Tux Racer Makes It To The Arcades

cybermint writes "Tux Racer, the well-known game starring Linux mascot Tux, has made its way into a redemption based arcade machine, which has recently been released by manufacturers ICE. The arcade version, co-developed by Roxor Games, is much more simple than the original PC version. It has two big buttons, one for left, and one for right. As far as I can tell, there is no longer a way to jump or do tricks. Tickets are earned by collecting fish. Looks like lots of fun for the kids - I'm glad to see the developers have finally found a good market for their game."

zuh?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can sort of understand why it's popular on Linux.. since it's like, one of three games designed for linux that has a 3d engine. But why would anyone want to play it in the arcade? There are a ton of much better games if you're not restricted to linux.

Re:zuh?

[Recoil_42]

this is meant to be put in chuck-e-cheeses and the like... these kids have never heard of linux before.. they don't give a shit about linux. penguins racing down hills catching fish, however... now that's cool. remember -- every game is cooler in an arcade.

Re:zuh?

[00420]

Yes, but these kids will grow up and eventually hear of linux. Maybe some of them will chose it over Windows for that very reason.

"redemption" ==> "tickets"

[hawkstone]

But why would anyone want to play it in the arcade?

Think Skeeball, or those stupid "knock the quarters off the shelves" games -- a simple game where if you do well you are rewarded with tickets. So you're right; it's not a game that would work as well if the whole point was to play the game because there are (no offense to Tux) better games in arcades. Games that reward you with tickets don't have to be extremely complex, and Tux Racer is arguably better than something like skeeball for that reason.

Tricks

[BrookHarty]

It has two big buttons, one for left, and one for right. As far as I can tell, there is no longer a way to jump or do tricks.

Wonder why you cant use both flippers for a jump or trick. Simple and no more buttons needed.

Oh the irony

[Kethinov]

Unless I'm missing something, I find it ironic that Tux Racer is a nonfree game. Isn't Tux supposed to be something of a mascot for free software? Tux Racer seems just as contradictory as something like "GNU Racer" featuring the GNU mascot. I'm not much of a gamer anymore though. If it does happen to be free and I'm just missing a few marbles, please correct me.

Re:Oh the irony

[Stormwatch]

Indeed. Tux Racer is not free on Linux, Windows, or MacOS X either. I wonder if either Larry Ewing (creator of Tux) or Linus Torvalds (of course everyone here at least heard of this guy) have OK'ed this game!

Re:Oh the irony

[Tisephone]

...I recall the creator has said he will release the source (but not the data) under the GPL after %BIGNUM sales.

Re:Oh the irony

[bhtooefr]

For that matter, it's not available on MacOS X - it's in binary form (Jasmin Patry claims he'll release the source in much the same way as id has for the Doom and Quake engines) for Win32 and Linux i386. Use 0.61 - it's easier on cheapo (*cough*intel*cough*) graphics cards, it's GPL, and it's still rather fun if you supplement it with some courses from Tuxracer Belly Rub. (Of course, people are STILL trying for speed records on "Who Says Penguins Can't Fly?")

Re:Oh the irony

[Spoing]

I'm not much of a gamer anymore though. If it does happen to be free and I'm just missing a few marbles, please correct me.

I know some of the 'history', if you can call it that. I admit to a specific bias on this, so take it for what it's worth.

When all versions of TuxRacer were open, nearly nobody contributed to it. At the same time, it was the #1 download at SourceForge. Since it was so popular, and he was getting little help, the owner of the code removed the parts that weren't his, and relicenced it so he could sell it.

There were gripes, but mostly from folks who didn't understand what the GPL is and how copyright works. These folks took it as a personal snub, though the GPLed open source branch was not taken away or lessened at all.

The sad thing is that Sunspire Studios commercial offering was bad mouthed by the same people who didn't understand copyright, didn't contribute, and didn't understand the GPL. Personally, I bought 2 copies; one for a niece of mine, and one for myself.

The open source branch still exists and lives on as OpenRacer [seul.org].

As for the character "Tux", the video game version, is not quite the same as Larry Ewing's Tux [tamu.edu]. I haven't heard Larry complaining, so it's probably not an issue for him either.

Re:Oh the irony

[Kethinov]

Funny how I get modded as offtopic for starting this thread but you get modded almost as high as it goes for replying to it :)

Re:Oh the irony

[Spoing]

That is odd...though I regularly get modded down too for no good reason. (tossing out +1 Karma Bonus)

Re:Oh the irony

[mahdi13]

The open source branch still exists and lives on as OpenRacer

If you consider the last 'update' was 2 years ago...yes, it's still around and 'lives'

I like it

[_Sexy_Pants_]

You know a game is looking for mass-market appeal when it features the linux mascot and is developed by R0x0r games. Surely this will have boys and girls of all ages calling things l33t and going open source

Re:I like it

[bersl2]

However, we should all remember Why Linus Chose a Penguin [linux.org] before we go putting Tux in games for children... something about guilt by association...

Just released?

[nekura]

I thought that it's been around for a while; I know the arcade that I go to to play DDR has had it for at least a month. No one plays it, though, and it has a god awful framerate at times as well.