The penguin and me - Show me some cool Linux-only games.

[Nedrah]

Hey,
I just installed Ubuntu 7.10 on my Laptop, it's dual-boot with xp.
I'm going to do the same with my gaming pc in the next days. While my reasons for going the Linux route don't have much to do with gaming, I'm curious wether there are any good, playable games out there that I would have previously missed due to using Windows pretty much exclusively. Obviously I'm not talking about card games or the next tetris clone, but rather decent rpgs, strategy/tactical games, fps, sims or... well, basically whatever you can throw at me, as long as it's in a fairly complete state and is nothing I'd have come across on XP. I've been scaning some linux gaming sites, but the games mentioned there usually seem to be in some kind of alpha state, with a lot of them vaporizing a few months later.

So, linux-geeks, how about giving me some links and descriptions to your favorite linux-exclusives?

 

[NiM82]

Beyond time waster desktop games, there's sweet fuck all last time I checked. Open source game development has been a bit of a fail, with the few more polished projects simply being clones of windows games, rebuilt to be entirely opensource and are inferior in pretty much every way, take openarena or AlienArena. Shame really

 

[thesheeep]

Just out of curiosity... is this some kind of obsessive individualism that drove you to switch to Linux?

 

[Herbert West]

There's one logical puzzle game, it's called Terminal. Start it by going to Applications → Accessories → Terminal.
Be warned, its meant for 1337 geeks only.

 

[dragonfk]

There's one logical puzzle game, it's called Terminal. Start it by going to Applications → Accessories → Terminal.
Be warned, its ment for 1337 geeks only.

Last time I was playing this game Ive managed to fuck my system and had to reinstall(C&C babe). So be carefull on more advanced levels.

 

[Vidder]

tuxracer? haha.
yes its a shame.

okok.
battle for wesnoth
http://www.wesnoth.org/

eschalon also works under linux.
http://www.basiliskgames.com/

sorry, i reread your post.. both games are also available for windows.

 

[WalterKinde]

Welcome new Ubuntu user.
Many games for the penguin some payware, some freeware (free to use but no source code), and finally a lot of opensource ones.
Enable your universe repos in ubuntu so you can get some of the only freeware games listed in there after the update.

Theres Neverball and Neverput, think monkeyball without a monkey/ape in the ball.
Like space shooters? then theres Beyond the Redline demo a total conversion using the freespace engine you can fly a viper battle cylons.Maybe you want to play the original Freespace or Freespace 2 that option is available to you by downloading the freespace files with the Freespace Installer.
Maybe you'd like an old fashioned 3d Mech Game with multiplayer?
Then good news Dark Horizons was released for freeware across all platforms, http://www.garagegames.com/products/29/ .
There are RPGs like FreeDroidRPG,
FPS games like, World of Padman, Open Arena, Alien Arena, Nexuiz, Tremulous, Legends.

Frontier/Elite/Freelancer like games, oolite, Vega Strike, Privateer and several full engine conversions.

Lots of games for the penguin, now they won't have bloom and require the latest and greatest cpus/video cards but there are games there and thats not counting the modern commercial games like quake wars etc.

Edit:
The Fps games, Freedroid Vegastrike etc can all be found in the ubuntu repos since they are all open source.

For Oolite, Freespace and Beyond The Redline
oolite.aegidian.org/
www.game-warden.com/bsg/
www.fsoinstaller.com/index.html

 

[NiM82]

Beyond the Redline is just a windows game with a linux port, all of the better games that run on Linux are.

they won't have bloom

It would be nice if that were true, but alas it seems they abuse the shaders too.



"Art direction? What's that?" quoth the the linux dev

 

[Nedrah]

Just out of curiosity... is this some kind of obsessive individualism that drove you to switch to Linux?

Isn't it always?

No, seriously, I have not switched to Linux, simply because I don't feel like Wine/Cedega or Crossover are (or will ever be) at a stage where they can replace Windows as a base for a game-centric PC. As I said, I am dualbooting - in fact, I am writing in XP right now, as I plan to play a bit after this post.

I simply like the way things are done in Ubuntu, especially with gnome

- managing your system via something like synaptics is an entirely different and entirely more efficient and reasonable way than Windows.

-The OS makes my laptop feel a lot faster than it does with XP.

-Not only is the OS itself free (in every sense), but great and useful opensource software that often easily surpasses everything you could buy for Windows is easily available - see above. Games are, obviously, a different matter.

- With a bit of compiz magic, it looks damn good and gets a whole bunch of added usability features.

- I like geeky things that you can overload with more geeky stuff. Linux should be king there.

