On Sun, 22 Feb 2004, Michael Gargiullo wrote: > > > On Sun, 2004-02-22 at 07:08, Carlos Hendson wrote: > > On Sat, 2004-02-21 at 04:38, John Klingler wrote: > > > And I think part of the reason they don't is because there are so many > > > different linux distributions/configurations that simply their increased > > > end-user tech support costs would really start to bite into their profits. > > > > John makes a very good point. If games were made to run natively under > > Linux, how long would these games be functional before kernel/module/API > > changes to the OS break the game? 1 - 2 years? You'll note that most of the loki games (alpha centuri, sim city 3000, postal) came bundled with their own libc. for audio and graphics functionality they used sdl. as a result they still mostly work some 4 or so years after being introduced. > > For example, with little effort I could make "Day of the Tentacle" for > > MSDOS and run under Windows XP. with sound and mouse support? since windows2000 came out I've found the windows 2000/xp command line mostly inadequate for playing dos based games... dosemu on the other hand does a really good job, so spaceward ho and xcom are still within my reach. > > This is a game that was developed round the early-mid 90's. Granted, I > > can attempt to use Wine(X) to get this game working under Linux. > > > > My point is, if "Day of the Tentacle" was developed for the Linux > > platform from the mid 90's, what are the chances of that game still > > natively functioning under todays Linux platform? depends on what you meen by mid 90's is that 93 or 97, if it was old enough it might not be in elf format. but that raises a slightly orthagional issue in that the reason you can play day of the tenticle now is because of scummVM, implementing emulators in order to bring forward things that otherwise will never run has a long and proud tradition in this community. > > It's not unheard of for backward compatibility to be dropped in the name > > of advancing the functionality of Linux at times. > > > > That's my 2 cents worth. > > > > Carlos > > > > You have "day of the tentacle"? Any idea where I can get a copy. I > loved that game. > > > -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joel Jaeggli Unix Consulting joelja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx GPG Key Fingerprint: 5C6E 0104 BAF0 40B0 5BD3 C38B F000 35AB B67F 56B2
