Linux Games #7: Nexuiz

Posted on February 1st, 2008

by siyb

Heyhey here we are with yet another awesome Linux game. This time we are going to check out one of the many FPS available for Linux, Nexuiz. Nexuiz uses the darkplaces engine, which is a modified version of the Quake I engine. Even though Quake I has been around for some time, you can’t really compare the looks of the darkplaces engine to Quake I at all, as it comes with quite a few improvements such as: new effects, improved dynamic lights and alpha blended sprites. If you want to learn more about the modifications featured in darkplaces check out this link.

nexuiz000001.jpg

I will spare you more technical detail, anyone interested should really visit the mentioned websites. Although Nexuiz is ought to be a multiplayer FPS, it also features a single player campaign similar to the one in Quake III or OpenArena. The single player campaign consists of 22 action packed levels, some of which are using familiar concepts like “Vampiric regeneration” or low gravity settings. Hunt down you enemy with one of the nine weapons of your deadly arsenal, veteran Quake players might like the weapon equivalents to Quake armoury (Nex -> Railgun).nexuiz000000.jpgVersion 2.3, which was released in March 2007 adopted a huge performance increase and smoothed online gameplay. The improved AI and new levels guarantee a long lasting single player experience. Unfortunately there are only a few gameservers available online, most of which are located in the USA or Germany (based on serverlists acquired from ghdigital.com and dpmaster.deathmask.net masterservers).

English, German, Linux, Linux Games No Comments »

mount.at up again aka how to export ejabberd userdatabases from a harddrive connected to a different host

Posted on January 25th, 2008

by siyb

We decided to upgrade the hardware on mount.at today and therefore had to shutdown the server for several hours. Hades is running again now, but not all services are restored to their full extend, the jabber server (jabber.mount.at) has been recovered already and should be usable again. Due to the fact that the bootloader was installed on a hdd that had a total breakdown and I/O errors that prevented a reinstallation of bootloader on the system drive, we had to setup the server again.

The main problem was that our backups of the Mnesia database where outdated, they had to be recovered from the old hdd (the one not broken :>). This procedure turned out to be far more complicated / frustrating than expected. Due to the fact that the control interface ejabberdctl relies on RPC, which require a valid hostname to function properly, the recovery wasn’t as simple as calling the program from the host we connected the old harddrive to. I wrote a small howto for anyone stuck in the same situation:

Solution: chroot

Mounting the harddrive

mkdir /mnt/hdd && mount /dev/sdaX /mnt/hdd

Mounting proc

mount -t proc proc /mnt/hdd/proc/

Change the hostname on the box to the hostname of the machine Mnesia was used on (changing the hostname within the chroot didn’t work), this is necessary because RPC will not work if you do not use the hostname of your old box

$editor /etc/hostname

Chrooting

chroot /mnt/hdd

Starting up the ejabberd daemon and executing backup procedure

/etc/init.d/ejabberd start && ejabberd_ctl backup /tmp/ejabberd.backup

Exit the chroot and copy the backup from /mnt/hdd/tmp/ejabberd.backup to the box you wish to apply it to, use

ejabberd_ctl restore /tmp/ejabberd.backup

to finally restore the backup …

You may need to follow this tutorial when porting the database to a host with a different hostname -> http://www.ejabberd.im/migrate-host

Mount.at will be unavailable for some time tomorrow as well, because the hardware upgrade could not be finished in today’s session, please stand by and sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Howto, Networkroll, Server, debian No Comments »

xMind ListonBeta6.1 r1

Posted on January 22nd, 2008

by siyb

After looking through all my projects today I realized that I haven’t been working on xMind in ages and that a lot of additions, changes and fixes planned for LB6.1 have already been committed, so that I decided to issue xmind_listonbeta6.1_r1. Due to a lack of time on my part there is no precise date for the next release, which is why LB6.1 is released now despite its incompleteness. The new .run archive installer has been tested and seems to work fine, nevertheless you may encounter errors when trying to compile Eggdrop, those errors are most certainly caused by missing requirements.

LB6.1 should work fine with tcl8.4 and tcl8.5, if there are any compatibility issues related to the tcl version you are currently using please submit it to our bug tracker so that the requirements and dependencies can be adjusted.

ListonBeta6.1 is shipped in two different formats, the well know .tar archive and the noobproof .run archive, which pretty much automates the installation procedure. Advanced user that wish to adept their xMind installation will prefer the .tar distribution everybody else should really stick to the automated installer, especially because the .tar installation method will not be supported by me any more. Check out the detailed installation instructions at the xMind wiki page, that we be updated in the following next few days in order to fully describe the new versions installation process.

xMind ListonBeta6.1 r1 .run
xMind ListonBeta6.1 r1 .tar

Development, Linux, TCL 2 Comments »

Asteroids 1.0

Posted on January 7th, 2008

by siyb

I have recently written a small POC / Demo game in TK and due to the fact that it has been quiet around here for some time, I decided write a small release post and attach the program for public use. The concept of Asteroids is simple, you are jammed in a asteroid belt and the only way to survive is to dodge incoming shrapnels. Increasings shunning skills will result in starship acceleration. Asteroids features 7 level that can be customized easily. New levels can be created in a similar manner (just in case you get bored).

I will probably not work on this game anymore, unless popularly demanded :P.

asteroids10.png
Asteroids1.0

Development, English, Linux, Software, TCL No Comments »

Linux Games #6: Chromium

Posted on December 11th, 2007

by jesse
You are captain of the cargo ship Chromium B.S.U., responsible for delivering supplies to our troops on the front line. Your ship has a small fleet of robotic fighters which you control from the relative safety of the Chromium vessel. And you’re right in the battle.

Chromium is a fast paced, arcade-style, top-scrolling space shooter. Goal of the game is to survive the adrenalin peaks you get from playing get (*g*). You can read about the question why the game is so difficult: “Quitcher whinin’, you ninny! It’s supposed to be hard! Seriously, Chromium B.S.U. is intended to be a 15 minute adrenaline rush/mental cleanser. Frequent doses of explosions (even your own) can be very therapeutic.” which is pretty self-explanatory.

The rules are simple: every enemy ship that gets past the bottom of he screen will attack Chromium and you’ll lose a fighter. Besides shooting at them you can crash into the enemies or perform a strategic suicide which will kill every ship on the screen.

To make the game more fun you can grab two kinds of pickups: the skulls will supply you with weapons and ammunition, the shiny tuxes boost your shields, repare the ship or give you extra lifes.

Chromium uses SDL (1.1.6 or higher) and Hardware accelerated OpenGL or Mesa. One can find a precompiled Windows Binary, which is “100% unsupported” as well as the sources on the project page. Packages for the various linux distributions are available through the particular managers.

English, German, Linux Games 3 Comments »
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