LinuxGames.com: Loki Retrospective | Linux Today

LinuxGames.com: Loki Retrospective

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Aug 15, 2001

[ Thanks to Dustin
Reyes
for this link. ]

LinuxGames.com offers this look back at Loki Software’s history,
offers a little speculation on what’s next for the company, and
appears to have the only quote from Loki’s Scott Draeker on the
matter of the company’s declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

“Two and a half years after the initial announcement of
the Linux version of Civilization: Call to Power, Loki
Entertainment Software, the respected Linux game porting house, has
filed for bankruptcy. After a long series of departures of both
development and technical support, most of the core employees have
left for careers elsewhere. Certainly now is an appropriate time to
look back on the events that transpired in the life of Loki: where
they came from, what they achieved, and some thoughts on where they
stand now.

On 26 January 1999 various news sites ran a story about Loki
Entertainment Software porting Activision’s Civilization: Call to
Power to Linux. According to Scott Draeker, the president and
founder of Loki, the idea to port games to Linux had originally
come up during the summer of 1998, no doubt stirred by their
understanding that there were 12 to 15 million Linux users
worldwide at that time. Certainly, there seemed to be an
opportunity providing games to a fast-growing market which had been
mostly ignored, except for some efforts by a well-known maker of
first person shooters.

For the first time, Linux users were treated to the experiences
known all too well in the land of Windows games: a selection
process for beta testers, a smattering of screenshots to keep the
public in touch, a delay in the planned schedule, and eventually a
final release date. Then, for the first time, on 19 June 1999, a
reader of LinuxGames sent word that he’d purchased a retail version
of a game for Linux at his local Electronics Boutique.”

Complete
Story

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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