- I theoretically like the spirit behind something like Ubuntu, which has a lot to do with freedom and choice. That spirit translates into everyday usage, too. Trouble is, in order to participate from that freedom, I need to be able to make informed decisions. While I know my way around windows, I can't do shit in a Linux enviroment. So I figured, since I have a bit of time at my hands at the moment, I might as well try to get started. And frankly, I had my system set up and was surfing the internet with my favorite browser while listening to some music in NO time. Ubuntu makes it easy. Isn't that just cute? It's the kind of stuff that your grandma would be proud to be able to do on her pc, too.

There's one logical puzzle game, it's called Terminal. Start it by going to Applications → Accessories → Terminal.

Thanks, I already found it and like that one so far. I think the devs should have included better tutorials, though - it's hard to find them on the web without spoilers.
Getting decent at this game is one of the reasons why I even installed Ubuntu.




So, anyways, I am begining to suspect that being unable to find those great, "killer-app" linux only-games might have something to do with those being about non-existant. Too bad. Alternatively, if someone knows of a really good wine/cedega newbie guide, a link to that would be nice, too. I'm thinking about converting the laptop to Ubuntu-only, while keeping my main pc dual-booting. For that to happen, I need to be able to play a few selected games on the laptop, though - at the very least, Warcraft 3 (including battle.net funtionality) and Worms Armageddon (2player mode needs to work) must be playable.

Ideally, I'd like to move (as in copy) my WC3 installation to my linux partition, fake the few registry entries it needs in wine, then simply wipe the xp partition and add the free space to the unix one. I know I could do that easily with some windows tools, I'll have to figure out how to convert the filesystem and merge partitions in ubuntu.

 

[Herbert West]

Ubuntu is a very good system, in many ways far more trouble free and easier to use than WinXP. Not to mention faster, more stable and safer too. I would do a dual-boot system, alas I don't want to part with my sound card's funcionality [x-fi]. Creative is so fucking obscenely bad with drivers I have trouble expressing it.

I've built a low-end PC, installed Ubuntu, added funcionality via unofficial extras and thoroughly configured it, since it was to be used by computer illiterate. It performed splendidly and to this day it's practically maintenance- free.

Alas, there are huge problems. God save you from having to do anything in Terminal, except for pasting ready made commands from the internet.
And of course, Wine won't ever solve the very basic problem that huge majority of games and apps in this world is meant for windows.

 

[asper]

Most games that run under Linux are multiplatform, even those that were designed primarily for Linux. A lot of them are unpolished and crude, but there are a few gems out there.

Sauerbraten -- Very slick FPS. Its predecessor, Cube, is also cool. Very nice maps and music.
Ufo: Alien Invasion -- XCOM
Simutrans -- Transport Tycoon
FreeCiv -- Civilization
FreeOrion -- Master of Orion
GL-117 -- Action Flight Simulator
Danger from the Deep -- Submarine sim (how I miss that genre...!), but unfortunately alpha

All of these are free. Oolite, Vegastrike and Battle of Wesnoth have been mentioned; they're worth looking at. A lot of free multiplayer FPS's run on linux (Warsow, Enemy Territory), as well as the recommended Introversion games (those are not free though).

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Funny, I have just finished downloading an Ubuntu install CD. Thanks for starting this thread for me, Nedrah.

 

[mirrorshades]

Not too sure about linux-exclusive games... I've found that I tend to just fire up WINE or DOSBox on my linux boxes when I feel like playing a game.

I'm sure you know this, but Sourceforge has a crapload of games. Have to do some sifting through to get the "Planning / Pre-Alpha / Alpha" stuff that hasn't got one line of code since 2004... but there are some good ones out there. A number already mentioned, a number are clones of Windows / commercial games.

I do remember liking Frozen Bubble, though.

 

[mirrorshades]

God save you from having to do anything in Terminal, except for pasting ready made commands from the internet.

Blasphemy! The command shell is the heart and soul of linux. Without knowing your way around some of the basics, you're forever doomed to be a non-power-user.

 

[WalterKinde]

yep the terminal is something you should familiarize yourself with, not right away of course but eventually if you become a longterm linux user, you should know what it can do.
If you ever had to use the windows cmd prompt or create autoexec bat files for games to run in Win95 then it will be passingly familiar but its not as hard as the windows cmd prompt.
A Lot of games have been listed here but there are a lot more in the ubuntu repos like 3d versions of tron (remember that game?) 2d space shooters like chromium, you can find some using Applications->Add/Remove in the game category and even more via Synaptic try them and see, if you don't like them you can always uninstall , the only cost is the time it takes to download.
Plus theres like mentioned before DosBox, emulators like mame, zsnes etc and exult if you need to play the ultima 6/7 games.

 

[Romitch]

How well does Wine work? I suppose it depends on the games, but just curious.

 

[obediah]

How well does Wine work? I suppose it depends on the games, but just curious.

