Show us some linux love - Linux Port? [Archive]

pirate132

02/14/2010, 03:36 am

@Ne0n: thats why I said natively. I know that there is Wine. But since they port it to Mac OS there might be a possibility to convert it to linux too. Mac users could use it with VMWare too but we are talking about native support.

@Falanca: it was a serious request so please stop that.

@Lena_P: this shouldn't be a flamewar thread about OS. So I really hope that there will be some linux users adding their voice for a port and perhaps some official reply from TTG about it.

@CheekyBoinc: that makes two already ;) Spread the word!

Friar

02/14/2010, 06:04 am

Actually, you didn't. Please people, there have been so many forums and message boards brought down in their prime, innocent victims of the Platform Wars. Let us not allow the TTG forums to suffer from the safe fate.

pirate132 asked nicely if there were sufficient Linux users to justify Telltale making a Linux port, a sensible question.

It was a refference to Sam & Max (season two), where all the computers in hell actually did run linux. At least the one in santas hell anyway. Just incase you didn't get the refference.

OT: Whilst i don't run linux, and don't know anyone who does, the more platforms the merryer i say!

Lena_P

02/14/2010, 06:24 am

It was a refference to Sam & Max (season two), where all the computers in hell actually did run linux. At least the one in santas hell anyway. Just incase you didn't get the refference.

OT: Whilst i don't run linux, and don't know anyone who does, the more platforms the merryer i say!

No, I got the reference, which is why I didn't delete the post. At the same time I wanted to make it clear up front that flamewars are discouraged. This is in the ToMI forum, after all, and there are Tales fans who aren't familiar with Telltale's Sam and Max games.

Rolleander

02/14/2010, 06:54 am

I think it'd be great if it was ported to Linux. I'd buy it again, even though I already have it for the wii! What a fantastic game!!

Avistew

02/14/2010, 06:56 am

I use Ubuntu on my computer, but it's an old laptop. Well, kinda old. I have no clue if it would be able to actually run the games.
I know it doesn't with wine, because I tried. Installs everything fine but when I try to start it asks for the key and does nothing.

My husband's desktop runs windows so we're playing there. I won't deny it would be nice to be able to play it on Ubuntu, but I'm not sure if it would be worth the effort for Telltale, since I don't think there are that many Linux users.

Rolleander

02/14/2010, 07:07 am

Well, there are that many users, but how many of them are gamers like us? Lot's of people that use Linux use it for some kind of work... like professional networking for instance... just not games...

Rolleander

02/14/2010, 07:11 am

They should port it to iPhone... LOL

Avistew

02/14/2010, 07:22 am

Well, there are that many users, but how many of them are gamers like us? Lot's of people that use Linux use it for some kind of work... like professional networking for instance... just not games...

I meant around here. That play telltale games and would have a need for a Linux version of them.

Remolay

02/14/2010, 07:24 am

there are many flavours of linux, would one port work on all flavours?

Rolleander

02/14/2010, 07:52 am

there are many flavours of linux, would one port work on all flavours?

I think if you compile a program an package it successfully for one distro, it is very easily repackaged for another distro, but I'm not even remotely 100% sure. I've only compiled some very simple C++ programs in Ubuntu (running from the console, mind you...)

pirate132

02/14/2010, 08:06 am

2dboy did a linux version of WorldOfGoo for all flavors too. Worked fine here and was happy to pay for it. So i think its possible to make it work on most flavors.

Uzrname

02/14/2010, 09:17 am

Realistically, I don't think they'd do it. There is not enough demand for Linux porting, and even if there were, you have to consider a) how much effort can it take, b) how much profit would it bring and c) what are the chances of investment/time consumption/profit actually being positive.

To me, SUSe is a fine OS to do db management in. But I've never played games (other than local chess app) on Linux, so I can't say how good or bad can that decision be.

Remolay

02/14/2010, 10:58 am

I've only used Ubuntu, I used it to play City of Heroes. it was a crappy old laptop but it worked good except for graphics had to be toned down. also it was in wine of course.

by the end of that laptops reign it had been deemed the craptop.

I loved it. unitil the unlikely date of it being ported to linux, use WINE.

What does WINE actually stand for anyway? I know the joke of WINE is Not an Emulator.

Indrid Cold

02/14/2010, 11:48 am

I'd vote for a linux port.

DjNDB

02/14/2010, 11:50 am

What does WINE actually stand for anyway? I know the joke of WINE is Not an Emulator.
It's not a joke, it's the actual name, which is a recursive acronym (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursive_acronym).

Remolay

02/14/2010, 12:51 pm

Wait really?

like in Dilbert; The TTP Project

Uzrname

02/14/2010, 02:06 pm

What does WINE actually stand for anyway? I know the joke of WINE is Not an Emulator.

