The big new ad campaign from Microsoft (starring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld) has begun.  And here is the first ad.

It.  Is.  Awesome.

Sure.  It doesn’t make me want to run Vista.

Hell.  I doesn’t even mention Vista.

But, you know what?  It makes me want a churro very, very badly.  And, as far as I’m concerned, that is the mark of a truly successful commercial.

(It also wins points for not being horribly, horribly annoying like the “I’m a Mac” ads.)

Everyone’s all pumped up.  The intertubes are all a-buzz.  Google is making a web browser, and it is called… “Chrome“.

And, according to the Google blog, the initial release is only available for Windows (No Linux.  No Mac.).  Though they say “We’re hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux”.

Of course, based on Google’s past track record in the desktop application arena, the Linux version of Chrome might very well just end up being the Windows version running under emulation… followed by the Linux version lagging behind the Windows version (which is what they did with Picasa).

I think a lot of people want to believe that, since Google’s new browser users the WebKit framework (which is open source and cross platform) for rendering web pages, we will see a nice, native Linux client.

Apple also uses WebKit in Safari.  Do we have a Linux client from them?  Nope.  That, combined with Google’s established inclination to focus on Windows and run application under emulation on Linux… well that prospect just doesn’t look good.

Then there’s the whole issue of “why”.  Why make Google Chrome?

It seems to me that the answer is obvious: To try to take as much market-share from Firefox as possible so that Google will not have to share in the advertising revenues that keep them profitable.

Obviously the initial adopters of Chrome are going to be the kind of Windows users that are already running a non-InternetExplorer browser (Opera, Firefox, etc).

Plus… do I really want an advertising company controlling my entire web experience?

This all makes me go “meh”.  Chrome is irrelevant.

In the first part of this series we focused on Nokia’s line of Internet Tablets, and what they offer to the casual and hardcore gamers (short version: a lot).

Now it’s time to turn our gaze to a device meant, from the very beginning, to play games: The Linux-powered GP2X from Gamepark Holdings.

The GP2X has been available for close to 3 years now (for comparison purposes: Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS are pushing the 4 year mark), which has allowed for a fairly vibrant home-brew software scene to do what it does best: crank out lots of demos, games and emulators.

The GP2X offers a very traditional gaming experience (a nice d-pad/control stick, four main buttons, shoulder buttons, etc.)… gamers coming from a DS or PSP will feel right at home.

But what about the games?  After all, the most powerful gaming hardware in the world doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot without great games.  So let’s dive right in.

First person shooters.  Oh boy, there are plenty.  Duke Nukem 3D.  Doom.  Hexen.  Heretic.  Descent.  Descent 2.  Aleph One (aka “Marathon”).  Rise of the Triad.  And even Wolfenstein 3D.

It’s like having a “best of” collection of first person shooters in your pocket.  No other device comes even close.  (Well, okay, that’s not entirely accurate.  What I should say is “No other non-Linux device comes close”.)

And, since the GP2X has an SD card slot, you can fit all of these games on a single card.  It’s a thing of beauty.

Also in the “games like this make politicians cringe” category: there is the commercial game, Payback.  Essentially Payback is an enhanced version of the original Grand Theft Auto.  There aren’t many commercial titles available for sale on the GP2X… but this one is well worth it.  Especially if you are a fan of the “steal someones car and run people over with it” genre.

Looking for something a little more family friendly… or perhaps more oldschool?  Vektar, also a commercial title, is worth checking out.  Old-school vector graphics.  Fast paced arcade-style action.  Very Tempest in look.  Similar in many ways to Geometry Wars.

If you are a fan of those “I am pretending to dance” or “I am pretending to play guitar” games… you’re covered.  Beat 2X looks to be a pretty solid implementation of the “push the button at the right time” genre.  (Gonna be honest there… I don’t play these sorts of games myself… but from what I hear this one is the bees knees.  And, from the 5 minutes I tried it out for, it seemed to run well.)

If arcade/puzzle games are your thing then both Frozen Bubble (a Bust-A-Move / Puzzle Bobble clone) and GPNoid2x (an Arkanoid / Breakout clone) are definitely worth a checkout.

