Hacker Evolution is coming to Ubuntu

[mrobert]

Hello everyone,

I have recently received my Ubuntu CDs, and by popular demand from our users, we will be bringing

Hacker Evolution (http://www.exosyphenstudios.com/page_hacker-evolution_ubuntu.html)

to linux, (Ubuntu).

It's good to see such a growing linux gamers community.

[daniel of sarnia]

Wow that's cool, When do you think will be able to get our hands on the linux version?

[mrobert]

It's hard to give an estimate, as we are just getting started with the port.

You can try the demo with WINE in the meanwhile. I think it works :)

[Polygon]

good to see some developers taking strides to make their games work in linux!

[daniel of sarnia]

If you don't mind me asking, will this be the first time you or your devs have coded on linux and or ported an entire game?

[mrobert]

Hi,

Yes, this is our first port.
We don't lack programming experience on the other hand. I developed on several platforms but not linux, so far.

[daniel of sarnia]

Cool, your likely are familiar with SDL but if your not check it out http://libsdl.org/ unless you like reinventing a linux graphics abstraction layer yourself. It's under the LGPL so you can commercially use it as long as you don't edit the SDL libs themselves without giving it back. It's how epic does there linux and I think mac stuff so it's a solid way to do things. Works on just about any platform. But you likely already know all this.

[mrobert]

I think I will use SDL, since there is no use in reinventing the wheel.
I will make a SDL port under windows, and from there it should be easier.

[daniel of sarnia]

that's good, and from their is would be easy from you to make it run on the mac, making your market that much bigger. SDL is realy meant to make is easy to run things on multiple platforms. But I don't use windows or OSX either so I don't care. You just might like to do it if it's easy.

[KhaaL]

I wish you good luck with the port and hope you get good sales :) The game dosen't appeal to me personally - I'm more after a TBS game for linux like galactic civilizations or civilization *HINT HINT* :D

[mrobert]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone :)

[fktt]

ooh, sweet reminds me of certain old school DOS games (hacker1 & hacker2) :D but this time with pretty graphics! XD

[mrobert]

ooh, sweet reminds me of certain old school DOS games (hacker1 & hacker2) :D but this time with pretty graphics! XD

Well, it's a pretty unique game genre :) We like to innovate where possible, instead of cloning existing concepts :)

[fktt]

yeah, im not trying to say that you copy, those old games where homebrew here from estonia, so i doubt you would have ever seen em anyway ;)

[mrobert]

@fktt ... I you got me a bit wrong ... I was trying to say that we also like to make games that are more rare :)

Btw ... I see a lot of people from Estonia visiting my country (Romania) lately. I heard Estonia is awesome, from somebody who has been there.

[Zylar]

Awesome, looks good. Similar to Uplink?

[mrobert]

It's the same genre as Uplink (hacking simulation), but completely different in terms of gameplay.

[mrobert]

We now also have the first expansion pack available:

Hacker Evolution - Reinsertion

http://www.exosyphenstudios.com/page_hacker-evolutionreinsertion.html

[Pug505GR]

Hi,

Have just been reliving my past and playing old C64 games through VICE, rediscovering the original Hacker game.

it is good to see that it looks like it is being rejigged - although not a copy as mentioned earlier.

I would be interested in a Ubuntu version, but have a quick question. Say some of us are impatient and want to purchase the Windo$e version now to play in WINE - will there be an 'upgrade' option to get the Linux version without having to purchase the game in full again?

Regards

Matt

[mrobert]

Hi Matt,

We won't sell a linux version separately. When it will be available, previous users will receive it for free, and new users will receive both.

[Darkness3477]

This is definitely interesting! I'm putting this on my gaming wishlist!

Hopefully more games will follow your lead (Would love to see a CS:S for Linux).

[mrobert]

Since linux is pretty widespread, it's time to develop games for it, aswell :)

[georges023]

I see this thread has started long ago (on the 20th of August), but i see no news on an Ubuntu version of Hacker Evolution.
It's a nice game, and i'm going to download the expansion pack that i never saw oO.
If you guys could tell me how's the project is going on. It would be nice.

[mrobert]

Hi,

Unfortunately I had some issues in my personal life that I had to sort out, which delayed a lot of my projects. I am slowly getting back on track on, and this project will be resumed :)

[georges023]

Hi,

Unfortunately I had some issues in my personal life that I had to sort out, which delayed a lot of my projects. I am slowly getting back on track on, and this project will be resumed :)

Well, i really hope to see an Ubuntu version out.
Thanks for your efforts, remember life comes before computers (or is it the other way around :P )

[mrobert]

Life comes with computers :)

[GSZX1337]

Yay, good game ports! Will there be a demo for Linux?

