Wishlist for Porting Projects (Pt. 2)

[Svartalf]

[*]Fallout[*]Fallout 2 (curious if this could be re done with a new 2D engine?)

Possibly. The 2D engine they did have was adequate as it was, but FIFE handles the assets well. If I did get rights I'd look at both and see which will get better results quicker.

[*]Civilization IV[*]Alpha Centauri (Own both the windows and linux version. Would be awesome if a new engine could be used, possibly the civ4 engine?)

CivIV's a 2K Games title. One of the forum members had an initial discussion with them over it and there's a willingness to allow it "with a serious business plan". That usually translates into dollars up-front with planned release schedules, etc. I'm pretty sure I don't have the resoruces for THAT sort of deal yet. Having said this, AC was ported by Loki (and well at that) to Linux and according to what'd been done, they released that source tree back to Firaxis. One could concievably try to talk to them if you're a developer to see if they'd be okay with a respin being done and published through LGP or someplace like Greenhouse. It's on my planned list that I hopefully will get to towards the latter part of the year.

[*]Crysis (to prove to the world that "linux can do it.")

Heh... Unengine seems to do a pretty good job of that- but I'd concur on your sentiment. Unfortunately Crytek, while they're not unreceptive, aren't exactly receptive either. It's another one of those things I intend on following up on later.

I had to put my 2c in because I'm sure you would want to know what the gamers / customers want?

Yep. And that's part of what this discussion is about.

[Svartalf]

Sacred 2 anyone?

Ahem... You read the rules...

I've no impact on what does/does not get ported by LGP. I only am a developer consultant for them in the first place and I'm off task, waiting for final release on one title and doing a bit of problem clean up for another right at the moment.

I know you're mostly kidding, but if you want Sacred 2, you're going to have to be good folks and buy Sacred Gold. It's been done quite well and I've been enjoying the purchase I'd made a while back. (Yes, I have to buy the titles I didn't have a hand in the making or maintenance thereof...) What was told to me is sequels are a subject of discussion with studios and publishers- but only if there's a sound enough deal for the first title.

[Svartalf]

Do you mean the DOS game Raptor in your list? Did you update caster 3d already?

Yeah, I meant that one... It's low hanging fruit.

As for Caster3D, we found the issue and we were seeing if any other gotchas bubbled out before releasing. Unless I see something else obnoxious, I'm cutting installers for demo and full version today.

[rah_]

Earth 2150/2160

Just to say explicitly, I'd be very interested in Earth 2150 and the sequel, Earth 2160.

[curaga]

First, how about the older Leisure Suit Larry games?

Then, the strategy game Stars! ?
It was released for win 3, is 16-bit code, and required a rather old compiler to even build. Would it be too much work to port?
Assuming one can find the email of one of the Jeffs, original source hasn't been deleted, and porting it shouldn't require up-front cost either. Just not sure of their view about it.

[Elryhm]

Well, I didn't see this on the list, and I didn't read the whole thread... so be gentle. But I would like to see Fable: The Lost Chapters come to Linux. I think it's a nice combination of graphics and gameplay. I don't know how well Lionhead looks upon Linux, though...

[Kano]

Well i liked Raptor, was fun long time ago...

[Svartalf]

Then, the strategy game Stars! ?
It was released for win 3, is 16-bit code, and required a rather old compiler to even build. Would it be too much work to port?
Assuming one can find the email of one of the Jeffs, original source hasn't been deleted, and porting it shouldn't require up-front cost either. Just not sure of their view about it.

The biggest problem is going to be convincing Zoo Publishing, the new owner of the publishing rights for that game (They bought everything off of Empire at the bankruptcy fire sale...) There's a reason that I'm rarely hopeful about titles rattling out of a Bankruptcy- if it was worth something, someone more well heeled than us will invariably buy it... Moreover, there seems to be several clones floating about.

[Svartalf]

First, how about the older Leisure Suit Larry games

Did you note the publisher of those titles... Vivendi Universal, now Blizzard-Activision. Going to have to see what the new publishing group formed out of that merging by Vivendi deals with us before making any decisions. Keep in mind Vivendi's not been much better than Atari.

[Svartalf]

Well, I didn't see this on the list, and I didn't read the whole thread... so be gentle. But I would like to see Fable: The Lost Chapters come to Linux. I think it's a nice combination of graphics and gameplay. I don't know how well Lionhead looks upon Linux, though...

While I've heard good things about it and I've no doubt that we might eventually convince Lionhead to give us a crack at some of their stuff, their current publisher, Microsoft Game Studios is highly unlikely at this time to allow anyone to port ANY of their published titles to Linux. That might change if they're loosing ground solid to us and it becomes a decision of losing traction to Linux or losing cash they need to stay afloat- but for now, it's dead, dead, dead.

It's a nice idea, but while I'd love to have that and a couple more games like Dungeon Siege, they're just not going to be happening in the foreseeable future.