Now, if you are like me, you love a good strategy title.  If so, Crimson Fields is excellent:  Turn-based, tactical warfare on the go.  This represents some of the best in hard-core strategy gaming available on any portable device.

While we’re talking about game genres I love: let’s talk about Elite 2: Frontier.  This is a port of the classic space trading / combat game of the same name.  The game itself is completely open-ended.  There is no goal.  There are no quests.  No missions.  You simply fly around in your space ship trading goods.  And it is awesome.  Sure, the graphics are dated (the original came out in 1993), but the gameplay is a blast and works very well on the GP2X.

If role playing is a little more your thing, there are a few pretty cool options.  Namely: The Ur-Quan Masters (space action RPG) and Egoboo 2X.  Egoboo is a 3D dungeon crawler (ala Nethack, etc).

There are, of course, interpreters available.  Last time we talked about ScummVM (which allows you to run old Lucas Arts adventure games) on the Nokia Tablets… ScummVM is available here too and it works pretty well.  (Though, I’m going to be honest, it works far better on the Nokia Tablets… that device just seems custom made for these sorts of mouse-centric games.)

Then there is Exult.  Exult is an interpreter that allows you to play Ultima 7.  And it works very well on the GP2X (especially if you have one of the newer models with the touch screen).  Ultima 7 is a fantastic RPG, arguably one of the best ever, and compares incredibly favorably against the best that any of the non-linux handheld consoles can offer.

Which brings us to what the GP2X does best: Emulation.

It is difficult to discuss the emulation options available on the GP2X… simply because there is so much of it.  I’m going to highlight a few parts here, but I highly recommend heading over to the GP2X file archive and checking out the emulation section.

My personal two favorites: GNGeo (A NeoGeo emulator, which brings some of the best, and most visually rich, 2D fighting and arcade games to a handheld) and Vice2X (A C64 emulator).

There are emulators for just about every system you could want:  Atari ST, GameBoy, GameBoy Advance, Sega Genesis, SNES, Amiga, TurboGrafx-16 (aka PCEngine), Sega Master System… The list goes on and on.

Even if you don’t include the available emulators, the games available on the GP2X are some of the highest quality (and most visually impressive) available for any hand-held platform.  Then, once you add in the ability to play any classic game you can dream of in emulation (provided you own the original game, of course)… this little device becomes an almost unstoppable powerhouse of gaming in your pocket.

And, best of all, the GP2X… and all of these games… are available right now.

So.  We’ve got the Nokia (Maemo Powered) Internet Tablets and the GP2X.  Powerful, flexible and, relatively, open devices.  A huge library of, ported and original, high quality games.  A vast array of emulation options.  Seems like Linux powered hand-held devices kinda blow the doors off some of those other systems, right?

Well, we’re just getting started.  Next up in this series: The future (aka: next few months) of hand-held Linux-powered gaming.

Many, many people have difficulty running a dual-head (multiple monitor) setup in Linux.  This has been one of those “why doesn’t this work right, yet?” issues for quite a long time now for a lot of people.

Well, it’s getting better.

People have been working on making it so that this can work properly from the “Screen Resolution” application in Ubuntu.  From this post:

“Unfortunately, Xorg currently requires you to specify the “Virtual” option in xorg.conf in order to do dual-head, if the combined desktop would be larger than the default maximum. This is nearly always the case, so it meant that in practice Screen Resolution couldn’t setup multi-head displays for you.

Alberto Milone developed a Python xorg.conf reader/writer called X-Kit. Using this backend, we’ve been able to hook in a script that will detect when you need to adjust your Virtual setting, and offer to take care of it for you.”

Very cool.  Of course that’s just a temporary fix…

“Eventually, upstream will be eliminating the need to manually specify “Virtual”, so maybe by Intrepid+1 we’ll not need this extra package, but for now it’ll enable this (IMHO important) feature to work.”

I know of one particular co-host of the Linux Action Show that would use profanity substantially less if this worked reliably for him.  So a big thanks to those that are tackling this.