loki entertainment
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surprise. he’s back. # loki # thorragnarok # thorsday urltoken
© 2000 loki software, inc. | contact us | webmaster loki is a registered trademark of loki software, inc .
loki software, inc. (sometimes also called loki games or loki entertainment software) was a software firm based in tustin, california, united states, that ported several computer games from microsoft windows to linux, including heroes of might and magic iii. it took its name from the norse deity loki
01. 31. 02 1: 00 pm pst loki store closes. please find a reseller if you would like to purchase a loki title .
various tracks from so loki’s v are available to stream on major digital platforms .
just secured my advanced screening ticket! so excited. i love loki! !
the latest round of marvel legacy reveals teases a major confrontation between doctor strange and loki .
this latest incarnation of the popular game was originally developed by activision for ms windows - based systems. the native x11 port to linux was performed by loki entertainment software, a relatively new company, started in 1998, devoted to porting the most popular pc games to linux. as scott draeker (pictured at left below), president and founder of loki, says ,
headquartered in orange county, california, loki entertainment software, inc. ported games to the linux os. the company was established in august, 1998, and was in business until august 2001, when it filed for bankruptcy. in january 2002, the company was officially closed .
many of you have asked about support and maintenance for loki products. we have taken the following steps :
to read more from our fall movie preview, pick up the new issue of entertainment weekly on stands now, or buy it here. don’t forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in ew .
loki software was founded on november 9, 1998 by scott draeker, a former lawyer who became interested in porting games to linux after being introduced to the system through his work as a software licensing attorney. loki software, although a commercial failure, is credited with the birth of the modern linux game industry. loki developed several free software tools, such as the loki installer (also known as loki setup), and supported the development of the simple directmedia layer. they also started the openal audio library project (now being run by creative technology and apple inc .). these are still often credited as being the cornerstones of linux game development .
to read more on star wars: the last jedi, pick up the new issue of entertainment weekly on stands friday, or buy it here now. don’t forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in ew .
the first discussions about implementing openal as an audio api complimentary to opengl started around 1998. there were a few aborted attempts at creating the headers and a specification, but by late 1999 loki entertainment software was in need for an api of exactly this type and pursued both a specification and a linux implementation. at around that time, loki started talking with creative labs about standardizing the api and expanding platform support. the openal 1. 0 specification was released in early 2000 and compliant openal libraries were released in the same year for linux, macos 8 / 9, windows, and beos. loki entertainment also shipped several games using openal in 2000: heavy gear 2 and heretic 2 (both under linux). in 2001, creative labs released the first hardware - accelerated openal libraries. the libraries supported the soundblaster live on macos 8 / 9 and windows .
in mythology: like hiddleston’s version of the character, the mythological loki is a complicated guy, whose allegiances are hard to pin down — but the similarities are pretty limited after that. the norse version of loki is not thor’s adopted brother. also, while in early stages of loki’s story he’s more mischievous than straight - up bad, his transition from puckish to evil takes place over time .
as with thor, loki' s costume has also received a redesign, featuring less of the accents and accessories seen in past costumes (via entertainment weekly). judging from the surroundings, it appears loki is with thor and valkyrie in a foreign world (most likely sakaar). as for what role he will play in the film, that is still unknown, but the story is drawing major inspiration from the planet hulk storyline seen in the comics, as well as previous ragnarok stories seen in thor .
the efforts of groups like loki software have greatly improved things by porting many popular windows games to linux. others projects, such as the
loki is active in supporting and initiating open source development projects. find out how you can participate and make a difference. use the source !
fans already know that marvel legacy will see loki replacing doctor strange as the marvel universe’s new sorcerer supreme. it would make sense then that loki would take up residence in the sanctum sanctorum. however, it' s unclear why the 117 bleeker street fixture is floating above greenwich village in the preview page. could loki be moving the sanctum to someplace new, or is he just putting some space between himself and the mortals of midgard ?
striking the perfect balance between powerful, off - kilter beats and an achingly cool swagger, baggage shows why so loki is beginning to command international respect .
a woman' s loki cosplay may have saved her life after she was struck by a chair thrown from a tenth - floor balcony at dragon con this weekend .
i talked with scott and sam latinga (pictured at right below), lead programmer for loki, as they prepared the linux release of civilization: call to power for distribution .
loki had gambled that linux was soon to become a major gaming platform, but as the transition moved on rather slowly, they were unable to generate sufficient revenue to stay in business .