Isn't it WinE btw, i.e. "Windows Emulation"?

Leak

02/14/2010, 03:02 pm

Well, while I only ever use Linux on servers I'm sure there's quite some untapped (monetary et al :D) potential in porting Telltale's games on Linux... but ultimately it's of course up to them.

jpalko

02/14/2010, 10:42 pm

If Telltale Games would start making Linux versions I'd buy the games again for that!

So far I've been able to play the games okay via wine/cxgames but native gaming is always native gaming.

jpalko

02/14/2010, 10:45 pm

Isn't it WinE btw, i.e. "Windows Emulation"?

Nope, it's "Wine Is Not an Emulator." (http://wiki.winehq.org/Debunking_Wine_Myths#head-a97295d7364a2a87f5769eeff9b5105b61b85761)

Zhadnost

02/15/2010, 08:37 am

What about We Ignore Neccessary Enhancements, based on the way they seem to reject commits that fill in big holes in what is supported.

Still a fantastic piece of software though.

Uzrname

02/15/2010, 06:20 pm

Nope, it's "Wine Is Not an Emulator." (http://wiki.winehq.org/Debunking_Wine_Myths#head-a97295d7364a2a87f5769eeff9b5105b61b85761)
That doesn't make any sense since nobody knows what "wine" itself is in this case. The original acronym stood for "win emulation", hence all the rest.

xorrbit

02/15/2010, 07:35 pm

I would definitely support a linux port. I just recently started playing ToMI because of the mac port available, and now that I can play at work, it would be nice to be able to play at home as well (/me runs mac at work, linux at home).

Wine really isn't an emulator, its an implementation of the windows api for linux (and mac, *bsd, ... etc.).

Also, IMO, people who run primarily linux also hate DRM, so it would almost be pointless throwing up a linux version with DRM. Although I have had no issues with the DRM of ToMI yet, and applaud the developers for not using some of the crazy systems other developers use, I can see that being a reason not to buy any of these games for linux users.

That being said, I would grab a linux version the moment it becomes available, DRM or not :)

Cheers,
-Andrew

ChemBro

02/16/2010, 03:05 am

That doesn't make any sense since nobody knows what "wine" itself is in this case.

It's a running gag in the Unix/Linux-world. It does not have to make sense at all.

DjNDB

02/16/2010, 07:07 am

It's a running gag in the Unix/Linux-world. It does not have to make sense at all.

It can be expressed in BNF as:
<Wine> ::= <Wine> 'Is Not an Emulator'

Or in Java as:
public String Wine() {
return Wine() + "Is Not an Emulator";
}

If you learn about recursive functions for the first time that usually leaves a certain impression. Look at a classic example, Fibonacci (http://www.dreamincode.net/code/snippet80.htm).

long fib(unsigned long n) {
if (n <= 1) {
return n;
} else {
return fib(n-1)+fib(n-2);
}
}

You write a function by using the function you are currently writing as if it was already working, which might seem kind of absurd if you're new to it.
Recursive acronyms probably don't make more sense to you now, but at least i got you to read this geek stuff.

Uzrname

02/16/2010, 07:24 am

It can be expressed in BNF as:
<Wine> ::= <Wine> 'Is Not an Emulator'

Or in Java as:
public String Wine() {
return Wine() + "Is Not an Emulator";
}

If you learn about recursive functions for the first time that usually leaves a certain impression. Look at a classic example, Fibonacci (http://www.dreamincode.net/code/snippet80.htm).

long fib(unsigned long n) {
if (n <= 1) {
return n;
} else {
return fib(n-1)+fib(n-2);
}
}

You write a function by using the function you are currently writing as if it was already working, which might seem kind of absurd if you're new to it.
Recursive acronyms probably don't make more sense to you now, but at least i got you to read this geek stuff.

Err... you lost me at BNF.

GozzoMan

02/16/2010, 09:05 am

I would definitely love a linux port.

I use Ubuntu as the main system for everything, games, when supported natively, just as anything else.

Wine does run TTG games, but not as well and as hassle-free as windows. In fact this is the ONLY reason I still tolerate to have also a windows installation on my PC, and I would love to finally get rid of that hopeless junk.

I spare you the technical details, but the various linux distros are really a non-issue. In fact supporting various linux distros is BY FAR less work than supporting, say, both WinXP and Vista.

Furthermore, Wine is not only a binary launcher, it can ease the porting itself.

Will

02/16/2010, 03:11 pm

This is in no way a comment on the feasibility of a Linux port, just pure uninformed curiosity to the local linux community: is it easier for Linux users to run windows programs or mac programs?

For example, now that the mac build is out, will that become the go-to version for linux users to fiddle with or will they stick with the windows builds?

