Put the wish list for porting projects HERE...

[Max Spain]

I tried to post using FF3 and Ubuntu, but their forum is the worst pos ever. When I try to post, it gives me in red "Already Posted" but I cannot see my post Anybody know how to get around this??

NVM, got it working. Turns out that even though I allowed all of the scripts with no script, it still didn't want to work. I just allowed all scripts and it worked.

[Max Spain]

You can also write to Blizzard here to ask for a Linux version. No CD-key required

[Licaon]

You can also write to Blizzard here to ask for a Linux version. No CD-key required

nice find
I've used that form i got the standard automated answer so far, it says that I'll get a human answer in about 3 days.

guys/gals use that form, let Blizzard see that a Linux version is requested!!

anyway, we need some help back there, the trolls have landed

[xav1r]

This is a great thread! Interesting suggestions. Svartalf, are older games, like from the quake/build era allowed? I love a few of those classic titles. About Redneck Rampage, for example, yea, interplay doesnt own the rights to it, it was bought by Vivendi a few years after Interplay went bankrupt. So it might be a little difficult to get that source code. However, they arent doing anything with redneck rampage, and might be interested in a linux port of that game, since it might make them sales. A similar bunch on games out there, which i like a lot, are of course Witchaven and Witchaven II. Similar because they used the build engine as well. The source code of those games is freely available. Les Bird, one of the programmers that worked on it found the source code of the games and put it up for anyone to use. Theyre at his website www.lesbird.com . Another older game I'd like to see ported is maybe systemshock1. I read somewhere, that the reason why EA doesnt make SS3 is not because they dont see any value on it, but because they dont own the complete rights to the system shock games. Its something like they own system shock 2, but they dont own system shock 1, something like that.

As for newer titles, Sins of a Solar empire would be the most interesting one, since its company, stardock, doesnt treat their customers like thieves with DRM infested games. stalker would be cool too, hmmm, ill try to come up with more a little later.

[Max Spain]

Hehe, you should've seen it last night. Someone with the name "forum_terrorist" was spamming threads titled "KABOOOOOOMMMM" for pages upon pages. They had to shut down the forums. It seems that the D3 forums are spending most of their time down rather than up

[xav1r]

Hehehe, really? Damn, that forum_terrorist probably works for EA or for MS game studios.

whats D3?

[sundown]

whats D3?

Like in Diablo 3 www.diablo3.com

[krzta]

I support the call for Civ 4.

I really, really want it.

Ok, so what was the reason this one is not a chance? Either I missed it or it was not being said.

[Thetargos]

Wow, very interesting thread, indeed. Very much appreciated, Svartalf!

So far the list of games is coming up nice. I have a few favorites myself, but from what I have seen from others, there's plenty on the table to choose from already! Nice!

It would be nice if later on a list of those games that could be actually eligible might be formed so that to know what might be expected. I know the purpose of this effort of yours is to get ideas for games to be ported over, kind of in parallel to your work for LGP (like the old saying goes, the more, the merrier!)

Of those that have not been mentioned yet, I have a few. Sadly the site of these games (both from the same developer/publisher) works only right with the Windows (and Mac?) version of Flash Player... www.sherlockholmes-thegame.com Of the games available, I have already played The Awakened, which I found to be an excellent title, and have recently bought the Arsene Lupin one. The game runs reasonably fine in Wine (I happen to have posted the screenshot, but since I'm not at my main rig, I can only link to the AppDB one), with shader effects and all, graphics settings toped. As far as I can tell, the games have been developed by Frogwares studio and are published by french publisher Focus Home Entertainment. Even though I bought the games I own in CD media (localized in Spanish), I also bought them on-line (for the English voice-acting, which is MUCH better). I don't know how receptive these two companies would be for Linux games, but being based both (AFAIK) in Europe, they tend to be a bit more open towards Linux.

I'm a fan of old-school adventure games, and these titles from Frogwares are amazingly well done, though Windows-centric.

Other than these two, I pretty much agree with many of the suggestions already made... I only wish that some companies, like Vivendi-Universal were a bit less against Linux and actually allowed ports for older titles such as Warcraft II & III, Starcraft and Diablo (2) [LOD], but we're talking about Blizzard here, a company which internally uses Linux extensively, and yet doesn't support it, a company who employs as Lead Software Engineer none other than Sam Lantinga, founder and one of the main contributors to SDL, a company that at one point even actually had a working Linux client for one of the most successful games of all times (in every respect), World of Warcraft™, and one which is extensively played on Linux, and yet no support... Blizzard seems to be held hostage.

At any rate, of the other games that might be interesting to port or revamp, some one (sorry for not remembering exactly who) said to use the ioquake3 engine to revamp an older game (I believe it was of the Elite series), and as Aradreth pointed out, the main problem is not about technical skills, but rather artistic skills. Modelers, painters, texture artist, etc, seem to not be all that common in the Linux scene... Plus there seems to be one issue, particularly about the type of models the Quake 3 engine uses (MD3), there is no easy way to export to them in Linux from the main 3D modeling tools available (Blender, Wings3D). Blender used to have an exporter which doesn't seem to work anymore. At any rate that could be solved, but the issue about the lack of artistic talent (or willingness) from Linux game enthusiasts (because there are a bunch of Linux artists out there! Just not necessarily game enthusiasts) is what seems to be lacking. We have the tools, we just don't seem to have enough people with the required skills (time and probably, will) to take these endeavors entirely in the hands of the FOSS community.

At any rate, I do believe that this is an incredible thread and right on spot, as if not directly independently from LGP, this could spark interest on many other games from LGP and other companies, as well as help populate Linux with more games.

[miles]

At any rate, of the other games that might be interesting to port or revamp, some one (sorry for not remembering exactly who) said to use the ioquake3 engine to revamp an older game (I believe it was of the Elite series), and as Aradreth pointed out, the main problem is not about technical skills, but rather artistic skills. Modelers, painters, texture artist, etc, seem to not be all that common in the Linux scene... Plus there seems to be one issue, particularly about the type of models the Quake 3 engine uses (MD3), there is no easy way to export to them in Linux from the main 3D modeling tools available (Blender, Wings3D). Blender used to have an exporter which doesn't seem to work anymore. At any rate that could be solved, but the issue about the lack of artistic talent (or willingness) from Linux game enthusiasts (because there are a bunch of Linux artists out there! Just not necessarily game enthusiasts) is what seems to be lacking. We have the tools, we just don't seem to have enough people with the required skills (time and probably, will) to take these endeavors entirely in the hands of the FOSS community.

What would prevent the use of an open source engine like OGRE, who as an easy model to export to, and who is also still actively developed?

As for the artistic need, Vegastrike proves that's it's a long-time prejudice, but wrong nonetheless. Building spaceships models is really easy (nothing compared to building/animating characters), same for buildings models (for the few cities in FFE). You can also reuse the open source ones, but as I say building new models for the few ships in FFE (there's actually not many different ships in this game) isn't any long undertaking. People have been building Elite/FFE detailed models (for CG) for ages, and the hw is such that you could even just reuse them in a real-time 3D engine.