Linux gaming

Linux gaming refers to playing or developing video games for Linux operating systems.

Open source games

A few original open source games have obtained notability:

*"AssaultCube" is a first-person shooter
*"Battle for Wesnoth" is a turn-based strategy game
*"BZFlag" is a 3D First person tank shooter (With jumping)
*"" is a sci-fi first-person shooter derived from the "Quake II" engine
*"Glest" is a real-time strategy game, with optional multiplayer
*"NetHack" and "Angband" are text-based computer role-playing games
*"Nexuiz" is a first-person shooter
*"OpenArena" is a standalone "Quake III Arena" game
*"Sauerbraten" is a 3D first-person shooter with an integrated map editing mode
*"Tremulous" is a 3D first-person shooter/real-time strategy game
*"Tux Racer" is a 3D racing game featuring Tux
*"Urban Terror" is a standalone "Quake III Arena" first-person shooter
*"Vega Strike" is a space flight simulation
* "War§ow" is a "Quake"-like, fast-paced first-person shooter

Clones and remakes

There are a larger number of open source clones and remakes of classic games:
*"FreeCiv" is a remake of "Civilization II"
*"OpenTTD" is a remake of "Transport Tycoon Deluxe"
*"Frozen Bubble" is an adaptation of "Puzzle Bobble"
*"Scorched 3D" is a 3D adaptation of "Scorched Earth"
*"Ur-Quan Masters" is based on the original source code for "Star Control II"
*"Homeworld SDL" is based on the original source code for "Homeworld"
*"StepMania" is a remake of "Dance Dance Revolution"
*"Frets on Fire" is a remake of "Guitar Hero (video game)"
*"SuperTux" is a remake of "Super_Mario"
*"SuperTuxKart and TuxKart are remakes of Mario_kart
*"Crack Attack!" is inspired by "Tetris Attack"
*Various remakes of "Doom", "Wolfenstein 3D", and "Quake" are based on the engines for these games
*Two different remakes of "" are based on the "Vega Strike" engine
*"Spring" [ [http://spring.clan-sy.com/ The Spring Project] ] originally is a remake of "Total Annihilation", but actually is a platform for real time strategy games
*"Head Over Heels" [ [http://retrospec.sgn.net/games/hoh/ Retrospec Head Over Heels Page] ] , a ZX-Spectrum action platformer, was remade for Linux, Windows, Mac OSX, and BeOS.
*"Cave Story" [Download link needed] , a platformer reminiscent of the Metroid and Castlevania series, was ported to Linux.

Commercial games

In some cases, developers have released Linux versions of their games directly.
id Software together with Raven Software ported "Doom 3", the "Quake" series, and "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" and "";Bioware released "Neverwinter Nights";Epic Games released "Unreal Tournament 2003" and "Unreal Tournament 2004" and they will port "Unreal Tournament 3";Croteam released the "Serious Sam" series;Introversion released "Darwinia", "Uplink", and "DEFCON".
Frictional Games released Linux version of both and .S2games released a Linux client of their title "Savage 2" soon after it's launch. EVE Online is also available for Linux. Indie RPGs and were developed cross-platform from the start of development, including a linux version. Space MMO Vendetta Online launched with Linux support, and now maintains both Linux/32 and Linux/64 clients. eGenesis released a Linux client for its MMO A Tale In The Desert.

More commonly, an independent company has taken on the task of porting prominent Windows games to Linux.
Loki Software was the first such company, and between 1998 and 2002 ported"Descent³","Heretic II","Heroes of Might and Magic III","","","Railroad Tycoon II","Rune","Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri","Sim City 3000","Soldier of Fortune""Tribes II",and "Unreal Tournament".
Linux Game Publishing was founded in 2001 in response to the impending demise of Loki, and has brought"Cold War","Gorky 17","Knights and Merchants","Postal²", and"" to Linux.
icculus.org has ported"Aliens versus Predator","Duke Nukem 3D","", and"Rise of the Triad".The "German" publisher RuneSoft was founded in 2000. They ported the games"","Airline Tycoon Deluxe","Ankh",""and"Jack Keane"to Linux.