Ripcord

02/16/2010, 08:35 pm

Windows.

There just isn't the infrastructure to run Mac-specific programs like ToMI (and most Mac-specific) on other OSes, even though they're both Unixy. ToMI for Mac still uses the MacOS X Cocoa APIs, which are OS X-specific, and there's pretty much ZERO project out there to run that on other OSes, whereas there's a pretty strong series of projects (WINE, etc) to run Wndows API-using binaries on various OSes.

Though I imagine it'd probably be somewhat easier to port ToMI to Linux now that the Mac port is out of the way (especially since it uses a lot of QT and other cross-platform things). But all of the Cocoa API stuff would have to be replaced with things that work on Linux.

And it MIGHT be easier to build a Cocoa API implementation from scratch than a Win32/etc implementation, but there's 15 years of serious work already done on the Windows APIs =)

GozzoMan

02/17/2010, 01:30 am

I agree with Ripcord, windows builds for sure, no way I know to run mac builds on linux.

I also second the statement about cross-platform libraries which could ease linux port through the mac port, but I also would suggest to consider the option to use wine (which again is not only a binary launcher but also a tool and collection of libraries for porting windows-specific code to linux) to start the linux port from the windows version. If all needed features are supported by wine libraries, it maybe could be faster.

Of course, moving the game engine to cross-platform libraries (is SDL still en vogue?), and building up future games upon that from the start, would very likely be the best overall solution in perspective.

DjNDB

02/17/2010, 02:11 am

I also second the statement about cross-platform libraries which could ease linux port through the mac port, but I also would suggest to consider the option to use wine (which again is not only a binary launcher but also a tool and collection of libraries for porting windows-specific code to linux) to start the linux port from the windows version.

As far as i can see in the Mac version we have:

Launcher: Qt
Audio: Fmod
Graphics: OpenGL

They are all usable for Linux as well. It makes more sense to take the Mac version and adapt/rewrite the platform specific code for Linux, than taking the Windows version and wrapping it into Wine. Wine would increase the complexity for no good reason and create a dependency on foreign code. Also it doesn't make much sense to use its DirectX->OpenGL mapping if there is a native OpenGL solution available already.

If the goal however is not a native port, but just better Wine support that could be a different way to make Linux users happier.

jeykey

02/17/2010, 03:12 am

please do a linux port, would love to play this game on my ubuntu machine!

M1AU

02/17/2010, 03:17 am

I just registered to let you know, that I'm absolutely willing to buy the game if there is a Linux client.

GozzoMan

02/17/2010, 04:28 am

As far as i can see in the Mac version we have:

Launcher: Qt
Audio: Fmod
Graphics: OpenGL

They are all usable for Linux as well. [...]

Interesting, I'm persuaded :)

If the goal however is not a native port, but just better Wine support that could be a different way to make Linux users happier.

Another good point.

Will

02/17/2010, 10:24 am

If the goal however is not a native port, but just better Wine support that could be a different way to make Linux users happier.

Again, asking for my own personal edification since I'm not a programmer nor a project scheduler, but what would be required to make things more wine friendly?

DjNDB

02/17/2010, 11:34 am

Again, asking for my own personal edification since I'm not a programmer nor a project scheduler, but what would be required to make things more wine friendly?

From what i have read wine has or had issues with the Launcher. Those could probably be mitigated in various ways, e.g.
- Allowing to bypass the graphical launcher and to enter the login credentials on the command line
- Switching the Launcher of the Windows versions to Qt and thereby removing the dependency on internet explorer to display the Launcher properly.

Will

02/17/2010, 03:51 pm

Ok, interesting. Thanks Dj!

LinuxDonald

02/17/2010, 04:24 pm

Please port it to linux because we linux user want an native version. Not an version that run with wine.

When we linux user must use it with wine why the mac users don´t must be use wine too for that? why they become an native Version and Linux Users not??

Marix

02/17/2010, 11:04 pm

While I haven't bought any of your games, yet, I would buy the linux versions. I have wanting the games for a long time now, but having to get to some windows first to me always was too much of a hastle. And I love playing the classic SCRUM-MIs on my Android!

BTW: As I know you guys do download games (and therefore I guess DRM), there is a Linux-Download-Games solution by linuxgamepublishing. So If you don't want to reinvent the wheel cooperation with those guys might be an idea.

lemonlime

02/18/2010, 02:53 am

I guess a lot of people who played monkey island in the 90's use linux now a days.

And those people will buy the game if it is a native linux binary.

ChemBro

02/19/2010, 12:02 am

From what i have read wine has or had issues with the Launcher.

Yepp. Only real issue with Wine/Linux is the launcher. The game itself (like any Telltale game) works really good in Wine.

