Dunno about you guys but this SRB2 mod (called SRB2 Top Down) looks kinda fun to play in my opinion. It places the camera in a slight top-down position and features co-op multiplayer. It's basically SegaSonic the Hedgehog/Sonic 3D Blast meets Super Mario 3D World (which were all listed as inspirations for the thread). The developers say they're working on porting it to SRB2 2.1. Got gears turning in my head how a Sonic game with Super Mario 3D Land/World's game design mentality (a 3D Mario game designed to play like a 2D Mario game) would be like.
There are a lot of checkpoints that start you facing the wrong way. This and this are the only two I have screenshots of. Also, I'm not sure if I'm the only one experiencing this or not, but I have to turn analog mode off and then back on again every time I start the game, otherwise it saddles me with tank controls.
Jeez, last time I played SRB2 was like 7 or 8 years ago, there were only three levels, the last of which I kept getting stuck on. Now there are full blown Mario ripoff mods! I keed, I keed. All this looks pretty rad. I'll definitely download this new version soon.
I came. Can't wait for this! I hope they release some sort of template for adding custom racers - as in, a spritesheet with an empty kart, where you'd just fill it in with whatever racer you want to add.
Welllll, you can download an older version of it here: http://mb.srb2.org/showthread.php?t=36732 It needs the 2.0.x version of SRB2 to function. I reckon it gives a basic idea of what to expect from the new one.
I haven't tried this mod myself yet, but I did play tons of SRB2 Riders, and that worked surprisingly well without analog controls. I got around the tracks no problem, and from what I'm seeing in the SRB2 Kart video, it looks like it'd feel the same.
I only played Robo Blast once about a year ago, and I enjoyed it to a certain point (I can't remember where though). I can say I was also enjoying this release to a certain point, and that point is Castle Eggman Act 2. Seriously, there are too many dick moves in the level design followed by bottomless pits. Before I got to that point though, I did enjoy it quite a bit. It's hugely refreshing to play a decent 3D fangame!
So I finally beat Aerial Garden Zone with Sonic in analog mode which was a nightmare thanks to the camera when on the converor belts, but I finally did it. Less than a minute after entering Azure Temple Zone with over 20 lives, the game crashed. I absolutely love this game and I've put over 50 hours into 2.1, but that moment made me rage very loudly. >_> Edit- Well, this level is a bitch. I could've used those 20+ lives.
You're lucky, I can't even get past Castle Eggman Zone because the boss keeps crashing on the Linux port. It's been reported as a bug twice, so I might just have to give WINE another shot on this one while 2.1 gets all its problems ironed out.
When I built a gaming computer in 2009, SRB2 was one of the many programs I couldn't get working properly with Linux and that influenced me to switch to Windows 7 three weeks after building my computer. >_> Gaming with Linux is more trouble than it's worth. You're probably best off dual-booting with Windows.
And let Windows touch this hard drive with a 20-feet pole? =P I can't believe you'd let impressions from five years ago get to you, things are always changing and improving on the Linux side of things. I didn't even need Windows for my Wacom tablet or connecting my cousin's iPod Touch 5G; you're behind on the times man. I can play most of my games fine on Ubuntu with WINE now, or they're so old that they're open source and have Linux clients. Steam's increasing catalog of Linux games, and PlayOnLinux, can help a lot extent too. The biggest problem is when there aren't any known workarounds to make a current-gen game behave, but I'd probably get a console version of it anyway; PC games in general can be a hassle to configure, even on their native OS.
Not just impressions from five years ago, but impressions I got from one of my best friends when he used Linux around a year and a half ago. That did not even remotely improve my opinion of Linux. Much of the same hassles I dealt with five years ago became issues he dealt with. Linux versions of games also tend to be noticeably buggier and some Linux versions of games have lousy or no controller support.
Were some of those issues hardware related? The Linux kernel is always adding new drivers. As of Ubuntu 12.04, I no longer needed to compile drivers for my wireless card, and in later releases, I won't need to compile drivers for my latest Wacom tablet model either. Also, depending on your sound hardware, PulseAudio will not like WINE, (Even Minecraft natively running will overwhelm Pulse.) so it's best to disable it altogether and stick to ALSA for sound in games. Linux is not always plug and play, but when it works, it's amazing. I know games just work on Windows, but that OS falls apart too easily without constant micro-management on three different fronts. That's why I've put up with Linux's downsides, stuff just stays working after I get it running; no maintenance or unexplained frame drops in games. Every OS has its problems, and I finally got tired of Windows'.
I can run TF2 on my machine in Linux with the same FPS that it gets on Windows. This is partially because Nvidia has much better Linux drivers than AMD (at least in my experience). Regardless, SRB2 has a native port anyway, and it has for a long time. Shame they don't apparently don't bug-test it though.
