Gaming on Linux – What are your options? - 06/10/2008 by Andrew
I'm a gamer and I'm a Linux user. Yes, this puts me in a very small group of people in the world. The mass majority of gamers are either consolers (Wii, PS2/3, Xbox 360) or Windows gamers. Most of my friends are Windows gamers and have no intention of moving away from it, unless it's to have a quick Xbox Live game or playing Guitar Hero on their Wii. They know that they'll never see me on a CoD 4 server or appearing in a Halo 3 deathmatch game as much as I know I'll never see them in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars with a nick like “[OSS]Linux4Life”. This doesn't worry me and it doesn't worry them, though they do often ask “What games can you play on Linux? Isn't it just a command prompt?”. You can game on Linux and you have quite a few options.
Prerequisite: Choice of Distribution
Before I get to the options, the first important choice is the Linux distribution you're wanting to use. Every Linux distribution (or “distro”) is targeting a specific audience. Some are similar (especially if they're a derivative of another distro) and some are only for specific tasks like partitioning or network analysis. If you're new to Linux then I suggest that you go with either Ubuntu, Mint or Mandriva (the one using the Gnome desktop manager as the KDE 4 one is too buggy imho). This way you'll be able to have your proprietary graphic card drivers (Nvidia or ATI) installed easily for you and you'll have a good selection of open source games available to you from the default repositories. If you're an old hat at Linux, then you already know which distro will suit.
One important thing to consider is the age of the current version of the distro – always get the latest stable (or if you're experienced, possibly the alphas/betas) version as this will have the latest games as well as the latest kernel and x.org allowing for more compatibility with newer hardware. Now on to the options...
Option 1: Open Source Games
There are PLENTY of open source games. Some are excellent, some are ok and quite a number will only amuse you for a few minutes. These games are both free as in free beer and free as in the freedom to modify and redistribute. Some standout genres/titles are:
First Person Shooters: OpenArena, Nexuiz and Warsow
Real Time Strategies: Glest, Warzone2100
Platform: SuperTux
Strategy: Scorched3D, Battle for Wesnoth
Role Playing Games: FreedroidRPG
There are plenty of games and if you've chosen a distribution with a large gaming repository (like Ubuntu, Mandriva or Fedora) then you'll have plenty to choose from or just download and try out.
Option 2: Closed Source Games (Natively installed)
Closed source games that can be natively installed (bit of a mouthful) are just normal PC games that you can install on Linux just like installing them on Windows. In most cases you'll have to download an installer from the company's website to kick things off though as soon as you get this, it's as easy as installing it within Windows.
The benefit of having these games natively installed is the fact that it's easy to buy, install and play. It also allows you to play games online against your Windows using friends. Standout titles include:
Quake 1, 2, 3 and 4
Doom 3
Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Neverwinter Nights 1 + Expansions (though not NWN2)
...and very soon Unreal Tournament 3.
(There's plenty more, have a search!)
Sometimes the game can be natively installed, but only on a 32bit Linux system. This is due to the installer being written in 32bit code so it will crash on 64bit machine. Don't worry, there are ways around this to 'wrap' this 32bit installer so that it will install ok on a 64bit machine.
Option 3: Closed Source Games (Wine)
If the closed source game isn't able to be natively installed, you may still be able to play it using Wine (Wine stands for: Wine is not an emulator). It pays to check out Wine HQ's application database to see how easy it's going to be for your specific distro. This is where it pays being with a popular disto (Ubuntu is arguably the most popular distribution at the moment) as you should find out how the game will run with the version you're using. Wine is also an open source application, so it's free to use.
Option 4: Closed Source Games (TransGaming - Cedega)
TransGaming's flagship product is Cedega, which allows you to play your Windows games in Linux. Sounds just like Wine? Well, it is. Was. Once upon a time. It's a “fork” of Wine though unfortunately you'll have to pay money to use this. The benefits of paying money for compatibility that you could get for free with Wine is that Cedega certifies that games will work and some games won't work with Wine though the TransGaming's developers have gotten them to work Cedega. Membership costs US$25 for 6 months or US$40 for 12 months.
Option 5: Console Games (using emulators)
This is a tricky one, as unless you own the rights to the rom (the digital equivalent to a cartridge or game CD) then you are not allowed to be in possession or to use it. Tough isn't it? There are free roms out there that are not breaching copyright (for whatever reason) though these are usually crud and should be avoided. If you just happen to have the legal rights to the rom(s) then obviously you can use some of the brilliant emulators under Linux, covering Arcade games (using Mame), Consoles (using Mess, GFCE, PCSX, Snes9express, or many more) and even hand held consoles like Gameboys.
Anything to add? Please leave a comment!