Linux games

Apparently there are alot of games out there made for Linux. Not much in the way of big name games, such as Half-Life, Fable, or Black & White 2, but still, some of them seem interesting. But there are so many to go through... So I have a few questions...

1: Can anyone personally suggest Linux-native games they like?

2: Is there any site with Linux-native game listings, along with user ratings? That would be a good way to sort through the popular ones.

3: I hear Id ported Doom 3 to Linux. Is it a special version, or does the normal one install under linux, or...?

4: I have heard of people emulating Windows with VMware, and then playing games under that when WINE doesn't work. Is this a viable alternative? Would it make things run too slowly? More info would be appreciated, as I have never run a virtual machine, and I do not want to have to dual boot my computer my re-installing Vista - what's the point besides games? - and yet.. I miss my games. I don't have a console at home, so I want to finish Black & White 2, play Mechwarrior, Fable, etc.

 

check out Savage 2 -- http://savage2.s2games.com/

it's not exactly your top of the line game, but it's cheap, great community, and if you pre-order now you'll get into the beta which should start in the next 1-2 weeks

 

Yep, so I am going to suggest non-big name games

Gnometris, tetrinet, gtgo, Chess, Anagramarama and four in a row

Yes, it's still pretty buggy. There is a branch of WINE that is for pay called Cedega which I believe does a better job.

 

Question: Will GNOME games work with KDE?

 

Yes. All Gnome apps work under KDE, and vice-versa. They just load up a lot of libraries for the other desktop, so it's not really an optimal solution. It uses a lot of memory, but can work quite well. KDE and Gnome really aren't exclusive like Windows and Linux are. On to your other questions:

1) Most of the Unreal series since UT have had Linux-native installers, as have all the id Software games. As for open-source games, look for Armagetron, Scorched3D, Torcs, and Neverball/Neverputt. All quite fun, quite good, and available in the Ubuntu repositories.

2) www.linuxgames.com is the best I'd know of

3) You use the normal one's data files, and just use the Linux installer that you can download from id's website. I've got it on my desktop (see below)... great scary game

4) VMWare will not play any graphics-intensive games. Anything that's DirectX or OpenGL, just count on it not working. As for Wine, I've heard a lot of people get better results with Wine than with Cedega. It really depends on the game. And the Cedega guys have pulled some nasty tricks by not contributing code back to the Wine project and so on, so I try to not support them much. But it does work for a number of games, especially DirectX-heavy games.

 

Since you already paid for Vista, you might as well have it on your system.
It might come in handy in the future.
Some piece if hardware might have drivers in windows but not in linux.

 

Why not use Linux for work which is what it is desingned to do and use Windows for playing games if you so insist on doing so??????

 

wearetheborg:
That is actually what I have been thinking of doing, but I have been told it is much harder to install Windows after installing Linux, than the other way around. So I just need to figure out the procedure to do so, without killing Linux now.

mattireland:
Because - Linux is supposed to be a full OS. Nowadays, especially. And I am LIKING Linux, a lot. And just look - id ported Doom 3 to Linux. Didn't seem like a great hassle. So I don't see why other developers can't do the same with their games. Maybe someday it'll happen, but we'll see.

Oh, and P.S.
... Why can Linux only be work, and not fun? The whole point of it for me was fun. I enjoy learning new things, and tinkering with technology. I could have stayed in my 100% working Vista and done my work just fine. It just wasn't a whole lot of fun.

 

Don't be a troll, mattireland. Linux will actually run many games faster than Windows, on the same hardware. Tends to be a little more efficient. And some people don't want to reboot to Windows to play games, they want to just turn their computer on and run their applications, whether they be productivity or games. I play games under Linux, they work fine. I don't even have Windows installed on my workstation.

 

Agreed, pitabred. I really can't see any legitimate use for Windows, for me, now except because it is the only one to play games. Possibly because Linux is a little screwy, like it is right now for me. Hopefully the Linux driver for my WiFi will fix that.