10. 8. 2001 loki goes loco for postal! 8. 27. 2001 kohan: immortal sovereigns now available for linux 8. 10. 2001 immortals can now wear tuxedos too !
the first official image from the anticipated thor: ragnarok dropped earlier this morning, and now the studio is releasing even more photos from the film, including the first look at tom hiddleston' s loki .
it seems that the new feature thor: ragnarok might have a shift in the relationship between the two brothers whose squabbles tend to endanger entire planets. according to comicbook ,
while thor has been primarily concerned with both loki’s wellbeing as well as his thirst for power over the course of three separate films, actor chris hemsworth indicates that might change in the latest film .
at a spotlight panel for the supanova comic con in sydney, australia, actor chris hemsworth hints that thor will be ambivalent toward his brother and his schemes when ragnarok comes around. urltoken urltoken this video was produced by yt wochit entertainment using urltoken
most of the distribution information was pretty plain; however, the description of loki' s setup program stands out. i didn' t realize it was released under the gpl, and i had never considered using it before .
finally, some have asked about the actual process of closing down. as you may know, loki filed a voluntary chapter 11 petition on august 3, 2001. we will be filing a motion to convert the case to a chapter 7 - - a liquidation. at that time all of loki' s assets will be transfered to a u. s. trustee appointed by the court. the trustee' s job will be to sell those assets to the highest bidder .
john studied computer science at the georgia institute of technology and was the author of programming linux games, which he wrote at age 19 while interning with loki software. he later worked at treyarch. his other interests included flying, gaming and music .
now we move on to the midtown prison breakout, fighting loki again with unknown villains / heroes. i can' t wait to show her the dark city expansion. so far, we must have at least 30 games under our belts and she' s enjoying this game immensely. (we' ve been playing each mastermind / scheme in the base game, moving up in power after each set of schemes are defeated. so far loki is the most difficult with doom in 2nd place. )
the loki webstore will remain open until 12: 00 pm pst january 31s placed on the webstore will be filled. even though we are officially closing on the 31st, several of us are going to be in the office to make sure all orders ship .
this fall’s highly anticipated superhero flick, thor: ragnarok, not only finds the return of the god of thunder (chris hemsworth) and his brother loki (tom hiddleston) but also features the debut of valkyrie, a new warrior played by creed’s tessa thompson .
drawing on a palette of influences that differs wildly from most rap groups, so loki already has a head start in the race for originality. blending the best aspects of different genres, the duo synthesizes everything from specific production techniques to musical ideologies into their work .
thor: ragnarok is directed by taika waititi and returns chris hemsworth starring as thor and tom hiddleston reprising his role as loki. they are joined by cate blanchett, idris elba, jeff goldblum, tessa thompson and karl urban, with mark ruffalo and anthony hopkins .
all patches, faqs, newsgroups and other online support services will continue to operate with a third party host. the loki domains will be redirected to point to the new host, so you won' t need to make any changes to continue to use these services .
loki did an excellent job bringing the world of heretic ii to the linux operating system. the graphics are beautiful and the game itself becomes engrossing after playing through a level or two. while there were some bugs and glitches present in the original release of the game, these have been resolved in a patch one can download from loki' s web site. i' d highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a first - person adventure game (kind of a tomb raider in a fantasy setting, although it uses the quake ii 3d engine) to play on their linux box .
fortunately, rap duo so loki seems to agree. with their clever lyrics and esoteric instrumentation, vocalist sam lucia and producer geoffrey millar have spent the last few years stepping away from hip - hop clichés and cementing their status as vancouver’s next big thing. the pair’s latest album, baggage, continues this trajectory .
standout single “liquid luck”—which racked up more than 100, 000 plays on youtube in a single week, as well as being featured on vevo’s home page—sees so loki artfully weave heavy bass rumbles into aggressive snares and polished synth lines, while following track “golden” shifts the mood, augmenting lucia’s tight vocal bars with metallic rings and smooth rhythms .
