Invader Attack on Linux

[Jonnyb]

I just tried running Invader Attack on Wine (v1.1.44).

It works, but runs a bit slow. My computer is getting old, and even older Windows games run slow on Wine, so I suspect it would work fine on a newer machine. I'll try again after I upgrade my video card.

[Alex Vidakovic]

Thanks mate, its good to know. I also tested it on my Ubuntu on an old Celeron. It runs much smoother than on Vista on the same configuration.

So, you're a Linux guy? We have so much in common. I started programming on Slackware, long long time ago, but as work required both Linux and Windows, I had to stick with both, although preferred Linux over windows due to low system requirements. Everything just worked 2 times faster and needed less memory than on Windows.

Do you program only in Java or other languages too?

[Jonnyb]

I have programmed in other languages. I learned Java in my last couple years of school and it kind of spoiled me for other programming languages.

Of course in the real world, I had to use some Microsoft technologies, but I've been out of the loop for quite a while now, and Java is the only technololgy I've kept up on. I love the 'write once, run anywhere' aspect.

I'm no Linux guru, but at some point I decided I'd rather deal with the headache of trying to make things work on Linux than deal with virus issues on Windows. At least on Linux, once you get it working, it keeps working.

[Alex Vidakovic]

  .. so true! I was, and still am, a Linux person. And the most of stuff I was working on like PHP, MySQL, jQuery, etc. are cross-platform. And those things are much simpler to work on under Linux. Eg. installing and configuring popular FFMPEG extension for PHP that converts a site to a YouTube type of service, on Linux is a matter of minutes, while being an extreme pain under Windows. Dealing with various Windows pests is all about the money, in my opinion. Still, it appears to be the most popular PC computer platform. The largest downside of Linux is the lack of games. And the game development is probably the largest branch of software development today.

So what's your preferred Linux distribution?

[Jonnyb]

I'm using Zenwalk (slackware-based). I chose it because the default desktop is xfce, which runs a lot better on my old hardware than KDE or GNOME.

[Alex Vidakovic]

What is the hardware you got, can't be that old? Do you have Windows on the same machine or some other?

[Jonnyb]

I've got an Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop PIII 866 with 256 Mb memory. It has a decent graphics card (nvidia) and runs a bit slow.

My other machine has an Intel Celeron 2.8 Ghz with 768 Mb memory and an onboard Intel graphics card that isn't supported by xorg anymore. If I browse to yahoo's website, it takes several minutes to load, with X using 99% of the cpu. Sometimes it just hangs and I have to reboot. I'm sure that a newer graphics card will make a big difference.

I used to have Windows XP and 2000 installed in order to play AOEX, but not for a while now. That worked ok, but it isn't a fair comparison since it was only running one application.

[Alex Vidakovic]

I can only imagine how slow it is. PIII doesn't meet the minimum system requirements. With the emulation and all, I'm surprised that the game even works! I got several configurations too, the one having 3dfx Voodoo card. I haven't tested it, not sure if the computer would boot, it collected the dust for so long. Invader Attack is using OpenGL 1.0 standard, so the graphic card must be fully be compatible.

Now that other machine with 2.8 Ghz, should be just fine as long as the graphic drivers are latest and fully compatible with OpenGL. Those integrated Intel cards are tricky, but they should work well with my game which uses only basic OpenGL stuff. People do have problems with new OpenGL features, eg.:

http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=273787

[Jonnyb]

I haven't actually tried it on the PIII, but just got Win2k installed on both machines, with better driver support for the intel card than Linux, so I'll give it a try on that.

I'm sure it is just a driver issue.

[Alex Vidakovic]

I don't think it can work on older graphic cards and old drivers that are not supporting OpenGL textures. I think its the year 2001/2002, so graphic card drivers that were not updated after that date would not work properly. This is not my fault, I made the game engine to benefit the fast 3D OpenGL functions and every gamer should have, at least, a decent graphic card.

[Alex Vidakovic]

Actually, I'd be very surprised to see game working on any other graphic card than nVidia or ATI, simply because it uses some of the features that are very demanding in terms of processing. You can have old and slow Celeron with low memory, old sound card, everything old, but as long as you're having a decent video card, OpenGL compatible, with latest drivers not dating before the year 2002, the game will work very smoothly with a very high frame rate, because the processing is on the side of the graphic card. The old cards don't support features of the OpenGL used in the game.

[Jonnyb]

I finally got a decent graphics card (nVidia) and driver for this machine. It is 100% better! Invader attack is very cool! My six year old son watched me play a couple of levels and he can't stop talking about it (I like it too).

[Alex Vidakovic]

Say hi to your son for me ... so, hopefully you're not playing the game on Linux through Wine?

[Jonnyb]

Yes, we are playing it on Wine. It runs great in full resolution. I haven't tried it on Windows yet, but I'm sure there will be no problem there either; I was using Windows to play AssaultCube last night (It's nice to have a good graphics card).

He has completed two levels, so I will be upgrading to full version soon 

[Alex Vidakovic]

There are 14 levels of the demo, after which the demo is finished. You should be more strategic with the shots, shooting only at invaders you want to fight with, because if you've provoked too many invaders, at the same time, you'll get most of them attacking you and then it becomes painfully difficult later on. The demo levels are the easiest. I'm just telling you to know, this is not an anti advertisement, although it may seem like one.