Avistew

02/19/2010, 12:10 am

Yepp. Only real issue with Wine/Linux is the launcher. The game itself (like any Telltale game) works really good in Wine.

(How? How did you solve the launcher problems and manage to play the game?)

GozzoMan

02/19/2010, 01:04 am

(How? How did you solve the launcher problems and manage to play the game?)

Voilà ;)

http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10820

Ripcord

02/19/2010, 02:17 am

When we linux user must use it with wine why the mac users don´t must be use wine too for that? why they become an native Version and Linux Users not??

I don't know for sure, but I'd say that even today the number of Linux users that would buy Telltale games is dramatically smaller than the number of Mac users that will buy it. So economically makes sense.

Not saying it doesn't make economic sense to port to Linux (I'm guessing it doesn't though), but sure makes sense that it'd be Mac first.

Sorry, man. It's been the "year of Linux desktop" for each of the last 10 years, and it's still not there yet. Not even close.

GozzoMan

02/19/2010, 02:56 am

I don't know for sure, but I'd say that even today the number of Linux users that would buy Telltale games is dramatically smaller than the number of Mac users that will buy it. So economically makes sense.
[...]

Mmmh, I challenge that.

Ok, linux desktops are a fifth of Mac desktops, approximately: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems

And nonetheless, here's the numbers for the sales of World of Goo: http://abauchu.net/blog/post/2009/11/03/World-of-Goo-and-its-Linux-market-shares

65% windows users, 18% Mac users, 17% linux users.

Oh-oh, what happens here? How come the potential market for Mac is 5 times bigger than linux, but the actual sales are the same?

My educated while partisan guess is that linux people are biased to be interested in smart, brain-challenging, funny, indie games which are also downloadable, reasonably priced and with fair and not vexing user license agreements.

All TTG games and policies qualify for that.

And as for the "reasonably priced", see also the graph for voluntary price. Surprise, surprise.

Ripcord

02/19/2010, 03:04 am

WoG has no copy protection whatsoever - ToMI has real DRM. That alone might scare off a number of Linux users. But you do support your argument with some real numbers, so hats off.

Even still, I have a tough time believing that the number of Linux sales for ToMI would approach Mac sales. Something tells me that WoG (which I bought, and I think is one of the most under-rated (and also most pirated) games ever) is a pretty special case. But I have no numbers to back me up!

DjNDB

02/19/2010, 03:40 am

Ok, interesting. Thanks Dj!

It would also be interesting to see how the Windows version would run with the OpenGL renderer. Such a version could improve performance for Wine users.

From a developers point of view I would dare to predict that at least the Qt launcher will come to Windows for future releases. There's no point in having different launcher versions to maintain, and the Internet Explorer dependency of the current one has sporadically caused issues that should vanish with the Qt launcher in place.

GozzoMan

02/19/2010, 03:58 am

WoG has no copy protection whatsoever - ToMI has real DRM. That alone might scare off a number of Linux users.

Well, ToMI and the other games do have copy protection, but the policy is very friendly: for example you are entitled to install it on different machines, and to share it with your family members, by simply sending an email to the support team.

And it's just that: essentially just copy protection, none of the obscene features that more general DRM can have, for example to revoke your right of use, no silent updates, no spyware, no system encrustment, no need to constantly been online, no ridiculous hassles, or whatever. As DRM goes these days, it's a very mild kind.

None at all would be better, of course, but the TTG choice is very acceptable, both technically and in principle, in my opinion (and I have in general very strong opinion against DRM).

But you do support your argument with some real numbers, so hats off.

;)

GozzoMan

02/19/2010, 04:04 am

Oh, and another important point: I also guess linux people are probably more biased than other OS users to buy something which is advertised and available online instead in the brick and mortar stores.

One important reason why users with basic needs (web, email, basic word processing and accounting...) become windows or mac users, is that to satisfy those needs they walk into a brick and mortar store, and if they say "Hello, I need a computer" they are sold a windows PC, if they say "Hello, I need a computer. One that works for heaven's sake", and the price doesn't knock them out, they are sold a mac.
They don't even know there are other options. In particular they don't know, or are not used/comfortable with the idea, that perfectly legit, safe and apt software can be available online, whether free or for a price. They are used to get it off a physical shelf in a physical packaging.

Spell

02/20/2010, 02:05 am

Creating a linux version should not be a big problem if you allready have a Mac version. The graphics and the sound code would be the about the same.

About creating a version usable on all linux distributions: You just need to ship the used libraries with the game and thats something you would do on all other platforms anyway. (And write some small 2 line shellscript to tell linux it should use the shipped libs)

For feature games you should may think about using SDL (http://www.libsdl.org/) for the actually system dependant code. (SDL is a free lib which provides things like window-initialisation, input handling, multithreading etc. in a platform independant way)

Yak

02/21/2010, 11:01 pm

Please make native linux version!

