Quoting: denyasis

Quoting: goob256That is not at all untrue. Windows will run old software better than Linux but Wine and DOSBox are great.

Really? I had always thought the opposite. I thought there were some hard lines set when Windows 7 and Windows 10 came out that made it hard or impossible for some older games to work. Granted most of my deep windows experience ended with XP, so I can only go on what I read online...

Now that I think about it, that doesn't make sense. Windows tries to maintain backwards compatibility for a lot of stuff and I have business software I use at work on a Window 7/10 machine that is at least 20 years old (probably closer to 25)

I'm stopped gaming with Windows in XP era too. I used Linux quite long time at work too and might switch back to Linux again as I don't think I have much that won't work in Linux. Could get rid of WSL by doing that.

What I remember though is that Windows has compatibility mode and it still seems to be a thing. So if the application doesn't work by default, it can be used.

Though there's quite many re-released games which bring in compatibility with new Windows versions, so I guess the backwards compatibility is not perfect. Especially for games.

For the DOS games, Windows and Linux are on equal footing as both need DosBox. If you buy game though, game might bundle Windows version of DosBox, so Linux gamers need little bit of fiddling.

On Linux it's balancing act between using native libraries, which means game is doomed to break eventually. Other end of the spectrum is to bundle all the libraries, which means that libraries are missing new features (which might matter now and then) and libraries will accumulate security vulnerabilities over time.

I have pretty old Linux games, but I can't really trust on release date alone. Linux release might have been done years after the initial release. Most realistically oldest Linux builds that I have are from beginnings of Humble Bundle at 2010. I tried few, but didn't have much luck. Might need some fiddling. Game from 2010 worked via Steam though, which means that Valve has given bit more though on backwards compatibility.

So on Linux things seem to be more about developers doing right things and oldest ports are from people who were doing their first Linux port and might not have wanted to spend too much time on it anyway. Most Linux software however is maintained and can be patched and recompiled whenever necessary (which is rare with games). On the core level Linux hasn't dropped much backwards compatibility. You can recompile kernel without 32-bit support if you want though, which will break lot of games.

Quoting: Anza

Quoting: denyasis

Quoting: goob256That is not at all untrue. Windows will run old software better than Linux but Wine and DOSBox are great.

Really? I had always thought the opposite. I thought there were some hard lines set when Windows 7 and Windows 10 came out that made it hard or impossible for some older games to work. Granted most of my deep windows experience ended with XP, so I can only go on what I read online...

Now that I think about it, that doesn't make sense. Windows tries to maintain backwards compatibility for a lot of stuff and I have business software I use at work on a Window 7/10 machine that is at least 20 years old (probably closer to 25)

I'm stopped gaming with Windows in XP era too. I used Linux quite long time at work too and might switch back to Linux again as I don't think I have much that won't work in Linux. Could get rid of WSL by doing that.

What I remember though is that Windows has compatibility mode and it still seems to be a thing. So if the application doesn't work by default, it can be used.

Though there's quite many re-released games which bring in compatibility with new Windows versions, so I guess the backwards compatibility is not perfect. Especially for games.

[...]

I'll second that ; I have stopped using windows at the end of support for Windows 7, and I had a lot of old games on my hard drive, some from back the Windows 98 era, and I could just launch them and play. No re-installation required, no need for compatibility mode, just click and play.

Heck, I even had a music player which was an early beta created for Windows 95, and it worked perfectly up to Windows 7 (fun fact: this player is probably one the program I miss the most after switching to Linux ).

There are a few games that would not work though, usually they had some DRM based on a drivers, which was only shipped in 32 bit version, so impossible to install on a 64 bit version (hello, StarForce... )

Sounds like people are interested in this concept...

Quoting: goob256Sounds like people are interested in this concept...

In case you'd like some numbers:

A game that doesn't work on Linux at all is literally worthless to me. I will pay 0% of the asking price for that.

A game that accidentally works on Linux, through Proton because the dev hasn't done something to break it, is worth something. It could stop working at any time, and the dev will tell their Linux customers to go stick their head in a pig. I'll pay 10% of the asking price for that, on the chance that I'll have finished the game and moved on before they break it. Plus, by the time a game gets to 90% off, the dev is less likely to be making breaking changes anyway.

A game that deliberately works through Proton - the devs have Proton as a specific development target, and will hold an update back if it doesn't work in Proton - is worth more because it's less likely to break. I'll pay 50% of the asking price for that.

A game that deliberately works on Linux - the devs have Linux as a specific development target, and will hold an update back if it doesn't work on Linux, that announces its Linux support right on the store page so I have something to point at should they fail to deliver - is worth more still. I'll pay 100% of the asking price for that.

That seems fair. More tux, more bucks.

Quoting: CatKillerMore tux, more bucks.

lol

As a gamer: It does matter. I'm completely fine with wine/proton based "Linux support" as long as the game (all features) actually works and runs well. But I always prefer a _good_ native Linux version.

As a developer: I sure hope so. I develop my games on Linux and due to this most of the testing is done on Linux as well. Obviously I have to support Windows too because majority of players are there but I have to admit that its kind of a secondary target for me. I do this for fun, not for money. I understand that if you're running a business, it's going to be the opposite and the platform with most potential money is always going to get the most effort.

Quoting: fractilegamesAs a gamer: It does matter. I'm completely fine with wine/proton based "Linux support" as long as the game (all features) actually works and runs well. But I always prefer a _good_ native Linux version.

As a developer: I sure hope so. I develop my games on Linux and due to this most of the testing is done on Linux as well. Obviously I have to support Windows too because majority of players are there but I have to admit that its kind of a secondary target for me. I do this for fun, not for money. I understand that if you're running a business, it's going to be the opposite and the platform with most potential money is always going to get the most effort.

I'm with you there, not that I've started developing any games, but I plan on attempting to write a cross platform applications for some RPGs. And by Cross Platform, I mean Amiga, Atari ST and Linux. May also port to MorphOS / PPC Mac OSX and IIGS.