Adventures in Old-School Gaming on Linux Mint 20.1

Linux Mint 20.1 was released shortly after my last post, and now I guess that saves me the trouble of putting a "Part 2" in the title of this addendum to that earlier post. Nothing below actually has anything to do with the upgrade to Linux Mint, though; everything done here should work on Linux Mint 20 and everything described in the earlier post should work on Linux Mint 20.1. If the title of this post misleads the hypothetical reader into thinking otherwise, then the reader must not be reading this opening paragraph and probably deserves to be confused.

Anyway, I installed some more extremely ancient video games on my Linux computer with varying degrees of ease. I'm documenting this mostly for my own sake — but if it helps anyone else, that's super neat.

Game Data Packager

I was able to install a few more games with this nice little tool whose general usage is documented a bit more in my previous post.

Some LucasArts Adventure Games

I happen to have copies of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, and The Dig on the original CDs. Linux Mint makes mounting CDs and ISOs pretty easy, so without even really knowing how it works, I was able to mount each CD and run game-data-packager for each.

game-data-packager -d ~/deb/ -i atlantis /media/michael/ATLANTIS/  # with Indiana Jones mounted
game-data-packager -d ~/deb/ -i sam-and-max /media/michael/disk  # with Sam & Max mounted
game-data-packager -d ~/deb/ -i dig /media/michael/DIG1/  # with The Dig mounted

I tried the same with Full Throttle, but for some reason it didn't recognize the game data on my disc. Maybe the data is corrupted due to an unfortunate scratch on the disc; maybe there are different versions of the game and game-data-packager just doesn't recognize mine. In any case, I do have Full Throttle Remastered on Steam which is natively Linux-compatible so I guess it's not a big deal.

For Atlantis, Sam & Max, and The Dig — which all run in ScummVM — the use of game-data-packager saved me the trouble of manually locating and copying the necessary game data files, and also created menu shortcuts. I think it also would have installed ScummVM automatically, if I hadn't already installed it for some free games acquired via Linux Mint's package manager:

sudo apt install beneath-a-steel-sky drascula flight-of-the-amazon-queen lure-of-the-temptress

Some Apogee Games

I've had The Apogee Throwback Pack in my Steam account for a while, but had never actually installed it before this week. The pack comes with Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold, Blake Stone: Planet Strike, Rise of the Triad, and Extreme Rise of the Triad. The game-data-packager tool supports all of them.

Rise of the Triad

With the pack installed via Steam, I executed the following:

mkdir -p ~/deb
game-data-packager -d ~/deb/ -i rott

This automatically installed a Rise of the Triad source port for me. However, the correct usage of it wasn't immediately obvious. It created a single menu shortcut called "Rise of the Triad" which simply runs rott; meanwhile, the newly installed /usr/games/rott is a link to /etc/alternatives/rott which by default is a link to /usr/games/rott-shareware which runs the game's shareware episode, even though game-data-packager did find the full game in my Steam directory. A separate executable, /usr/games/rott-commercial, runs the full game. Meanwhile, /etc/alternatives/rott can be updated to point to rott-commercial instead of rott-shareware by running update-alternatives --config rott and selecting the appropriate option. Confused yet? Well, I guess it's really not that confusing, but I'm a little disappointed that game-data-packager effectively provided only a shareware menu shortcut out of the box when I was trying to install the full game.

I didn't bother with update-alternatives; I just created my own menu shortcut (in ~/.local/share/applications/ to override the existing one in /usr/share/applications) which explicitly runs rott-commercial instead of rott. (Later on, I also went back and created another shortcut which explicitly runs rott-shareware, which seems worth having because the shareware episode is actually separate from any of the episodes in the commercial release.)

Running Extreme Rise of the Triad was a bit trickier. At first, I had no idea how to do it. Documentation is sparse, even on the source port's official site. Then I opened up Synaptic Package Manager and checked the description of the rott-extreme-data package installed by game-data-packager; it indicates Extreme Rise of the Triad is played by running rott-commercial -filertl extreme.rtl. However, even this isn't quite right. That file's name is actually uppercase, and I had to provide the full path, so the correct command to run Extreme Rise of the Triad is rott-commercial -filertl /usr/share/games/rott/EXTREME.RTL. I made a menu shortcut for that too, so now I don't have to think about it anymore.

