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Linux Games

The End Is Nigh For the Linux Game Tome 123

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the end-of-an-era dept.
First time accepted submitter Sodki writes "The Linux Game Tome, one of the most important websites related to video gaming in GNU/Linux, will shut down on the 13th of April, according to a news post published on the website. The decision was made due to the 'lack both the time and the ambition to do what is necessary to keep the site afloat,' which has resulted in 'spam clogging the forums, lack of updates and increasing brokenness of the site.' This might not be the end, though. The maintainers of The Linux Game Tome will make available a dump of the games database, so that anyone interested can cook up a new and updated version of the website, and a worthwhile effort will be considered for a transfer of ownership of the domain. The current source code of the website, which is from 1999, will not be available because 'it is not fit for human consumption.'" It certainly had a good run; I remember poking around the Linux Game Tome as a teenager in the misty past (and it's where I discovered Freeciv, Warzone 2100, and lbreakout2). Are there any alternatives already operating (unfortunately, Freecode doesn't seem popular with game authors)? Or: Which one of you is going to write the Linux Game Tome 3.0?
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The End Is Nigh For the Linux Game Tome More

The End Is Nigh For the Linux Game Tome

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  • Uh, (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Forty Two Tenfold ( 1134125 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @07:47AM (#43279987)
    Steam?

    • Re:Uh, (Score:5, Insightful)

      by lesincompetent ( 2836253 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @08:04AM (#43280113)
      Why should the community give up everything to a strictly proprietary, closed environment? We should maintain at least a free and open alternative!

      • Re:Uh, (Score:5, Informative)

        by h4rr4r ( 612664 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @08:14AM (#43280167)

        I believe you were looking for this:
        http://www.playdeb.net/welcome/ [playdeb.net]

        The reality is Steam offers something not yet available on linux AAA games, even if out of date so far. You don't have to use it, and you can avoid distros that package it even, but it exists for those who want to use it.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I am one of the maintainers for playdeb.net (been getting their stability and performaince issues worked out) and it's good to see it mentioned here. I'd love to adopt happy penguin as well, since it fills a slightly diff niche, and I'd hate to see it go.

          Thanks,

          Joseph Brower
          joseph(dot)brower(at)gmail(dot)com

      • The "community" doesnt really have a right to demand that this site be maintained for free; if you want a free alternative, I imagine you could volunteer to help maintain the site.

        "Its Open Source" doesnt magically generate people to do fixes and maintenance, you know.

        • Re:Uh, (Score:5, Insightful)

          by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @09:10AM (#43280533) Journal
          if you want a free alternative, I imagine you could volunteer to help maintain the site ... "Its Open Source" doesnt magically generate people to do fixes and maintenance, you know.

          HERESY! Burn them at the stake!

          Everyone knows there is no cost associated with software. Charging for something you produce is just evil capitalism. With the wonders of free software, everything miraculously springs forth by sheer will, not through money and maintenance. People create this stuff through their own generosity without regard to costs since there are none.

          That's why there's no problem with stealing someone's work. Since there was no cost involved with producing it, there's no need to pay someone for their work.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Why should the community give up everything to a strictly proprietary, closed environment? We should maintain at least a free and open alternative!

        I assume that means you're volunteering to do the work?

        The community doesn't owe you anything, you know.

        • I am sick getting sick and tired of people correctly spelling you're on /.
          • To the person who down modded the above post. You do realise that it was posted nearly two weeks prior to your brilliant example of moderation? You are typical of the brain dead mainstream user of /. lately. I really wish this site was the same as it used to be ten years or so ago.

      • Why should the community give up everything to a strictly proprietary, closed environment? We should maintain at least a free and open alternative!

        The Game Tome isn't publishing their source code are they? Sounds like moving from one proprietary, closed environment to another. If you want a free and open alternative, then build it.

    • Uh,
      No?

    • Steam requires to provide finished product and support. Apart from the libre games, there's a bunch of Linux ports that will never get into Steam because devs can't/don't want to support Linux beyond porting their game.

    • Withdraw from Tome to using FREE CELL or Spider -- does not require the web

  • There are already dozens of websites that serve the exact same function, with just as good or better presentation... (not unlike Linux distros themselves).

