LinuxGameCast Weekly EP180 – MAME Your Link

Steam nopes Curse of Raven’s Cry! Tomb Raider shows signs of life, Mighty No. 9 gets delayed again, and AMD open sauces some of the things. Then Starward Rogue faces the CHAIRQUISITION! All this, plus your hate mail.

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Links

Steam

News

Review

Hate Mail


Special thanks to our patreons:

  • Benjamin upped
  • Rod B
  • Martin W 6.66
  • Dom C
  • Christian S (sent a super nice note)

Steam News:

Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Sudo MAME me a sandwich
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steamlink-sdk/tree/master/examples/mame4all

  • I mean, to be fair, pretty much all the steam link can run at this point is old arcade games
  • $50 MAME box?
  • Worth noting that they ported an old code base (mame 0.37b5) from a raspberry pi port, not the latest greatest
  • Oh goddammit, i’ve installed MAME.
  • Happens
  • So, if you powercycle the Link to install it, it’ll pull any ROMs on the rom folder as well.
  • You won’t be able to have a lot of ROMs going off of it.

Elite Teef 
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3024696/linux/valve-adds-bluetooth-xbox-one-elite-controller-support-to-steamos.html

  • Some users in the Steam forums report that even Sony’s DualShock 4 wireless controller…can now successfully be paired with a Steam Machine.
    • Bluez > 5.4 fuckers. Had that shit working LAST YEAR.

Becau$e rea$ons
http://www.pcgamesn.com/counter-strike-global-offensive/custom-csgo-weapon-skins-and-spoofing-banned-on-all-community-servers-by-valve

  • Sooo people won’t buy skins if they can go to a server and use whatever skin they want?
  • Because only in VALVe’s ecosystem, could such a thing as Skin Piracy ever exist.
  • They’ve since updated the original post to reflect that, this prohibition applies to skins “that specifically misrepresent a player’s skill group/rank or the items they own.” and to skins that completely change the appearance of a weapon.
    • E.g.: A mod that’d change the M4A1 into a Carbon 15 Bushwacker.

Please don’t be VP, please don’t be VP, please don’t be VP
https://steamdb.info/app/203160/history/

  • Please don’t be VP, please don’t be VP, please don’t be VP
  • Ooooooh multiplayer! This could be a thing after we finish Trineing.
  • That’d be interesting… if it weren’t VP.
    • They’re just using Java
  • I don’t trust Squeenix.

Caw! Caw! Bang! Fuck, I’m dead!
http://steamcommunity.com/app/386280/discussions/0/458607518212694543/

GRID AutoNOPE
http://steamcommunity.com/app/255220/discussions/0/458604254437862150/

  • Eenteresting. Strider and some other guy reports that disabling a bunch of VIFs on their boxen resolved the issue
  • Maybe the codebase doesn’t play nice when too many network adapters are active, although that indicates a pretty bad design flaw
    • Are you saying Feral has a spotty history when it comes to Multiplayer support?
    • Nah! Say it ain’t so…
    • It’s not like we’ve had first hand experience with that last week, or anything.
  • IMA just confirm Striders problem was legit.
  • I almost didn’t believe him, thinking it was a router issue.

Live long and make it so
http://steamcommunity.com/app/41070/discussions/0/451850849186806043/?tscn=1453710376#c451851477888742208

  • Straight from the horse’s mouth:
    • We will support Vulkan. But we probably won’t be removing support for other APIs soon.
  • It really is the smart choice considering what platforms Croteam has to support.
  • Vulkan will be introduced to SS3 at some point in the future along with Talos.
  • SS4, on the other hand, will support Vulkan out of the gate.

Habitat goes 1.0
http://store.steampowered.com/app/299340/

  • First Unity screen of nope for 2016!

I met this little girlie, her hair was kinda curly
http://store.steampowered.com/app/244930/

  • Change: s_AudioSystemImplementationName=”CryAudioImplFmod”
  • To: s_AudioSystemImplementationName=””
  • Seems like Cryengine kinda works when you just click export.
    • And of course we hear nothing from the Star Citizen folks
      • Middleware! Yeah, that’s the ticket.
  • Oh, take a screenshot… that’s an adventure.
  • It did recognize the NVidia controller
  • I still couldn’t figure out how to Tuck and therefore failed the tutorial.
  • Also, won’t let me go up to 1080p. 720p is all I’m getting.
  • It fucks around with xrandr, so I got to see my 4K monitor render my desktop in 720P for the first time after it noped.   I think I need some therapy now
  • It controls like a butt though

News:

Open Sesame
http://gpuopen.com/welcometogpuopen/

  • Soooo a press release?
    • You don’t understand maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan !  We’re embracing open source!   So that we don’t have to pay developers!   I mean collaborate better!
    • Not much in there. A couple of tools only. Hardly worthy of a big announcement.
  • I did like the fact that, the 3 tools they have up there all have github links.

