Whereas file on my static executable says it is statically linked. So
tribes2 is actually a dynamic exe, it just doesn’t link against anything
dynamically. What I wouldn’t give to see the command line that built it…
Your wish is granted. 
First, SDL is configured with:
./configure --enable-dlopen --enable-arts-shared --enable-esd-shared
Then Tribes 2 is linked with:
g++ -o tribes2 {objects} /usr/local/lib/libsmpeg.a /usr/local/lib/libSDL.a -L/usr/X11R6/lib -lX11 -lXext -ldl -lpthread -lm
The dynamic version is linked with -lsmpeg and -lSDL instead of the .a archives.
Then the resulting binary is branded as a Linux binary using brandelf.
OpenAL and OpenGL are both loaded dynamically.
grin
-Sam Lantinga, Software Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment