Septerra Core [Steam] is another on the classic games list from Topware Interactive to gain an official Linux version using Wine.
It's currently in Beta, so you need to opt-in to gain access to it. The password for the beta branch is "sclinuxtestbeta", once entered you gain access to the "Linux Beta Test" branch on Steam. Find the announcement here.
I'm fine with old games coming to Linux using Wine, I think that's making good use of the tools we have available to us. It likely wouldn't make enough money to justify going back to years-old source code to port it fully native, source code can easily get lost with time too. As long as it works, works well, and is supported, it's all good. You go onto Steam, click Play and you're ready to get going, that really should be all that matters.
Features
- A fantasy role playing game with over 140 characters and a complex, multi-level world
- Intriguingly varied story-line
- Choose up to nine party members, each with a unique motivation, skills and background
- The strategic combat system combines the best of turn-based and real-time elements
- Explore over 200 locations with mysterious buildings, landscapes, danger and surprise at every -turn
- The Adventure-style user interface gives you maximum interaction
- Hundreds of entertaining voices spoken by professional actors
I guess we can say WINE is spiritually the new DOSbox. There is an entire horde of games from between ~1999 to ~2007 that could use these faux-ports. Like you say, I don't really care how they get to my display so long as the installation and runtime is seamless.
To be fair: Wine has been around a LOT longer than DOSBox. It's also still being updated. I've not seen a new release of DOSbox in.... over 4 years now.
I guess we can say WINE is spiritually the new DOSbox. There is an entire horde of games from between ~1999 to ~2007 that could use these faux-ports. Like you say, I don't really care how they get to my display so long as the installation and runtime is seamless.
Performance is also not an issue because most of us already have graphics cards and hardware that runs DX9 and bellow games with ease eventhough it's not completely native. And for people who buy steam machines they would never know what and how the game runs anyway... So actually wrapping all of the old cool titles with Wine and connecting it with Steam would be one of the huge steps towards making SteamOS really Viable platform for the future.
I guess we can say WINE is spiritually the new DOSbox. There is an entire horde of games from between ~1999 to ~2007 that could use these faux-ports. Like you say, I don't really care how they get to my display so long as the installation and runtime is seamless.
To be fair: Wine has been around a LOT longer than DOSBox. It's also still being updated. I've not seen a new release of DOSbox in.... over 4 years now.
There are some forks of DOSBox out there, but I think the important thing is that DOSBox works Well Enough (TM).
I'm sure it could be better, though.
To be fair: Wine has been around a LOT longer than DOSBox.
True, but the ability to play DOS games on Linux is older than Wine. Before DOSBox there was DOSEMU, which worked well with a lot of DOS games and other software.
Last edited by PublicNuisance on 1 November 2016 at 2:29 am UTC
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