It ranges from "not working" to "eh, ok". I was able to get HoI2 working "eh, ok" under Wine, which is a nice break from work. Unfortunately, with that game a break can turn into 4 hours very fast.

 

[Romitch]

How about Cedega - does it fare better than Wine with games (isn't it based on wine?)?

 

[NiM82]

It's marginally better in my limited experience, but you have to pay a subscription for it which is stupid.

 

[Herbert West]

God save you from having to do anything in Terminal, except for pasting ready made commands from the internet.

Blasphemy! The command shell is the heart and soul of linux. Without knowing your way around some of the basics, you're forever doomed to be a non-power-user.

You're right of course, however the overwhelming majority of PC users out there has never heard the term "power user". You could quickly explain them the usage of Synaptic packet manager for instance, but just try to tell them to add, remove or download some packet using the Terminal and you're doomed to failure.
Ubuntu is great, but it still needs less Terminal and more Windows.

 

[WalterKinde]

Like Yoda said you must unlearn all that you have learned (did Yoda actually say that?) so too it is with using Linux and the terminal, i like the terminal myself :D
I'm no terminal guru where i am comfortable using vi/emacs instead of the gui notepad type app gedit that comes with ubuntu, nor am i comfortable enough to say boot into only the cmd prompt sans xserver, but i know enough and while its true at first it is daunting , its quicker to use the terminal for somethings instead of the gui frontend, example is synaptic once you know the correct filename (this is the key) of the app you wish to remove or install its quicker via the terminal with sudo apt-get than going through the gui to get to Synaptic, authorize, then search, finally then select to install/remove, then apply the change, via the terminal its a simple sudo apt-get remove/install app name, auth with the password and off it goes.

 

[Hory]

FAR Manager (Windows) > Linux Terminal

 

[obediah]

FAR Manager (Windows) > Linux Terminal

You do realize that the terminal is more than a file manager?

Can you run Pine, VIM, play media files, browse the web, access relational database, or chat on irc with FAR Manager? How is the scripting support?

If you aren't comfortable with the command prompt (or learning it), you're just a windows user looking to save some money. Nothing wrong with that, but there is a huge difference between people using linux as as Unix replacement and those using it as a Windows replacement.

 

[cardtrick]

I prefer a customized Windows XP experience . . . Linux isn't bad, but almost anything I could conceivably prefer about it can be replicated in XP (with the exception of speed/lightness, but that's not an issue for me with RAM as cheap as it is these days), and I also get the advantage of full hardware and software compatibility. Same goes for Mac OS X.

I use XP, but I have Launchy running in the background, so that I can launch any program, open selected folders, open a browser window and go to a web address, control WinAmp, etc. -- all with a couple of keystrokes, just like with Terminal. I also use RocketDock, an OS X Dock clone, for quick access to my most frequently used programs; and TopDesk, an OS X Expose clone, for easy visual browsing through multiple windows (particularly nice for stuff like Photoshop). I won't list all the software I have, but I've managed to find free (and often open source) apps to do absolutely anything I need or want with my computer -- advanced renaming of multiple files with regular expressions? Check. Right click any image format to resize it without opening Photoshop? Check. Full-functioned hardware and software diagnostic tools? Check. And so on . . .

I don't understand what advantage Linux has that can't be easily replicated on XP. Unless you're trying for the lightest operating system possible -- for a mini notebook, or a PSP, or something -- it doesn't make sense to me to run Linux at all. I'm glad it exists -- the various Linux distros and Mac OS keep Microsoft and (more importantly) independent developers innovating and introducing new features -- but I'm also glad that I don't have to use it myself.

 

[WalterKinde]

First the Richard Stallman answer.
Its about FREEDOM!!!!!!!!! :D
Yes the freedom to do what you want with the OS of course it helps if you know what you can do with it.
Avoiding vendor lockins, yes you make good point on having hardware that works in windows but saying it like that implies (at least to me) that its the fault of the OS when in fact its really the hardware vendors who are to blame for not releasing linux compatible drivers or having open specs on their hardware,like Intel or recently AMD, so the community can make proper working drivers.
You also sound like a tech savy individual but i am sure there have been times when you have had to aid someone in getting spyware/malware/viri off their PC, with Linux and the Mac OS not a problem (at least not yet )
I don't know what you use your PC for besides say modern gaming, excluding that and the heavy use of Photoshop, I will say everything that can be done in windows by the avg user aka webbrowsing, light word processing, light video editing, data backup via cd/dvd, video viewing, p2p, mp3 playback, instant messaging and even playing a MMO like second life can be duplicated in linux. As well as editing the desktop/Login Screen to look like XP, Vista or an OS X desktop and these days thanks to the innovation of windows managers like Compiz-fusion or the new KDE/GNOME without the need to download several different apps like the ones you have listed.