Cool Web-Based 3D Flash-Based Game Engine I Just Ran Across

Alternativa Platform - I found this cool game/misc 3D Flash engine just now...

I tried some of the demos and they're really nice. Especially the Bunker demo.
I'm actually in search of a good platform-independant game development medium at the moment and this looks promising...
One of the cool things I noticed about it; when you move the view with the mouse, it kinda goes into a simple render mode where the textures don't have buffering (just pixelated) which helps performance greatly. Then when you stand still it goes back into high quality only when the view stays still.
Another feature I noticed, when you first launch the demo game, it loads basic low quality textures as placeholders and then dynamically loads the full quality textures in the background while you're playing. That's cool for playing faster without waiting for huge downloads to finish first.

I don't know, I'm considering developing a game that's playable within a browser, so when OpenPandora is released, my game will be playable on it too.

You can go ahead and click that screenshot of the Bunker demo to try it yourself... It's just a small area you can walk around in, but it's nice to see for yourself.

A List of The Best Native Linux Games I've Found

I use Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 so I wouldn't know about other distros.
When I say "Native" Linux games, I mean they were designed or compiled from source to run on Linux without emulation.
Getting down to business: Each entry will be the link to the corresponding website where you can download these games. I wont list games you can't download and play for free.

• Quake 4 For Linux *.run Packages FTP Downloads
  Torrent Download For the Current Version
  Documentation / Installation Instructions
  Technically, it's not free but it's a very good example that Linux can definately be used for gaming commercially.
  
• PlayDeb.net - This website maintains a list of games specifically converted/compiled to be easily installed on Ubuntu Linux by way of *.Deb packages.
• Urban Terror - This Counter-Strike clone is actually very good. It's not setup the exact same way, but you can still choose your appearance, good guys or bad guys, different weapons, etc. The maps and graphics are well done. There are also a lot of players and servers in the server browser too.
• Tremulous - If you've ever played a mod for Half-Life a while ago before it went Source, there was a mod called "Natural Selection"... Anyway, this game is somewhat similar in the aspect of FPS/RTS gaming. It has excellent graphics and it's free!
• Cube 2: Sauerbraten - No, it's not a German website, it's all written in English. Ok, this one is interesting; it has superb graphics, awesome in-game map editing, and the game engine it uses is entirely original in code and design. Best of all, and my focus of interest here, The Game Engine is Open Source, which means, with some programming knowledge, you can use it to make your own game with! Refer to their terms and licencing to make sure you're allowed to release as commercial projects, etc.
• Warsow - This is a basic deathmatch FPS with somewhat arcade/futuristic style graphics with some cell-shading effects. Nice graphics, fun game.
• Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory - Probably the most widely known free, high quality Native Linux FPS out there. Tons of servers and active players online at all times, from all over the world. The graphics are excellent, there are tons of voices and other ambient effects, the controls are familiar, but best of all, aside from choosing one side or another, you choose character class, which decides what kinds of guns you get and your job on the field. For example: Engineers build structural objects along the map to advance spawn points and eventually capture the entire map and win the round. Very fun and customizable. This game supports many mods as well.
• PlaneShift - This is an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) available for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX. The graphics are nice, the community is very friendly and welcoming, and the game is pretty solid. There tends to be a large base of RPers (Role Players), so if that's not your cup of tea, they wont bite or anything... All in all, another gem for Linux.

So, aside from those, there are more but I haven't tried them. There are a good deal of Windows games that will run using Wine, but don't expect any miracles.

Any game that uses Java or Flash or embeds in a webpage is also available on any operating system that supports the runtimes and plugins required by the game (Such as Java and Flash).

By The Way, there are a lot of emulators compiled for Linux and some you will recognize.

• NES - FCE Ultra / GFCEU (Gnome FCE Ultra Front-End)

• SNES - ZSNES (My favorite SNES emulator)

And others, but I haven't tried or installed them yet so I can't tell you if they work or not.
Actually, if you are playing an emulator, you might want to play those games with a controller/gamepad/joystick... Here's how I got mine to work with a nice GUI-Based app for ease of use.

HOW TO: Install and Use Gamepads In Ubuntu Linux

DO NOT CONNECT YOUR GAMEPAD/JOYSTICK YET!