DarthBo

02/22/2010, 07:49 am

Another vote for a linux port!

I run Ubuntu (and Debian) on all my PC/laptops (no MS Windows in my home at all). I play games, Wine usually works fine (not perfect, but fine), but a real native port would be excellent.
Don't think that we linux users don't exist because we download the Windows version!

Chyron8472

02/22/2010, 07:55 am

ChemBro

02/24/2010, 02:34 am

Linux users are all nerds and know well enough how to use a Windows emulator for games. Making TTG create a Linux port, when the market share for Linux gamers is so small, would just take time away from their making other cool games.

I vote against.

Thanks, buddy. As you can see in this thread, not every Linux user is a "nerd" and not every nerd can play ToMI in Linux. And the "World of Goo" example showed, that the market share for Linux doesn't have to be small.

Neikron

02/24/2010, 09:12 pm

I'm going to put in another vote for Linux port.

grmpf

02/27/2010, 11:42 am

I would definitely buy the game if there would be a native Linux port!

torturedutopian

02/28/2010, 02:46 pm

Me too ;-)

... provided this is not too difficult to build / support for TTG. I guess it would be the case, as TTG games are already being built on multiple platforms, many standard components available on Linux seem to be used already... (Opengl, qt, fmod ?)

If multiplatform support (Win/OSX/Linux...) is thought from the beginning it could be pretty straightforward, I guess ? (it's different from the case of a windows-only game using DirectX)

IMHO, the only real hassle/hurdle is : ensuring the games works on most distros and continue to work in the future. (as the libraries versions evolves, which ones should be statically built / supplied, what package format should be used etc.)

The Icculus guy wrote an article about this. I'm sure there's a "reasonable enough" solution. But to make it easy for TTG, they could maybe just support the main/current distros and up-to-date ATI/Nvidia GPUs (and the community would do the rest).

Cheers !

Phobeus

03/13/2010, 04:11 am

And here is also a vote for a native Linux port. Actually I am wondering, because I know far more Linux users than Mac users. So do not only watch to the USA. However, the Mac version already contains everything that should allow easily switching to Linux as well. Kick out the IE and use Qt for the launcher and you are already there to reach a small market with loyal customers ;) It is just a devil circle with the game industry. I am 100% on linux and bought both S&M seasons as well as the Monkey island. Not every sold windows version is actually for a windows user ;)

And as already noted the current launcher is a pain for wine users. I found it pretty sad that nobody at TTG actually seems to try, if it is working with wine also and find a better solution. (Because the main game runs fairly fine).

Irishmile

03/13/2010, 06:37 am

Is there anyway you guys could get this to work on my toaster?

MusicallyInspired

03/13/2010, 07:13 am

If they port it to Linux it's possible.

Irishmile

03/13/2010, 08:08 am

Will it run on my Apple IIe?

DjNDB

03/13/2010, 08:42 am

Will it run on my Apple IIe?

Linux? Probably.
The Game? Definitely, if they made a text only version compiled for that architecture.

Wapcaplet

03/13/2010, 02:07 pm

Is there anyway you guys could get this to work on my toaster?
Oooh, a NetBSD port! What a great idea!

NetBSD toaster (http://www.embeddedarm.com/software/arm-netbsd-toaster.php)

I'm more of a FreeBSD guy, so here's a vote for a *BSD version!

nachtritter

03/14/2010, 09:55 am

I'm putting my vote in for Linux ports of TTG games.

I used to be a Linux-only user, but mostly use Windows nowadays because I got sick of not always getting the full experience when playing through Wine. I like native, fully supported versions of my games. I think that whenever developers make versions of their games for OSX, they could also try and port it to Linux.

torturedutopian

03/14/2010, 10:00 am

Personally, that's the other way around ;-)

I completely switched over Linux and, as there are a few good native games now, I almost stopped using wine :)

torturedutopian

03/14/2010, 10:01 am

BTW, there may be an opportunity with the upcoming Ubuntu Store, to begin with.

Der_Xte_Mensch

03/14/2010, 02:38 pm

yeaaahh, i'd love to see some tt games natively on linux :-D

greetings from a ubuntu-user :)

ido

03/16/2010, 06:09 pm

another "me too" from a linux user.
although, I would be still happy (but not as happy) if you change the awful launcher to a more friendly one - or allow command line options. I completely missed the special treasure hunt in ToMI because of the launcher.