experimental rap duo so loki have been working together for just over a year, but they’ve already solidified their status as one of the city’s most innovative partnerships. releasing their debut album, v, this month—the follow - up to february’s well - received mix tape supermanic—producer geoffrey millar and rapper sam lucia have achieved a cohesion often missing from experimental projects .
thor: the dark world hits theaters this week, and now comedy central has made a video featuring your boyfriend tom hiddleston as thor’s fraternal nemesis loki. the short clip finds the trickster god having a frank exchange of ideas with some adorable children. the spot debuts tomorrow, but you can watch it in all its cute - kid - despising glory below :
: sam evaluated the loki code, making sure their proprietary libraries could be either ported or emulated on linux. the library we used is sdl, the simple directmedia layer. sam authored sdl with an eye toward creating a cross - platform media layer for games. all the graphics and sound in the game have been ported to sdl, replacing the equivalent directx calls from the windows version .
“i played in a punk - pop band before i got into production, ” millar remembers, “and i was really into screamo and hard rock. people say that so loki is a departure from that, but i think it’s very similar. punk has a lot in common with rap. they should both be very aggressive and radical, and that’s what a lot of rap is missing—that pure energy. ”
please watch in hd !
well, i' m about to turn up the heat .
this video is a bit made for fun. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ­ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ artist: adam lambert ~ for your entertainment. movies: thor, loki clint deleted scenes, avengers, thor the dark world, batman: the dark knight. programmes: pinnacle studios 17 & adobe premiere pro cc 2014 speeds: normale and 309x faster. copyright disclaimer under section 107 of the copyright act 1976, allowance is made for
fair use
for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. non - profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use .
thompson says that initially valkyrie seems to share more in common with loki than the more heroic thor. “eventually she figures out lok’s not to be trusted, ” says the actress. “i just think there’s something about two folks that kind of come from the same place in a sense, that have the same chip on their shoulder in a way. there’s a thin line between how much they hate and love each other. ”
in the very first issue of the avengers, originally published in 1963, marvel' s founding team of avengers is put together by teenager rick jones to assist the hulk and thor in a battle against loki. the avengers have grown significantly over the decades that they have spent protecting the earth from all manner of foes, but we' ve been led to believe that their existence is purely the direct result of jones' initial gathering .
mcdaniel later told atlanta' s wsb - tv that she had been walking in the first - floor area when she heard loud, gunfire - like pops then felt blood on her face. paramedics rushed her to the hospital where she received two staples for her injuries. macdonald was dressed loki from the thor and avengers movies at the time of the incident and credits her helmet for lessening the blow of the chair and saving her life .
i recently purchased this to run on ubuntu 9. 04 _ 64 game cannot be installed on a 64bit system. loki no longer exists and activision / id do not support linux. this product is too outdated to use. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - amd athlon 3gig dual - core asus m4a78 + motherboard 4g memory geforce 9500 gt 512meg graphics
¢ in dogma, you' ll see the chain all over the place: bartleby and loki visit the mooby headquarters, they eat at mooby restaurant, silent bob wears a mooby hat throughout the movie, and rufus can be seen wearing mooby pajamas .
¢ in jay and silent bob strike back, sb is still wearing his mooby hat. a mooby character gets shot during the backlot chase scene .
¢ clerks ii features the clerks relocating to a mooby location after their quick stop burns down .
is well written, often amusing and never stuns the brain the way some computer books do. hall and the loki staff clearly know their stuff, and they have scattered great hints and tips throughout. for example, the description of the bresenham algorithm is, by far, the cleanest and most comprehensible that i have ever seen. likewise, i thought the suggestion to use pov - ray to automatically create the needed graphics was incredibly useful. i' m sure you will find handfulls of your own helpful tidbits .
