More updates from MaGog's logs for 12 August:

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A game has probably been added: Pilot Brothers 2

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A game has probably been added: Pilot Brothers 3: Back Side of the Earth

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No Man's Sky [Upcoming] has probably changed

>>> Features changed *FROM* Single-player *TO* Single-player, Controller support

Somebody forgot achievements... game also has that too.

Here they are! :P


Last updates from MaGog's logs for 12 August:

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A game has probably been added: 8-bit Hordes

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A game has probably been added: 8-bit Hordes Soundtrack [DLC]

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No Man's Sky has probably changed

>>> Game title changed *FROM* No Man's Sky [Upcoming] *TO* No Man's Sky

>>> Compatibility changed *FROM* [empty] *TO* Please note: The GOG Galaxy Client is required to access online features for No Man's Sky.

>>> Features changed *FROM* Single-player, Controller support *TO* Single-player, Achievements, Controller support


[FILE UPDATES]

* File added: DLC: Pre-order DLC: Windows installer, English --- File size: 8.0 MB --- Version: gog-2

* File added: Windows installer, English (part 1 of 2) --- File size: 29.0 MB --- Version: gog-2

* File added: Windows installer, English (part 2 of 2) --- File size: 2.4 GB --- Version: gog-2


[NO CHANGELOG]

I emailed the QUBE devs back in March asking about the Linux version, at the time their reponse was positive and a GOG release looked likely (especially after the Mac version was added here shortly after) but the latest reply from them isn't good :( Somewhat puzzling, as there was a DRM-free release in Humble Indie Bundle 15 and the Steam version appears to be DRM-free (it appears to run fine without Steam here after a brief test at least). Would've liked to have been able to include it in my Try Linux giveaways. Oh well :/

On the plus side, at least they actually responded & explained why, even if the reason seems a bit dubious. I really hate it when publishers/developers just stay silent.

Well... I would sincerely have preferred silence instead of a bullshit explanation. :\

Well. Apparently the build GOG were sent did not run without Steam, which is why they rejected it. So I copied the game over to one of my other systems that has never had Steam installed and tried it there... and it worked fine. I suspect that perhaps GOG were sent the wrong build by mistake...

I got an update from them with further info. This is what they've said: I still find this a bit dubious, as I know that GOG have released games that work exactly the same way before (at least for Windows - in fact, the binaries in GOG's version of QUBE Director's Cut on Windows *are* 100% identical to Steam's. Maybe GOG are only picky about it when it comes to Linux games).

Still, I'm not going to press the issue any further; whatever the reason is it's clear that the Linux version is not going to be made available here. It's very unfortunate, because it's a good game :(

Maybe GOG became more picky after the FEAR incident?

This isn't even close to comparable to that, though. All this is about is the game checking to see if Steam's running - and if so, communicating with Steam for achievements etc. otherwise running with Steamworks features disabled. This is very common & lots of developers do this so they only have to have one build for both DRM-free and Steam releases.

Edit: Even with Steam running it looks like its interaction with Steam is limited, unless it's either run through Steam directly or there's a steam_appid.txt present with the game's ID: Steam doesn't pick up that it's running without one of those anyway.

Edit 2: For reference, this is the terminal output when Steam isn't running: The game then loads and runs normally, in both cases.

deleted

Welcome back! Did you enjoy your blackout?

deleted

What if one has the Steam client installed on their PC? Couldn't that cause some kind of interference if the GOG build kept the Steam stuff in there?

I have Steam installed on this PC, which is how I downloaded the game & where I've been testing it (I've also tested on another system that's never had Steam installed on it and it works fine there). I can't see any way it would interfere with Steam unless the user went out of their way to make it do so.

From what I can see it does not interact with Steam unless it's either

A- Run directly through Steam, or
B- Has a steam_appid.txt present in the same directory as the executable with the game's AppID in it and is started while Steam is running

Running it without the Steam client running or present on the system results in this: While running it with the Steam client running in the background results in this: And it fails to connect with Steam - Steam doesn't recognise that it's running, can't get achievements etc. In both cases it runs fine in a Steam-free mode.

QUBE's savegame data is stored in the same directory as its executable, so I can't see how cloud saves could possibly be affected unless you installed it right into your SteamApps/common directory, overwriting the Steam-installed version and savegame (and in that case, *why* would anyone do that?).

I hope 8-bit armies and 8-bit hordes gets their updated installers today.