[Llewxam]

Hi,

Unfortunately I had some issues in my personal life that I had to sort out, which delayed a lot of my projects. I am slowly getting back on track on, and this project will be resumed :)

here's to hoping. would like to have another hack sim on linux other than uplink. :lolflag:

[mrobert]

We are working on it :)

[ajeffreys]

Sounds good, I'm certainly looking forward to it :)

[mrobert]

I will keep you posted here :)

[Llewxam]

here's to hoping. would like to have another hack sim on linux other than uplink. :lolflag:

by any chance, you're exosyphen in the uplink forums?

[Ioky]

That is great, I have enough of first person shooter Game haha. I would love to play the game. it looks fun.

[mrobert]

by any chance, you're exosyphen in the uplink forums?

Yes :)

[eragon100]

Waiting, sounds cool :)

[Llewxam]

Yes :)

hehe knew it. :P i'm, or was, AZeeD over there. haven't been around in a while to those forums. just recently when i was looking to install uplink on gutsy.

[mrobert]

It's a cool forum and there are some nice folks overthere.

[Twitch6000]

this is freaking sweet.I can't wait to play :) on my linux.

[mrobert]

Me too :)
I could make a text only version and run it on my wireless router's linux :)

[Llewxam]

It's a cool forum and there are some nice folks overthere.

indeed. question, is the linux port going to be gpl or commercial?

[mrobert]

It's going to be commercial.

[Crafty Kisses]

Hello everyone,

I have recently received my Ubuntu CDs, and by popular demand from our users, we will be bringing

Hacker Evolution (http://www.exosyphenstudios.com/page_hacker-evolution_ubuntu.html)

to linux, (Ubuntu).

It's good to see such a growing linux gamers community.
Can't wait.

[Llewxam]

aw dang :( i'll hope to be able to buy a copy then once its out. really like it from the demo.

[Vadi]

Waiting on the release, but your RSS feed is wrong - Liferea couldn't add it. It fails the validation too:

http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http://www.exosyphenstudios.com/site-rss.xml

Could you please fix it?

[mrobert]

Editing on the release, but your RSS feed is wrong - Liferea couldn't add it. It fails the validation too:

http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http://www.exosyphenstudios.com/site-rss.xml

Could you please fix it?

Hi,

I will take care of it.
Thanks!

[Crafty Kisses]

aw dang :( i'll hope to be able to buy a copy then once its out. really like it from the demo.

Yeah, seriously.

[Sgt-Sledge]

HI,

I'm kind of new at linux but when i ran windows one of my favorite games was Hacker Evolution! :)

So now I cant wait for this game to come out on linux.

Q: Can we expect the same gameplay and graphics from the linux game or will the game have added features and nicer things?

-=Sgt-Sledge=-

[metalf8801]

good to see some developers taking strides to make their games work in linux!

I couldn't say it better myself so I'm just going to quote you

[Crafty Kisses]

I couldn't say it better myself so I'm just going to quote you

:lolflag:

[mrobert]

Most likely the game will be better, as I have started further developing the game engine, and adding new features.

I hope I will be able to show off something nice, soon :)

[Rycuda]

One more vote for huge success on game devs porting their wares to Linux. How long before there're calls for beta testers/demos to explore?

[mrobert]

Thanks!

We will have something to show-off soon, I just need to finish some things first :)

[Sanoski]

I'm looking forward to this. I bought some of their other games for my PC running Windows. But I'm really looking forward to playing this one on Linux!

[mrobert]

It's coming soon, as we are already working on a sequel for the game, and it will run on Linux aswell :)

[Fped36]

any update on Progress Really looking forward to Playing this on Linux. :)

[dmatrix]

ya this game looks really cool, looking forward to the linux port.

[alihan1988]

I'll take care of it. Merci!

[s3kt0r]

Just one more word of support, for you guys working hard to bring a good sim on to the platform.
Would like to test the win demo in wine...going to give it a try, then post some results. Can't wait more, mind stimulating games just don't let you turn off the pc and go to sleep.

edit: tried in wine, just ran the installer, all went fine with installation process but is damn slow, maybe my cpu (venice 2.2ghz) doesn't have the power to run wine at full speed? tried to d-activate pixel shader under wine config dialog, but with no visible results. Any options that can be changed or something? Thanks!

