Retro Linux game disk - which distro?

ImpromtuITguy

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I have here this original '99 copy of Heretic II "for Linux". Nowhere on the box or disc mentions what distro they meant it for, and I couldn't find anything about it online. I'm guessing they meant either early Debian or early Slackware, I think those were the prominent, if not almost only, distros at the time, correct me if I'm wrong. Anyone have any idea which? I want to try and go through the possibly painstaking process of installing the vintage distro I need on my old IBM beast just to play this, maybe make it a dual boot with the existing Windows 98 installation (apologies for the blurry 256 color pics, I had to downgrade them to fit them in here)
hereticlinux2.jpg
hereticlinux3.jpg
hereticlinux1.jpg
hereticlinux4.jpg
 


As it's a 1999 edition, I strongly suspect it's a 32 bit, so either a 32 bit Linux, or a 64 bit [but in most you will have to enable 32 bit codecs]
 
Ok I popped it in and they put in a nice html message knowing people would put it in Windows, complete with a link to this site lol. So, I looked up the extensions I see here, but I'm still not sure...
hereticlinux5.jpg
hereticlinux6.jpg
hereticlinux7.jpg
 
As it's a 1999 edition, I strongly suspect it's a 32 bit, so either a 32 bit Linux, or a 64 bit [but in most you will have to enable 32 bit codecs]
Yes it must be 32 bit. My 98 wouldn't even read 64 bit files.

I read up a little more, what I see here are mostly .tar and .gtk, which are apparently compatible with both Debian and Slackware. I think this is why it just says Linux, both major distributions at the time supported it. So now the question is, which do you think I should install for this? What would you use, vintage Debian or vintage Slackware? I know Debian will probably be simpler, but I'm not afraid of a challenge either.

Edit: Actually, is it possible this would run on modern Debian/Slackware?
 
I used to love that game. I think it worked with the DOOM WAD editor, too.
If I remember right, RedHat was popular back then, too.
 
I used to love that game. I think it worked with the DOOM WAD editor, too.
If I remember right, RedHat was popular back then, too.
Matt might have a point here, y'know.

According to Wikipedia:-


....it uses a modified Quake II engine, itself based around the earlier DOOM engine. I'm a-wondering now if it would be possible to make use of GZDoom to get this running in a modern distro?


Might be worth a look, perhaps. Just a thought, like... There again, I could be "barking up the wrong tree"..! :p


Mike. ;)
 
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