Game Boots
The world of game consoles is rife with copy protection that starts with firmware buried in the system board's chipset. Defeating that DRM has become something of a cottage industry, primarily in places where the DMCA lacks teeth, and the bottom line seems to be that each iteration of copy protection lasts for, at most, a few months.
A press release folder from Gamix, the Open Game Platform, appeared in the pressroom. They didn't seem to be exhibiting or presenting anything at the Expo and an e-mail didn't elicit a reply, but the general notion seems to be that they want to become the certifying authority for a set of specs that define a game console based on more-or-less standard, albeit low-end, PC hardware. If you want to manufacture hardware or software to that spec, you can buy the rights to use their compatibility logo so purchasers will know everything will work together.
The games arrive on a bootable CD or DVD that runs on the predefined hardware, with complete control in the hands of the game programmer. The demo CD boots Mandriva's LiveCD and runs dedicated versions of SuperTux and NeverBall. That demonstrates the concept, even if they're not really state-of-the-art games.
I'm unsure of the viability of Gamix's business plan, not least because the success of any particular game depends less on its platform than the marketing hoopla (and money) behind it. In any event, you can release a self-booting game right now and be reasonably sure it will run on any current PC. What value the Gamix marque brings to that process remains to be seen.
What value Linux contributes is obvious, though. You can distribute not only your own application, but also the entire operating system underlying it. You may charge for your application or give it away, so long as you observe the proprieties of the licenses, including the GPL, for all the other code on the CD.
Got that thought, too? Good. Now, here's how it all ties together.
