The Linux Game Box #4: Beyond the Red Line (Battlestar Galactica)

Welcome to episode 4 of The Linux Game Box.

Today I’m gonna talk of Beyond the Red Line, a space combat simulation and unofficial spin-off of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica show.

Title:        Beyond the Red Line
Genre:     Platform
License:  Unknown but free
Website: http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/

Beyond the red line is a standalone conversion (hooray!) of the award winning FreeSpace 2 game by Volition, Inc. The game released in 2007 it’s only a demo featuring three single player missions and multiplayer support. A full game version (commercial?) is announced but no release date is specified. The official website provide scarce information and on October 2008 part of the team left Beyond the Red Line to work on a different project. We can thus fear that the full Beyond the Red Line full game is a vapoware.

INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS → 5

To install the demo first thing you must download the install script. You can do so using this tracker for your torrent client. If you don’t have a torrent client you can just download the script directly from on of the mirrors on the official web site.

After having downloaded the file you must set the script to be executable. To do this right click on the file, choose the permission tab and click the executable check box and run the script by double clicking it. At this point you could face a library problem like “error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory”. If you have this issue just install the last version of libgtk from Synaptic or Adept. At this point you can double click again on the install script and install the game.   Alternatively to solve the dependency and install the the game you could type this on the console:

$: sudo apt-get install libgtk1.2
$: sh BtRLDemoInstaller.run

The installer will create a btrl_demo folder on your /home folder.
Run the btlr_demo script to run the game.

Linux system requirements:

• Operating System: Linux x86 compatible
• CPU: Pentium® 1 GHz or AMD Athlon 800 MHz processor
• Memory: 512 MB RAM, 1 GB recommended
• Graphics Card: 64 MB NVIDIA® GeForce 3 or ATI Radeon with closed source drivers, Mesa 6 or better with S3TC extension available for open source drivers
• Input Device: Mouse and keyboard
• Installation: 800 MB free HD space

GAMEPLAY FUN → 8

BTRL is a space combat simulator game so the gameplay is similar to that of glorious games of the past like Wing Commander and the Lucasfilm X-Wing series. Thus the concept is basically you sit into the cockpit of a colonial Viper to do the fighter pilot’s job: escort ships and do a lot of dogfight against the cylons. The game implement semi Newtonian physics flight to enable the player to perform all the manouvers seen on the show. Also the weaponry and ship instrumentation are replica of those designed for the SciFi tv show. Similar to its predecessors also BTRD features a full set of commands which requires a certain amount of practice to be learnt and mastered. This can be see as a drawback but in my opinion that’s not the case. At the beginning can be hard to mess around with all the keys -somewhat contortionist- but as you learn and use them you get accustomed to them and acquire more control on the ship and this is quite rewarding.

GRAPHICS APPEAL → 9.5

From the visual point of view BTRL is quite satisfactory. The ships are accurately modeled and contain high-resolution textures. The environment is fascinating and immersing. Performing flybys of asteroids while chasing down cylon fighters with a gigantic alien planet in the background is something which provides breathtaking experience. Some effects, like explosions, could have been better and some others, like the shaking of the ship in afterburner, are really nice.

SOUND DELIGHT → 9

The sound is a real plus of this game. Even if BTRL is not an official Battlestar Galactica game the guys of the development team put pieces by Bear McCreary and Richard Gibbs which, useless to say, create a unique atmosphere. Music apart, the game is rich of actor speech either during briefing or during space combat. This especially helps you to bathe into the pilot character; you will hear pilots chatting, swearing “frak!” and screaming for their life, this all melted with the crackling of the laser and the humming of the cylon fighters brushing your ship.

STORY ENCHANTMENT → 7

The story is set during Battlestar Galactica Season 2. You are a pilot recruit draft and pressed into service by the not-so-gentle folks of the Battlestar Pegasus. Who watched the show’s already aware that the philosophy of the Pegasus captain concerned a struggle to survive which implied dismantling of the civilian ships it was supposed to protect. Your objective is do your job and becoming a first class pilot of the Pegasus forces and possibly not to get killed also.