However if I could play all my games under Linux, I truly would not need, nor want, Windows.

 

Check this link for Linux games & more. And it's all .deb packages

http://www.getdeb.net/browse.php

 

id Software has been one of the better developers out there regarding Linux support, most particularly for running game servers. Quake, QuakeWorld, Quake 2, Quake 3 Arena, and Quake 4 are all available in Linux flavors, though you have to do a little extra work. Once you buy the Windows release version, go visit id's Web site (or any one of many mirrors) and download the Linux executable and support files and you're good to go. Debian even has a standard package for installing Quake 2.

The Unreal guys also had their franchise running on Linux at least up through Unreal Tournament 2004. I also dimly remember an official Linux release of the original Half-Life, but that almost certainly was dropped when Valve decided to shove Steam down everyone's throat.

Right now, one good resource for Linux gaming is the Debian repository, which indexes a number of games of highly varying quality and polish.

The pre-eminent game for UNIX-like systems is, of course, NetHack.

Schwab

 

Thank you all for your suggestions! I have a number of games loaded now, some surprisingly entertaining.

Now if only more big-name game companies would support linux gaming.
I am still shocked and amazed by how little resources linux consumes.

 

I'd really trust Pita and not me on this one. I stated earlier that Cedega might be better, but I have no clue - it's just what I read on forums. I don't really play any games beyond Chess/Tetris graphics on Linux, and I don't use Windows at all.

 

Here are some nice games :

http://www.worldofpadman.com/ (really cool game, its' only multi player for now but It's really original, check out the demos once the game is installed)
http://www.wesnoth.org/ (nice strategy game)
http://www.freeciv.org/ (clone of civilization II)

I recommend world of padman a lot, it's based on the Quake 3 engine but you "kill" your ennemies by spraying paint on them, the graphics are nice and the maps are cool.

Have fun !

 

But now that u've installed linux, can u not install windows, AND linux from scratch ? The hard part in linux is figuring out what works and what does not. But now that you know, following the correct steps should not be much of an hassle.

 

Actually, the main problem of installing Windows after Linux is that when doing so, Windows take control of the Master Boot Record of the Hard drive (which is a special part of the hard drive containing your partitions information) and does not detect the Linux installation so when you start your computer, you don't get a prompt which asks which OS to choose from. Installing Linux after Windows also writes to the Master Boot Record of the hard drive, but during a Linux installation, it will detect that you have Windows partitions and when it will install the boot manager (usually called GRUB or LILO), it will give you the choice of which OS to start.

 

wearetheborg:
You're right. It took, and is taking, a lot to get used to linux, and to get my particular problems working. However, now that I've done them... ndiswrapper, fglrx, etc, etc... I would be able to get my machine running much faster if I reinstalled linux. Oh, and PS.. I am currently watching Voyager (I just downloaded the entire series) I like the borg.

And installing Windows after Linux isn't too hard. I finally got it done, now I dual boot Kubuntu and Vista. I followed this guide:

http://apcmag.com/5045/how_to_dual_boot_vista_with_linux

It worked perfectly, no problems at all! I recommend it if anyone else wishes to add vista after ubuntu.

 

Why, thank you
We are flaterred

Did you ask dell for a vista CD ?

 

We are amused.

And no, I didn't ask Dell for a Vista DVD... they just included it in my purchase, was right there in the box when I opened it. I believe it is their standard practice to always include the reinstallation CD or DVD when you buy a complete system from them.

 

Welcome to the Linux Zealot Club, Merritt! Pitabred is the President, Lysander is the Vice President, and you are the first member.

Now that I'm done being a pain and poking fun at those two, I'd like to point out to you that Linux is very limited in terms of gaming capabilities, and that is my only problem with the OS; currently I am dual-booting Ubuntu and XP. I keep XP for games only. Since Linux isn't very popular compared to Windows, few developers find it profitable to delay getting their games to the market and paying the grunts in order to make them compatible with whatever graphics platform Linux uses. Unfortunately it's not profitable yet.