in the exclusive image below, valkyrie and loki square off in an intimate hand - to - hand battle. “that fight was so much fun. so much fun, ” says thompson. “first of all. the choreography was really punchy and physical, not as much sword work which sort of keeps you at arm’s length with people. i think because tom’s character is involved there’s a cheekiness to that fight that made it just really fun — it just felt like a tennis match. i don’t know if it remains but there were a lot of one - liners between us. so it has a real sort of sense of humor. ”
after we' d finished our telephone interview, scott, sam and i started talking candidly about playing the game. i mentioned to them how engrossed i' d become in the game during the week after i' d received the pre - release copy sent to me to prepare for this interview. i spent several nights glued to the computer until 3am. perhaps it' s a good thing i live alone—where does one find a spouse who actually understands and accepts such behaviour? sam chuckled at this. “we have an in - house joke at loki that with games on linux, we' re going to bring kernel development to a standstill. ”
the book also does not contain a cd - rom. this was a deliberate decision - - the authors intended to make a web site for the book, containing links to all the necessary libraries. while the preface claims that this site can be reached through either urltoken or www. nostarch, i was not able to find a link on the loki site. the only link i found on the no starch site was a download link for a tarball containing the complete source code for the samples. ironically, my copy of konqueror did not like this link and gave me fits when i first tried to download it. there was no web page of links to the libraries; however, the needed urls are listed throughout the book, so that is not really necessary .
i haven' t had as much success as some people. i' ve been unable to install the game since the day i bought it. i' ve been all over the web looking for a clue as to why the install doesn' t work. it appears to work - but no binaries are installed, and i can' t play the game. the documentation on the cd says nothing about it, the loki website says nothing about it, and i haven' t been able to find any solutions. if you think you can gamble $... , then go for it. it may work for you. but i' ve got a worthless game here, i' ve been trying to get it working for over a year. it says one star, but only because i was * required * to rate this game. i think it deserves 0 stars .
learn why loki is the lynchpin of norse mythology in this collection of scenes from
giants and beasts .
subscribe for more from true monsters and other great history shows: urltoken find out more about the show on our site: urltoken stream full episodes here: urltoken check out exclusive history content: website - urltoken google - urltoken facebook - urltoken google + - urltoken true monsters season 1 episode 3 gods and monsters true monsters sorts the fiction from the often - muddled facts about the most terrifying monsters, awe - inspiring myths, and timeless legends in history. from monstrous creatures to wrathful gods, this series tells the incredible stories that reveal the surprising truths history®, now reaching more than 98 million homes, is the leading destination for award - winning original series and specials that connect viewers with history in an informative, immersive, and entertaining manner across all platforms. the network’s all - original programming slate features a roster of hit series, epic miniseries, and scripted event programming. visit us at urltoken for more info .
the sound of marching soldiers thunders through the cobbled streets as citizens bask in the glory of their triumphant leaders. no, this isn' t a post - election day republican fantasy, it is just one of many scenes from the animated movies which introduce you to the first award - winning, top - selling computer game to be ported and run natively under linux—civilization: call to power .
civilization: call to power is the latest in a series of games based on the original civilization game. civilization i hit the streets in 1991 and was an instant classic. in 1996 the sequel, civilization ii, won
game of the year award and was named the “strategy game of all time”. together, civilization i and ii have sold over 2, 500, 000 copies, in an industry where a “hit” has to sell only 100, 000 copies. since its release in april, and up to the time of this writing, civilization: call to power for windows has been the number one selling pc game .
one way to put this success in perspective is to compare the pc game industry with the movie industry—both gross about $ 5 billion a year. getting the rights to civilization: call to power is like getting the rights to the next star wars sequel .
: although i' m a software developer by trade, i' ve never really been much of a game player, so this is somewhat new to me. why don' t you both give us some background information. how did you get into the world of gaming ?
: well, i am not technical, but i am a game player. i came up through stints at apple and lsi logic and a few other places. after that, i went over to the “dark side”—law school. while working as a software licensing attorney at an accounting firm, i got involved with some game companies and was introduced to linux. dan kegel at activision introduced me to sam .
: my background is mostly in systems administration, but i' ve been interested in game system portability for a long time. i' ve worked on things like the maelstrom port. when scott came to me with the idea of porting games, i was a bit skeptical. when it became apparent to me that the idea was
: i first thought about games on linux in 1998—much has happened since then. we were lucky and in the right place at the right time. when looking at civilization, we were fairly sure we were going to lose money on it initially. then, as i became more familiar with linux, i heard about the gnome and kde projects. knowing those sorts of familiar interfaces would be available along with the usual benefits of running on linux convinced me a consumer market would develop for linux and linux products. i knew that if red hat could get a distribution on the shelf, i could certainly get a game there .
