Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

2 quick game updates:

0AD alpha 4


0 AD alpha 4 "Daedalus" was released recently. 0 AD is a historical real-time strategy open-source game.

Changes in the latest 0AD alpha 4:
  • Added initial prototype version of opponent AI: It can train female citizens, collect resources, build houses, farms & barracks, train soldiers & send them to the enemy civ center.
  • Improved fog-of-war rendering.
  • Fixed terrain texture blending.
  • Added opt-in automatic feedback system.
  • Fixed foundation obstruction handling.
  • Added support for build limits.
  • Extended animal AI: Animals like Lions, Elephants, etc. can now fight back, and some escape farther away from perceived threats.
  • New units, weapons and sounds
  • Many other improvements

For more details, see the release announcement.


Here is a 0AD alpha 4 video:



To install 0AD (from SVN - currently it's alpha 4 but new SVN packages will probably be uploaded soon) use the following commands - available for Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10 and 11.04:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wfg/0ad
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install 0ad

There's also a PPA repository that provides bleeding edge builds for those who want to constantly stay up to date with the latest 0AD from SVN - currently, this PPA provides the same version as in the PPA above.

I did not test the latest 0AD because I got the following message: "You are using 260.19.* series NVIDIA drivers, which may crash the game. Please upgrade to 260.19.21 or later" but hopefully you have some other graphics card / drivers.


Please note that while 0AD is available on GetDeb, that's an older version and not the latest alpha 4.

For direct downloads (other Linux distributions, Windows and Mac OS X), check out the 0AD website.


Red Eclipse 1.0


Red Eclipse 1.0 has been released yesterday. This is a "single-player and multi-player first-person ego-shooter, built as a total conversion of Cube Engine 2, which lends itself toward a balanced gameplay, with a general theme of agility in a variety of environments".


Check out the following video demoing the latest Red Eclipse 1.0:



Install the latest Red Eclipse 1.0 in Ubuntu using the following PPA - available for Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10 and 11.04:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:arand/redeclipse
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install redeclipse

The above PPA currently provides the latest Red Eclipse 1.0 but will probably be updated with Red Eclipse SVN builds later on.


For Windows, Mac OS X and source files, see the Red Eclipse Sourceforge page.