    Let it die, ask another site to fill in holes if there are any, and nothing of value will be lost.

  • Most Important Websites... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @07:48AM (#43279999)

    That I never ever heard of despite running Linux exclusively for 13 years.

    I'm thinking that getting the word out was their problem, and that their importance is being overblown.

  • Desura (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    another game distribution package that includes a lot of open source games is desura

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by LesFerg ( 452838 )

      Yes, I would also like to see some more developers and support people get behind Desura for Linux and get it working properly across multiple Linux distros.
      Sadly, last time I looked, Desura had Linux game installers that fail, mainly due to library dependencies, while the Ubuntu software center can install the same game properly. There was no clear indication of which specific distro it was expected to be compliant with.

      It would be way cool to have the one app responsible for finding, installing, launching

  • Sad Day. (Score:3)

    by tetrahedrassface ( 675645 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @07:55AM (#43280049) Journal

    I liked Happy Penguin, what's next? Will LWN close down too? [lwn.net]? I suppose for a lot of us The LInux Game Tome was important because they listed lots of games for us, and have a pretty good interface at that. Guess I just miss the old wide open days of Linux..

    *Goes out and and stands in yard with a torch and pitchfork*

    • The demise of Happy Penguin will for me at least be a sad day as I have discovered many fun distractions on the site over the years. It is probably the most complete database of Linux games around (that I know of).

  • Gaming on Linux? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Gothmolly ( 148874 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @08:00AM (#43280079)

    There's games for Linux besides TuxRacer?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Lumpy ( 12016 )

      Abuse... even better than tux racer.

    • Pretty sure you can also get Unreal Tournament 2002; thats how I learned to install nvidia drivers (in a linux class, no less-- i was technically learning).

      • Actually, it's Unreal Tournament 2004. Quake III Arena runs great too. Excellent hardcore deathmatch, both!
    • The other one is called BZ flag.

    • Re:Gaming on Linux? (Score:4, Funny)

      by zAPPzAPP ( 1207370 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @08:50AM (#43280393)

      I wonder why the site shuts down now, when it is finally the year of Linux on the desktop?

    • XBILL [wikipedia.org] will always be best game. 2nd maybe to vi. 3rd is emacs of course. 4th is probably either /boot or /etc.

    • sauerbraten, quakelive (freeware), assault cube, armagetron, supertuxkart.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by LesFerg ( 452838 )

        I loved the old-school hard core action in sauerbraten but got put off badly when people started using every hack imaginable, including running around 10 times faster than everybody else while their aim bot shot everybody in range.
        This was when I realized that open source multiplayer games are only any fun in closed environments or when there was some effort put into validating that each client was running the same unmodified code.

        • in fact for sauerbraten swl.me issues a binary anticheat client just before the tournament. Cheaters are also kicked from servers, if you play and join a clan you can ask for admin on the main ones and clean up yourself.

          I'd consider cheaters as good bots for practice, the real matches are among clans members and tournaments.

  • Remember Pingus? (Score:3)

    by Vintermann ( 400722 ) on Tuesday March 26, 2013 @08:10AM (#43280153) Homepage

    Now that we have Steam, they probably have outlived their usefulness somewhat. It used to be the case that all Linux games were made by Ingo Ruhnke.

    There's still a market for a Free software-only games portal, I suppose.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )

      There's still a market for a Free software-only games portal, I suppose.

      It's called apt-get.

  • Libregamewiki (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    For games that are free software and have their media released under a free license as well, check out

    https://libregamewiki.org/ [libregamewiki.org]

  • Ever since the linux game tome stopped being updated, I switched to indiedb to publish my open source games.

    http://www.indiedb.com/games/dungeon-tactics [indiedb.com]
  • Well there are plenty of others, LGT was my first though! http://www.gamingonlinux.com/ [gamingonlinux.com] - daily news http://www.penguspy.com/ [penguspy.com] - a directory similair to LGT http://linuxgamecast.com/ [linuxgamecast.com] - game videos and tutorials for linux

  • https://twitter.com/LinuxGamers [twitter.com]

    That's who I follow to keep up to date on which projects on Kickstarter (et al) plan to support Linux

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