Irishmile

03/19/2010, 07:05 pm

Go to Hell...... I mean that in the best way possible
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqysNHX5-NQ

Bigfoot77

03/20/2010, 12:31 pm

Absolutely a Linux port would be excellent. I am still struggling just to play Sam & Max half of the time because of the darn launcher (contrary to popular belief, it still isn't all that easy to get to work all of the time).

the_exodus_7

03/22/2010, 03:03 pm

Gotta add my voice here.

I'm an exclusive linux user (Ubuntu specifically with an interest in trying Gentoo), and would love Linux support.

Don't have VMWare or Virtualbox OS because you still need to buy a copy of the OS to use it with, and even XP is still far too expensive to be worth it.

Funny thing is Telltale Games titles run practically flawlessly under WINE anymore... but IE doesn't, and due to the registration and "play" buttons being in an HTML menu, registering the game or running the game works off-and-on between versions.

Irishmile

03/22/2010, 03:08 pm

I thought about putting Linux on my PS3 but got scared and didn't do it.

Neikron

03/23/2010, 12:25 am

There's a lot more interest in Linux ports than I'd imagined. This thread has stayed on the first page (as far as I know) since I've subscribed to it. I hope that this support makes Telltale lean more toward doing this sooner, rather than later!

Kjella

03/26/2010, 05:19 am

However, the Mac version already contains everything that should allow easily switching to Linux as well. Kick out the IE and use Qt for the launcher and you are already there to reach a small market with loyal customers ;)

I'd be more than happy if they'd just switch to the Qt launcher for Windows or give us a command line launch option. WINE's implementation of mshtml is unfortunately lousy, it gets patched and broken against gecko all the time. All the TTG launchers were broken from March to September 2009, and it seems they broke it again now in February 2010. The games themselves have worked great for a long time.

Unfortunately, I think supporting Linux is hard. There's so many distros, configurations, library versions and wine/driver issues and if they first say they support Linux they'll get all sorts of support issues to deal with. I'd be happy if they put a litttle effort into making it easy to run under WINE but if you get problems, you're on your own and it's not officially supported. That would be good enough for me.

I think the other part is the money. I'd love to see a Linux version but well... I've already paid for the Windows version - and I have a Windows partition as a backup - and I'm not *that* fond of Linux that I'd pay another 35$ just for the privilidge. Unlike the Mac version, which I imagine brings in more genuinely new sales.

FokkerCharlie

03/27/2010, 11:36 am

Yes, please!

I am an Ubuntu'er, and I always think (at least) twice before buying games for my laptop. I bought 1 of the Strong Bad games for the Wii and one for my laptop.. I'd like to try out the TOMI games, but can't even get a demo working past the launcher despite all the instructions on the forums.

I think that although the number of Linux users is relatively small, you might find a disproportionate number of people interested in these games.

Go on!!!!

Charlie

Neikron

03/28/2010, 02:23 am

Unfortunately, I think supporting Linux is hard. There's so many distros, configurations, library versions and wine/driver issues and if they first say they support Linux they'll get all sorts of support issues to deal with. I'd be happy if they put a litttle effort into making it easy to run under WINE but if you get problems, you're on your own and it's not officially supported. That would be good enough for me.I don't think it would be nearly that hard to support. Afterall, linux is based on a community, and I'm sure there would be loads of support in said community. I do agree that it could be unofficial, but it would be nice to not be through WINE. A shell script to install the game would be really easy, and debian would work for the other popular distros.

Speaking of Debian, they could make some deal with Canonical (Ubuntu company), with their new software store in future versions. They're going to start offering products, and they could put Telltale games in their offering, and maybe gain many new customers beyond all of us who want a Linux port currently.

flesk

03/29/2010, 01:59 am

Since Tales of Monkey Island will be ported to Mac I would like to ask if it will be possible to make a Linux port too.
Perhaps there are some more linux users who would like to play it natively on their system, if so, raise your hand!

*raising hand*

I love Amanita Design for releasing a Linux version for Machinarium, even though it's just a flash game, and I know it's not really comparable to any of Telltale's games.

nm51ml

04/04/2010, 05:03 pm

I'm almost exclusively a linux user now and I can't see that changing. Telltale...please

flesk

04/04/2010, 10:29 pm

I'm hoping the iPad release means we're a step closer to a native Linux version. There's no way there are more potential sales in an iPad version, especially seeing as we will probably see iPad equivalents with good sales figures and a Linux core in not too many months.

MusicallyInspired

04/04/2010, 10:57 pm

A tablet pc running Linux....that is awesome. It'd be like a portable hack-anything machine.

Off topic, do iPad's have webcams?

Wapcaplet

04/05/2010, 09:33 am

Off topic, do iPad's have webcams?
Nope -- one of the common complaints about it is the lack of a camera.

MusicallyInspired

04/06/2010, 02:25 pm

Fail.

