Support us on Patreon to keep GamingOnLinux alive. This ensures all of our main content remains free for everyone. Just good, fresh content! Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

BStone, a source port for Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold and Planet Strike adds a new OpenGL renderer

By -

Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold and Blake Stone: Planet Strike, two classics from the 90s have been revived thanks to the BStone open source game engine that continue seeing big updates.

BStone adds in features like high resolution vanilla rendering, 3D-rendering,customizable controls and separate volume controls for sound effects and music. This is thanks to Apogee Software releasing the source code to Planet Strike in 2013.

Yesterday, build v1.2.0-beta.1 (and a quick fix with beta.2) went up and the major addition here is a new 3D renderer which uses OpenGL on the backend keeping it nicely Linux compatible. Plus, the developer also added some actual Linux instructions to the GitHub page now too.

Also added in this release are menu options to control both video mode and texturing, with a new texture upscale filter (xBRZ). There's also a bunch of new options you can tweak to control things like widescreen mode, window position, anti-aliasing mode/strength and more.

You still need the data files to play either game, just like many other updated open source game engines. You can find each on GOG here: Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold and Blake Stone: Planet Strike.

See more about BStone on the GitHub page.

Hat tip to Mr Doomguy.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: FPS, Game Engine, Open Source, Update
6 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
See more from me
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
8 comments

Gamewitch Mar 18, 2020
View PC info
Oh nice I've not used this source port really much at all yet outside of having it on my Vita, but glad to hear it's getting an OpenGL render back end. Good engine replacement from what I've seen out of it on my Vita, I'm going to have to give this a try later today.
crt0mega Mar 18, 2020
View PC info
Geez. I've almost forgotten this gem. Thanks for reminding me!
aukondk Mar 18, 2020
The upscaling works surprisingly well on these graphics. Wouldn't mind seeing it on a Wolf3D port (not sure which is the best these days)
Calinou Mar 18, 2020
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: aukondkThe upscaling works surprisingly well on these graphics. Wouldn't mind seeing it on a Wolf3D port (not sure which is the best these days)

ECWolf seems to be the go-to source Wolfenstein 3D port these days. It doesn't have OpenGL rendering though. It's all software rendering, which means it's slow at large resolutions like 1440p or 4K.
Oet_ Mar 18, 2020
View PC info
I remember I had problems with the performance of BStone on Linux two years back. However, it runs like clockwork now! I like the addition of the upscale filter so you can choose between pixelated or a more updated look.
Botonoski Mar 19, 2020
View PC info
Quoting: Calinou
Quoting: aukondkThe upscaling works surprisingly well on these graphics. Wouldn't mind seeing it on a Wolf3D port (not sure which is the best these days)

ECWolf seems to be the go-to source Wolfenstein 3D port these days. It doesn't have OpenGL rendering though. It's all software rendering, which means it's slow at large resolutions like 1440p or 4K.

There's also a real good Wolf3d GZDoom Total Conversion. It's my preferred way of playing the game since it has the option to force Doom style movement, which prevents the game from causing me motion sickness.
nate Mar 19, 2020
View PC info
Good to hear that they are making progress on this project. I tried it about a year ago and it ran great (other than a few crashes when loading saved games).
jrow Feb 25, 2021
Nice. Glad to see someone pickup the work and port it.
When we wrote Blake I always wanted to port it to something other than a 16bit lang/OS and possibly put into a faux arcade machine.

Br, Jim R
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.
★ Support Us
Popular this week
Search or view by category
Contact
Buy Games
Buy games with our affiliate / partner links:
Latest Comments
Latest Forum Posts
Misc