I must say that the story is not that well told or present in the game. There’s a lot of briefing (all spoken by actors) but no introductory sequences, no cinematics, and no after mission chill out activities such as interaction with the mother ship personnel or environment. Although this is only a demo of a future game, I must list this aspect within the cons.

MALUS POINTS → -5

Even is Beyond the Red Line is amazing under many aspects, to have only 3 single player missions to play with it’s simply disappointing.

Note: the source code of FreeSpace2 was released by Voliton, Inc. under a non commercial license. The source code can be used to produce mods and stand alone games and it’s currently developed and maintained by the FreeSpace 2 Source Code Project

OVERALL SCORE → 6.7

Here below you can see a video footage showing the game in action.

If you want browse more videos you can check the Beyond the Red Line YouTube channel here

The Linux Game Box #3: Secret Maryo Chronicles

The game I’m about to present you for this instalment of The Linux Game Box, it’s just one of those title so polished, smooth and fluid that lets you think that yes, there is hope for Linux to be just a little more of a gaming platform. I say this despite the simplicity that marks every aspect of this particular game.

I don’t wanna waste more time so let me introduce you Secret Maryo Chronicles.

Title:        Secret Maryo Chronicle
Genre:     Platform
License:  GNU Public License v3
Website:  http://www.secretmaryo.org/

Secret Maryo Chronicles is platform game heavily inspired (someone could find it a clone) by Nintendo’s Super Mario series. The game is coded in C++ with SDL and OpenGL libraries and it’s really pretty fluid on my 4yo laptop. On January 2008 SMC has been awarded #1 in the 5 best (free) open source games chart by the Australian computer magazing APC.

INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS → 7

To install Secret Maryo Chronicles on (K)Ubuntu is sufficient to add the repository to your repository list with Synaptic or Adept.

The repository for (K)Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex is this:

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ intrepid universe

The packages to be installed are called:

smc
smc-data
smc-music

The Ubuntu Package page can be found here. The download page on the official site is here

GAMEPLAY FUN → 9

Of course Secret Maryo Chronicles is pure fun. Just like the old 2D Super Mario games you have basically to explore and travel through various levels running and jumping to crush enemies or discover goodies hidden behind bricks. There’s no more to say about it as this is a well tested formula of simple and mindless game fun. The sensation of running a Nintendo classic on your Linux machine is strong and, as far as I’m concerned, this is also a strong plus for this well done game.

GRAPHICS APPEAL → 8

The graphics is simple but just perfect for the game. I would say it’s flawless either in concept or in design. The sprites and the world components are well refined with a great appeal. Again, main character apart all the graphics in the game strongly resemble that of Super Mario 2D games. This is not a drawback in my opinion but I must be honest and say that even if the guys in the wiki faq say they don’t want to clone Super Mario (that’s why they redrew the Maryo sprite) the sensation of playing a clone is pretty strong.

As already said the 2D engine runs perfectly fast in all the conditions I have been able to test.

SOUND DELIGHT → 6

The sound is generally nice and does is job well.  The music is well suited for the game and again it reminds the Nintendo block buster. The sound effects are nothing special but they work sufficiently well.

STORY ENCHANTMENT → 3

You couldn’t expect the story to be a high score aspect in a game such as this one. The game ratio is all focused on the gameplay that, as I mentioned above, scrapes perfection. However even the Mario game’s attempted to sketch a story, at least as a sort of frame to give a “structured sense” to the action. Super Maryo lacks in this aspect. When you start the game you are presented with no introduction and no hints are shown during the games (at least during the few levels I played). At the beginning there’s just a map showing your progress in the world and that’s all.

A manual for the built-in editor can be found in the game wiki here.

BONUS POINTS → 10

The game comes along with a built-in editor which is so simple and intuitive to be a valuable tool for enthusiast level creators. As a matter of fact by installing smc-data you are supplied with lots and lots of user created levels. To enter the editor you just press F8 when playing a level and you are allowed to modified everything with a drag and drop fashion by means of a side bar presenting all the game components. Creating a level with the SMC editor it’s really simple and fun. To prove this you can see a screenshot of my messing around and creating a dummy Wiz & Chips level.