[linuxguymarshall]

Schweet. I'm currently working on my first commercial game the will be released purely on Linux but it's nice to know that i'm not crazy for making my games for linux

[MaximB]

I actually find it very strange that "Hacker" game wasn't ported to GNU/Linux in the first place and that it's being ported only now.
We all know that most servers run GNU/Linux or BSD ... so come on ;)

[jose158]

Man, I remember playing this game in Window$, but when I moved to Ubuntu I tried to install it with WINE, but it was super slow :(

[mrobert]

Hi everyone,

Our newest game, Hacker Evolution: Untold, works perfectly with WINE under Ubuntu. A native linux port is currently being developed also.

Check it out here:
http://www.exosyphen.com/page_hacker-evolution-untold.html

[Vadi]

Thanks for the news. I'll wait for the native version, then definitely buy as it looks good :)

[Greyed]

I wasn't too impressed with Hacker Evolution. It looked like they were trying to do something akin to UpLink (http://www.introversion.co.uk/uplink/) but stripped out everything that made UpLink so darn cool. :(

[Jack_Payne]

um, any news on the native linux port? i've played the demo booted in Windows, but Ubuntu is my preferred OS and I'd like to play the game here...

[Vadi]

A beta will be available shortly, mrobert said in another thread.

[mrobert]

Hi,

The Mac port is now almost done (we are doing some final tweaks).
The linux port should follow very shortly as it's being done by the same person.

As soon as that happens, we will inform everyone here.

[Gnostabuntu]

Argh, What is that? Mac before Linux? Maybe if this was Emo kids Evolution it would be a big hit on mac, but Im gonna guess that 90% of mac users couldn't find there way out of a terminal/box.

[CyberPrime]

Cool, always been a fan of playing around with these "hacking" games. My friends and I get a good chuckle out of em. BS Hacker was fun :)

[mrobert]

Argh, What is that? Mac before Linux? Maybe if this was Emo kids Evolution it would be a big hit on mac, but Im gonna guess that 90% of mac users couldn't find there way out of a terminal/box.

Now now ... we don't want to see them Emo kids sad, don't we? :)

[Omecron]

Now now ... we don't want to see them Emo kids sad, don't we? :)

If I said yes would it make me a bad person?

[mrobert]

If I said yes would it make me a bad person?

Very bad :)

[andmalc]

It's hard to give an estimate, as we are just getting started with the port.

You can try the demo with WINE in the meanwhile. I think it works :)

On Debian Lenny running wine-1.0.1-174-gc4039bd, a blank screen shows, a couple of seconds of music plays, and that's it. In the console, 'fixme:quartz' errors display.

Too bad, looked good. We'll have to wait for the native version.

[eragon100]

For me, it does work now, but horribly slow, unless I disable all sound support in wine :( Than it runs smoot, but without sound :cry:

I think you should remove the statement from your site taht says the game runs perfectly under wine., for two reasons:

1: People who have issues might think the native port will have the same qaulity and refrain from buying it, and

2: it will be hard to track windows vs linux amount of sales, since imaptient linux users who do get it working under wine will buy the windows version so they don't have to wait any longer, making them show up as a windows sale, instead of a linux one.

Just my 0.02$ :wink:

[HunterThomson]

ya does not work with wine....

The game looks kool. Are the exploits real stuff or some give me's? In any case look like a fun game.

[mrobert]

@eragon100:
Thank you for the suggestions. I will keep account of them.

[Shady3D]

it should've been on Linux first

[mrobert]

it should've been on Linux first

Hi,

It wasn't my call, but the coder who is making(made) the Mac/Linux ports :)

[KIAaze]

Just found this thread and am looking forward to a port too. :)

I bought uplink, and if this game is better than uplink, I might buy it too.
Maybe I'll write a review (http://www.ubuntumagazine.net/?p=511) for it too. ;)

Yay, good game ports! Will there be a demo for Linux?

There must be! This is very important to know if the game will work or not before buying it.
Please make a demo.

[mrobert]

Hi,

We are still a bit behind with the port as the coder who was supposed to do the Mac + Linux port, only did the Mac port (due to his time being caught up with college).

I will now reschedule it, and make it myself.

Like with every game (we make) there will be a pretty large and unrestricted demo available.

[Mercedes300]

Hi,

What is the status of this port? I'd like to play the game when it comes out!

Thanks.

[mrobert]

Hi,

Still working to first port the graphics engine from DX to OpengGL.