: the game was originally developed by activision. did you contact them about doing the port, or had they been looking for someone to do it? how much cajoling was involved in getting them to sign on ?
: i talked to many game companies, and i' m still doing so. we were actually focusing on another game when dan kegel suggested we look at civilization. we did, looking at both demos and code. the more we looked at it and worked with activision, the more we drifted away from the other game. i think activision had the better title, and they certainly have their act together. phillip erwin, in the licensing department at activision, was instrumental in getting the project completed. microprose, a hasbro company and developer of the original civilization, had to sign off on this port along with activision. phillip woke the president of hasbro at midnight on december 31 in order to get the licensing signed. he' s definitely gone to bat for us .
: we are already working on three additional titles, none of which is from activision. of course, i would love to do more activision titles and we are pursuing that too .
: yes, it is the same game. the game play didn' t change at all. however, we did add a few minor tweaks to the user interface which we feel make it a “real” linux game. this is a true linux application; that is, it' s not a windows game running under an emulator—it' s native to linux. the installation is native to linux. (see “game review”. )
: the game also uses freetype for font rendering. activision did this on their own, which was really cool. it' s one of the things they did to make the game more portable .
: basically, we had all the tools we needed from the start, with a few exceptions. none of the available off - the - shelf installers and video playback tools were adequate for our needs .
we evaluated the available open - source video playback tools, brought them in, updated them and put them into the game with our modifications. we will release the playback tool back to the open source community .
: the community will appreciate that, i' m sure. how long did it take for this first port? will it take as long for future ports, or did you spend some time during the original port building infrastructure for the porting efforts ?
: we started the port in december 1998, and coding began in january 1999. it didn' t take that long—roughly four months. part of the reason the port went so fast was the great support we received from activision. they responded quickly to our questions and requests. with future games it may not take as long, but each game is unique. it depends on how tightly coupled the game is to the windows api .
: much of the user interface was provided in the game, so that part of porting wasn' t difficult. however, in places where there was a tight tie - in to the windows api, the port was a real pain .
: i can imagine. when i got ready to install the pre - release version you sent me, i noticed that the game requires 400mb of disk space. is it common to have such large installation requirements for games? additionally, 43mb is a large footprint for a runtime binary from a linux perspective. will these sizes (installation and runtime) go down eventually ?
: games are always hardware - intensive. the game binary is only 7. 8mb. the rest is just as activision designed it. large installations (disk requirements) are common for games under windows .
the game is designed to run from a cd, but due to space limitations on the cd, it can' t currently be run that way. the files on the cd are compressed and would have to be uncompressed on the cd to run from there. we have no release plans for a cd - based civilization, but we are aware of the need for such features and will be looking into that possibility for future games .
: yes. we' re talking to people on both sides—hardware and software—about hardware acceleration. we' re working on a 3 - d game right now that will be hardware - accelerated .
civilization is truly a breakout product. it is a triple - a product released hot on the heels of the windows version going into stores. that includes suse in europe and macmillan publishing in north america. we intend to place it in all the big stores—all the places that sell software. wherever you see red hat, you' ll see our game. that' s not true for the average linux game at this time. by doing this, we' ve shown there is a market for this game, and games in general, on linux. many announcements are being made by 3dfx, creative and other people. they are coming on board because they realize games draw hardware sales .
: so there will be many changes in the gaming market down the road. with all those games coming, how hard is it to do these ports? what are the biggest areas of work in porting a game from windows to linux? is it on the technical side or in the business details (including things like documentation) ?
: from the programmer' s perspective, it' s probably 50 - 50 .
: the programmers had a few things they were doing for the very first time: compiler debugging and a few infrastructure issues. having done that work, we can leverage it in the future. on the business side, the first time is much harder. this is the first shrink - wrapped game for linux that can be found in best buy, fry' s and compusa. a fair bit of work was needed just to contact game companies with both a great product in good shape for porting and an interest in exploring this market! in addition, we are working on three other products right now and that will just keep increasing. much of our past work will carry over—it was necessary only because it was the first time .
: although each game will be unique, the business side stays more stable. it does not change much after the first game .
