It is no secret that the vast majority of current game titles will never see the light of day on Linux. With Loki dead and gone, and their old stock quickly running out, some would go as far as to say that Linux gaming is dead as well. However, in recent days, Linux users have been getting more titles than one would think, and many more are on the horizon for later this year. Which games will be coming out? Who is releasing them? Is this the start of something big?Many Linux users have no idea what games are available, nor what games are on their way. I think it’s time we shed some light on this issue. What games are still around, which ones have just come out, and what games will we be getting in the future?
Read on for the answers to these questions. Read the article at LinuxHardware.org
Hey, as long as I’ve got xbill, I’ll cool!
(Well, NetHack is a requirement also)
LGames do a great job as well, especially with LGeneral and LBreakout2.
http://lgames.sf.net
Good point Eugenia, They make very good games. My favorite is LBreakout2 Awesome game.
More and more games are coming to Linux, and not slowly anymore. In the last few weeks I’ve seen some major announcements in this field… Medal of Honor being ported to Linux, Incagames (I think that’s what it’s called) porting their selection to linux, these are all steps toward a viable gaming platform. It’ll take time, yes, but everything does.
Funny, considering todays announcment over on Slashdot regarding the release of RTCW’s expansion on both Windows and Linux.
Great article!
Thanks for the post Eugina. 🙂
I think there is alot of hopes for the Linux gaming capabilities. What happened with Loki is that Loki tried to be the MacSoft of the Linux gaming community before it was ready, but I think if someone started a company with a similar concept now, in 2003 I think it would be successful, because there is enough call for Linux games and with Linux now being preloaded on retail systems there is going to be alot more exposure for Linux, and in turn the demand for Linux gaming will rise.
Check out cube:
http://wouter.fov120.com/cube/
The main problem I had with games in Linux was getting them working, not the lack of available games. Even ignoring the problems I had with getting 3D acceleration working well, getting games installed was often a real pain. Actually I had more success running Windows games with WineX than native Linux games. Maybe I was just unlucky, but for me Linux gaming was a very frustrating experience
Don’t forget Amiga Anywhere: http://www.amiga-anywhere.com/apps/index.php?cat=3
http://www.gltron.com – Tron’s lightcycle scene simulation
http://trackballs.sourceforge.net – Amiga’s Marble Madness clone (great soundtrack…)
http://www.racer.nl
http://torcs.free.fr/
Hyperion are porting Incagold games to Linux/AmigaOS4/MacOSX
Linux has the capacity to be an excellent gaming system due to the fact that you can tweak your kernel to be perfect for gaming and you have tight control over running processes.
I have heard fantastic things about Neverwinter Nights on Gentoo with the latest nVidia drivers. I’m hoping publishers continue to look into introducing titles to the linux community. I know that the developers at Bioware have said they weren’t really aware of the demand for the linux version of NWN until they didn’t produce it as promised, then they saw just how many people wanted it.
I am wondering if OpenGL 2 released, then many programmers might write more for it? I think, a lot of programmers rather to write DirectX instead OpenGL. Can anyone correct me? I don’t really know game a lot, I don’t play them. 🙂
I’m down with that
I remember reading in Linux Format about a console which ran Linux as it’s OS. The killer feature was that the graphics card could be pulled out and replaced as time went on to allow for cheap upgrades.
Does anyone else remember this?
IMHO the WineX prjoect have done a very HUGE favour to Linux gamingcommunity. Eventhought you have to pay for it, but 15$ per month(this includes a membership to WineX forums so you can vote for games that WineX shall be configured to work with, in the next release). It allso has a free “CVS version”, but that is missing some of the components, and you have to compile it from the src(Allthought some Debian packers release .debs compiled from “CVS” src). By focusing and supporting WineX we would have working crossplatform games soon.
PS. visit:
http://www.transgaming.com (the WineX site)
It is NOT 15 per month, it’s 5. Only, at the beginning you have to pay for a minimum of 3 month which makes it 15…
Dave:
As far as I recall, the console was the Indrema. And, as far as I recall, it failed
Not really a surprise really, though unfortunate. It’s a crying shame that the PS2 Linux kit doesn’t give full access to that machine’s capabilities – imagine the fantastic stuff that could be done.
WRT WineX:
On the one-hand, yeah, cool I can play Windows-based games on my Linux machine, but on the other… well, if everyone’s buying Windows games, the publishers don’t realise that there is demand for Linux games. Something of a Catch-22 situation really.
I think i was indrema ( http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/bill/indrema/ ) …
But that’s history…
I would certainly buy a linux console if it was available. I am running Redhat 9 right now. For gaming though i mostly use my xbox. Anyone hear of the Phantom? Some kind of console that is supposed to be coming out i guess… seen it in a small article in xbn.
I can tell you from experience that OpenGL is a very nice and clean API. It has been well designed, is easy to understand and works well.
One of the best 3D games developers out there, John Carmack, has expressed his thoughts on Directx vs OpenGL and he says it much better than I could:
http://rmitz.org/carmack.on.opengl.html
WineX is fine, but I have issues with running anything in emulation-for example, what about the fien sound of Warcraft? Have the guys at WineX figured that out yet?
I say, we have the tools, lets build the games. If Carmack can build Doom III on OpenGL (this is an assumption), then why is linux gaming moribund?
I’m not sure about the chipset, but linux runs on Playstation2, right? How about developing games for Playstation’s Linux pack, and then resolving the chipset differences to port the game to x86/PPC?
That’s how they do it for XBOX…..