I was on vacation, so there were some delays :)

[569874123]

The concept behind Hacker Evolution: Untold is to create a game that challenges the gamers intelligence, attention and focus, creating a captivating mind game. Solve puzzles, examine code and bits of information, to help you achieve your objectives.

Do i need to know how to program? How accessible is this game to someone that isn't a hacker :P?

[mrobert]

It's not hard to get into the game.
Try the demo :)
It's available for Windows and Mac.

[dagoth_pie]

Well, considering how old this thread is, I'm kinda dissapointed to know, that noone pointed out that you could have said Hacker Evolution is coming to the hacker revolution... hehe, couldn't help it, looks like a great game, the Linux port will probably be out by the time I have spare cash so I can try it.

[mrobert]

Hi,

Unfortunately there were some reasons beyond my control, that caused this delay.

[u235sentinel]

Hi,

Unfortunately there were some reasons beyond my control, that caused this delay.

Looks good. I'll keep checking for when the linux port is available. Nice idea for a game :D

[dagoth_pie]

Hi,

Unfortunately there were some reasons beyond my control, that caused this delay.

Fortunately you're selling to a market that prefers things to work properly rather than be on time (oh wait, that's Debian) lol, so long as it has unique gameplay like you say, I'm keen on it when it's released. Last game I'd seen that was unique is liquid wars, now that game is addictive, not just some doom clone like everything else...

[mrobert]

@dagoth_pie:

Thanks for the understanding.
It's easy for me to release even before schedule, but if there is something that requires more time to be properly done, then so be it. I don't like to rush things :)

[dagoth_pie]

yeah, if there's one thing I hate, well actually, there's quite a lot of those, but one of them, is games that have obvious glitches that you notice 10 minutes into the game. Who was it that said binary patches suck? Someone, but doing things as close to right as possible the first time round avoids that right?

[mrobert]

That's why we release a minimum number of patches (2,3) during the lifetime of a game, and they are meant to fix very minor things.

It takes a lot of patience :)

[dagoth_pie]

Patience, seems to be the key to everything... Ever tried painting a car? No skill required, just patience, paint and sandpaper...

[mrobert]

I had this guy who spend aprox. 8 hours to pain the rear bumper and some rear bits on my car. I went crazy just watching him.

The paintjob was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.

[MaximB]

I had this guy who spend aprox. 8 hours to pain the rear bumper and some rear bits on my car. I went crazy just watching him.

The paintjob was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.

I hope that this is also a analogy to the perfect GNU/Linux port you are going to make to your game ;)

Do you plan to port all of your Hacker series to GNU/Linux ?

[-_- Joseph -_-]

I wish that the full version was free:cry:

other than that this sounds pretty cool

[mrobert]

I am planning to port all our (future) games to linux and Mac.
This is why I will be coding the game engines, with portability in mind.

@-_- Joseph -_-:
We do our best to keep the prices as low as possible, offer discounts to existing customers (50%) and run other kind of promos, but unfortunately there is a cost associated with developing games.

I am sure that you have a job, or if your parents are still supporting you, they have jobs, for which they are paid.
My job is to write computer games, so I have to get paid.

Since I started exosyphen studios (almost exactly 7 years ago), our prices have went up by an average which under 10%, over 7 years (!!!). Offcourse, quality went up, the size of the games went up, the additional services offered with each game (assistance, free-addons, etc) went up, all this at the expense of the average price increase being below 2% per year.

Further, factor in that all these are calculated agains prices in US dollars. We live in a country which doesn't US the US dollar. The USD dropped aprox. 20% against our currency through this time, and we still managed to obtain those figures and performances. Also, over 50% of our customers are using non USD currencies which have gained the same aprox. 20% against the USD, resulting in a real saving for them.

Sorry for this longer rant, but I thought some of you might be interested in a bit of the business aspects of running a game studio.

[569874123]

After it is ported maybe MaximB will review it ;).

[mrobert]

That sounds cool :)

[MaximB]

That sounds cool :)

Off course I'll need to test it first...

Then there is the question ... when the porting is done do you think that the demo version will be good for a decent preview or do I miss some important features of the full version ?

The developer of Mystic Mine sent me the full version for a decent review he got.

mrobert : so what games are we talking about ? what will be ported to GNU/Linux ? because you mentioned that only future games will have a GNU/Linux client and not the older ... so what about "Hacker Evolution" then ?

[mrobert]

Hello,

For review purposes, we offer a license of the full version.
The demo is only limited to the first levels and only some minor functionalities are disabled in the demo (online hiscores, loading custom game mods, etc). The demo is pretty much 99% the full game.