Blake Stone

Next up are the Blake Stone games. Again, with The Apogee Throwback Pack installed via Steam, I used game-data-packager to package up the game files:

mkdir -p ~/deb
game-data-packager -d ~/deb/ -i blakestone

Unfortunately... well, this didn't do much for me. It didn't automatically install any Blake Stone source port, or anything else with which to run the game. It just packaged up the game data files and installed them to /usr/share/games/blakestone/. So I had to install a Blake Stone source port called BStone myself. The installation was done approximately as recommended in the README on the project's GitHub page, the only differences being the install location and the fact that I had to install cmake on the spot:

mkdir -p ~/git
cd ~/git
git clone https://github.com/bibendovsky/bstone.git
cd bstone/build
sudo apt install cmake
cmake ../src -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/git/bstone/build/install
make install

I don't know why the documentation recommended installing to a subdirectory of the build folder. I shouldn't have listened. To make things a bit less horrible, though, I just had to create a link to the bstone executable in a location that appears in my $PATH:

sudo ln -s ~/git/bstone/build/install/bstone /usr/local/games/

Now I can just run bstone. But the source port doesn't know to look for data in /usr/share/games/blakestone/, where game-data-packager installed it, so I actually have to run bstone --data_dir /usr/share/games/blakestone to make it work. Meanwhile, running bstone --aog --data_dir /usr/share/games/blakestone makes it run Aliens of Gold without prompting to select a game, and bstone --ps --data_dir /usr/share/games/blakestone does the same for Planet Strike.

Aleph One

Marathon Trilogy

I wanted to play Marathon again, so I set out to install Aleph One. For the same reasons mentioned a while ago, I was hesitant to rely on the probably outdated tarball made available on the official Aleph One site. So, as I've done before, I checked out the latest source code from GitHub and compiled it. This required installing some dependencies as documented in the README on the project's GitHub page. I had neglected to document the exact process before, so now here it is:

mkdir -p git
cd git
git clone https://github.com/Aleph-One-Marathon/alephone.git
cd alephone
sudo apt install autoconf automake
sudo apt install libboost-all-dev  # Boost
sudo apt install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-net-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev  # SDL2-related
sudo apt install libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libavutil-dev libswscale-dev  # FFmpeg-related
sudo apt install libspeexdsp-dev libzzip-dev libpng-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev  # Other
./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

With that done, I downloaded the game files from the Aleph One site, and created a menu shortcut for each of the three Marathon games. Each shortcut just runs alephone <dir>, where <dir> is the location of that game's files.

After doing this, I noticed that game-data-packager does support the Marathon trilogy, but I'm not sure what it would have done for me here except perhaps installing the game files to some system-wide location instead of the ~/.local/share/games/ folder where I dumped them. It wouldn't have installed Aleph One for me, because it's not in my distro's package repository.

Retrospective: Asphalt and Trouble

The 1995 LucasArts adventure game Full Throttle is a cherished memory from my younger years. As a result, I think it's impossible for me to discuss it without bias; if I say the game is great, it could just be the nostalgia talking. But a little bias never hurt anyone, so I'll just say it: The game is great.

Sure, it's a bit outdated; the graphics, obviously, are laughable by modern standards. Still, I'd argue that the game has aged rather well, considering how long it's been around. While the graphics (in a technical sense) are pretty awful, the artistic style can still be appreciated. Instead of attempting realism (which never looks good seventeen years later), the game's designers chose a rather cartoon-like aesthetic, which might seem at odds with the violent biker gang theme, but the game is not without its share of humor. What's important is that it still looks good... I mean, once you look past those big pixels.

It might not be good enough for children who grew up with HD everything, but it's good enough for me. In any case, whether it's pretty or ugly — especially, in fact, when it's ugly — a game has to be fun. Unfortunately, I'd be lying if I said this game is for everyone. Given that it's heavily story-driven and consists mostly of clicking on things, some might find it rather dull. I think some might even claim that it's hardly a game at all, but more of an interactive cartoon.

As I mentioned two weeks ago, such things have been said — perhaps unfairly — about several recent releases by Telltale Games, a developer of similar story-driven adventure/puzzle games. The similarity, in fact, is no coincidence; the company was founded in 2004 by former LucasArts employees, who were working on an unreleased sequel to the classic Sam & Max Hit the Road, when LucasArts suddenly pulled the plug on their entire adventure game department. Since then, Telltale Games has been making what are essentially the modern equivalents of the old LucasArts adventure titles (and even a few sequels, most notably their episodically released Sam & Max series).

Despite the common criticism regarding a lack of what some purists would consider to be "real" gameplay, however, many of these recent games have been well received, so we know there's an audience who can still appreciate what Full Throttle has to offer. Then again, perhaps it's just more nostalgic bias, since a lot of this audience probably shares my fond memories of the '90s. Certainly it's not the same desirable mainstream audience that thinks Call of Duty is the pinnacle of interactive entertainment. Full Throttle, though it's a very short game (easily finished in one sitting if you know what to do), is probably not for the player with a short attention span.

Like many of the adventure games of its era, particularly those made by LucasArts and based on the SCUMM engine, Full Throttle is essentially point-and-click puzzle game. As such, it requires a bit of patience. You walk around, talk to characters, and find items to use with other items in specific places. That's pretty much it, except for a few mandatory mini-games with frustrating controls. While it is a bit more than an interactive cartoon, you'll have a lot more fun with this game if you do like the idea of an interactive cartoon, because without the story this game would be little more than a series of items to collect and doors to kick open.

