Work begins on Baldur's Gate: Raspberry Pi Edition
December 14, 2012 | 10:17
Companies: #arm #beamdog #bioware #raspberry-pi
Beamdog's Scott Brooks has announced that he is attempting to port its rebooted role-playing title Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition to the Linux-based Raspberry Pi microcomputer.
Announced back in March, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition updates BioWare's 1998 classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition computer role-playing game (CRPG, not an initialism that sees much use these days) brought a bunch of former BioWare staffers together in a Beamdog-owned studio dubbed Overhaul in an effort to introduce the classic title to a new generation of gamers. Based on the original source code, the Enhanced Edition includes new missions, characters, and a claimed 400 improvements to the game engine.
The Enhanced Edition is also available on more devices: as well as a version for Windows, Beamdog has released an iPad version with plans to launch the title on OS X soon and Android at some indeterminate point in the future. What the company hasn't officially announced, however, is a Linux port.
Scott Brooks, a server-side architecture developer and system administrator at Beamdog, aims to resolve that lack, taking the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition source code and attempting to compile a Linux version tweaked to run on the £30 Raspberry Pi - a computer which, it must be noted, costs less than did the original boxed Baldur's Gate game at launch.
Speaking to the Raspberry Pi Foundation via Twitter, Brooks confirmed his plans: 'First attempt at compiling Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition on our Raspberry Pi,' wrote Brooks. 'Step 1: sort out all the dependencies.'
That Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition should run on the low-power Pi is no real surprise: the game was written with 1998's hardware in mind, and the improvements in the Enhanced Edition are such that it will happily run on the Apple iPad - a device based on an ARM architecture processor much like the one in the Raspberry Pi, with a more powerful CPU portion but less grunt in the GPU department.
Brooks' standalone comment, however, shouldn't be confused with an official announcement of Linux support from Beamdog or Overhaul. While a Raspberry Pi release would be a great validation of the device for low-cost gaming use, or as the basis for a low-power games console, a general Linux release would be even better - but thus far the promise of an Android port is as close to offering a Linux version as Beamdog has come.
With companies increasingly looking at Linux as a potential platform for growth, it's hard to imagine Brooks is working on the project without the blessings of his employer.
Announced back in March, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition updates BioWare's 1998 classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition computer role-playing game (CRPG, not an initialism that sees much use these days) brought a bunch of former BioWare staffers together in a Beamdog-owned studio dubbed Overhaul in an effort to introduce the classic title to a new generation of gamers. Based on the original source code, the Enhanced Edition includes new missions, characters, and a claimed 400 improvements to the game engine.
The Enhanced Edition is also available on more devices: as well as a version for Windows, Beamdog has released an iPad version with plans to launch the title on OS X soon and Android at some indeterminate point in the future. What the company hasn't officially announced, however, is a Linux port.
Scott Brooks, a server-side architecture developer and system administrator at Beamdog, aims to resolve that lack, taking the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition source code and attempting to compile a Linux version tweaked to run on the £30 Raspberry Pi - a computer which, it must be noted, costs less than did the original boxed Baldur's Gate game at launch.
Speaking to the Raspberry Pi Foundation via Twitter, Brooks confirmed his plans: 'First attempt at compiling Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition on our Raspberry Pi,' wrote Brooks. 'Step 1: sort out all the dependencies.'
That Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition should run on the low-power Pi is no real surprise: the game was written with 1998's hardware in mind, and the improvements in the Enhanced Edition are such that it will happily run on the Apple iPad - a device based on an ARM architecture processor much like the one in the Raspberry Pi, with a more powerful CPU portion but less grunt in the GPU department.
Brooks' standalone comment, however, shouldn't be confused with an official announcement of Linux support from Beamdog or Overhaul. While a Raspberry Pi release would be a great validation of the device for low-cost gaming use, or as the basis for a low-power games console, a general Linux release would be even better - but thus far the promise of an Android port is as close to offering a Linux version as Beamdog has come.
With companies increasingly looking at Linux as a potential platform for growth, it's hard to imagine Brooks is working on the project without the blessings of his employer.
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