: with linux becoming more commercial, you have to justify your products to the free software community and to the business world. in the business world, you pay to put your product on the shelves, do co - marketing, and pay for ads, bundling and so forth. that' s a great deal of work and an important part of legitimizing the linux platform for other games .
: i get the occasional e - mail from someone else who wants to port games to linux. we know we' re not going to be the only ones doing this. several other games, not necessarily ports, are available already, for example, hopkins fbi and quake 3. we' ve picked our niche for now by doing top - 20 games. since so many games come out each year, it' s self - evident that we cannot port everything or even everything considered good .
we came in fairly early to prove to the computer industry, the game market and the linux market we could do this. we wanted to position ourselves as the people who are doing the triple - a products. it' s not quick and dirty. it' s not contract programming. we' re taking the source, re - implementing it for linux and publishing it for the linux community .
we' re a godsend for game companies. at a time when they' re laying people off, we offer another market for games already making money for them .
: well, the game market for linux is fairly large. but how do you find out where that market is and what they want? you mentioned in an interview with linuxtoday that you read
: there is a market right now just with current linux users. as it grows, it will bring in more and more people, more and more diversity. right now you can go to
and hit a good percentage of linux users. in two or three years, that might not be the case—not because
has gotten smaller, but because the market is going to keep broadening. right now, we focus on the technically savvy linux market—there is a tar file on the cd, for example. on the other hand, we' re aware that non - traditional users will be coming over. the gui installer is there, specifically for the newbies .
: i did the installer and am rather proud of it, since i wrote it specifically for the newbies .
: i must admit it was quite easy to use. what about getting the games in the hands of users? i noticed urltoken (
) has a linux area, and ctp is the only product there currently. the typical linux user wouldn' t look for a product here, however. does this mean you see a different market than typical linux users? do you plan on selling through traditional channels (linux mall, linuxberg. com, through red hat or suse, etc .) ?
: a good deal of interest in linux products is showing up in many places it hasn' t been in the past. as an experiment, costco made red hat available in their stores, and it outsold windows 98. i understand you can even buy linux products at some wal - marts. these aren' t traditional unix / linux outlets. we' re excited about where our games might show up. obviously, it will be at the superstores and the game stores like software etc. , but it will be in bookstores, too. a great synergy exists with bookstores, since they already sell linux products. selling our game will be an incredible add - on .
: no announced titles, but we have 3 - d and strategy games in the works, and we' re very close to doing an rpg (role playing game). we' re going to hit as many genres as we can, with all the best titles. you won' t see twenty rpgs, but you will see the best ones .
: seems like a good bit of work for a start - up. do you have enough staff to work these projects in parallel ?
: we have enough to work two in parallel now, and we want to ramp up to three or four by the end of the year. we plan on having four to eight titles by the end of the year and doubling that next year .
: well, that' s great. thanks for taking the time to chat with me, scott and sam .
we all laughed a bit more about this possibility. i don' t actually think kernel development will slow because of such high - powered games as civilization: call to power. still, kernel developers may find they are getting fewer hours of sleep each night. i wonder—does this mean the next thing to come to linux will be an open - source caffeine supplement ?
( mjhammel @ graphics - muse. org) is a graphic artist wanna - be, a writer and a software developer. he wanders the planet aimlessly in search of adventure, quiet beaches and an escape from the computers that dominate his life. michael writes the monthly “graphics muse” column in linux gazette, maintains the graphics muse web site and the linux graphics mini - howto. his book ,
linux journal, currently celebrating its 24th year of publication, is the original magazine of the global open source community .
more details are surfacing over the delay of prey 2. apparently developer human head has not been working on the game since late last year .
news that prey 2 had not been cancelled, but rather delayed, was relieving to fans of the original. however, why has there been such secrecy surrounding the project over the last several months ?
according to a shacknews source who asked not to be identified, human head was not happy with the terms of its contract with zenimax, and deliberately stopped work on the game in november so it could try to negotiate a more favorable deal. while doing that, many on the development team were laid off, with the hope they would be rehired if the contract issue was resolved favorably. the process seemed to be gathering some positive momentum until january when zenimax' s responses all but stopped, causing some of the laid - off prey 2 team to wonder if the game would ever see the light of day .