We are developing a new and different game engine, but which will be able to play the levels from our previous games. So, one way or the other, the game will make it to Linux.

[dentharg]

@-_- Joseph -_-:
We do our best to keep the prices as low as possible, offer discounts to existing customers (50%) and run other kind of promos, but unfortunately there is a cost associated with developing games.

I am sure that you have a job, or if your parents are still supporting you, they have jobs, for which they are paid.
My job is to write computer games, so I have to get paid.


Just paid for Penumbra games because it is Linux *native*.
I'll gladly pay for Hacker Evo. Just make it with good price (see Uplink) ;)

[mrobert]

We try to keep our prices as low as possible.
What I can say for sure, that the price WILL NOT exceed $20-25.

[mrobert]

Hello everyone,

I would like to proudly announce that yesterday evening I have successfully played Hacker Evolution: Untold under Ubuntu. We are almost done with the native port.

If there is anyone who would like to help with beta testing or simply try the game under linux before the official release, please fill in our contact form here:

http://www.exosyphen.com/page_contact.html

We will get back to you with instructions on how to download and install the game.

[MaximB]

Hello everyone,

I would like to proudly announce that yesterday evening I have successfully played Hacker Evolution: Untold under Ubuntu. We are almost done with the native port.

If there is anyone who would like to help with beta testing or simply try the game under linux before the official release, please fill in our contact form here:

http://www.exosyphen.com/page_contact.html

We will get back to you with instructions on how to download and install the game.


What about the "first" hacker-evolution - will it also be ported to Linux ?

[mrobert]

@MaximB:

We won't make a separate port for the original Hacker Evolution, because the Hacker Evolution: Untold engine is built on top of the original HE engine, and there is backwards compatibility.

What we will do, is port over the levels.
This will either be done by the official release, or after, and it will mean that linux users will effectively get both games in one, and at the same price of one game. We are talking about 25 massive levels :)

[LeandroMarceddu]

Hello everyone,

I would like to proudly announce that yesterday evening I have successfully played Hacker Evolution: Untold under Ubuntu. We are almost done with the native port.

If there is anyone who would like to help with beta testing or simply try the game under linux before the official release, please fill in our contact form here:

http://www.exosyphen.com/page_contact.html

We will get back to you with instructions on how to download and install the game.

I signed up. Can't wait to test it.

[mrobert]

Thanks for the great interest received so far!
We just sent out the download details to everyone who has applied.

Enjoy the game!

[mrobert]

Hi everyone,

We have just released a new version of the beta, and hopefully have the bugs fixed.

If anyone still want's to join, just get in touch with us here:
http://www.exosyphen.com/page_contact.html

[mrobert]

Hacker Evolution: Untold is now available for linux.

Ubuntu thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1433203

Homepage and download:
http://www.exosyphen.com/page_hacker-evolution-untold.html

[hulkolaw]

This is actually not a crash; Evolution hangs, but does not shut down. After we close it manually, it refuses to restart. From what we can see in the system monitor, the evolution process is still active, which may be why it doesn't start up again.

[mrobert]

This is actually not a crash; Evolution hangs, but does not shut down. After we close it manually, it refuses to restart. From what we can see in the system monitor, the evolution process is still active, which may be why it doesn't start up again.

Hi,

We will look into this.
What distribution do you have?

[KIAaze]

I've been a bad beta tester. :oops:
I didn't try the second beta release after the first one failed to have sound.

But I'm happy to report that sound works in the demo on 64-bit. :)

Haven't played through it completely yet due to lack of time, but here are the problems I encountered so far:
The f1,f2,f3 and page up/down keys do not seem to work.

P.S.: It's nice to have tab completion, but history (up/down keys) and copy paste would also be nice.
Also if there are several possibilities for tab completion in bash, it lists the different possibilities instead of choosing the first one. Would be nice to have ingame too.

[mrobert]

@KIAaze:

What kind of keyboard do you have? You have something more exotic?

[KIAaze]

It's a pretty standard qwerty keyboard connected over USB.

[mrobert]

It's a pretty standard qwerty keyboard connected over USB.

We will look into this.
Does anyone else experience this?

[Mangnoppa]

I've got the same problem.

Using german keyboard AAO150

[mrobert]

I've got the same problem.

Using german keyboard AAO150

Hi,

Thanks for the note. We are looking into this.

[Artificial Intelligence]

As the game have been released and this thread have become old, I'm closing it up. Further discussion can be continued here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1433203