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The Eternal Castle is a remaster of an old classic, except it kind of isn't. The story is a little peculiar but the game does look quite fantastic and it's available now on Linux.

In regards to the brand new Linux version, the developer sent out a Twitter post early this morning to note that a Linux version is now up thanks to the help of Linux game porter Ryan "Icculus" Gordon.

So what's the story here? From what I understand, it's basically a bit of fun marketing for it. The developers said it was a remaster of a long forgotten 1987 title and somewhat a homage to classics like The Prince of Persia and Another World. It's all a lie though, there was no original game. Think of it like all those films that claim to be "based on a true story" (when you know they're really not). The fakery of it is part of what makes it mysterious though. Best not to look into it too much and ruin the fun. Take the game as it is, which is a beautiful retro inspired title with some seriously wild visuals.

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Feature Highlight:

  • Action:  The Eternal Castle sends you in a powerful journey packed with dangers and challenges through fast-paced melee action, calibrated ranged attacks, and/or cautious stealth approaches.
  • Adventure:  Immerse yourself or speedrun through levels featuring random events, encounters, traps, riddles and exploration, in a semi-procedural world set up for replayability.
  • Atmosphere:  Each world features a unique atmosphere, written through different personal and second hand experiences, re-applied to fit a post A.I. fallout world set several hundred years in the future.
 
  • Enjoy the atmosphere, strategize, or speedrun through a post-AI fallout packed with challenges
  • Play over 20 levels across 5 unique worlds
  • Fight a BOSS at the end of each world plus 2 final Bosses
  • Use up to 10 different weapons found in different worlds
  • Unlock up to 10 different items to gain different abilities
  • Find 30 missing FRAGMENTS to get back home
  • Repeat the dream for as many times as you can before officially dying

Great to see this officially arrive on Linux.

You can find it on Humble Store and Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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20 comments

Samsai Oct 3, 2019
Yup, totally picked it up. That trailer alone was worth the 4€, so if I can have some gameplay to go with it, that'll be a win-win for me.
Arehandoro Oct 3, 2019
Yup, totally picked it up. That trailer alone was worth the 4€, so if I can have some gameplay to go with it, that'll be a win-win for me.

Same here, though didn't buy just yet due to game overload lately but defo quite up on my list!
Ehvis Oct 3, 2019
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Mostly CGA palettes. Brings me back to how I played the first Larry and Space Quest games.
Oktoras Oct 3, 2019
Interesting - game seems to use CGA color palettes (palette 1: cyan, magenta, white, black & palette 2: red, yellow, green, black) - or at least it is close, there seems to be sections where palettes are not right.
What!? Ryan "Icculus" Gordon has lied to us!?

But this is a fantastic lie!
kirgahn Oct 3, 2019
Jesus almighty what a mouthwatering trailer!
Salvatos Oct 3, 2019
Ooooh, gimme that sweet synthwave! (OST on bandcamp for anyone else interested)

About CGA, a few things i ignored in this youtube video. The title is in French but the content is in English. Spoiler: you could have more than 4 colours at the same time. 11 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niKblgZupOc
Sorry, but a tip as a fellow French speaker: in English, to ignore is always an active choice to disregard something. In this case you’d want to say you did not know or you were unaware, otherwise your comment sounds quite a bit different :)
sub Oct 3, 2019
Oh Ryan ... I only get a black screen on launch. :D
I'm sure he'll fix this.
Samsai Oct 3, 2019
Oh Ryan ... I only get a black screen on launch. :D
I'm sure he'll fix this.
Apparently that's not the only bug. Me and a friend ran into a script error a few screens into the game that seems pretty much game-breaking.

https://imgur.com/a/qAih9Ml

So, it would seem this needs a patch before it gets going.
Dunc Oct 3, 2019
That looks interesting. I like the idea of “lost“ games. :)

But the whole CGA palette thing... sure, the vivid magenta and cyan really scream “'80s” (albeit early/mid- rather than late-'80s), but it was a total joke at the time. By 1987, you could pick up a better games machine than an “IBM compatible” for a fraction of the price. Meanwhile the ST and Amiga had just broken through to the mainstream, and this is what computer games actually looked like in 1987. (That said, Dedale is right: CGA could do much better... provided you had an NTSC monitor. Its 16-colour “mode” relied on a property of the NTSC colour signalling - really a flaw, as far as “real” TV is concerned - that doesn't exist in PAL or SECAM.)

