LinuxGameCast Weekly 387: Flesh Marionette

Steam is coming to Chrome OS! Nvidia releases a beta driver for Vulkan 1.2, bsnes HD brings widescreen to classic games, and the quickest way to get your gaming rig running Linux.


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Timestamps:
04:17 Steam comes to Chrome OS
09:32 iSteam updates
10:37 Proton 4.11-12
13:07 Rocket Cars Lunar new year
15:07 Aurora removes Linux version
16:57 Danger Gazers
18:37 A Long Way Down
21:02 Shameless self promotion / E-begging
25:57 Vulkan 1.2 beta driver
28:57 Humble Sweet Farm Bundle
31:17 Hammer Dongers
32:27 Extracting GOG *.iso
36:32 ReDoomEd for Linux
38:27 bsnes HD beta
40:57 Linux gaming made easy
53:27 CHAIRQASITION: Danger Gazers
01:03:13 Hate Mail


Colour key: Venn Jordan Pedro

Steam: News

Steambook

  • This, this does not end well.
  • I say this since most Chromebooks have something in the range of a Celeron N3060 and 4GB of RAM under the bonnet.
  • I can see Google putting out a desktop Chromebox.
  • With a good enough processor it could be an alright streaming box
  • And as a Chromebook owner, I would like to see Linux Steam and Proton be available even on the lowest end, entry level laptops.
  • There’s a lot of people who can’t afford a proper gaming system.
  • There isn’t a lot of local storage on chromebooks either. They seem to cap out at about 128GB on the upper end ones
  • it could be part of a push to make chrome-OS more of hybrid cloud-pc experience, but that doesn’t seem to be the MO here
  • If you put your tinfoil hat on, this is the death knell for stadia
  • Likely though it’s gonna be more streaming focused


iLink updated

  • Mostly a bunch of “controller” and magnification fixes
  • This is relevant to a couple of y’all on idevices

 

Proton 4.11-12

  • Fast rats?
  • DXVK 1.5.1 has the number of threads used for pipeline compilation tweaked.
  • Note: This can still be customized with the dxvk.numCompilerThreads option.
  • Updated openVR support makes a few games playable
  • Better steamworks integration is kind of a given
  • That’s a lot of D9VK improvements now that it’s all sharing the same umbrella

Steam: Game Updates

Lucky Lunar

  • Is the internet already bitching about this?
  • I bet they are.
  • I wonder what the over/under on Mr. Alert getting that rat racer title is
  • Gotta sell those hats
  • More cosmetics, this time based on the Lunar New Year.
  • Also an eastern temple stylized map.

 

Hidden Linux

  • You know what, good on them.
  • If something is broken, don’t sell it.
  • What’s nice about this announcement is that there isn’t any needless linux bashing, claiming that things don’t work, etc
    • That’s a nice change from the usual spiel.
  • They did send us keys on Curator Connect, so once the issues are sorted we may give it a go.

Steam: New Games

Danger Gazers

  • As it turns out, people appreciate not being treated like criminals and doing something like this goes a long way to buying some good faith
  • And you get to sell more copies in return
  • I’m not saying AAA publishers should put all their games on the pirate bay, but not forcing paying customers into draconian DRM schemes would be a pretty good start!
  • Stick around for the chairs!

 

Long way down

  • This looks like an interesting riff on the card-based dungeon crawler formula
  • Most of these games only have the cards used in combat, but this one also uses them for exploration, which is kinda neat. Forces you to have a more varied deck
  • $20 Early access is still a bit of a steep buy in though

News:

Vulkan 1.2 Developer Beta Driver

  • Vulkan 1.2 is released and Nvidia updates their beta drivers same-day.
  • Works on this end.
  • Yes, tell me again how Nvidia hates Linux.
  • Works on the 1080, as well.
  • Do y’all think it’s too early to say, or will there just be a vulkan version that everyone just defaults to, kinda like DX11 or OpenGL 2?
  • Also a heads up, the 2060 capeless edition just entered budget build pricing territory.

 

Mooo

  • Couple of solid Linux titles is this one.
  • Ultimate Chicken Horse is worth the price alone.
  • Evergarden is also an alright puzzler
  • Grabbing stardew valley for 5 bucks off with some other games is also an ok deal
  • I now have an extra key for Stardew Valley if anyone is interested but doesn’t want to spend the full $10 just to get it.

 

Hammer Dongers

  • Just a great name. Fantastic name
  • However, it’s pure couch multiplayer, so good luck to those of you who have no friends
  • You could get “online multiplayer’ with the steam remote play workaround

 

Oh my GOG

  • This is one of those things you assume is straightforward.
  • You would be wrong.
  • As Katana mentioned, looking in the dosbox*.conf file shows you which file it mounts as the CD drive.
    • Yes, that will point you at the *.dat file.
    • Now go ahead and try to mount game.dat and see what happens, I’ll wait.
      • Rename the .dat to .cue
      • Never crossed my mind /s. *grabs crayons*
        • You can’t mount .cues like that in Linux, not out of the box in most distros anyway.
        • Basically, you just rename that as .cue and continue on with the rest of your guide.
        • That’s a good way to generate 9 empty files and one *.cdr.
        • They didn’t remove the music from the .dat when they packaged it.
        • Fair enough.
  • Moral of the story kids, it’s a nonstandard *.iso GOG format… thingy.

