Put the wish list for porting projects HERE...

[Svartalf]

Svartalf is busy I think, and without his occassional input...

Heh... Yeah, I'm a bit busy...swamped a bit is more like it.

I should have some initial feedback on some things here shortly.

I need to talk with Paradox about EU2 and see if they're still okay with that- if so, it's a good start. I've finally gotten something in front of Lead Pursuit (I got an email address to send something to them...) but haven't heard back from them on Falcon 4.0. And, I've started the discussion, whether it goes anywhere or not, on one of the more serious naval combat sims out there.

[xav1r]

Great about those games, although they sound very niche games, catering to a tiny audience. Did you have any luck with raptor, powerslave, or witchaven

[me262]

Very nice Svartalf. Keep up the good work!

This ran through my head last night, why do we have to be limited to PC games?
I was looking at the trailer for Twisted Metal 4 on a PSM disc (going to test my PS3's disc drive with it when I get tomorrow), and I wondered if 989 Studios was still around (haven't heard any projects from them in a while).
The Sony and Nintendo consoles both run OpenGL, (hell, their executable format is linux!) so porting these should be easy.
So what console games could possibly be ported?
Games made by Sony and Nintendo are automatically out. So are games "exclusive" to the platform.

[Svartalf]

Very nice Svartalf. Keep up the good work!

This ran through my head last night, why do we have to be limited to PC games?
I was looking at the trailer for Twisted Metal 4 on a PSM disc (going to test my PS3's disc drive with it when I get tomorrow), and I wondered if 989 Studios was still around (haven't heard any projects from them in a while).
The Sony and Nintendo consoles both run OpenGL, (hell, their executable format is linux!) so porting these should be easy.
So what console games could possibly be ported?
Games made by Sony and Nintendo are automatically out. So are games "exclusive" to the platform.

The main reason for console ports mostly being out of the question is that we've got to establish ourselves first to be considered a target by most of the players targeting consoles. The console titles are mostly published by orgs like Vivendi and EA (which goes back to discussions of why those are "maybe" at best...)- and in some cases they're console exclusives. Unless the place is an indie and keeping it's rights to platforms other than the consoles to itself, it's not going to be happening right now.

[Svartalf]

Great about those games, although they sound very niche games, catering to a tiny audience. Did you have any luck with raptor, powerslave, or witchaven

Niche they may be, but one might gain attaboys with the Naval Sim in a way that might resurrect a certain game for Linux. Moreover, they're the ones giving me the time of day right now- start with what you've got. Re: Raptor, Powerslave, Witchaven...

Raptor: Once things slow a little bit next week, I'll get in touch with Mountain King and see what they have to say.

Powerslave: Wasn't a Capstone title, though it was published by InterCorp. Find me a studio and I suspect we could have a remix.

Witchaven: IP doesn't typically GO Public Domain the way it was implied; if the company dies, SOMEONE gets the rights if at all possible until there's nobody "heirs"-wise, etc. hand them to. Either someone bought it or it devolved to someone OTHER than the owners if they Chapter 7'ed. There's a path to who owns the rights and we've got to find it before we start on things with that one.

[me262]

A "chain of command" as it were.
A chain that we go get and beat 'em with until we understand who's in ruttin' command.

[RobbieAB]

Great about those games, although they sound very niche games, catering to a tiny audience.

Further to Svartalfs comments, what is the objective here? I thought a part of the priority was to generate sales figures for games with a low margin of entry. For this, "niche" games may actually be better than AAA titles, because most niche games fit into the category of "Games People Buy". 10k sales for a AAA title is peanuts, 5k sales figures for a niche game is a coup. 10k sales for a big companies is irrelevant financially, 5k sales for a small one might be a major payday.

If the objective is to get taken seriously, the trick is to win smaller, self-publishing studios, over to the idea that there is a market for Linux games. If you can then demonstrate that it won't cost them much to produce for Linux and Windows at the same time, you set-up a range of niche games that will thrive on the Linux platform. A thriving community of niche games on Linux is a better case for Linux games than any other argument you can make, and those same games are the ones that are probably cheap or free to get at.

In other words: Pick a fight you can win!

[RealNC]

FlatOut 2. Developed and published by Empire Interactive, distributed by Vivendi (Sierra) :P

[Svartalf]

FlatOut 2. Developed and published by Empire Interactive, distributed by Vivendi (Sierra) :P

Hm... I'm going to lump that in the "maybe" category for right now. Anything published to console is going to be a difficult play unless they're Linux friendly. VU's got their hands in that pie which means they've probably got some say in what does/doesn't get done with those titles. I'll check into it- I'm just not going to have high hopes like I do with what's shaping up right now.

[me262]

Wondering if in the flood of posts this one was missed.

Soldat

http://www.soldat.pl/main.php

A 2D shooter.

It is free to play, although I think you need a registration code for more advanced features.
It has community support with wine, so I don't know if they'd be willing to have it ported.

It would be a nice one to warm up with.