The "only available" is the issue. This means use is restricted to where those are available for practical purposes. This is also a good argument for open sourcing the code. It means that platforms can make it available and they'll worry about libraries and other compatibilities. This completely removes all of that friction from user consideration. And someone is bound to port it to Android :-)
i don't see how open sourcing is gonna help with the issue that you would never buy something from desura/gameolith/ubuntusoftwarecenter. even if the game code is open source and theoretically available from linux distribution repositories, you'd still need to buy the game data from somewhere if you want the FULL game.
also i'm not sure what you actually want or if you ever proposed a "solution". you would never buy from desura etc, ok fine, how and where would buying be ok with you? only directly from our website with no registration like with the "humble" bundle? i already said we would actually *like* that, its a matter of resources to create such an infrastructure (especially with payments and download authorization + bandwith).
On the game data side what I suggest you do is make a small amount of the data "open source". You'd need a demo anyway so have enough that anyone can get the code and a useful subset of data to play, hack and improve. Then you sell the full game experience (data), future episodes etc.
as previously explained the game data can never be "open source" because of licensed content, but it could be free-as-in-beer. the demo version of the game is already "freeware" so it theoretically become available in something like ubuntu multiverse.
soo please put this game into an humble indie bundle !
we've already contacted them but not heard back so far. additionally the "humble" bundle only carries games that are already quite old and have been quite successful so there is some time&work ahead of us before it can happen anyway.
thanks for your input 
All in all I think the best thing to happen to the game right now would be the ability to mod it. Add our own textures/ships/weapons/gameplay/etc.
you can already create new racetracks. there is no possibility for adding ships yet, because it would be unfair in the online-highscores, but i guess we could just ignore highscores from non-standard ships. yes, open sourcing would definitely help the mod-ability which would be great. but so far no one has even made a racetrack yet ;-)
Just tested the demo (64 bit) on Kanotix (KDE 4.4.5), after install of libsdl-mixer1.2 package it started, but there are some bugs.
thanks for trying it out!
1) It is often hidden behind other windows on start (via commandline).
couldn't reproduce it here, but i've written it on the list to investigate
2) When you change settings and press minimize (instead of finish) it is impossible do do anything with the gui anymore, not even close possible.
nice catch thanks, i've found a workaround for the issue and also reported the bug up-stream to gnustep.
3) Why on earth are no gamepads supported, at least xbox 360 pads should work out of the box (even on Linux).
but gamepads (and steering wheels) ARE supported! gamepad support uses SDL, so every gamepad that works in other SDL based games should work here too. dumb question but did you actually configure the gamepad in the controls preferences? if it works in other SDL games but still not in CB, please write me at <corebreach@corecode.at> with some details.
Code:
For the demo download: you can use even a zip package for win,linux (32+64 bit) just like others do when you create it on linux the permissions are stored. It is useless when you need to dl it again to compare it to wine or when you want to use 32 bit, when 99% of the files are the same.
actually i am not a big fan of these multi-platform ZIPs they are actually quite unfriendly for new users with a lot of un-relevant files lying around leading to confusion which should be used. also the directory structures are actually different on win32/linux so it would probably require symlinking or some trickery. and whats a download of 130 MB in this day and age? i agree that the linux 32 and 64 bit packages could/should be merged...will do so when i get some time.
The demo levels look like a basic white variant of wipeout but well, maybe somebody likes it
well, as i said each track has a different look, check the screenshots or the gameplay video i actually choose the demo-track although its visually not the most exiting one, but because its a middle ground in terms of difficulty/speed (a slow track would lead people to believe the game is slow and boring, a fast track would be unplayable without training on the other tracks).
thanks for the input everyone, i'm now on a short X-mas vacation but keep the feedback coming
Happy holidays!
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