Episode 97 - A Few Linux Games

[Chess]

In this episode: an overview of a few games for adults and kids alike that work great in Linux: Quake 2, Quake 3, OpenArena, Unreal Tournament, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, FreeCiv, LinCity, LinCity-NG, Micropolis, OpenTTD, Frozen-Bubble, Enigma, Fillets-NG, Pingus, Neverball, Neverputt, Supertux, Abe's Amazing Adventure, Secret Maryo Chronicles, Barbie's Seahorse Adventures, Trip on the Funnyboat, Moonlander, TuxKart, SuperTuxKart, Armagetron, GLTron, Tuxracer, PlanetPenguin Racer, Extreme Tux Racer, Battle for Wesnoth.

http://www.linuxreality.com/podcast/episode-97-a-few-linux-games/

[angelorohit]

Looking forward to this episode. Super Tux is my favourite game on Linux.

[Magus]

I have to mention Nexuiz. It's available in the Debian and Ubuntu repos.
It's built on the Darkplaces engine, which is based (loosely) on the open-sourced Quake 1 engine. It's a first-person shooter (FPS) focused on multiplayer gameplay. It's fast and very fun. I played it on my laptop at Linuxfest whenever I had a free minute.

I mentioned this in other threads, but Wine is great for games that use the Unreal engine (Unreal, UT, Deus Ex, etc.)

Chess, it's great to hear you play video games with your kids.  I think it's a great way to bond with then, get them further into Linux and open-source, and also keep an eye on their gameplay habits.

EDIT: That has to be the best audio feedback ever.
EDIT x2: I have seen a TuxRacer arcade cabinet. It was at Disney Quest in Orlando, Florida. I think it was in the room with the rhythm games, but I don't remember clearly.

[Claudio]

I haven't heard this episode yet, but I'm glad it's here.   I usually find myself playing OpenArena more than anything since it's easy to just play against a few bots casually.  I always set it to Hurt Me Plenty, as Nightmare is just a bit too much.  It's also a good way to build up the fragging skills.

Another good game is TORCS, which is a car racing simulation game.  With a decent 3D-accelerated video card, it's great.

Another interesting FPS is World of Padman, which is also based on the Q3 engine.

Has anyone thought about hosting a game server so that we could all meet up there and just pass the time?  We could become the LR clan or something.

[Wofl]

i have to agree, nexuiz is a great game.

and also, i think i will have to give some of those games a a try, great episode.

[fishfreek]

I just got done listening to the episode and I will have to check otu some of these games for sure.  I used to game alot like you and loved Return to Castle Wolfenstein but I played that on windows.  Ill have to see if I can fire it up under Debian.

My daughter is going on 4 and she has been playing some kids games on my linux laptop and I didnt hear you address those so I thought I would add them to the list here in the thread.  In addition if others know of some good kid learning games for linux please share.

My daughter likes the Childs Play suite and the GCompris games suite.  She is kind of young for some of them but as she grows she will likly have years of entertainment and education with those suites.

[thelastknowngod]

holy god that song by dann was funny. hahaha.

[Claudio]

holy god that song by dann was funny. hahaha.

Oh, yes it was.  I was cracking up listening to it. 

And Chess, you forgot to mention Quake 4 which continues the Strogg story from Quake 2.  The id Software website has a Linux binary but you do need the data files from the Windows discs that have to be purchased.  I haven't installed it yet, but I will eventually.  The binary is quite large so be prepared.

I really loved the storyline with the Strogg in Q2 (and yes, there was a multiplayer section to it).  It was quite creepy as you progressed further into the game.  Q4 just builds upon that creepiness even more, and there's one other cool thing that happens to your player in Q4 through the storyline.  Unless I'm asked to post it here, I don't want to ruin it for others that haven't played it yet.