10 LIGHTS!
http://www.pcper.com/news/Processors/Report-Intel-Tigerlake-Revealed-Companys-Third-10nm-CPU

  • And you know this isn’t even the good stuff.
  • I wonder how bendy/prone it is to computational errors under load they’ll be
  • #tigerbloodlake x86_6winning
  • Intel’s already making AMD’s Zen look outdated, before it’s even out.

Wine 1.9.2
https://www.winehq.org/announce/1.9.2

  • I’m happy to report Dragon’s Dogma works perfectly with this version of WINE.
    • Yes Pedro, we know it does.
  • Better Shader 4 support, means better DirectX 10 support.
  • It also fixes some QT issues with Battle.net when using the Staging branch.

GOG-Access
http://www.gog.com/news/introducing_games_in_development

  • Two of those games are stuck in development hell.
    • PZ since 2011
    • SB since 2013
  • HTH do you return a DRM-free game?
  • I see a problem here.
  • GOG doesn’t have differential downloads.  That means, whenever a dev pushes an update, you gotta redownload the whole thing
  • Now, that’s fine you might say.  Just use GOG galaxy.   Except I shouldn’t have to download a 1GB game installer for a 120MB diff.
  • And, last I checked, Galaxy wasn’t exactly out under Linux.

Kickstarter-induced feature creep
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightyno9/mighty-no-9/posts/1473777

  • Held up by a feature nobody really wanted.
  • It’s been in development so long the engine (UE3) is no longer supported.
  • Ever notice how every, single, crowdfunding campaign that goes 2/3X over their funding goal ends up like this?
  • I’ve screamed this time and time again.   PROJECT MANAGEMENT!   USE IT FUCKERS
  • I do release management for a living, and feature creep is the bane of my existence.  Folks, focus on your main deliverables first and then add in the cool stuff later.
    • Especially for a game that is essentially megaman.  Network multiplayer is not what I would call essential to the experience

MegaGlest 3.12
https://megaglest.org/news/41/17/MegaGlest-3.12-released

  • The big thing with this release is that they’ve fully switched over to SDL2, so all sorts of stuff gets automatically fixed
  • Unfortunately is still looks like MegaGlest.
    • Still a better love story than Company of Heroes 2

Gunscape 1.0 slated for March 2 ‘16
https://playgunscape.com/

  • You can download and play the beta, right now.
  • Press release says:
    • Players will be able to create, share and play their own FPS campaigns and multiplayer maps as well as play those made by other gamers.  Maps and campaigns will be shareable across all supported platforms.Players will be able to fill the levels they create with a wide variety of environments, weapons, enemies and props, many paying homage to iconic first-person shooters throughout gaming history.
  • Also on Steam:
  • Will be free on release as well.
  • So…Doomcraft?
  • I remember when it was called Blockstorm.

Star-fired (via Empty)
https://arcengames.com/great-work-on-starward-rogue-team-now-youre-all-laid-off/

  • This sucks.
  • To be fair, everything from Bionic Dues onward was kinda meh in my eyes.
    • Maybe the game we’re reviewing will be better… maybe… stick around for that!
  • This guy is spending his life savings and donating years of his life trying to right a sinking ship.
  • Let it go.
  • Seriously.   30K of his personal money?   Listen brad, go take that money and do something else with it.    Ship is sinking.
  • Unfortunately, thems the breaks.   The indie scene is rough, and even if you put out a good game, there’s no guarantee of success or return on investment

CHAIRQUISITION:
CHAIR
– Nooope

CHAIRCHAIR– Not sure if want

CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR– Check it out

CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR– Shutupandtakemymonies


Game: Starward Rogue
Webzone:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/410820/
Devel: Arcen Games
Engine: Unity
Price: 11.99 / CDN 12.99

Wazzat: A roguelite labyrinth lodged in the side of a star. Dodge gorgeous waves of bullets, claim weapons and upgrades, defeat The Warden, and rescue… Rodney?


Makes with the working

V-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

J-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

P-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR


Total-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIRCHAIR


Shiny / Sounds

V-CHAIRCHAIR

  • For the love of FSM add some FK mothering visual depth!
  • The only way I can tell what is raised (vs. walkable floor) is by holding down the pew pew button.
  • The colour palette is right out of Bionic Dues… dark /w a hint of brown.
  • I’m not saying it’s fugly, but it looks like a top-down Flash game from 2002.
  • At least it’s not hipster-pixel.
  • Sweet mother of wubalubadubstep soundtrack Morty. [belch]
  • It simply does not match anything about the game…. I can prove it mathematically.
  • and speaking of clicks & beeps… WHAR flamethrower sound effect?

J-CHAIRCHAIR

  • Makes with the working?   Yes.   Makes with the wubwub.   A little too much
  • Lots of reused stuff from the last Federation and Bionic dues
  • Did either of those games look good?   Not really
  • Still, they get the job done.

P-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • The graphics are more than a little reminiscent of Bionic Dues.
  • Mostly due to the reused assets.
  • That’s not a negative, though. Bionic dues was my favorite game of 2013.
  • What is a negative is the music… That got muted pretty damn fast!