Bobtron2000

04/13/2010, 09:26 am

linux port and android port would be nice :)
I would buy all Sam & Max games one more time...
And Monkey Island.... and Wallace and Grommit..

veehexx

04/16/2010, 04:11 am

only reason im using windows is because of the gaming industrys' choice to build on DX.
once programmers realise oGL is the way forward then multi-platform games could well become true.

UT-series has been native linux for a while.
Steam has got a mac client (beta?), which can only be a good thing for linux gaming... move away from DX

end of the day, linux and mac are still a very minority userbase; 2-3% each maybe compared to windows OS.

also, as a generalisation, alot of gamers appear to be going over to consoles. dev houses definitely seem to be favouring consoles. early release dates vs PC, additional content, higher quality mapping etc.
i've been growingly tempted to over the last few months/years purely based on support.

game cost and the fact it doesn't have the perks of a PC are putting me off.

in short, i vote for native linux support. but their needs to be more linux support for linux to be my main OS.

MusicallyInspired

04/16/2010, 06:10 am

All id Software games are OpenGL too aren't they? At least all their games have Linux clients.
I moved to consoles for several reasons: 1) My computer is severely dated, 2) my power supply isn't powerful enough for my video card and it's starting to show by causing many things like USB ports not to work, 3) I don't have the money to upgrade my PC any time soon, 4) I never have time to go down to my basement to play games anymore anyway. And there's no fiddling with getting games to work. The only thing I dislike is that you have to for an XBox Gold account to play games online. While I understand that it's pretty much the best gaming service ever and worth the money, I just don't have the money. The PS3 is free online but it's not near as good.

wwitthoff1

04/21/2010, 09:32 pm

The neverwinter nights games from bioware all have linux clients. my two cents. BTW, I'd vote for a native linux implementation of any officialness.

jpalko

04/21/2010, 11:11 pm

The neverwinter nights games from bioware all have linux clients. my two cents. BTW, I'd vote for a native linux implementation of any officialness.

All? I thought that Neverwinter Nights 2 didn't have one. If that has changed, I'll buy the game. :)

Leak

04/21/2010, 11:19 pm

All? I thought that Neverwinter Nights 2 didn't have one. If that has changed, I'll buy the game. :)
Actually, NWN2 was made by Obsidian instead of Bioware - hence his "the NWN games from Bioware"... :D

But then again Dragon Age doesn't have a Linux version either.

MusicallyInspired

04/22/2010, 07:16 am

ChemBro

04/22/2010, 10:11 am

This is interesting (http://www.opengl.org/news/comments/valve-source-engine-overhauled-to-carry-opengl/). Seems the Source engine went OpenGL so that Macs could run Steam games. I wonder how possible it is for native linux clients from Valve at this point...

You know, there IS a Steam-Linux-Client out there. You cannot connect to the steam-server (yet), but it's there.

See:
phoronix.com (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODE3Mw)
Checksums for Steam-Linux-client on Steam-website (http://store.steampowered.com/public/client/steam_client_linux)
Links to Linux-Binaries (they work, somehow) (http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23326#post123496)

MusicallyInspired

04/22/2010, 11:07 am

How interesting.

jpalko

04/22/2010, 08:30 pm

Actually, NWN2 was made by Obsidian instead of Bioware - hence his "the NWN games from Bioware"... :D

But then again Dragon Age doesn't have a Linux version either.

That does explain it. I was almost hoping there was a game to play again. :)

nilsph

09/19/2010, 09:19 am

I'd be more than happy if they'd just switch to the Qt launcher for Windows or give us a command line launch option. WINE's implementation of mshtml is unfortunately lousy, it gets patched and broken against gecko all the time. All the TTG launchers were broken from March to September 2009, and it seems they broke it again now in February 2010. The games themselves have worked great for a long time.

Same issue here (Fedora, 64bit) -- I've tried out the demo on Wine which I got to work, but unlocking the full version I purchased online doesn't... Oh well.

zak256

09/20/2010, 09:39 am

Vote for linux port +1

kuparikettu

09/21/2010, 09:32 am

My vote also for a native linux port. +1

There certainly are people interested in native linux games. Just take a look at the Humble Indie Bundle, which was sold last may -- it was sold on pay-what-you-want -basis, and even then it made $1,273,613 -- of which a quarter came from linux users. More information here: http://www.wolfire.com/humble?reddit=yay

If there is interest in porting, there are people who have quite a lot of experience in doing ports who could also be consulted on these issues.

http://icculus.org/~icculus/
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17492

Tchernobog

09/21/2010, 12:55 pm

A big +1 for native GNU/Linux support; if they port the Telltale engine, I'm given to understand, most of the Telltale games should run on Linux at once. That isn't to say it's easy, though.

