LinuxGameCast Weekly EP179 – Dreamcast Stimulation

Carmack praises Vulkan! Aspyr brings the Fear, NVIDIA breaks some games, and Lutris is DOOMED. Then Medieval II: Total War™ faces the CHAIRQUISITION! All this, plus your hate mail.

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http://store.steampowered.com/app/4700

Hate Mail

Steam News:

Rocket Time (because ZOMG depot change)
http://blog.kaiserapps.com/2016/01/rocket-league-soon-launching-for-linux.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/3xbv6y/rocket_league_wont_release_this_year/cy3y10h

A LOT of people have been freaking out about depot change for FK and ALL reasons.
This port is on VALVe time.
So is SFV.
Sounds good at first, right?
Then we all have the collective “oh shite, VALVe time” moment.
You know, all things considered, this game has a better chance of coming out than Carmageddon ever will.

Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies
http://www.feralinteractive.com/en/news/570/

Asspyre’s Layer Cake… of FEAR
http://store.steampowered.com/app/391720/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upZgeE4e1EM

More like a cake of Unity.
Actually, IMA little curious to see if Ass-Pyre cleans up any of the click export Unity fkry.
Ass-Pyre sent us some keys and well… it runs.
The game will be in Early Access until the 16th of February.
Look for the Chairsquisition after that.
Asspyre must have tricked The Bloober Team into letting them click export.
For a fee because Unity
…except it looks like they’re only publishing this game.

NeonXSZ launches …soon
http://steamcommunity.com/games/296010/announcements/detail/65667181135635657
http://store.steampowered.com/app/296010

On February 16th. Because we need a little over a month of the early access shield.
Dude has quite the story.
- And he claims he only bought 2 assets from the Unity store!
- After playing it… seems legit #woof
WHAR MULTIPLAYER?
Seriously, up against Descent: Underground this game has zero chance without it
Also, UI is borderline unusable @ UHD — scaling plz!

Portal – portals + physics gun
http://store.steampowered.com/app/317060/

Did this start out on IndieDB? Seems like I played it.
Forgot about that dash of Running Man.
OC Rift support… for Windows only.

♪It’s Blob, Blob♪
http://store.steampowered.com/app/281200/

I remember this game on NES. If you didn’t own the Nintendo Power, fuggedaboutit
Hope they fixed that.
I like how it looks!
Could be that it isn’t another hipster pixel platformer, but it looks good.

KWAAAAAAAAAAN
http://store.steampowered.com/app/336790

2D hipster pixel-… ZZZZZzzzzZZZZ- What?! MMO?
Fez minus the extra dimensions plus a bit of Terraria?
Online component? Dance together? Nevermind, I’m out.

Newspapers, please
http://store.steampowered.com/app/352240/

Published by Coffee Stain Studios, read the Goat Stimulators
It’s basically Papers, Please but instead of managing a border checkpoint you have to manage a liberal newspaper in a fascist regime.

Duck Game by any other name
http://store.steampowered.com/app/323850

Towerfall Adventures / Lethal League / Duck Game without weapons.
Every 20 seconds the mechanics change and you have to keep moving to survive.
I guess it’s still better than Towerfall because this one actually allows for online multiplayer.
Health goes down whenever you are doing anything other than walking
The variety of modes is pretty interesting:
- cleanup – scrub paint off the background
- bomb – person with the bomb blows up after a few seconds, but can pass it off to other players like tag
- fizzle floor – the floor fades away, drops you on Xs
- blow back – blow other players into the Xs to kill them
- falling blocks – Xs scroll down from the top and everyone dodges
- hat chase – wear the hat for as long as you can
- more

2D Submarine simulator
http://store.steampowered.com/app/401360/

Yes, more Hipster Pixels!
But this is a different kind of hipster pixels.
The graphics on this one remind me a lot of Risk of Rain and that’s enough to peak my curiosity.

