System Shock 2 FPS Now Available On Linux

It seems GOG were given full access to the source code to release it on their platform in 2013 (a year later) so I bet this whole 'lost' business is plain BS.

Source? As far as I'm aware, they just used the community patches, though I can't say I'm on top of Windows releases.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/13/many-questions-system-shock-2-comes-to-gog/

EDIT: I said 'it seems' implying that it's only my interpretation but after having read the whole interview on RPS I can't possibly see it other way.

From I get, the GOG and Steam versions both use an unofficial patch for the original binary that was made by an anonymous French programmer. This patch was, in all likeliness, made using the recovered source code, but since it was a patch to a binary that someone still owns the copyright for, and it was released anonymously in the public domain, it's okay for license holders to use that, but not the source code for the reasons liamdawe mentioned.

Queue the "what do you call 1000 lawyers..." jokes.

There really is no reason this game needs to be ported to Linux over just running in it Wine. Forget the nonsense. It works perfect in Wine. On any modern version of Windows it runs on a functionally similar translation layer to that which Wine creates (WoW).

IMO this is how old games should be ported, ie not at all - just bottled. The outcome is the same for us gamers. Save the programmers from digging through ancient code, and get them to work on porting new games.

As someone who's with ScummVM, I very much disagree with you there, neffo.
Old games you be properly ported, even to the point of them being able to run on non-x86 architectures, sometime which Wine can't do.

I'll have to disagree as well.
The audio is crackling for me, like in many other Wine games, and the loading times, the delay for the pause menu and loading/saving are several minutes and I'm on a 4GHz Intel i7 with 48GB RAM, a GeForce GTX 660 Ti and running the game from a striped SSD array - there's clearly something wrong with the Wine layer.

I'll have to disagree as well.
The audio is crackling for me, like in many other Wine games, and the loading times, the delay for the pause menu and loading/saving are several minutes and I'm on a 4GHz Intel i7 with 48GB RAM, a GeForce GTX 660 Ti and running the game from a striped SSD array - there's clearly something wrong with the Wine layer.

Move the audio off of OpenAL, fixed the sound for me.

I'll have to disagree as well.
The audio is crackling for me, like in many other Wine games, and the loading times, the delay for the pause menu and loading/saving are several minutes and I'm on a 4GHz Intel i7 with 48GB RAM, a GeForce GTX 660 Ti and running the game from a striped SSD array - there's clearly something wrong with the Wine layer.

Move the audio off of OpenAL, fixed the sound for me.

Yeah, but then you don't get that lovely late 90s reverb effect ;)
I "fixed" it by changing the PulseAudio buffer settings (in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf) to:default-fragments = 10
default-fragment-size-msec = 5

IMO this is how old games should be ported, ie not at all - just bottled. The outcome is the same for us gamers. Save the programmers from digging through ancient code, and get them to work on porting new games.

They should be ported - but as source ports by the community, whenever possible.

And I can say for a fact that not all old games will work in WINE, and some of them probably never will.

As someone who's with ScummVM, I very much disagree with you there, neffo.
Old games you be properly ported, even to the point of them being able to run on non-x86 architectures, sometime which Wine can't do.

Scumm (the original) is a VM. Which is an even higher level to a a translation layer.

I'm not quite sure what you meant, I think you missed a in there somewhere. However, my point was that Wine does a really, really good job and porting the game is pointless. (I don't know of a game of that vintage that doesn't work - but I don't tend to replay old games.)

My other point, which I have made before is that new games are what drives platform popularity, not old ones. Getting a native version of System Shock 2 will do as much for Linux as the native port of Quake did for the Amiga. New games - AAA games - are coming, they are the ones that matter. SS2 in a Wine bottle does the job just fine.

Scumm (the original) is a VM. Which is an even higher level to a a translation layer.

Yes, and no.

It's a "VM" in as much as the game logic is not hardcoded in C or asm, but using a scripting language. "Only" the script interpreter and things like drawing operatings and sound output are written in C and asm, since those use the different hardware platforms available at the time.

The upside is that "only" that has to be rewritten when porting the game, not the game logic. Back in the days, this was very uncommon. Nowadays, this is what every game does, be it NWN's NWScript or The Witcher's Lua. Hell even World of Warcraft uses Lua, partially open for interface by the users (that's what extensions and custom GUI overlays do).

It is not a VM in the sense of that VMWare, VirtualBox or qemu do. Not even in the sense of what Java does. The meaning of the term has shifted.

Wine is even a third kettle of fish altogether.

my point was that Wine does a really, really good job

As long as you keep using x86-based architectures. Now, if you want to play the game on your ARM-based Android phone, you're out of luck.

Or, games a bit older might have had a separate Mac release, and there might even have been differences (like games older still did frequently, back in the DOS/Win 3.1 vs. Amiga vs. Atari vs. Mac days). You won't be able to run those binaries with wine on your x86 system.

Should we ever move to a different architecture in the future again, all this history of games will be lost. Again.

However, my point was that Wine does a really, really good job and porting the game is pointless. (I don't know of a game of that vintage that doesn't work - but I don't tend to replay old games.)

Pointless to you as you do not replay old games, but not pointless for those of us who do.

Further, I have quite a few old games which either flat out don't work (Dark Forces II for instance) or have some critical features missing (such as basically any game that relies on DirectPlay).

As I said though, I do grant that the effort of porting them may not be justified for the developer, but if that is the case then they really should release the source code for the games anyway, as they have just demonstrated themselves that they no longer have any proper business case for keeping the games closed.

Further, I have quite a few old games which either flat out don't work

Yeah, try to play Discworld Noir (1999) or The Dark Eye (1995) in Wine. Hint: They don't work. :(