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Quake II Returns in Java Reincarnation

Quake II Comes Back

by Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 12/01/2005 | 03:22 AM ]

There are a lot of legendary games which are so old that modern computers cannot run properly due to variety of reasons. For instance, it is nearly impossible to play old MS DOS-oriented games as contemporary computers are too fast. Another example is old OpenGL games, which cannot be played as modern OpenGL drivers do not support them properly.

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Bytonic Software has found a way to re-write the Quake II game by id Software on Java language, which allowed the game to be played on various platforms.

“Jake2 is a Java 3D game engine. It is a port of GPL’d Quake2 game engine from id Software. To use the Jake2 engine you need either the data files from the original game or from the demo version available for download from id Software ftp,”reads the description at Bytonic Software web-site.

The developer assures that Jake2 will run fine not only on Linux and Microsoft Windows 2000/XP operating systems, but also on Apple’s Mac OS X.

“Jake2 uses jogl for OpenGL graphics and joal for 3D sound. Since version 0.9.4 an a lwjgl driver is included as alternative for the jogl/joal combination. Currently supported operating systems are Linux and Windows2000/XP but should work on MacOS X as well,” says the statement on Bytonic Software.