Emulation and compatibility layers

There are also APIs, virtual machines, and machine emulators that provide binary compatibility:

*Wine, as well as the commercial/proprietary forks CrossOver and Cedega offer compatibility layers for Windows games;
*PlayOnLinux is a front-end for Wine;
*FCE Ultra and TuxNES for the Nintendo Entertainment System;
*Snes9x and ZSNES for the Super Nintendo;
*ePSXe and PCSX for the Playstation;
*Mupen64 for the Nintendo 64, please see Mupen64Plus for the active developed fork;
*gnuboy for the Nintendo Game Boy and GameBoy Color;
*VisualBoy Advance for the GameBoy Advance;
*ScummVM for LucasArts and various other adventure games;
*DOSBox and DOSEMU for MS DOS;
*UAE for the Amiga;
*Basilisk II for the 68040 Macintosh;
*Frotz for Z-Machine text adventures;

Game development

As far as development is concerned, library support for Linux gaming is provided by OpenGL, ALSA, OpenAL and SDL, a cross-platform multimedia wrapper around system-dependent libraries. The DRI project provides open source video card drivers, and NVIDIA and ATI also release binary kernel modules for their video cards. Linux also runs on several game consoles, including the Xbox, [ [http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Main_Page Xbox Linux Wiki] ] PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and GameCube, [ [http://www.gc-linux.org/wiki/Main_Page Gamecube Linux Wiki] ] which allows game developers without an expensive game development kit to access console hardware.

Gaming Linux Distros

* Linux-Gamers.net LIVE! is a Live DVD game-oriented Linux distribution that offers limited, if not at all, general usage. It is made as a Live DVD distribution only and doesn't contain an installer on the DVD. [ [http://live.linux-gamers.net Linux-Gamers.net LIVE!] ]
*Ultimate Edition gamer's edition is a Ubuntu based distribution that has included many Linux games by default but unlike Linux-Gamers.net LIVE! it is not meant as a Live DVD portable environment, and so it doesn't have some specialized driver installation. [ [http://ultimateedition.info/Ultimate_Edition_1.8 Ultimate Edition] ]
*The Fedora Project hosts a Live CD gaming spin of their Fedora operating system.

See also

* List of open source games
* Lists of video games
* List of emulators
* List of video game console emulators
* Sega Lindbergh
* Wine (software)

References

External links

* [http://www.gaming4linux.com Dedicated Linux Gaming Website]
* [http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20080510052539217/Games.html 42 of the Best Free Linux Games]
* [http://directory.fsf.org/games/ FSF/UNESCO Free Software Directory: Games]
* [http://linuxgames.com/ LinuxGames] covers gaming news
* [http://www.linuxgamingworld.com/games-catalog/ Linux Gaming World - Recent Commercial Linux Games]
* [http://www.linuxgamepublishing.com/ Linux Game Publishing] produces commercial games
* [http://www.rune-soft.com/ RuneSoft] produces commercial games
* [http://freegamer.blogspot.com/ Free Gamer] , a games compendium with commentary
* [http://www.linux-gamers.net/ linuX-gamers.net] covers gaming news
* [http://www.tuxgames.com/ Tux Games] sells commercial games
* [http://www.happypenguin.org/ The Linux Game Tome] , a games database
* [http://icculus.org/lgfaq/gamelist.php The Linux Gamers' Game List] - A list of Games for Linux
* [http://techgage.com/article/top_10_free_linux_games/ Top 10 Free Linux Games]
* [http://linuxgamereviews.org/ Linux Game Reviews]
* [http://pigasoftware.a.wiki-site.com/index.php/Free_Software_Gaming Free Software Gaming on the Piga Software Wiki]
* [http://linuxgamingtoday.wordpress.com/ Linux Gaming Today] Linux gaming tutorials

Distros

* [http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/Games/GamesLive Fedora Games Spin]
* [http://supergamer.org/ Supergamer DVD] , based on Vector
* [http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=19738 GamePup] , based on Puppy
* [http://ultimateedition.info// Ultimate Edition]