I think the biggest problem is that they use DirectX instead of directly some OpenGL-based framework. The news from today, however, speak of a Linux port of DirectX 11 to run above Gallium3D (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=mesa_gallium3d_d3d11&num=1).

I guess that porting isn't so bad as it sounds. Economically, once you did it once, it should be possible to maintain it without going mad; the real problem is a) testing, b) packaging, c) making sure your libraries don't disappear overnight, due to some new backwards-incompatible release (much less likely it happens on Windows or Mac OS X) - you probably want to static-link to them.

However, even considering the poor state of hardware acceleration support for Linux, it would be difficult for Telltale to say "it's not us, it's your crappy drivers" if the port wasn't up on par with the Windows one. That's bad.

I think that on the long term, the most economically interesting way to make some money out of a Linux port, would be to opensource the engine. I mean:

Do not distribute the Telltale tool.
Put the Telltale engine under the GPL, so that business rivals could not exploit it without releasing source code for all the improvements that could be ported back to the original engine.
Make a marketing campaign about this. Mostly, the GNU/Linux community would tam-tam this out by itself, since it would mean a lot for us. We're always looking for "good" companies releasing source code under the GPL. Thus, free publicity for Telltale.
The community would be responsible for keeping the port compatible; to package it, to make it compile on a pletora of distribution, to improve it to run better on existing hardware.
Free bugfixes.

After this, why would you still buy the game for Telltale? But why, the artwork. The plot. The puzzles. That would still remain of propriety of Telltale, and could not be reproduced without permission.

Many GNU/Linux users would immediately be interested to buy a game from a "good" company; most of us passed nights compiling ScummVM when it was still a beta project, just to run The Secret of Monkey Island again, while on Windows XP it didn't start properly (the Italian version, at least, didn't). Don't underestimate the passion that links GNU/Linux users to adventure games! There are many of us interested.

Really, a half-working port to be opensourced seems the best thing in my opinion, all things considered. After all, here in hell we all run Linux, and that's a huge userbase (there are more people here than in heaven!). ;-)

Cheers!
Matteo

flying sheep

09/26/2010, 02:12 pm

ok, without reading the whole thread, here are some facts i like to post here, because they come up every time someone talks about a linux port of some windows game:

linux isn’t the text-only operating system with geeky green letters nobody understands, if you don’t want it to be. especially the KDE desktop is graphically very advanced.
linux sure comes in different versions (called “distributions”), but xp and vista are far more different than fedora and debian regarding binary compatibility (meaning “stuff that runs in linux x most likely runs in every other one”)
if a 3D application is already ported from directx to opengl (3d api) and from windows to mac (system architecture), the main deal is done. linux uses opengl, too (like mac) and is a unix-like (like mac, unlike windows).*
a linux port wouldn’t hurt any of the windows users

*of course developing something in opengl from the start is the best choice, because the features which would require e.g. directx 10 or 11 (only for vista or 7) are available in opengl 4 (every windows, linux or mac os), too. there are no disadvantages except there are some more directx developers than opengl developers (microsoft really pulled off a good advertising campaign here)

Sloshy45

11/13/2010, 04:40 pm

Sorry for the bump :P.

Personally, all that I care is that it works flawlessly in Wine. The only problems I have with the telltale games are the launcher; if they switched the windows launcher to be natively implemented or Qt or something, I'd have no problems. That said, if they can port their games to Mac, there's barely any effort from there to make a native Linux port; Macs and Linux are practically cousins in terms of the technologies they use: CUPS, OpenGL, etc.

Sofox

11/26/2010, 04:25 pm

I'd really love for Telltale games to be ported to Linux. I switched to Ubuntu a few months ago, and anytime I want to play a Linux game it's an unsatisfactory choice between an unreliable Wine or a slow boot into Windows XP.

robotman5

11/26/2010, 06:13 pm

would be nice to have a linux port.

mikeossur

12/25/2010, 02:54 pm

Yes I think that there are. 30 million people use Linux world wide. Most computer geeks use Linux or Apple. Windows is strictly for N users.

mikeossur

12/25/2010, 02:57 pm

yes

mikeossur

12/25/2010, 03:07 pm

I am not convinced of that. There are a lot of Linux users including myself that have held off from buying these games in hope that they might create a Linux port. Unfortunately it seems the people running Telltale have not caught on or have some miss guided idea about Linux. Many Independent game makers have Linux ports because there is a market out there. 30 million users to be exact. Many computer geeks have switched to Linux or at least use them as servers and second machines if not first like my self. I just don't want to have to set up a Windows box or do some Wine hack for these games. Maybe Telltale will me nice enough to help with ScummVM support and port these games