News:

Bro-ken
https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/911079/linux/361-18-breaks-kotor2-linux-version-/post/4785761/#4785761

FK your games! Fix the handbrake bug!11!
It also broke Bound by Flame, but no one cares about that!
They make a valid point that the games were actually using OpenGL in an undefined way
The games were always broken and need to be fixed

LLAP
https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/689248999845437441

B-b-b-ut DX12, 4K, Xbone1… YOLOSWAG?
Oh, Carmack:
- Guy: “#Vulkan advantages over D3D12?”
- Carmack: “the only advantage I care about is that it runs on android…”
- Guy: “Does this mean future potential Linux support in your games”
- Carmack: “only in the sense that android is Linux”
BOOOOOOOOO!
This is what we’ve already said needed to happen.
Unity as a MyFirstGameEngine needs to support Vulkan out of the box and minimal to no actions required by the pseudo-devs.
Don’t care, this is cross-platform GLIDE.

Bench
https://gfxbench.com/linux-download/

Suck it, Titan X.
- According to that, my 970 is worse than a 570…
Making Phoronix Test Suite seem legit since 2016.
It just crashes while collecting my system info
Ah, the joys of a Thuban in the modern world…

Lutris is DOOMED
https://lutris.net/games/the-ultimate-doom/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdJZhdi_-Tc
The french subtitles are an an unintended bonus
All of the Doom-sy bits can be run natively from Lutris, assuming you own them on Steam.
Holy snikes Romero’s e1m8b is hard!
Now we just need Lutris installers for Zandronum and Brutal Doom

Flippfly Showdown: Round 2… FIGHT!!1!
http://flippfly.com/showdown/prototype-showdown-round-2/

It seems the Ant game is going to win this one.
I actually voted for the chess puzzley type game.
I can’t forgive the Unity Screen of Nope because prototype
LaserPawn makes the worse noise when you get killed by a laser — watch out
- This could maybe become a decent puzzler
The Last Colony… is a thing. I guess I don’t get it.

Retro Reich…ast
http://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-1-3-released/

libretro finally gets dreamcast support
- Kudos on that alone.
The new Android update fixed all the issues I was having, good on them.
It actually makes use of the SHIELD controller if I’m playing on the tablet.
Already in RetroPie, so all you RasPi retro gamers go update to 3.4!
- Technically speaking, I think it was in 3.3 as well…

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Game: Medieval II: Total War™
Webzone: www.feralinteractive.com/en/mac-games/medieval2/
Devel: Creative Assembly / Feral Interactive
Engine: Custom (based on the Rome Total War engine)
Price: €/$ 19.99

Wazzat: Spanning the most turbulent era in Western history, your quest for territory and power takes you through Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and even onto the shores of the New World.

Makes with the working

V-

All games listed in multiplayer are shown as incompatible.
P-man and I were completely unable to connect.
Hell, we never showed up in the same chat zone.
Y U have 4:3 option when it no work?
WHAR windowed mode?
Performance is great | 100+ @ 1080 and 75/90 @ 2160

M-

60 (w/ vsync) @ 1080p, 45-60 @ 2160
Constant spite crashes
Hard lock during first tutorial
Hello desktop constantly during the second tutorial and the campaign
Can’t be run from the command line to see what’s happening
Took the graphics settings down from #yolo11 and the game stopped vanishing

P-

It hard nopes my box during the second tutorial mission.
- And during the 4X type turn based missions
- The one thing that might me care about this RTS game, doesn’t work.
It was so bad, even Ctrl Alt F2 wouldn’t work to switch to another tty.
I had to fire up the netbook and ssh in to kill it.
This may have something to do with the 361.18 beta NVidia drivers but the game didn’t justify me bothering to check.

Total-

Shiny / Sounds

V-

This game was released in 2006, so I can cut it some slack.
Seriously, that was almost ten years ago. OLD, go feel it!
and considering it’s a RTS I’m tempted to say it holds up?
Except for the texture pop-in on the trees and units.
- I don’t know why, but I find that maddening.
That, and the UI (even in the original version) is hella stretched in widescreen.
Don’t even mention the minimal UI option since that just puts your units on the bottom and everything else up top #NOPE
WHY? Widescreen monitors were a thing in 2006! Granted mine was 1680×1050.
The sounds “work” but they were difficult to hear over FK mothering DRAGONFORCE

M-

2006 graphics might have looked good in 2006
overhead map is colorful and mostly clear / understandable
town maps are muddy and confusing
looks better w/ 16x AA and everything on 11 (and crashes!!!)
pre-rendered movies haven’t aged well
I didn’t even notice the music, but it’s there

P-

The game looks dated.
The music is your typical medieval military beat and sometimes a choir will sing
- Hell, if you get really lucky you’ll get to hear a lady singing solo.

