Invitation To Developers (HoverRace)

[Johnsie]

Hi. Back in the 90's I used to play a 3D multiplayer online racing game called HoverRace. After many years of begging we have recently aquired the sourcecode for the game and would welcome anyone who wants to port the game to Linux. There's a lot of obstacles to overcome though since it was originally designed for Windows and the code was written for Visual Studio 5. Anyway, the url to get the source is at http://hoverace.co.uk

You can download the actual game from http://hoverrace.co.uk to check it out.

Well, on behalf of the whole HoverRace community i'd like to thankyou for at least reading this and hope that maybe someone will consider porting this great game. It really is a fun game and as there are a few of us in the community who use Linux regularly we would love it if this game was brought to Linux and welcome you all with open arms :-)

EDIT: There is a a very buggy .deb install at http://hoverrace.co.uk/files/linux/hrplus-0.0.1.i586.deb
You will need wine installed for this to work.


And here is now a launchpad page for this project and anyone is welcome to contribute code or ideas:

http://launchpad.net/hoverrace

[kostkon]

I saw little of the code, and I think this game is using DirectX. Thus, it is very difficult to port this game to Linux, and the most viable solution, since you have the source code, is to recompile the game with the winelib.

I am not sure if I am right. I want someone to correct if I am wrong. This is just my opinion.

[GameGod]

W00t HoverRace!

I remember this game! That'd be awesome if someone ported this. (I remember this as being one of the first really cool online games I played.)

I think the developers know that it's written in DirectX (albeit a really ancient version), and that's one reason why porting it is a project that needs more people. (It's definitely do-able to port it from DirectX to OpenGL though...)

[enopepsoo]

Ha hoverrace, alright.

I liked the mars levels the best I guess, but the first level was cool too.

Working at a computer store is the ultimate job for a teenager.

:rolleyes:

[ash211]

I believe there's a typo in the 1st post. The first link should be to http://devel.hoverrace.com/

[kostkon]

I think the developers know that it's written in DirectX (albeit a really ancient version), and that's one reason why porting it is a project that needs more people. (It's definitely do-able to port it from DirectX to OpenGL though...)

Yeah it's possible but needs a lot of work, indeed. Maybe SDL can be used so to have a new contemporary version for Windows and Linux. Then, it would be easily portable to other systems also. This would guarantee a good future for this classic and old game. It needs just an update.

But again, someone must love this game too much to start porting it to SDL from DirectX because it would be an overhaul. From graphics, main menu which is Visual Basic I think, to network code, all of these must be changed.

[enopepsoo]

It was a different game that I liked. Similar graphics and idea I think though.](*,)

[Johnsie]

Just to clear a few things up:

HoverRace is a 3d, multiplayer online racing game. I think some people might be confusing it with a game called "Hover" which came on the windows 95 cd.

HoverRace was one of the first online games but due to it's playability would still be a fun game to play today and it would be a real coup for Linux if it were ported to Linux.

Anyway, I'm glad that there has been some interest on these forums and I hope that one day it is possible for people to port the game over.

Johnsie

[Johnsie]

I've decided to make a 3rd party native Linux application that acts as a helper for people who want to play HoveRace on Linux

My helper application is going to to automatically update the game, provide notifications and some other stuff. My project is based at http://www.hoverace.co.uk and my work will be open source. I will post more information here later.

[Johnsie]

There is now a launchpad page for this project and anyone is welcome to contribute code or ideas:

http://launchpad.net/hoverrace

[Johnsie]

I'm no professional, but I've made a .deb installer for HoverRace so that some of you can have a little look at it. You'll need to have wine installed and yes, it's quite buggy:

http://hoverrace.co.uk/files/linux/hrplus-0.0.1.i586.deb

Ps. the sooner we can get rid of the Windows stuff the better :-)


Have fun :-)

[Vadi]

Could you make a 64bit one?

[Johnsie]

Ummmm... I'm not too sure how to do that cos I'm no pro at making debs but I'll try. First try and see if that one will install on your computer anyway.