Wishlist for Porting Projects (Pt. 2)

[Svartalf]

lol can i just SCREAM Ventrillo ?

Sore subject, for the reasons you outline...

[Apopas]

lol... who's Ventrillo?

[Wyatt]

Wow, I actually hadn't realised you were an "Indy" porting effort, Svartalf. It's awesome to see that you've managed to pull it off, too. Mad props! I had just sort of always assumed you were some important decision-making element within LGP, so this is really neat. Inspiring, even. Anyway, I had a bunch of ideas as I read through this thread, so... (And yes, I tend to get progressively more long-winded.

• Moonpod's Games - A good, respectable Indy dev, Mr. Robot is pretty sweet, and I recall that Starscape was fairly addictive as well. Maybe I'm just biased; they host and maintain Shoot the Core!. They can't be bad guys.
• Gamebryo - I note you have both Morrowind and Oblivion listed, but it might be a worthy goal to target the engine that drives them both (along with many other games). Thing's never run well under Wine, either.
• UFO (aka X-COM) - It was honestly my sincere hope that this property would become forgotten and not suffer another travesty like that third-person trash heap (in truth, I have this sort pipe dream scenario wherin I actually acquire the rights and donate it to the community at large). In any case, even a straight port that fixes the most egregious bugs in the DOS version (lol, 80-item crunch), would be pretty amazing. But if we're to talk of enhancements, well...I have a LOT of ideas, but this is neither the time nor the place.
• Silent Hunter 4 - A submarine tactics game? Sure, why not? I remember when a mate was playing kind of recently and thought to myself "Wow, this is really gorgeous." UbiSoft's child.
• Speaking of which, I sort of imagine that there are a good number of smaller developers in Europe and Asia that would be amenable. I hear that Linux is gaining traction with people sick of the so-called "Microsoft Tax". My pick would be those rad Swedes at SimBin. Someone was looking for decent racing games, after all.
• GP Legends - Ahh, masochism has never been so elegantly cruel. Too bad Papyrus was rolled up into the Sierra/Vivendi/Activision/Blizzard monstrosity. I'm lead to believe that essentially translates to "hopeless cause"
• Gunbound - Now moving Eastward, we have one of the most accomplished Worms clones I've played, Softnyx has the international publishing rights. Good luck with their Engrish, though.
• PangYa - Another notch Eastward, Ntreev's hilariously silly, pseudo-anime-themed golf game. The servers were taken down for a little while, but recently came back online States-side under the auspices of, well, Ntreev USA.
• 同人ソフト - Ahh, at last, we have hit the limits of both geography and geekiness; The Land of the Rising Sun. "Doujinsoft," for the initiate, are a part of a larger movement; a peculiar breed of limited-run, zero-profit, and love that results in what is often a derivative work of something else (in the artistic and character sense; the Japanese actually seem to have a knack for making their own assets if not original characters). From this strange and, at some level, insular community of amateurs comes a great many STG and fighters, with the occasional Beat 'em Up, Visual Novel, etc. to spice things up.
  
  As far as porting goes, a company called Rockin' Android recently set up shop that seems to be pitching their business strategy as being dedicated to localising these games for an English-speaking audience. I've honestly been meaning to cast some feelers at them myself, because even the remotest prospect of playing Melty Blood or Ragnarok Battle Offline natively is just too good to pass up. I'd say going through them would be the way to get your contact. Only problem is they're brand new and yet unproven.

[Linux-user]

@Linux-user
There would have been a higher impact if you had only bought the linux version. The publisher would say: "The linux version increased our sales by xx%, woot!"

True, but when Jack Keane was released I was still using Windows. Then I switched to Linux and I bought the game for the second time.

I know it's been mentioned a million times, but I really wish Steam had a native Linux client. Of course they'd need per-platform support in their store and all that, but I think it'd end up helping get other things ported. Steam has a ton of games available on it and some do already have Linux clients. They just aren't available via Steam, of course.

A lot of people just using Steam for everything nowadays. It's easier to login to one thing and have access to all your games, rather than a billion CDs, CD keys, patches, etc. I was against this for the longest time, but I have come around... Having even a small Linux library on Steam would be awesome. They have almost 700 games on Steam. I didn't count, but I don't think it'd be completely crazy to say at least 50 have native Linux clients already (there are nearly that many idsoftware and idsoftware-related games alone with Linux ports). And what if someone were to update all the Loki assets and put them on "Linux-Steam" for one packaged price? It'd be awesome.

I hate steam (and digital distribution in general). For me the availability of retail editions is mandatory when buying a game. That's why I'm so happy with LGP and Runesoft: They've got real retail releases for Linux. No download version or such nonsense, but a nice box with a penguin printed on it, the system requirements for Linux printed on it, a manual inside the box with instructions how to install the game on Linux and the game on a disc with the text "Linux CD ROM" or "Linux DVD ROM". That's what I call a game release and that's what I want to pay for.

[L33F3R]

I hate steam (and digital distribution in general). For me the availability of retail editions is mandatory when buying a game. That's why I'm so happy with LGP and Runesoft: They've got real retail releases for Linux. No download version or such nonsense, but a nice box with a penguin printed on it, the system requirements for Linux printed on it, a manual inside the box with instructions how to install the game on Linux and the game on a disc with the text "Linux CD ROM" or "Linux DVD ROM". That's what I call a game release and that's what I want to pay for.

I hate steam also. The world should take a word out of l33f3r's journal and have the game downloadable online and be able to optionally purchase a disk copy of the game should you want to have a hard copy. Most of the cost would be the mailing. 30 cents for a dvd case, 50 cents per DVD, electricity, labels. Then you have the option to play as soon as it downloads. Win-Win.

[L33F3R]

Might be a long hard shot but what about Final Fantasy 11? Just because square is both the developer and publisher. Im not sure how well the game is doing right now but one would assume its on the decline as far as subscriptions.

[whizse]

That's why I'm so happy with LGP and Runesoft: They've got real retail releases for Linux. No download version or such nonsense, but a nice box with a penguin printed on it, the system requirements for Linux printed on it, a manual inside the box with instructions how to install the game on Linux and the game on a disc with the text "Linux CD ROM" or "Linux DVD ROM". That's what I call a game release and that's what I want to pay for.

Fortunately, for those of us who see no need to have those round plastic husks lying around or prefer not to pay for shipping, LGP does downloadable games now

http://blog.linuxgamepublishing.com/2009/06/01/downloadable-and-rental-games-now-available/

[whizse]

I hate steam also. The world should take a word out of l33f3r's journal and have the game downloadable online and be able to optionally purchase a disk copy of the game should you want to have a hard copy. Most of the cost would be the mailing. 30 cents for a dvd case, 50 cents per DVD, electricity, labels. Then you have the option to play as soon as it downloads. Win-Win.

Isn't this exactly what Tux Games are offering? Of course, it is the most expensive option...

[L33F3R]

yea.. they stole my journal them @#$%'ers. i wondered who took it.

LGP rentals? you gotta be kidding me....

[BlueJayofEvil]

Old games now owned by EA might be a no-go, but maybe that's not true:

Dungeon Keeper series (Bullfrog, now EA)
Dune series (Westwood, now EA)

I'd also like to see some older EA games (Command & Conquer Gold, Red Alert 1, Dune 2000) ported. Not sure if EA would allow it, but I know C&C Gold was released as freeware for the 12th anniversary awhile back. Maybe they'd allow that game then?