Now get off my lawn, ye young whippersnappers.
sub Oct 3, 2019
Oh Ryan ... I only get a black screen on launch. :D
I'm sure he'll fix this.
Apparently that's not the only bug. Me and a friend ran into a script error a few screens into the game that seems pretty much game-breaking.

https://imgur.com/a/qAih9Ml

So, it would seem this needs a patch before it gets going.

I can't remember when I had such an obvious bug with an Icculus port.
I mean, I neither use cumbersome hardware nor distribution.
kaiman Oct 3, 2019
It's amazing to see what can be done with just 4 colors. Graphics wise, I'd love to play this, but it's the type of game I know I will suck at. So I'll have to pass it by, unfortunately.
slaapliedje Oct 3, 2019
That looks interesting. I like the idea of “lost“ games. :)

But the whole CGA palette thing... sure, the vivid magenta and cyan really scream “'80s” (albeit early/mid- rather than late-'80s), but it was a total joke at the time. By 1987, you could pick up a better games machine than an “IBM compatible” for a fraction of the price. Meanwhile the ST and Amiga had just broken through to the mainstream, and this is what computer games actually looked like in 1987. (That said, Dedale is right: CGA could do much better... provided you had an NTSC monitor. Its 16-colour “mode” relied on a property of the NTSC colour signalling - really a flaw, as far as “real” TV is concerned - that doesn't exist in PAL or SECAM.)

Now get off my lawn, ye young whippersnappers.
I was thinking 'what's up with the Amiga quality sound, but CGA graphics?'
Friend of mine who owned an Amiga since 87 or so, came over last weekend and we were playing games on my A4000. Unlike some nostalgia where you remember it looking better than it actually did... the Amiga still very much stands out as looking awesome.
Samsai Oct 3, 2019
Oh Ryan ... I only get a black screen on launch. :D
I'm sure he'll fix this.
Apparently that's not the only bug. Me and a friend ran into a script error a few screens into the game that seems pretty much game-breaking.

https://imgur.com/a/qAih9Ml

So, it would seem this needs a patch before it gets going.
A patch landed and this issue seems to be gone now. Icculus seems to work quick!
sub Oct 3, 2019
Oh Ryan ... I only get a black screen on launch. :D
I'm sure he'll fix this.
Apparently that's not the only bug. Me and a friend ran into a script error a few screens into the game that seems pretty much game-breaking.

https://imgur.com/a/qAih9Ml

So, it would seem this needs a patch before it gets going.
A patch landed and this issue seems to be gone now. Icculus seems to work quick!

Ryan does a great job.

He sure was (is) a very important person for Linux gaming.

Let's see how long it'll take him to fix the black screen ... :D
thykr Oct 4, 2019
The OST is available here: https://kiiro.bandcamp.com/

:D
jarhead_h Oct 4, 2019
I didn't even know this game existed. I would have been sold on the soundtrack alone, but now we get another Linux sale, too.

///side note, if you like this sort of music, check out a UK based singer NINA, her album Sleepwalking is like being washed in the 80's.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ17BYf5b38JQdOVvvbWyuQ


Last edited by jarhead_h on 4 October 2019 at 3:13 am UTC
sub Oct 4, 2019
Oh Ryan ... I only get a black screen on launch. :D
I'm sure he'll fix this.
Apparently that's not the only bug. Me and a friend ran into a script error a few screens into the game that seems pretty much game-breaking.

https://imgur.com/a/qAih9Ml

So, it would seem this needs a patch before it gets going.
A patch landed and this issue seems to be gone now. Icculus seems to work quick!

Ryan does a great job.

He sure was (is) a very important person for Linux gaming.

Let's see how long it'll take him to fix the black screen ... :D

Same issue for me, seems to be related to libcurl_gnutls.so.4.2.0 from the Steam runtime.

Mind to share your specs? :)
I'm on Fedora 30 and Steam beta.

And please consider to share your findings on the discussion page.
There is a topic already but no answer so far.
"Only black screen on Linux"
sub Oct 6, 2019
Also doesn't work for me on another system with recent ArchLinux.

On which Linux distribution is this running at all?
Ubuntu/SteamOS?

And no reply so far on the support request.

That's annoying, really.
Playing now using Windows.
I'm getting more and more pragmatic. :)
Samsai Oct 6, 2019
Also doesn't work for me on another system with recent ArchLinux.

On which Linux distribution is this running at all?
Ubuntu/SteamOS?

And no reply so far on the support request.

That's annoying, really.
Playing now using Windows.
I'm getting more and more pragmatic. :)
It's weekend so I wouldn't expect any responses or patches anyway. They did patch the game once so hopefully they'll get the rest of the issues throughout next week.
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