Platform suggestions: Linux and Android Tablet

Wanted to suggest Platform pages specifically for Linux and Android Tablet.

Linux currently defaults to PC as an alias - but this can be misleading as most games made for Windows don't necessarily work on Linux. With the influx of new games from Kickstarter campaigns, Linux support seems to be a big thing and a highly requested inclusion.

Similarly with the Android Tablet, there is a platform page for both iPhone and iPad, but no consistency for Android. I have come across a couple games, the remake of Leisure Suit Larry 1 for example that is planned for Android tablets and iPads, but not their smaller counterparts.

If this has already been discussed previously, that's fine - I suppose at worst I can get specific in the Article section.

There is no relevant difference between Android phones and tablets. As a developer, you try to develop your application so it looks right on a variety of different sized screens, not just "phones" and "tablets". There are acfually four different size categories, and once the world finally moves on from 2.x there will be even more freedom to not target specific sizes. While this split might make some sense for iOS, it doesn't for Android.

Also, lumping Linux in with PC isn't "misleading" like that because the PC platform doesn't imply Linux. The PC platform is a general "some non-Mac operating system running on an IBM PC descendant" platform. It doesn't imply any specific operating system, but usually it will be Windows or DOS. It seems there's no desire to make it any more specific.

@@LordAndrew: Thanks for the reply.

Just to clarify, games like LA Noire Touch Edition, or the new remake of Leisure Suit Larry 1 will work on both Android tablets and phones?

In terms of the PC generalization, I would suggest that Linux (PC), Windows (PC) and DOS (PC) have enough differences and specific development required that there is relevance for having that separation. It seems at a development level at least, they are treated as different platforms.

I'm not saying it will run on phones. It will run on devices with a screen of a certain minimum size. They'd likely be tablets, but not necessarily. What sizes are supported by a given game? You can't even find out until you successfully download it and take a peak at the manifest. Who's willing to buy all Android games for the sake of the wiki? Not I.

Thanks for the reply @ZombiePie !

They did seem like fairly obvious ones that had already been thought about. For Linux support I will just make a note of it in the general article. For the Android's tablet's, I still think it's not necessarily consistent with treatment of Apple tablets. But we are talking a few handful's of games at this point. I guess if the trend continues I might bring it up again. I'm still a little confused as to what makes IOS 5 devices get treated as separate platforms, where android devices don't. I haven't had a great lot of experience with IPAD's, so maybe my lack of familiarity is making me miss something obvious.

@LordAndrew I kind of see what you are saying, but I don't think it's ever been anyone's responsibility to just buy games for information from the wiki. I guess the two examples I gave you, it's possible to find out the minimum screen size without purchasing the product. I can see why this would not be the case for most products, though looking on my Samsung Tablet, a few do mention it in their description, and a lot have demos available - which I imagine would provide that information for free. I think the better reason is probably what Zombiepie said in regards to their really being no real standard for an Android device.

@AdMordem: Neither reason is really "better"; it's the same basic reason. Because of the lack of standardization and uniformity, Google Play can't provide a list of compatible devices like the App Store. It's not going to list compatible screen sizes or densities either, because that's overly technical.

@LordAndrew

Ah ok furry muff.

I thought you were getting at that it was too much effort for something so iffy.

Also an example from a description in the Play store:

"Grand Theft Auto III 10 Year Anniversary Edition is now available on:

• Android Phones: Galaxy Nexus, HTC Rezound, LG Optimus 2x, Motorola Atrix 4G, Motorola Droid X2, Motorola Droid Bionic, Motorola Photon 4G, Samsung Galaxy R, Samsung Galaxy S2, Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, T-Mobile G2x

• Android Tablets: Acer Iconia, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Dell Streak 7, LG Optimus Pad, Medion Lifetab, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, Sony Tablet S, Toshiba Thrive"

and then this link provided http://support.rockstargames.com/forums/20417796-gta-iii-10-year-anniversary-edition with more technical details and updates.

So it is available, but maybe more relevant, at least for now, in the article section under something like 'Supported Devices'.

The flipside to that is On-live's stuff like LA Noire Touch Edition, which only seems to support Android Tablets.

Heh. I have a Galaxy S2 and the store tells me my device "isn't compatible witb this version". I'll be damned if I know why. I blame Rogers.

The store itself? It was updated recently.

If you mean the game, it will let me purchase GTA III on my S2, not willing to pay to see if it works though LOL.

@ZombiePie said:

@AdMordem: The staff have already rejected "Linux" as a platform for the database and have no plans to review their rejection. As for Android tablets getting a platform page that's just problematic. Effectively there is no one "Android Tablet," like how there is one iPad (disregarding versions/updates). Instead the operating system, Android, is licensed off to various manufacturers who use it in various devices such as tablet computers. As there are no major differences between the Android operating systems splitting the platform up on a device basis does not make sense. As such I'd advocated against this proposal.

Are there any plans to review "PC" as a platform? It really is awfully reductive. It would be like lumping all PS1, PS2, and PS3 games under a "Playstation" platform page since they share parts. At the very least, there is a very clear distinction between DOS and Windows, especially when DOS games are completely unplayable on modern PCs without the use of emulators (All support for it died with Windows ME, 12 years ago).

I just came here because I really wanted to be able to mark game as Linux compatible on Darkadia, and realised it all came from here.

Not having Linux as a platform is really just telling all Linux users they don't matter. If you don't separate Windows from Linux, why not drop Mac too, it's after all just an OS running on PC hardware.

I just came here because I really wanted to be able to mark game as Linux compatible on Darkadia, and realised it all came from here.

Not having Linux as a platform is really just telling all Linux users they don't matter. If you don't separate Windows from Linux, why not drop Mac too, it's after all just an OS running on PC hardware.

Why is Mac separate from PC? Your arguments are all completely rational, but why should PC not include Macs as well? It would have made sense back when Macs used Motorola chips (making them different at a hardware level) but now the only real difference between the products from a hardware perspective is the case. And based on software, Mac and Linux are a lot closer than Linux and PC.