Loki Games for PPC

Loki Games and Terra Soft Solutions have announced a partnership where the two companies will work together in order to assure all of Loki's titles run on Linux/PPC as well as the x86-platform. The article says Loki has 8 games lined up for 1999, and some will come out before their MacOS counterparts.

Re:Alpha

[nester]

who are "hardcore linux people"? more alpha and sparc, etc. ports would be good. i've never used linux on an alpha, so i can't say which is more developed. as for users, i'd be very surprised if there were as many alpha users as there are ppc users. why is it a waste to port to the second most popular comsumer platform (first being x86)?

Interesting

[Giant Robot]

It will be interesting to see the performance difference when games that were written for windows are ported to Linux x86, then to Linux PPC. Games have such low level code that it will be a challenge to port.

Hey, that's cool!

[Bill Currie]

I'm an x86 user myself, but that doesn't stop this from being a good thing. I see no reason why other h/w (or os, really) platforms shouldn't have the same benifits.

Go Loki and Tera Soft!

Thank the Maker!

[Vir]

Finally, some real software for us, the minority of the minority, who managed to put Linux where all too few people knew it could go. Maybe I'll finally be able to spend some time playing a game under Linux that isn't minesweeper! In short, a real victory for the three of us who actually run LinuxPPC and have been holding out to be recognized by companies that we know would have to be out of their minds to support such a ridiculously unused platform. But, hey, I'm not complaining!

p.s. Why does my sound still not work under Linux? Hmm...

Re:Hey, that's cool!

[EvilIdler]

I'm an x86 (and compatible) user myself, but
browsing for cheap alpha-cpus. I'd love to be
able to still play games, should I rid myself of
archaic intel-like hardware ;)

Non-trivial?

[Emil Brink]

More games on Linux machines is always nice, but I wonder how big an undertaking this really is. If you write your games in C/C++ or some other portable higher-level-than-assembly language, they should be just as portable between various Linux hardware platforms as all other software. Porting to the PowerPC might just involve writing C versions of any MMX/3Dnow!/SIMD routines used, something that should've been done anyway for compatibility. Or am I missing something here?

Re:Interesting

[dennisp]

My guess is that performance is a lot worse, considering DirectX is a lot better than SDL currently. Don't quote me though. I have only played with SDL briefly.

Now I can go buy that mac and have some fun...

[cdmoyer]

I've always been a die-hard anti Apple/Mac guy... until I read about LinuxPPC, now I can use a Mac, put linux on it and play my favorite games... Maybe I will go out and get one...

Simply for the cool factor :>

Eight games for 1999

[SporkyTheUnforgiven]

What are they?? Wine's been kickin my ass when I try to do anything fun...

Re:Non-trivial?

[Trepidity]

Most games have a whole lot of assembly in them to optimize the speed-critical routines. Not as much as they did ten years ago, but hand-coded assembly is still as important part.

Re:Alpha

[SeanNi]

> Pardon my ignorance, but since when did hardcore linux ppl use PowerPC?

Pardon my rudeness, but who the hell cares?

What difference does it make whether or not a person fits the description of "hardcore linux ppl"?

If anything, the PPC should have more games ported to it than the Alpha. Remember, we're talking games here, not server software or something. If I want to run a server that needs good reliablility and on hardware that can take a pounding, I'll use an Alpha.

If I want a desktop machine that will run games, and such, I'll go for the (cheaper and) more widespread option of either 80x86 or PowerPC.

The Alpha is precisely the wrong platform to port games to first.

(Disclaimer as such: I run x86, so I have no real stake in any decision that's made.)
--
- Sean

Loki been doin' real good

[Ethelred Unraed]

I already have a copy of Civilization: Call to Power for LinuxPPC, and it runs great. (You can read a review of it that I wrote at http://linux.macn ews.de/articles/29061999.loki.shtml?lang=english [macnews.de].) Even the sound works, and it was a thrill to see movies in the thing that actually both looked nice and worked. ('Course, I cheated a little and went through and looked at all the movies on the CD. Damn, they're cool.)

The game was a little slowish at times, but on the other hand I have yet to get 100% real genuine accelerated X going (on a beige G3), so it's probably more my fault than anything. :-/

It's especially ironic that Mac users who want to play Civ:CTP have to install Linux to do it. :-)

Can't wait for Myth II...

Ethelred [surf.to]

Re:Alpha

[keete]

Rrrgh.

Why make distinctions? (Full disclosure: I use LinuxPPC and could almost weep as I see commercial milestone after milestone pass for X86 - "Linux taken seriously by major firms!" "WordPerfect 8 for Linux!" "IBM this!" "Oracle that!" - while 'Linux the multi-platform OS' is left puttering along with the significantly smaller number of frills, toys and enterprise-friendly Useful Tools which are available in open source form or from progressive vendors).

The more companies port, to the more platforms, the better for everyone involved. Alpha too, my other computer is an alpha.

If one of the advantages of Linux is that it runs on many different machines- increasing the OS's utility/ flexibility/ deployment possibilities and ( * sigh of happiness * ) breathing new life into NON-STANDARD platforms and configurations- then we as a community can't focus exclusively on one racehorse; the other horses in the Linux stable are supposed to be useful too. Depending on your POV, we may have some Clydesdales and even a zebra or two on our hands: basically anatomically similar to the racehorse, some different features, some unexpected advantages (how would your racehorse fare on the Serengeti) and each should be pushed to the utmost outer limits of its ability. ( BLOCK that extended metaphor.) If someone wants to feed lumps of sugar to one of the other horses for a change, great, let's make it a wider trend.

KR

...And hey- to address what sounds like a grudge in the post above- if the PPC is basically a toy computer, isn't it perfectly appropriate to port games to it? :)

Joking only. Please don't any PPC-serious people get on my case.

Re:Alpha

[Arkham]

Just because LinuxPPC is not the platform that YOU use does not make it a waste to port. There are many LinuxPPC users (myself included) that would be more likely to use Linux full-time if we didn't have to go back to MacOS for games.

Besides, everyone knows that each time you port, the code gets more portable. It's likely that a port to Alpha (or SPARC or some other processor) would be easier after the PowerPC port is completed.

Porting to other Arch

[Tsk]

The problem is tahta some part of the linux kernel are x86 oriented (like the MMU design see : http://www.cs.nmt.edu/~cort/papers/ linuxppc-mm/ [nmt.edu])
and so are the drivers - that is because the hardware on those card contains x86 code :( so if you don't have a x86 machine the card won't initialise itself ....

LinuxPPC Sound

[CynicX32]

For me, sound doesn't work if I double-click BootX from the Finder, but does work if I choose Linux at system start up.

Worth a try, no? And I'm the fourth running LinuxPPC. :)

ryan

Re:Alpha

[BlackWine]

Is really alpha more widespread cpu than ppc on desktops? I doubt it. And you rather dont want to play games on server, believe me ;)

Re:Non-trivial?

[MichaelKVance]

This isn't really true. With newer 3D games, yes, you have a very few routines written in assembly, specifically for vector routines (ie, you want fast matrix inversions or something), but for 2D games and most recent 3D games, almost everything is written in C/C++.

PPC issues are usually pretty typical: insidious endian issues affecting network gameplay, kernel/driver issues for LinuxPPC, etc.

M. Vance
Programmer
Loki Entertainment