First of all, we need to actually install the software to manage your controller.
1. Open Terminal and type (enter your root password when prompted):

sudo apt-get install joystick

2. With the terminal still open, type:

sudo apt-get install jscalibrator

This one will actually show up as an application in your accessories menu. You can use this to calibrate and test your gamepad to make sure everything is working.

3. NOW You can plug in your Gamepad/Joystick.
4. Next, type this into the Terminal:

sudo chmod 666 /dev/input/js0

For each additional controller, change "js0" to js1, js2, and so on.
That last command changes permissions for the controller so you can use it.

Now that your gamepad is "working" most likely only your actual "buttons" will register a keypress, but not the axis, and if you're trying to play an emulator or anything without real linux gamepad support (almost everything) you'll need this next app to map keyboard keys to the gamepad buttons:

QJoypad

1. First of all, if you go to the main site of QJoypad you'll notice there are no Ubuntu binaries... And trust me, the Debian package wont work. So here is a special Ubuntu 32-bit version I found and it works 100% with no hassle:

QJoypad Ubuntu 32-bit

I uploaded that to MediaFire and I forgot who it was that made it... But pretty much all you have to do is use "Alien" on the .rpm package to make this one. But you wont have to because I have it all done and ready to go.

2. You'll notice there is no launcher/shortcut anywhere... This is a little pain but it's fine.

• Go to: System > Preferences > Main Menu
• Pick a menu you want the launcher to be in, in my case, I picked accessories.
• Push the "New Item" button.
• Enter "QJoypad" in the name field.
• type in "qjoypad" where it says command.
• Click that button in the top-left with that springy launcher icon.
• Click the "Browse" button.
• Now start by picking "File System" in the left menu.
• Go to: usr > share > pixmaps > qjoypad
• You wont see anything in the window, just push "Open" in the bottom left.
• Now you see a few icons, pick one and push "OK"
• Now push "OK" and go find your new launcher in accessories (or wherever you put yours)
  

When this app opens, it's in the tray. Single click the tray icon to open the main dialog.

Now, if your gamepad is still connected from the first time you connected it, when you push buttons, you'll notice the buttons being highlighted blue to tell you what you're pushing.

NOTE: If your axis' don't highlight when you push them, you will have to right click on the QJoypad tray icon and push quit, then disconnect and reconnect your gamepad again.

When you open QJoypad again, the axis' should highlight when you push them.

Now have fun assigning keyboard keys to your gamepad/joystick buttons and axis' and play all those emulators and games!

OpenPandora May Release Very Soon

Today I would like to talk about my most awaited upcoming device, OpenPandora. Above is a video from Craigix giving a demo of the completed keymats and showing progress on the device.
You might compare this to other handheld gaming devices, but also to PDAs...
For example, PSP or a Netbook.

Now, let's get down to business.


Here are the specs:

• ARM® Cortex™-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
• 430-MHz TMS320C64x+™ DSP Core
• PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
• 800x480 4.3" 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
• Wifi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth & High Speed USB 2.0 Host
• Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
• Dual Analogue and Digital gaming controls
• 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
• Around 10+ Hours battery life

Compared to other handheld gaming devices currently in production, OpenPandora has the most RAM and the fastest CPU I've seen. From my experiences playing hacked PSPs, the limitations of them, and what people wish they could do, OpenPandora is like a dream come true.

First of all, it has TWO analog nubs, which makes playing First Person Shooters the way it was meant to be on a console. The hassles of playing an FPS with only 1 analog nub made the games unplayable. But, with 2 analog nubs, you can actually use the right nub to control your look, and the left nub to control your movement and strafing (Like anyone who plays an FPS should recognize).

Now, when it comes to trying to enter console commands, or anything besides just simply playing the game, the full QWERTY keyboard is a life saver. For example, if you have had any experience with playing Quake on PSP, you feel the pain. Now if you play it on a Pandora, you can simply press the tilde key "~" to bring down the console, and just basicly type in your command and push enter. It's like a miracle.

Other hassles you may experience, such as on mobile phones or other handheld devices with internet connectivity, the screen size and web browser support is very limited and painful to navigate. But the Pandora's screen resolution is 800 pixels wide by 480 pixels tall. Along with touch-screen capability you can easily click and drag elements in web pages. Not to mention the Pandora runs Linux and uses Firefox as the web browser, so you shouldn't have any problems with javascript or flash objects on web pages.

Personally, I'm buying one as soon as it's available. There is no "set in stone" release date yet, but the development process is in it's final phases at this time and it shouldn't be too much longer now.