Linux Game Publishing Brought Back Online For Archival Purposes

[gilboa]

LGP gave me X2 and X3:R, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

Gilboa

[Jabberwocky]

Brings back memories of the days of tuxgames.

That and linux-gamers.net (Google has already forgotten about them)

[gbudny]

After they did that awful and frankly rude DRM, I was actually happy to see them close down.

They used DRM only in a few games, and most of these specific titles are available on Steam for Linux.

Steam

Jets'n'Guns
Shadowgrounds
Shadowgrounds Survivor
X3: Reunion

DRM by title

Title Box version Digital version

Ballistics No None
Ballistics (r2) None Yes
Jets'n'Guns Yes Yes
Majesty Gold No None
Majesty Gold (r2) Yes Yes
Sacred: Gold Edition Yes Yes
Shadowgrounds Yes Yes
Shadowgrounds Survivor Yes Yes
X2: The Threat No None
X2: The Threat (r2) None Yes
X3: Reunion Yes Yes
X3: Reunion - Special Edition Yes None

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Game_Publishing

Personally, I didn't like what they did with Soul Ride or Mindrover, which has the Audio CD known as Mixed Mode CD, which made it even more complicated to prepare a backup copy of the game. This was a worse solution than DRM because their copy protection at least made it easier to create a backup copy - so you didn't have to use the original CD.

Https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_Mode_CD

Hyperion did the same thing with Shogo for Linux.

What are the benefits of using games with DRM from Steam?

I know it was a controversial subject and their DRM doesn't work anymore but there were some things that I liked about it:

- LGP copy protection does not require internet connection to install or play the game.
- This system does not require user to keep the disc inside the CD drive while playing games. (Do you remember Shogo or SIn for Linux?)
- This system enables users to install the game on multiple systems (as there is not a limited number of activations)
- Owners of a game license can transfer the license to someone else, download a replacement disc image and allow people to see that the license is valid if they buy your game. Owners can retrieve lost keys and forgotten passwords. Buyers can check to see if they are buying a game with a valid license.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Game_Publishing

[RealNC]

After they did that awful and frankly rude DRM, I was actually happy to see them close down.

[gbudny]

Oh yea!!! Well do any of you have a copy of Heavy Metal FAKK2 from Loki Entertainment? I do! Now that is a piece of serious linux gaming history.

I have this game.

Loki ported many awesome games to Linux, but their CEO made a terrible decision:

"At around this time I got the news that we had all been expecting. Loki was going out of business. I immediately contacted Loki, and asked them if LGP could obtain the rights to carry on producing the games they had made. This would have been a great boost to the new company, and would have allowed us to keep on making the games that were still in great demand by Linux gamers. Unfortunately Scott, the CEO of Loki at the time, was asking for such a ludicrous amount of money for the licenses (way more than they were possibly worth, and probably more money than the games had made by selling for the entire history of Loki) that I had to let the idea go. We made a second attempt at the liquidation of Loki to acquire the rights, but the company handling the liquidation was so unprofessional, that they made it impossible to do so. With their policy being that the only way for me to officially state our interest being to fax them, and their only fax machine being broken for over 2 months (they kept telling us it would be fixed any day), we didn’t really have a hope. The liquidation hearing came and went before they contacted me, several months later, and acknowledged LGP’s interest in the liquidation. Not a lot of use really."

https://web.archive.org/web/20110812...he-early-days/

Former Loki employees like Mike Phillips or Ryan Gordon ported some games for LGP:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110812...he-early-days/

Sam Lantinga was the beta tester for few LGP games.

[creative]

Oh yea!!! Well do any of you have a copy of Heavy Metal FAKK2 from Loki Entertainment? I do! Now that is a piece of serious linux gaming history.

[gbudny]

The good news is that we can now download updates and demos using the torrent client.

However. I know that are people that have digital versions of games, and their DRM allowed owners of these specific games to download .iso images, which was awesome.
Personally, I would like to have access to this functionality because it was a great way to have a backup copy for games like Sacred, Shadowgrounds, Jets'n'Guns, X3: Reunion, and so on

I hope that that maybe they will be able to solve this issue.

What are your favorite games published by LGP?

Personally, I always like to play in Cold war and Sacred.

[Nille_kungen]

I wasn't able to log in and download the games i own.
I guess that wasn't included in archive.

Brings back memories of the days of tuxgames.
https://web.archive.org/web/20131031....tuxgames.com/

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux Game Publishing Brought Back Online For Archival Purposes

In 2020 we certainly didn't expect the Linux Gaming Publishing website to appear back online, years after their single server failed and ultimately faded away as one of the promising Linux game porters built up following the collapse of Loki Software...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...GP-Back-Online