by march 1, the source said, things had progressed a bit, leaving the prey 2 team hopeful that they would return to work soon. but that quickly soured the following day. the source could provide no further first - hand details after march 2 .
when contacted for a response, an official at zenimax responded that
we aren' t commenting on the game' s development beyond what was said in the statement that was released this morning .
in light of the new information, the official stance that
the delay is due to the fact that game development has not progressed satisfactorily this past year, and the game does not currently meet our quality standards
seems to throw human head under the creative bus. with development stalled for months, it' s no surprise that the game would be unable to meet so - called
quality standards .
it is unclear at this point what zenimax will do with the title now. a new developer certainly looks likely, and it would not be the first time bethesda had changed developers on a game, namely shifting rogue warrior from zombie studios to rebellion in 2009 .
the source did say that one thing that kept the human head studio in a positive frame of mind was that they were working on a new high - profile project and negotiations for that game were going quite well. while they didn' t give us any further details, the developer did recently admit they were
considering
a sequel to rune .
john keefer is a curmudgeon that has been in journalism for 35 years, the last 16 in the video games industry. he loves real - time strategy games and prefers old - school total annihilation to starcraft. he also loves isometric rpgs, and has been addicted to world of warcraft for more than 10 years. he sucks at shooters and multiplayer and is purely a pc guy. and being a former member of shack, he also likes chatty. go figure .
devil' s advocate part three: the terms they wanted to negotiate were most likely the penalties associated with a big del ...
i bet everyone on that dev team has at least 5yrs more experience than whatever
manager
is making this decision. leave ...
here' s a little demo of me running a multiplayer game across multiple platforms with the new checksum / cheat prevention code. i say a few dumb things in here, like' net player code' when i mean' network play code' and' cheat code prevention' instead of' cheat prevention code' but you get the idea .
let' s play: descent 2 - 94 - level 24 final boss... take 1
john r. hall, a respected programmer, writer and linux advocate, passed away on september 17 at age 24 .
john chronicled his battle with cancer on his blog, war. he and friends also formed an american cancer society relay for life team, team melanoma. john' s web page is available here .
although linux receives a lot of praise as a rock - solid server and, recently, as an up - and - coming desktop, games have never been its strong suit. sure, we all have our favorite diversions; i' ve spent more than my share of hours playing
. but quite a few linux users still keep a windows partition around just to play games .
, allow you to play windows games without having to reboot your computer. but let' s face it, few (if any) quality games are initially released for linux .
marketing issues aside, there are no technical reason for this lack of linux games - - the tools are out there. which brings us to this book .
discusses some of the major apis you can use to create professional - quality games for linux. the book seems to be geared as an introductory text. as the author writes ,
i assume you know the basics of working with linux; if you know enough to start x, open a terminal, copy files around, and fire up a text editor, you' re good to go. i also assume that you have a reasonable grasp of the c programming language .
i' d also recommend having at least a cursory familiarity with the make utility and the build process. these topics are covered, but very briefly. and this could be a real source of frustration to programmers coming from other operating systems .
as far as appearances, well, they often say first impressions are the most important. unfortunately, this book is unlikely to raise any eyebrows .
the layout is typical of no starch press books. if you' ve seen one, you' ve seen them all: black and white, mostly text, with a clean (some might say stark) appearance. no trendy layouts. no sidebars or elaborate graphical elements. as the no starch motto says ,
more stuff, less fluff .
in general, i am a big proponent of simplicity, but i feel the no starch approach goes a little too far. the simplicity actually makes this book harder to use. a prime example is chapter tabs. dark rectangles printed along the outer edge of the page, chapter tabs are used typically in almost all computer books and for good reason. they add simple visual cues that make it much easier to scan quickly for information. i tend to use indexes the same way i use my vcr' s instruction manual - - only when all else fails. tabs are a feature i greatly appreciate, but one that is missing in this book .
similarly, the book provides references to the important structures and functions discussed in the text, but this material is mixed into the chapter - - usually just after the function is introduced. while this makes the book very easy to understand when reading from cover to cover, it is not the best design for a reference book. things are just a little too hard to find .
