This article details the story of a KDE-loving software engineer who was forced to use Windows for his job. "His only hope was that he knew Qt was cross compatible with Windows Linux and Mac, and there was talk that someday, KDE was to be ported to Windows. So he waited. Well, KDE4 was announced and there was much joy. Betas were released and there was much bitching. KDE4.0.0 was released and there again was much joy (and still a little bitching). More importantly an actual honest to goodness Windows port is released. Here follows that engineer's report."
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Member since:2005-07-08
Yes, it's from Gentoo but it works on any distro... Most of the Loki games use a symbolic link to the executable, so it's quite easy to add the instructions on the wiki to a script, remove the symbolic link, and your done.
Come on 
you made my day, I just wrote before that having to tweak the dynamic linker was not considered as straithforward and guess what I found on the link you provided ?
The solution is to use an old version of glibc such as 2.2.5. However all the other libraries used by the game must also be compiled against an equally old (or older) version of glibc. (..)The game is then run by prepending the game binary to run the game with the old ld-linux.so.2 dynamic linker/loader
So 1) could you tell me what you taught me ? 2) Could you tell me how easy it is compared to just run an installer ?
Last time, I was upset about the reactivity of my mail reader (thunderbird) so i wanted to install an old version of Netscape communicator just to check if my memory was right about its speed and even with all the tricks I know (such as making work genuine version of Houdini and Wordperfect on mandriva 2006) I couldn't manage to get it work and I think that not being able to install apps I 've been working with for ages sucks like hell.
Cheers,
Djamé
Member since:2005-07-07
Oh come on, you've cited your own examples there-- The big closed legacy apps are: Netscape Communicator, Wordperfect 8 and 9, the Loki games, and the Transgaming release of the Sims. OK-- That's 2001 (and earlier). Tell you daughter what you like, but odds are she wasn't born or eating solid food when this stuff came out-- and there is a theororetical (and somwhat contrived) probability you might need Netscape, but come on.
Compare that what to how many hours you spend hunting software on a virgin Windows install. Let's see-- first of all you want to keep that virgin Windows box of the net. Then you probably need to find: A decent firewall, virus scanner, spyware remover, Web browser, and your fav plugins and codecs. Then you remove the crap the vendor installed. Then you connect the machine to the web and have to do microsoft and your vendor updates. Then you have to the hardware vendor's sites and and grab the even more recent than your system vendor's drivers. Then you get to use your computer, and still put up with all manner of new bugs in legacy apps. Then, unless your family and friends stay on top of all of this stuff you get to repeat the process in 6 months. (Don't I know it...)
I'll take the pain of google and a 4 line script to run 7 year old software any day... I fix enough Windows boxes for family and friends as it is... (Which is sad because I haven't worked on Windows boxes in years, and it left my desktop in 98 or so.)
Member since:
2005-07-07
Most of the old Loki games work fine here... SMAC, SimCity 3000, and might and magic anyway. If you're having problems try:
(Google-fu)
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Running_Old_Loki_Games
Yes, it's from Gentoo but it works on any distro... Most of the Loki games use a symbolic link to the executable, so it's quite easy to add the instructions on the wiki to a script, remove the symbolic link, and your done.
So if the game doesn't work it's a google search for "old Loki games", 4 lines of text, the ability to delete a file, and the ability to save a file. Failing that you could go play with a pile of rocks. :p
(And before you say: "Ohh that's too much work for Joe User!" this is the same Joe User that'll download a DOS emulator on Windows to play vintage DOS games so the point is moot. You can't handle an emulator if you can't handle Google and a text file.)