 

Hipster DOOM

  • Ever wanted to use the NextStep version of the editor?
  • Someone did.
  • I like the idea of updating these tools to run on modern OSes
  • Maybe get something like a mario-maker esque movement for doom, now that you can “easily” put together levels.
  • Creating your own Doom level was like a rite of passage in some circles.
  • I liked Doom but not that much, Neverwinter Nights though…
  • I wish Beamdog would release the Linux version of the editor.

 

HD SNES (MFoxDogg)

  • People really seem to hate letterboxing, so the bsnes guys are trying to fix that
  • They’ve added a few modes for various widescreen configurations, some of which may introduce artifacts on screen, which is to be expected. These games were meant to run in 4:3
    • They do bring up the possibility of working with rom hackers to make the games play nicer in these modes
  • I can see some of the SNES games getting some unofficial hacks to allow for this, right up until Nintendo sues somebody.

 

Linux gaming made easy

  • I haven’t read the article yet but unless it starts out with LEARN HOW TO USE LINUX it’s doing people a disservice.
  • ^. Let’s not ignore the fact that they gloss over the biggest hurdle, actually installing ubuntu. This is a big ask for a lot of people
  • Beyond that, it’s really just a slideshow describing how to install and launch steam from the ubuntu software center. Technically correct, but in this case maybe not the best kind of correct.
  • It’s another one of these…
  • One of these days I’ll stream setting up from the install onwards.
  • Maybe that’ll be the one that makes a difference. /s
  • Learn how to install video drivers.
  • Quit trying to click your way out of it.
  • Setup a build environment.
  • Clone a git repo.
  • Build something from source.
  • This is Linux, there will be terminal.
  • That’s not something that needs to be fixed despite bloggers saying different.
  • Once you get basic skills under your belt you’ll start looking for the distro that gets in your way the least, hell, distros won’t even matter.
  • I don’t 100% agree with that. Linux should be your man who do both. And for most casual usage, it is. But it’s a mindset shift, and people don’t really like to change their minds.
  • System76 and Dell have the right idea, dell just needs to do better at advertising.

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies


Game: Danger Gazers
Devel: ShotX Studio
Engine: GameMaker Studio
Price: £7.19 / US$9.99 / CA$11.49

Wazzat: Danger Gazers is a post-apocalyptic roguelite top-down shooter where you pave your own path. The choices you make will decide your fate, it will either turn you into the new ruler or… the ashes to be windswept away.

Mandatory Disclosure: Dev sent us keys via Curator Connect


Venn:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

  • If you’re going to make a bullet hell that doesn’t work with a controller there is one thing you better get right.
  • Locking the mouse cursor to the active window.
  • There is an option but it causes the pointer to double and flicker like mad.
  • You might consider making resolutions above 1080p available?

Fun:

  • Sorry not sorry but that soundtrack is atrocious.
  • It’s like an unholy fusion of bad chip-tunes and jazz.
  • If you can power your way through that you have an action’ish roguelike.
  • You aim, shoot, get weapon upgrades, die, remember you have a special and die a lot.
  • At the end of the day (take that shot) the whole top-down spinny gunny game thing has been done to death.
  • However, if it’s still your jam and you like roguelikes, put on some Slayer and have a go.

Jordan:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

  • I would very much like to play this with a controller.
  • Mother? THE CONTROLLER
  • I can adapt to the not locking of the cursor. Doesn’t mean you get a pass

Fun?

  • Honestly, it’s I think it’s a mediocre shoot ‘em up
  • You get two weapons, one with infinite ammo and one with finite ammo
  • Run around your procedurally generated levels pew pewing things
  • In between levels you have some branching choices that will give you stuff. Get to the end, fight a boss. Rinse repeat
  • It’s done well enough, but it doesn’t really bring anything new to the table
  • If you like this sort of game, you’ll probably be okay with it.
  • If you’re like me, you’ll give it

Pedro:

Launch/Looks/Sounds/Control

  • There is an option buried in the second page of the game options to lock the cursor to the window.
  • It doesn’t work very well.
  • Vsync sticks the game to 60 FerPS, not actually sync’ed to the vblank.
  • I’d like an option to completely disable the “retro” pixel blur.
  • That “sharp” filter is just a lie!
  • I don’t mind the mouse and keyboard input for these games, that’s how I played Enter the Gungeon for over 50 hours, so that’s fine.

Fun?

  • I like these kinds of games.
  • I just mentioned Enter the Gungeon and while Danger Gazers is not that good, it certainly scratches that itch for me.
  • The background music is possibly the weakest point here, followed closely by the animations.
  • I wasn’t a big fan of the slow fire rate of the pistol at first, but I see why they did it.
  • The difficulty is very much there and not once did I feel like I had a bullshit death.
  • All in all, I still prefer Enter the Gungeon but this one’s cheaper!

Verdict:

Venn:
Jordan:
Pedro:


Hate Mail:

Ram Jam

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