 

Membership fees are only $15/lifetime, payable to the Vice President via paypal.

 

Linux Zealot Club, huh? Why do I fit that category...?

Ah well.... Does first member get special privilages? Free car? lol

Oh, and Lysander: I logged into my imaginary paypal account, and sent the money to your imaginary account!


As to games... I was looking at WINE's Platinum list. If you're looking to play something on Linux, check that out. It has a fairly decent list of games on platinum!

 

Erm...I'm the president, since Pita runs Windows as well

 

Gautam, you can be our leg-breaker.

 

Leg-breaker... you guys crack me up.

 

??????????

lol.

 

Pita you traitor!

 

bc135: I'm the mod of the Windows forum. I just happen to know a little bit of everything

Unfortunately, I have some rather pricey graphics software I inherited from my last job, and it requires a USB dongle and Windows to run If I could get it working under Linux, I would. There are also some games that I play that don't work so well in Linux even under Wine, especially since C&C:Generals insists on that NetBIOS crap to do it's networking. I also keep Windows around because I develop some random software that people want to run on Windows, and I can't very well help them do so without having it myself.

 

Going back to what I said on the first page: I totally take it back. When I said it my experience of Linux was a few distros from back in the early 1990s. Now I've had some more up-to-date Linix experience I totally agree.

Are there any free games out there?

 

Oh yeah, Linux has come a long way in a decade and a half.

As for free games, I'm not sure. I got World of Padman going, alot of people say it's pretty good, but I still haven't actually played it for more than 2 minutes...

I'm thinking of getting a Wii and modding it.

 

Free games? I think that's been discussed... neverball/neverputt, Nexuiz, Scorched3D, all kinds of games available in the Ubuntu repositories. Just browse around a bit

 

Yeah, I had high hopes for neverball... reminded me of Super Monkey Ball... unfortunately the controls seem sort of jerky and laggy, and not very true to physics. When the ball doesn't respond how my mind thinks it should, it just aggravates me. Ah well.

 

Wow this thread got off topic...

Anyway, I second Battle for Wesnoth, probably one of, if not the best free game I've played. Though, turn based strategy isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea (I like tea though, better than coffee methinks).

 

Hey, I love tea. And I love strategy games. But I have never been able to play one of the supposedly best strategy games, Civilization, because it's turn-based. I grew up on Age of Empires, I needs my real-time.

 

Thanks very much for your replys guys! I'll give those a go in the morning!

 

Sauerbraten. It is so awesome. FPS, Cube 2 engine.

I got it running on Linux at work finally, and I have a better ping time than all the Windows folks. It is so awesome. I can't wait to get my new laptop and see how it works with Sauerbraten.

 

Going to have to try that Cube2, looks interesting

 

Cedega is actually sort of worth getting, given how cheap it is, if only for the support and ongoing updates, and I know some of transgaming's practices are somewhat rude, but they produce a good product, that works very well as it was intended to.

My main games are CS:Source, World of Warcraft, and Need for Speed Carbon at the moment, and all of them are fully supported under Cedega on Fedora 7, and I honestly didn't notice any real performance disparity between that and WinXP. I wiped my XP partition as a result, and now just use Cedega on Fedora for gaming as well as everything else.

One rather interesting side effect, is that latencey in CSS, and in WoW is lower than it is under Windows, and I mean noticably lower. As in from 360ms in Wow, to 220-240ish. Its one of those things that is replicatable and consistant enough to make me certain it isn't just a fluke. Perhaps the superior network stack is part of it, who knows.

 

I personally find that Wine will run many games as well or even better than Cedega. I also don't like the way Cedega doesn't contribute back to the Wine community except under duress. So I stick with wine, which is all I need to play Starcraft

And your latency is lower precisely because the networking stack in Linux is better than it is in Windows, from the drivers on up.