As for my 6-year-old son, he LOVES SuperTux.  He also likes playing Slune, SuperTuxKart, Planet Penguin Racer,

[Penguin]

There's a few FPS that I'd like to add to the list.  Cube, Assaultcube and Sauerbraten (aka. Cube 2).  All of them have Quake-style gameplay and online play.  I believe that there are versions for Linux, OSX, and Windows for all of them.  http://www.cubeengine.com/, http://assault.cubers.net/, http://sauerbraten.org/

[mjjzf]

While I am not much of a gamer anymore, I should add that I was rather impressed with True Combat: Elite.

[axe]

Hi all

Chess, or anyone else out there, I had one quick question, since I know you have been running Beryl and Compiz for ages...
With Compiz automatically running in most distros now, including openSUSE 10.3, my preferred distro, I have found that I need to turn off my 3D Effects for all but the most basic games to run reasonably.  I have a new Gateway, with the onboard Intel 3100 video card, so not a high performer admittedly, but with Compiz on, my machine runs great until I want to play a game, or start my MythFrontEnd to watch my recorded shows - in fact Myth locks up my machine in nothing flat.  As soon as I disable the 3D Effects in Sax2, all the higher-end games, and MythTV work great. 
I am a fairly new person on Linux, but can do scripting and such as I dabble in it at work, but I can't think of a way to turn Compiz on and off for games automatically.  The eye-candy of Compiz has turned several people's heads at work, which is cool, but I'd like to be able to run everything without the need for a CRTL+ALT+Backspace, or reboot in between things.

Also, when I switch to non-compiz, and my laptop is widescreen, the task-bar at the bottom only goes about 2/3 of the width of the screen, and not on the bottom.  It's not until some game ends that maybe it will paint the screen with the bar in the right place.  I expect that is an X11 thing - some support for widescreen - but (1) I don't want to mess up my compiz desktop by playing too much in X11 - I'm not really comfortable there yet, and (2) I'm not in the non-enhanced mode very often, but thought I would throw the question out there while I was on the topic.

Thanx for your help!
   AXE

[davijordan]

I am not really a really big games person. I did purchase Railroad Tycoon on sale a few years back, but have not invested any real time with it. There is one game lately that has me addicted. It is called Knetwalk. It is a logic puzzle. You have to hook up lines as though you were cabling a building. It does make you think!.

[Wofl]

Hi all

Chess, or anyone else out there, I had one quick question, since I know you have been running Beryl and Compiz for ages...
With Compiz automatically running in most distros now, including openSUSE 10.3, my preferred distro, I have found that I need to turn off my 3D Effects for all but the most basic games to run reasonably.  I have a new Gateway, with the onboard Intel 3100 video card, so not a high performer admittedly, but with Compiz on, my machine runs great until I want to play a game, or start my MythFrontEnd to watch my recorded shows - in fact Myth locks up my machine in nothing flat.  As soon as I disable the 3D Effects in Sax2, all the higher-end games, and MythTV work great. 
I am a fairly new person on Linux, but can do scripting and such as I dabble in it at work, but I can't think of a way to turn Compiz on and off for games automatically.  The eye-candy of Compiz has turned several people's heads at work, which is cool, but I'd like to be able to run everything without the need for a CRTL+ALT+Backspace, or reboot in between things.

Also, when I switch to non-compiz, and my laptop is widescreen, the task-bar at the bottom only goes about 2/3 of the width of the screen, and not on the bottom.  It's not until some game ends that maybe it will paint the screen with the bar in the right place.  I expect that is an X11 thing - some support for widescreen - but (1) I don't want to mess up my compiz desktop by playing too much in X11 - I'm not really comfortable there yet, and (2) I'm not in the non-enhanced mode very often, but thought I would throw the question out there while I was on the topic.

Thanx for your help!
   AXE

just on the turning compiz on and off

#!/bin/bash
metacity --replace &
game_name
compiz --replace

replace the game_name with the executable to the game, and save the whole thing somewhere (in home perhaps) as a script. then save the link to the executable to this instead of the game (in the menu) and everything should work just fine.