In other words, aside from a few deadly biker fights (somewhat reminiscent of a backwards-facing Road Rash) and a single demolition derby gone wrong (warning: you just read spoilers), there isn't a whole lot of action outside of the cutscenes, and winning the game means little more than doing the right things in the right order, rarely with a time limit or any sense of urgency. Surely Full Throttle is among the most action-packed of the LucasArts "point-and-click" adventure games, but it's not an "action game" by any stretch of the imagination. Like all of its brethren, it's a "casual" game if I ever saw one — at least, that's the modern terminology — and, worse, there's only any replay value if you're highly entertained by the plot. That being said, though, the plot of this one is rather good.

Not much of a back-story is explicitly revealed during the game. The presence of hovercraft technology, of course, tells us it's sometime in the future; meanwhile, the heavy security at the local gas tower and the sad shape of the surrounding town tells us that it's not a very nice future, at least not for the barren wasteland of an unnamed western state in which the game takes place. There are even some vague hints of something post-apocalyptic — see, perhaps, the lyrics of this pleasant song that plays on a radio in the game — but all we really know is what we see. Except for the occasional gameplay hint, none of the characters seem willing to explain to the player what Ben should already know.

Ben, the protagonist, is a bit of an enigma himself. We know he's a tough-looking dude who loves his motorcycle, and that he's the leader of a biker gang called the Polecats, but his past is a mystery. His future, also, is anything but certain; he and his buddies are running low on cash. (Being an outlaw in this particular post-apocalyptic future doesn't seem to be as lucrative a career as one would hope.) Ben, however, is confident that things are about to change.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Corley, the founder and owner of the last motorcycle manufacturing company in the nation, is in poor health, with only a few months to live. This is bad news for bikers everywhere; Malcolm is somewhat of a hero to them, while Adrian Ripburger — the man who plans to take over Corley Motors in Malcolm's stead — has only his own best interests in mind... and we can only assume he's plotting something horrible.

It's not long before their paths cross; when the Polecats happen to encounter a fancy hover-limo on Highway 9, Ben pops a wheelie and drives right over the top of it, presumably unaware that Malcolm Corley himself is inside. Corley, more impressed than offended, catches up to the Polecats at a nearby bar, and Ripburger takes the opportunity to offer the Polecats employment as escorts to the Corley Motors shareholders meeting. When Ben refuses, he gets knocked out and stuffed in a dumpster, while the rest of the gang — believing that Ben changed his mind and got a head start — is tricked into driving straight into an ambush.

Things start out kind of slow — after the long opening cinematic, your first act as the player is to punch your way out of the dumpster so you can find the keys to your bike, which (spoiler alert) gets wrecked shortly thereafter, and following another long cinematic you're sent on a quest to find the necessary tools to have the bike repaired. But once you're back on the road for good, things start to get interesting... like, murder-and-conspiracy-and-explosions interesting. I don't want to spoil any of the really good parts, but things very quickly go from exciting to completely over-the-top, culminating in some truly awesome scenes part-way through the game and a ridiculous finale involving an airplane.

As far as I was concerned, back in 1995, the game was a masterpiece. Critical reception, while not quite that enthusiastic, was favorable to say the least. But I suspect it's not as timeless as I wish it could be. Today's critics and players would no doubt be more harsh. Perhaps, at the time, we were more patient. Or perhaps we were all too easily amused by the use of games as a storytelling medium, complete with full voice acting and witty dialogue.

While storytelling in games had been around for quite a long time, Full Throttle did it well, due in part to a talented cast. (Despite the developer's obvious connection to the Star Wars franchise, I was surprised to see Mark Hamill in the opening credits.) Throw in a notably enjoyable soundtrack, a ludicrously bad-ass main character, and a handful of explosions, and you've pretty much pushed the point-and-click adventure genre to its absolute limits.

Finding a working copy of the game shouldn't be too much of a challenge, despite its age; last time I checked Amazon, there were a number of them for sale. (I'm sure you could download it illegally, as well, but I never tried this; I still have my seventeen-year-old CD copy of the game, and it's a bit scratched, but it still works.) As for getting it to work on a modern computer, you can thank the makers of ScummVM for doing this for you. Their software is free, and it runs these old SCUMM-based adventure games almost perfectly on a number of operating systems and devices.

So is it worth playing? If you're a fan of old games, absolutely; if you're a fan of biker gangs and exploding bridges, most definitely; otherwise, it's hit or miss. I'd like to think anyone can enjoy this game, but it's hard for new players to get excited about old things when there are a million newer (much prettier) games to play. But if outdated graphics aren't a problem for you, then Full Throttle might just be the old-school biker-themed graphical point-and-click adventure game you've been missing all your life.