This was solved by downloading the new NVidia driver and following the process for instalation on SuSE 10.1.
This would probably have worked with the old driver I had aswell. I suspect that the problem arose when I installed SDL through a native source compilation. The old NVidia driver was still in effect after the new SDL was installed.
I suspect therefore that a recompilation of the NVIdia drivers was responsible for fixing the problem rathing than getting the latest and greatest driver.
Thanks for all the help. Nice to know there is this kind of support for the game