OVERALL SCORE → 8.6

Here below you can see a video footage showing the game in action.

If you want browse more videos you can check the Secret Maryo Chronicles YouTube channel here

The Linux Game Box #2: UFO: Alien Invasion

In this installment of The Linux Game Box I will discuss about UFO: Alien Invasion (U:AI), a turn based strategy game in which humans must fight back aliens attempting to invade Earth.
You play both the head of PHALANX, an agency whose aim is to fight and study the alien invaders, and the several soldiers members of the tactical teams.
The game is heavily influenced by the well known and appreciated X-COM and especially by the X-COM: UFO Defense episode.
U:AI is licensed under the GNU General Public License.

The project is alive and very active. The team is well coordinated and always looking for help in various aspect of the game production. Help is needed in many fields ranging from coding to 3D modelling and animating, translating, etc…

This is indeed one of the most interesting aspect of open source games which give the chance to common people to be part of an amazing project in the area where their skill can be more of help. As a matter of fact, giving my chronic lack of spare time, I found an ideal way of helping this project by translating part of the game text (which is quite massive in this case) to Italian.

If you want to get involved in the project you may refer to the wiki for the full list of areas you can contribute to develop. The easiest way to meet up with the community however is perhaps joining them at this IRC channel (irc://irc.freenode.org/ufo:ai).

INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS → 10

U:AI is already present in the repositories and can thus been easily installed via Synaptic or Adept. If you run (K)Ubuntu you will also find the game inside the list of the add/remove tool.
Apart from Linux, the game runs also on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

However instructions can be found here and the download trunk can be found here.

GAMEPLAY FUN → 9

There are two main gameplays sections that compose the game: a strategy/management part and a tactical/action part.
In the strategy/management part you take the role of the head of PHALANX and must take high level decision like arranging the base facility, hire personnel, start researches, schedule equipment and vehicle production and send squads to intercept alien fighters and engage alien troops on the ground. The time management system for this phase is based on the calendar in the way of other famous games like Sim City or The Sims. You can adjust the time speed in order to increase or decrease the chance of an alien ambush to take place during this phase (thus pushing you to the tactical phase).
In the tactical part you command the privateers and specialists of the tactical team to perform the mission objective. The action is split in turns and every character has a defined amount of Time Units (TU) to perform each desired action (i.e. walk, recharge the weapon, throw a frag grenade, etc..).
If you like strategy games you will find the gameplay mechanism of U:AI well calibrated thus providing a large amount of fun.
There’s also the possibility for multiplayer game either via LAN or Internet connection.

GRAPHICS APPEAL → 8

U:AI’s game engine is based on a heavily modified version of ID Software’s Quake2 engine. The graphics quality is thus quite high and there’s clearly the evidence of an effort to give the game a touch of professionalism. As the matter of fact the open source team has the target of producing a game which increases and surpasses, in all aspects, the game experience and overall quality of the original 1992 title. The updated OpenGL graphics shows well polished 3D models, several detailed environments, special effects, high resolution textures and nice characters animations.

SOUND DELIGHT → 9

A big attention is given to the music and sound effects (more to the first to be honest) in order to create the right atmosphere for the game. This is another aspect which tells you how much care the team puts into this project.

STORY ENCHANTMENT → 10

This is the game’s strongest plus.
U:AI takes place in 2084 in a planet Earth with a geopolitical configuration pretty different to the present real one. The various countries around the world did solidify and unify in huge blocks, with The Greater European Union and The Asian Republic being the most powerful and rich ones. Humanity is on the verge of welfare and peace at a level never experienced in its whole history. In this idyllic scenario aliens come out of the blue and attack the Indian city of Mumbai causing thousands of casualties among civilians and troops of The Commonwealth . The new UN meet and Earth declares war to the unknown aliens. Standard army approaches show poor results thus leading to the creation of PHALANX: an secret agency, established under UN banner, which summons the best of the best of Earth resources to eliminate the alien menace.
Every aspect of the game is rich of detail. The story literally rises from the player’s progress in the game. For this reason every mission performed contains a cliffhanger, in the shape of an upcoming research on alien specimen or equipments, or story developments resulting from the mission accomplishment.

OVERALL SCORE → 9.2

here below you can see a video trailer of the game

The Linux Game Box #1: Astromenace

Astromenace is a vertical scrolling shooter of the likes of the classic shot ‘em up like Xenon2 Megablaster.

The concept behind the game is fairly simple and all focused on piloting a space ship and fighting swarms of alien invaders.

The game is made by the Ukrainian software house Viewizard and is released as freeware for the Linux platform. A demo version is also available for Windows.

INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS → 10

After downloading a 34 or so tar.bz2 file from this page it’s just enough to unzip it and double click on the bin in order to start the game.

For those who prefer to add the game to the apt repository a simple procedure is explained.

Minimum requirements:
Linux OS
Pentium 1+ GHz
128 MB RAM
3D video accelerator with 32+ MB on board
Runtime dependencies:
libSDL (ver 1.2.6+), libopenal (ver 1.0+), libalut (ver 1.0+), libogg (ver 1.1+), libvorbis (ver 1.1+), libvorbisfile (ver 1.1+), libjpeg (ver 6b+).

GAMEPLAY FUN → 8

Astromenace is a great fun. The alien ships are huge in number and relentless in their effort to attack the human homeland (bosses included). The alien swarms remember well those of the arcade games of the 80’ as they seem much more like automated and stupid drones than manoeuvred by an intelligent form of life. However on the human side of the war the game offers interesting features. There are something like 20 different ships that can be purchased and upgraded with a whole stock of equipments and weaponry.

GRAPHICS APPEAL → 9

The overall graphic design is neat. The ships, equipments, aliens and environment are all carefully designed and will make you remember of several sci-fi movies and video games. Astromenace is all 3D accelerated graphics which provides a whole range of special effects that make the game one of the most graphically polished of the Linux games landscape.

SOUND DELIGHT → 7

The sound and music are just fine and provide the right atmosphere for the game

STORY ENCHANTMENT → 6

There’s no much to say here. As I told before Astromenace aim is not that of charming the gamer with its refined and complicated story. For this reason I give it a 6.

BONUS POINTS → 8

It’s possible to modify the game quite easily by editing an xml file. Viewizard provides a guide to help the user handling with the scripts.

OVERALL SCORE → 8

In the video below you can have a look at the game play and graphics

The Linux Game Box

Linux is well known as a poor platform for the hardcore video game user. If you look for the video game market hits you won’t find them running under Linux. For that you’d better choose a PC or mostly a last generation game console such as Xbox360, PS3 or the more niche oriented one Nintendo Wii.

The Linux game panorama is not completely bare though. Just for this I want to start this new column to periodically present one Linux game I installed and played with my laptop. The use of a laptop takes a specific role here. Having said that Linux is -at the moment- completely alien to the massively marketed and leading technology games, then to play games on Linux which are playable and enjoyable on a honest average laptop it’s something lots of people can be interested in. We’re not speaking of a game oriented machine but something that you more likely already use for work or in school.

The machine I will play the games to review is the following:

Packard Bell EasyNote (2005)
Graphic card: Ati Mobility Radeon X1600
CPU: Centrino Duo T2300
RAM: 1Gb
OS: Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

So, I will periodically look for one game (I already have a bunch of them noted down in tomboy) install it and play it. Then I will write something like a draft review (nothing like an IGN behemot) in this column. I will give my opinion on the basis of the following aspects:

- Installation pain
- Gameplay fun
- Graphical appeal
- Sound delight
- Story enchantment

The choice of the games is completely biased. At first I will start from games do have an appeal to me and then move on from those. Of course you can let me know your suggestions.

I do hope with this work to help sharing the know how of the Linux free and open source (and commercial maybe) scenario as well as paying tribute to those teams of enthusiasts who do such a great job and supply us Linux lovers with wonderful games.

The first review is about AstroMenace so stay tuned folks!