Put the wish list for porting projects HERE...

[RobbieAB]

DOSBox doesn't provide Polymost, which improves on the game (it does, it does...). Also worth noting, DOSBox doesn't really work nicely on non x86 platforms. There's a few of them coming up that run Linux and run against a Cortex-A8 ARM core.

And a native x86 linux binary would run any nicer on an ARM core?

[Chris]

You can simply use DOSBOX for those.

Also to note it's difficult to set up DOSBox so that it properly runs a given game. Not all games had good speed-limitting, and relied on slow CPUs.. some games needing faster CPUs than others, and some games needing slower CPUs than others. Plus, emulate too fast and not even "good" CPUs can keep up. Emulate too slow, and the game won't get enough. DOSBox itself apparently doesn't properly emulate an x86 system either, so some computations that should be slower aren't, and vice-versa.

[Svartalf]

And a native x86 linux binary would run any nicer on an ARM core?

It wouldn't- I think that was the point I was making about DOSBox emulation... I'll talk with them shortly about things.

[xav1r]

I got this email from bohemain interactive today:

Hi :

Thank you, but unfortunately we don?t plan any Linux versions of our games.

Best Regards,
Jiri Jakubec
IDEA Games

Well, at least they were kind enough to reply.

[Vadi]

Codemasters 'GRID' racing game should be easy to port too. It has ogg and vorbis .dlls and uses opengl from what I understand (wine complained I 'lack' shaders 3.0)

[me262]

Codemasters 'GRID' racing game should be easy to port too. It has ogg and vorbis .dlls and uses opengl from what I understand (wine complained I 'lack' shaders 3.0)

Ohhh. now THAT I will buy if they have a Linux version... I was impressed with the gameplay trailer (still have it too).
I may download the demo when I get my Gentoo box up and running again and check if I can specify -opengl on the command line and do that...

I also have good news on the FASA Studios front.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FASA_Interactive

Turns out MS sold the rights back to FASA, so any of the Mechwarrior Series (Mechwarrior 4 - Mercenaries please) is possible, maybe even Shadowrun. I think we could convince FASA to have them ported... using wine or a Cedega layer to translate DX to OGL.
And that would just be the ULTIMATE stick to MS too...
And both of those, I will buy... here comes my 2nd copy of MW4-Mercs!

[xav1r]

Svartalf, got any leads on any of these many games being suggested lately? I miss your input in this great thread.

[Svartalf]

Svartalf, got any leads on any of these many games being suggested lately? I miss your input in this great thread.

So far, the Europa Universalis engine is a front-runner. NDA looks reasonable (but I need to re-read my contract with LGP to make sure I'm not breaching things...). If it's good on all sides, I'll contact them to make sure they're still okay with a couple of people working on that project and then sign NDAs if that's the case so we can start work on that and maybe see the foot in the door for EU3 and other titles they have access to either as publisher or as the studio.

Haven't had a chance to re-ping Lead Pursuit for Falcon 4; will chase that rabbit better next week once things slow down enough at the Earl household to do so.

Also going to go talk with 3D Realms/Apogee about a possible remix of the old titles for publication on Linux for x86 and Pandora (yes...) in a week or two. Not QUITE sure where that one will lead.

Other than that, I'm thinking perhaps talking with CD Projekt about Good Old Games (Since they're the publisher in that case...) and see what they might think about doing a Linux spin of those titles as well as the Windows remixes.

[Svartalf]

Turns out MS sold the rights back to FASA, so any of the Mechwarrior Series (Mechwarrior 4 - Mercenaries please) is possible, maybe even Shadowrun. I think we could convince FASA to have them ported... using wine or a Cedega layer to translate DX to OGL.
And that would just be the ULTIMATE stick to MS too...
And both of those, I will buy... here comes my 2nd copy of MW4-Mercs!

You'd have to use Cedega. WINE relies on DX9 to provide part of the DX layer code to play things. I'm none too keen on that, the truth be known on the matter. I would think talking to them about making it more cross platform, perhaps to let them target the console market with some of their stuff, would be a better play.

[krzta]

So far, the Europa Universalis engine is a front-runner.

Nice! I would buy that one FOR SURE. Haven't Runesoft ported it to MAC recently?

Other than that, I'm thinking perhaps talking with CD Projekt about Good Old Games (Since they're the publisher in that case...) and see what they might think about doing a Linux spin of those titles as well as the Windows remixes.

CD Projekt? You mean those Poles? I used to know some guys working there...(yeah, I'm a Pole too)