why The Porting Method Doesn't Matter For Linux Games
28 May 2014 at 4:02 pm UTC

Quoting: SkullyThe devs who do this clearly don't give a ****, and will serve you up crap after crap while you all beg for more. This **** has been going on for MAC users for ages now, go look and see if any them seem happy with the wrapped titles after all this time. The real mac gamers are dual booting windows, I only just stopped dual booting bout a year ago. I don't want to do it again in future.
Maybe you haven't heard that this same company is already working on a new engine that will be more cross-platform for their new games. This wrapper thing was for an old game where they couldn't afford to rip the engine apart and fix its single-platform-ness.

In situations like this, people who really care about Linux gaming should either politely explain that the "wrapper port" did not meet their expectations and request a refund, or file bug reports and engage with the developers trying to fix the thing. Going all outraged on somebody who is finally making some effort for Linux gamers can so easily backfire. In particular, CD Projekt is anti-DRM, not known for disrespecting their users (unlike certain other AAA game title publishers), so why do people have to start out assuming they "don't give a ****"???

GOG.com In Need Of Linux Tech Specialist To Port Games
28 May 2014 at 3:41 pm UTC Likes: 1

Quoting: km3kIf anyone from GOG is reading, feel free to use my work on getting Return to Zork, Zork Nemesis and Zork Grand Inquisitor running on Linux with ScummVM, Dosbox and ZEngine. http://www.thezorklibrary.com/installguides/ [External Link]
Good work! Those are such fun games :D

GOG.com In Need Of Linux Tech Specialist To Port Games
28 May 2014 at 3:39 pm UTC Likes: 1

The expectation all along has been that dosemu/wine would be used to support old games on GoG, which is their primary focus at "Good Old Games". Having wine officially supported there will be wonderful for Linux users pining after classic games

* who don't want to go around buying windows games, and miss the opportunity of having their $$ count towards the growing Linux gaming market
* who don't want to waste time tinkering to find the right mix of wine version and wine config to play some old game that isn't super popular with fellow wine users