Linux gaming

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Linux gaming refers to playing or developing video games for Linux operating systems. This can refer to open source games that run natively on Linux, or commercial games that have Linux ports. Generally speaking, there is a mindset that there are few games available for Linux.[1]

Contents

[edit] Open source games

Vega Strike, a space flight simulation.
Nexuiz, a first-person shooter.

A few original open source games have attained notability:

[edit] Clones and remakes

There are a larger number of open source clones and remakes of classic games:

[edit] 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 Enemy Territory: Quake Wars; 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 Penumbra: Black Plague and Penumbra: Overture. S2games released a Linux client of their title Savage 2: A Tortured Soul soon after it's launch. Indie RPGs Eschalon: Book I and Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 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. Titan Computer published a Linux version of Jagged Alliance 2 by Sir-Tech Canada.

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, Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns, Myth II: Soulblighter, 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 X2: The Threat to Linux. icculus.org has ported Aliens versus Predator, Duke Nukem 3D, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Rise of the Triad and Prey. The German publisher RuneSoft was founded in 2000. They ported the games Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood, Airline Tycoon Deluxe, Ankh, Ankh: Heart of Osiris and Jack Keane to Linux.

[edit] Massively multiplayer online role-playing games

This is a selected list of MMORPGs that are native on Linux.

For a list of MMORPGs, regardless of operating environment, see: List of MMORPGs.

Many virtual worlds (such as Second Life) also have Linux clients.

[edit] Emulation and compatibility layers

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

[edit] 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, as well as Pygame. 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,[7] PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, GameCube,[8] and Wii which allows game developers without an expensive game development kit to access console hardware.

[edit] Gaming Linux Distros

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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