Linux Games and Gaming Culture
From Linux 101, The beginner's guide to all things Linux.
Contents |
[edit] Commercial Game Ports
It is obvious that few game publishing companies port their games to Linux. They are often more likely to make an Apple port first, if they make any ports at all. Nonetheless, quite a few games are released with a native Linux version. id Software has been known for their Linux support and they've been releasing Linux versions of their games (Quake, Doom, Wolfenstein) for years. Epic Interactive has supported Linux in their Unreal line for many years as well. Many games based on these games' engines are available for Linux (for instance Postal).
For several years, many Linux game ports were published by Loki Games, until the company failed due to mismanagement. Now, new commercial Linux game titles are published by Linux Game Publishing (LGP). Many of these titles as well as some old Loki titles can be purchased at Tux Games. Several games have been ported by the work of Ryan Gordon and many game projects exist on his web site at icculus.org.
[edit] Running games for other Operating Systems on Linux
It is possible through different types of compatibility layer programs and emulators to play games originally for other operating systems and platforms.
[edit] Wine
Well, the Wine project aims to provide a Windows API layer on Linux. Through this many native Windows games are playable. Frank's Corner provides extensive lists of Windows games and other applications that will work using Wine.
[edit] Cedega
Wine's support for games is a side-effect of its usual functionality, and there is yet another product available for playing even more Linux games. TransGaming created a product based on Wine called Cedega (formerly WineX) that allows many DirectX 9 games to run well. See their Games Database for an exhaustive list of supported games. Cedega is not free, unfortunately, but it only costs $5 per month for a subscription (minimum 3 month purchase).
[edit] DOS Emulators
Many old DOS games are supported by Linux using DOS emulators such as DOSBox and DOSEMU.
[edit] Console Emulators
ZSNES
A popular emulator for the SuperNintendo is ZSNES. The latest version is available for Linux, Windows, and DOS.
To download, navigate to the left side of the page and click on theLinux link.
[edit] Arcade Emulators
not finished...
[edit] Open Source Games
Besides the ability to play commercial Windows titles on Linux, gamers who run this operating system also have a plethora of choices provided by the open source world. Many very nice console emulators are available (such as ZSNES), as well as native Linux games for both original ideas and clones of other games (for myriad examples see The Linux Game Tome and Linux Games). Still other projects (like ScummVM) aim to recreate the engine of old commercial titles so that data from games whose parent companies are long since gone can still be used for fun.
[edit] Liberated Games
It is also worth mentioning Liberated Games, a project that attempts to convince game houses to open source code or give away game data for old, outdated or unsupported titles so that they can be enjoyed on many different platforms.
[edit] General
Overall, the Linux gaming community is a very rich one - there are probably more game titles available for Linux today than Windows XP, if you count all the old games which can be played on Linux that are no longer compatible with the newest version of Windows.