Total-CHAIRCHAIR


Control

V-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • Full contolla support my arse-organ.
  • Alright, technically it has full controlla support in the sense that you can rebind.
  • OOTB the Xclone layout is jacked.
  • Oh, go ahead and launch this in big picture mode, sit back, get comfy… and get up and dig around the tech closet for a spare keyboard / gerbil.
  • You know what, skip the big picture mode entirely since it’s rubbish with anything other than the keyboard / gerbil combo.

J-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • Keyboard mapping is good enough
  • Doesn’t play nice with the dualshock 4
  • I would have tested it with the steam controller, but

P-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR

  • It sorta does have controller support, except for the menus and you have to set it up yourself.
  • If I had an Areola Controlla plugged into the Steam Box, maybe I could just emulate the mouse on one of the areolas and be done with it.
  • That’s not the case!

Total-CHAIRCHAIRCHAIR


FUN

V-CHAIRCHAIRAsteoid? Asterisk? Clara?

  • Rogue-lite bullet hell sounds like a great idea… said nobody, ever.
  • And you might say “what about Binding of Isaac” and I would retort!
  • BOI is in no way bullet-hell.
  • At BEST, BOI has two boss fights that kinda sorta almost approach what might be considered bullet-hell on an alternate Wednesday if you clicked your FKN heels together three times while reciting the pledge of allegiance, backwards.
  • Now, I can’t blame them for trying something new but this is the real world and not everyone receives a trophy for just participating.
  • That said, I “beat” it in 106 minutes and even though it’s a roguelite I have zero interest in another playthrough.
  • It’s not that I hated it, but there’s simply no reason for me to have another go.
  • Oh, it tried with the other MECHS but I lasted 5min and noped.
  • and considering most achievements revolve around doing a thing X amount of times or with MECH X that could be a problem.
  • So if you’re like me and and only “beat” a game once, you might have a time choking down the $11.99 price tag on Brad.
  • So IMA give it two chairs /w an Asteroid since you might want to put this on your want list and wait for a half off sale… what I’m saying it the game should be 5.99.

J-CHAIRCHAIR

  • I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.  I can’t schmup
  • That being said, this game isn’t half bad.   Once you get going, it gets a little hard to put down
  • The difficulty curve gets a bit screwy,  once you unlock the thing that lets you heal whenever you kill a dude
  • I got two level skips in a row after the fourth, which somehow put me on level 6
  • End of the day though, this game is meh.   Pick it up on sale and it might be worth it, but not a full price.   Sorry Arcen

P-CHAIRCHAIR

  • I like roguelites, a lot.
  • I don’t even hate twin-stick, bullet hell shmups either.
  • Thing is, these are two genres I’m not particularly good at.
  • Combine the two and you have something that, while competent, I wouldn’t necessarily call fun.
  • It’s not a shitty game by any definition, but to me it’s nothing to write home about.
  • It’s another one of those games that skirts the boring kind of mediocre.
  • I can’t really criticise it for anything in particular but I can’t commend it on anything either.
  • Sure, it does exactly what it was meant to but it won’t really do it in a spectacular way.
    • If that last sentence sounded generic and bland, that’s because Starward Rogue is as well.
  • If I had to describe it by comparing two other games, it’s Geometry Wars with a Bionic Dues coat of paint.

Total-CHAIRCHAIR


Final –CHAIRCHAIRAsteoid? Asterisk? Clara?


Hate Mail:

Venn was wrong too
http://i.imgur.com/beUMhiW.png

  • About what? All I said was it’s basically a one human project.

Controls?
https://linuxgamecast.com/shatpocalypse/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7164

2 Comments
  1. Well, yeah, but it’s not completely a one human project. Most of the work has been done by me, yes, but I *do* have contributors. Making this all about me and having them forgotten would be a shitty thing to do of me.

    Btw, just so I can completely take over your show with xoreos stuff ;), xoreos 0.0.4 has been released today: https://xoreos.org/blog/2016/02/01/xoreos-0-dot-0-4-chodo-released/

    The only really visible changes, though, are speech bubbles in Neverwinter Nights, and the premium modules BioWare sold back in the day being loadable (they’re encrypted, and the data files partially messed with). And I fixed a bug in the text rendering, which mostly occured in eastern European languages and French.

    Also, this release includes precompiled binaries (for GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, each for x86 and amd64 architectures) of the aforementioned NWScript disassembler. So people who might not be able to compile it from source aren’t left out.

    Apart from that, there’s has been a lot of code quality fixes. I.e. I went over the codebase with several static analyzers and fixed issues, and used the afl fuzzer to check the file loaders for evil crashing bugs. And I expanded the code documentation in several areas.

    Like always, slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

    Oh, and there’s an interview I had with “The Linux Gamer” ( https://www.youtube.com/user/tuxreviews ) coming on…Tuesday, I think. If you want to have a laugh at my dopey looks, my badly accented, mumbling English and my nervousness, be sure to watch that. :)

    EDIT: Yeah, sorry for the YouTube embed thing. I didn’t know Disqus is going to do that. O_o

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