Put the wish list for porting projects HERE...

[xav1r]

Well, this seems like an interesting turn of events.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/896/896876p1.html

As part of the completion of their merger with Vivendi, Activision is now selling many of Vivendi's game brands. The link refers specifically to Massive's World in Conflict expansion pack, but there are others too, including Starbreeze's The Chronicles of Riddick assault on Dark Athena (didnt someon earlier asked for a Escape From Butcher Bay port? ) In another interesting event, probably related to this, the F.E.A.R. sequel project origin will now be called F.E.A.R 2: Project origin (does that mean that the naming contest they had a while back was pointless? ) So, as of now, those games are up for sale, and Activision/Vivendi doesnt have the last word on them anymore. Maybe now those game studios will consider a possible linux native port?

[Svartalf]

Well, this seems like an interesting turn of events.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/896/896876p1.html

As part of the completion of their merger with Vivendi, Activision is now selling many of Vivendi's game brands. The link refers specifically to Massive's World in Conflict expansion pack, but there are others too, including Starbreeze's The Chronicles of Riddick assault on Dark Athena (didnt someon earlier asked for a Escape From Butcher Bay port? ) In another interesting event, probably related to this, the F.E.A.R. sequel project origin will now be called F.E.A.R 2: Project origin (does that mean that the naming contest they had a while back was pointless? ) So, as of now, those games are up for sale, and Activision/Vivendi doesnt have the last word on them anymore. Maybe now those game studios will consider a possible linux native port?

1) They're selling it off. Until they do, Vivendi still has final say. Afterwards, it's whomever they sell it to that gets it. If they don't sell it, they may just sit on it forevermore, with them either shuttering the studios or jettisoning them.

2) Even if the studio retains rights upon being left to fend for themselves, they will have to see a cost benefit to bother with this. They need to see enough cash influx from a Linux version for them to consider it.

Having said this, they're going to be at least more inclined to listen to me (and the rest of us rabble-rousers over here in this thread... ) than they would have been otherwise. Let's see how the dust settles on this turn of events before we get too amped up on prospects with those studios, k?

[RobbieAB]

Svartalf, the studio might go for a similar deal to Paradox if they've just been screwed...

Ok, ok, but it might happen, and I can hope...

[Svartalf]

Svartalf, the studio might go for a similar deal to Paradox if they've just been screwed...

Ok, ok, but it might happen, and I can hope...

Only if they don't find a captive studio situation with another publisher. I'll be watching the situation closely and if it looks like these studios land on their feet or with a slightly more friendly publisher, I'll pounce on it. It's a longshot, but then so's everything else so far.

[Julius]

Have you talked to the Radonlabs guys?

They have recently released the highly acclaimed German RPG Drakensang:

http://www.drakensang.com/

And also have a bunch of other nice titles.

And now GET THIS: You could start porting these games NOW as their Engine "The Nebula Device" is open-source and already has a (now sadly only semifunctional) Linux port.

http://nebuladevice.cubik.org/

http://www.radonlabs.de/technologynebula2.html

So it is actually already halfway there.

[Julius]

Oh and these guy who have forked the Nebula engine:

http://thezombieengine.sourceforge.net/

http://www.tragnarion.com/

Might be worth talking to, too.

[Svartalf]

Status update: The list has changed in light of a few revelations. Namely, that Good Old Games might be interested in Linux versions, but don't have the resources at this time, and that they appear to have the porting/publication rights to pretty much all of Interplay's and a decent portion of CodeMaster's back catalogs. This brings to life a handful of prospects that we just weren't going to have a shot at because nobody seemed to know who had them. Now we do and they're not against the prospects- they'd do it themselves but they don't have resources.

[Thetargos]

Excellent news! Good work, and hope to see some of those titles in the (hopefully near) future.

[Julius]

Not sure why I got twice the message that my posts in this tread have to be approved by a moderator, but now it seems to work.

What ever... Here is my proposal again:

The German company RadonLabs has recently released this highly acclaimed singleplayer RPG based on the Pen and Paper RPG "Das Schwarze Auge" (The Black Eye; which is more famous than Dungeons & Dragons in Germany):

http://www.drakensang.com/

And the great thing is, it is based on their BSD licensed (open-source) Nebula Device game engine:

http://nebuladevice.cubik.org/

http://www.radonlabs.de/technologynebula2.html

Which has a semifunctional Linux port already (it worked some time ago, but was abandoned when they switched to DX9/10).

And they also seem to be currently under the wing of a small German publisher, which I guess makes the chances higher that they agree.

Oh and they have some other cool games too, Project Nomads for example was a really cool game back then.

[Aradreth]

they appear to have the porting/publication rights to pretty much all of Interplay

That there is a thing of beauty.