Total-

Control

V-

It’s your standard WASD Q+E + zoomy gerbil wheel thingy.
Get ready to hear this two more times but units are not set and forget.
This is medieval times you serf motherfu*kers!
I’m not issuing suggestions.

M-

Turn based world map works well enough
RTS town battles are messy
AI is stupid, can’t round corners, go through gates
Can’t control individual units, results in extreme frustration

P-

I can’t even give it 4 chairs for controls because more than once I clicked to select a unit and it would outright refuse to.
I would have to go to the unit screen on the bottom of the screen and select them from there.

Total-

FUN

V-

I’m not a fan of the Grand Campagin.
However a quick historical battle is a little bit of alright.
I’ve played a few and for the most part enjoyed myself… if you keep the difficulty at medium or below.
The next two difficulty settings should be labeled “Because FK YOU” and “That’s why!” respectively.
The only thing that kills this title is the lack of functioning multiplayer.
I could justify cocking about for a few more hours in PVP but we were simply unable to make that work.
Mix that in /w the 19.99 price tag for a 10yr old game you get two chairs, just.

M-

Turn-based Civilization overworld map style decent enough
Diplomacy, spying, trade deals, capturing rebel cities, marrying off the princess
RTS segments are fun
…when they work
Rage inducing when they don’t
I spent a lot of time shouting at my computer “no don’t do that, do this!”
It didn’t listen

P-

I don’t like RTS games.
I don’t hate them with the same passion I do uninspired Hipster Pixel Platformers – *cough* Taimumari *cough* – but I really don’t like them, either.
When I started the second tutorial and saw that the game had a 4X type scenario where you could move your units on the map and do all the micromanagement, I was… excited?!
“OMG” – thought I – “an RTS game I might actually enjoy”
Immediately after that thought, the game froze my system.
Tried it again, same thing.
I started a short campaign with Portugal.
The very first mission uses that same 4X type scenario. Another hard lock!

Total-

Final-

Hate Mail:

Wrong!
http://slexy.org/view/s2YiKmQgHn

Summing it up, it’s a disassembler not a decompiler
Xoreos can run the bytecode already, this is just to ease the work of future mods.

1,800 Games Available
http://slexy.org/view/s200ARlfqy

Being informative as ever, Phoronix never explains how to view the number.
- Of course not! If the stupid people giving him money realised what he does and lies he keeps spewing, Phoronix would be a much better website nowadays.
#LGCcares

Bench
http://slexy.org/view/s2t3dS6Kev

DrMcCoy
January 25, 2016 at 10:27 pm
Log in to Reply
I *did* watch the whole thing. Well, the part that concerned me. :P
Or rather, I added my first comment, then watched that bit, and that’s when I added the second and third comments, to extend on the reason why and to address the “it’s just this one guy”. Which is not quite correct, but yes, more correct than I would like. I’d really like if there were more people to join in on those efforts.
So yeah, it was not about just Pedro being wrong, but Venn was just as misinformed. You both seemed to completely misunderstand my blog post. Which is a failure on my part to better explain myself, I’d guess. (Pedro does get a point for pronouncing my name correctly, though.)
What I intend to do with these blog posts is explain my work on the project in a way that gives people not deep into reverse engineering, or even without a programming background, an insight. While at the same time, I still want to transfer meaningful information to people who do know a bit more, without boring them to death. I find that pretty difficult, and it seems I still have much to learn there.
Also, I didn’t intend it to be a tirade, just trying to explain the difference between a decompiler and a disassembler. I do think that, for the topic at hand at least, this distinction is somewhat important. Well, or you might not really care, I guess; it *is* a pretty niche subject, after all.
And no, chat person “orn”, I’m neither Swedish nor Mexican. :)