Loki Software

The Loki Software, Inc. was an American software company that specialized in porting known computer games to Linux. In the four years of its existence Loki became the largest commercial gaming operators in the Linux market and was on the developed software tools a pioneer in cross -platform software development.

History

Loki Software was founded in August 1998 by Scott Draeker.

In addition to publishing games ports Loki developed several free utilities such as the Loki_Installer or Loki_Setup who found about the existence period of the enterprise application. The company had as of 1999 inter alia a distribution agreement with the German Linux distribution vendors, SUSE Linux GmbH, drove the Loki games in the German retail sector.

The company continued to make contributions to open source projects in the area of Linux-based operating system and cross- computer game development. Loki's chief programmer Sam Lantinga developed the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL ), as the basis for many Loki ports (including Civilization: Call to Power, Descent 3, Unreal Tournament, Sid Meier 's Alpha Centauri ) acted. Also the idea for OpenAL, a platform- independent programming interface for generating three-dimensional sound effects and surround sound, in 1998 went to the account of Loki Software. On the distribution of the standard Loki 1999 entered into a strategic partnership with Creative Labs, the leading provider at this time for sound cards for Windows operating systems. In February 2000, Loki OpenAL reported as a brand name. Following the closure of Loki, the development of programming by Creative was continued. In collaboration with id Software GtkRadiant, originally developed for the Quake 3 engine map editor, which was later developed as a tool for other projects and was adapted. In addition, Loki made ​​contributions to the GNU Compiler Collection (gcc ), Mesa 3D and SMPEG.

Published in 2001 Loki Software along with John Reeves Hall the book Programming Linux Games, a tutorial for Simple DirectMedia Layer.

Insolvency of Loki

2002, however, the company had to sign for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and ceased operations. Other games, such as the acclaimed Deus Ex, which until partially completed and the development of the verge of insolvency, were no longer published. With the closure of the market for commercial Linux Games was thrown back. In the following years it was possible any company to adopt a similar position as Loki.

In response to the threatened closure of the company in 2001, the company Linux Game Publishing was founded by Michael Simms in Nottingham, the ported to date commercial computer games to Linux. The development of GtkRadiant was continued by id Software, led by Timothee Besset. Also the support for the Linux version of Quake 3 was taken from the development studio in Austin. The support for Loki games and development tools was partially continued in private, ex-employees, Ryan C. Gordon after closure.

Reception and influence

In just three years of existence Loki became the largest commercial gaming operators in the Linux market, Loki's product release nurtured in reporting the expectation that Linux could establish itself as a permanent alternative to the Windows operating system. Loki was the specially developed (or helped develop ) software tools (SDL, OpenAL, Loki_Installer etc ) is an important pioneer of cross -platform software development on the PC.

For example, initiated by Loki SDL library is actively developed (as of October 2013) and is used in many commercial and non- commercial software projects: the games database MobyGames lists 2012 105 games that use SDL website itself nearly 700 games on the SDL.

Games Ports

Loki ported about 20 game titles, often based on the Simple DirectMedia Layer. The programs were of Loki while also partially compared to the first publication of revised ( eg Myth 2).

• Civilization: Call to Power with your own expenses for German, English, French and Spanish
• Descent ³ Descent ³ Mercenary only as a downloadable installer for the Windows version

• Rune: Halls of Valhalla could be installed in the Linux version only as an extension