it would be nice if the reference material was all grouped together (or at least grouped at the end of each chapter). an ideal compromise might involve repeating the reference material in an appendix - - but then the book would be bigger and probably more expensive .
the content can be divided into roughly three sections: the introduction, the apis and the wrap - up. the introduction (roughly a sixth of the book) is a quick survey of game archetypes, tools of the trade and useful apis .
the chapter on games compares and discusses a variety of game types, including simulations, first - person shooters, real - time strategy, turn - based strategy, role - playing, puzzles and muds .
the tools chapter introduces vi, emacs and nedit and discusses the basics of using make, static libraries and shared libraries. debugging with gdb, ddd and bug tracking is also covered. other topics include version control using cvs and other useful utilities, including grep, diff and patch. oddly, autoconf is not discussed here but is briefly mentioned at the end of the book .
the introductory material finishes off with a quick survey of the apis that game programmers may find useful. this is sort of an everything - but - the - kitchen - sink list, with a brief description of each item. only a few of the apis mentioned here are actually discussed again in later chapters .
while it doesn' t tell you how to use the apis, i believe the introduction is one of the most useful chapters in the book. one of the largest challenges i' ve found when working with linux is just finding the right tools for the job. given the sheer breadth of applications, apis and libraries out there, finding the best tool is often much more difficult than learning to use it .
the bulk of the book is dedicated to explaining a few apis in more detail, covering sdl, audio programming, network gaming, scripting engines and even gaming for the linux framebuffer. obviously, they don' t give you a complete description of the apis, but the information provided is more than enough to get you started .
the first api chapter (filling almost a quarter of the book) describes sdl and covers a variety of topics, includes drawing pixels, blitting bitmaps, processing user input, multithreaded programming and sdl audio programming. it also introduces a sample game that is slowly built throughout the book ,
while primarily focused on 2 - d gaming, this chapter provides a brief overview of using opengl with sdl. if you plan on doing any real 3d programming, however, you will want to consult additional sdl and opengl resources .
linux audio is somewhat schizophrenic, and the chapter on audio programming mirrors that. it discusses the differences and uses of oss, alsa and esd, including an introduction to all three apis and a sample sound program demonstrating their uses. the audio chapter ends with a description of openal and a discussion of playing background music using ogg vorbis files .
while informative, this chapter seemed to be somewhat overkill. as the authors pointed out, using a high - level library like sdl or openal is probably better than messing with oss, alsa or esd directly. so i' m left feeling that the space they used to describe these apis could have been better spent covering some of the many topics that did no make it into the book .
the chapter on game scripting, on the other hand, was one of the most interesting. this is a subject that most game programming books do not even touch. as such, it is one of the real gems of
. it is disappointing, however, the discussion focuses on tcl, a decision that seems to be based on the library' s ease of use, rather than its appropriateness as a game scripting engine .
given that games generally need as much (or more) performance as you can pack in, i really wish they had picked a scripting engine based on performance. i also wish they had included a comparison of the different scripting engines. given the number available to a linux game programmer, it would be nice to have some advice on how to chose between them .
like almost every current book on game programming, this book contains the mandatory chapter on networked game programming. here, this amounts to a basic description of socket programming, covering both tcp and udp. if you' ve already read any other descriptions on socket programming, this chapter probably won' t add anything new.
loki entertainment software , inc. was a video game developer based in tustin , california , united states , that ported several video games from microsoft windows to linux . it took its name from the norse deity loki . although successful in its goal of bringing games to the linux platform , the company eventually closed due to financial troubles , with it declaring chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in august 2001 , and finally being disbanded in january 2002 . 
loki entertainment software, inc. was a video game developer based in tustin, california, united states, that ported several video games from microsoft windows to linux. it took its name from the norse deity loki. although successful in its goal of bringing games to the linux platform, the company eventually closed due to financial troubles, with it declaring chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in august 2001, and finally being disbanded in january 2002.
loki entertainment software, inc. was a video game developer based in tustin, california, united states, that ported several video games from microsoft windows to linux. it took its name from the norse deity loki. although successful in its goal of bringing games to the linux platform, the company eventually closed due to financial troubles, with it declaring chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in august 2001, and finally being disbanded in january 2002.