Debunking Linux and its Relationship with Gaming
July 27th, 2007I’m tired of people who are afraid to switch to Linux because of its so called “lack of games, or at least good ones.” What I think is they just want the games they like ported to Linux instead of trying new ones. Or maybe it’s because the games are free and that is already a sign the game is bad, but I’m beginning to think quite the opposite. I have a list here of 17 games that I think every Linux user should give a shot to prove that it is quite a very adept gaming platform. I restricted my self to games that do not run on WINE, can be open or closed source, and of course, run on Linux.
NOTE:
If the screenshot looks grainy or blurry in any way, that is my fault due to resizing
The games go in no particular order:
- Neverball
Category: Strategy
Description: The main gameplay of Neverball is based on moving a ball to collect coins using gravity by tilting the game world, not directly controlling the ball; similar to Super Monkey Ball.
Home Page: http://icculus.org/neverball/
- Frets on Fire
Category: Music Oriented
Description: The gameplay of Frets on Fire is the same as in Guitar Hero – the player emulates playing a guitar. Frets on Fire is meant to be played by picking up the keyboard like a guitar, with one hand pressing the fret buttons and another pressing the pick buttons and hitting the notes as they scroll down the page.
Home Page: http://fretsonfire.sourceforge.net/
- Second Life
Category: Simulation / MMORPG
Description: Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world where you can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items and services from one another.
Home page: http://secondlife.com/
- Frozen Bubble
Category: Strategy
Description: Frozen Bubble is a Puzzle Bobble style computer game in which you have to shoot the colored frozen bubbles to form groups of the same color. Such groups disappear and the object is to clear the whole screen in this way before a bubble passes a line at the bottom.
Home Page: http://www.frozen-bubble.org/
- Nexuiz
Category: FPS
Description: Nexuiz is a fast-paced firstperson shooter in which you must kill the other players in an arena with an assortment of weapons maps available.
Home Page: http://alientrap.org/nexuiz/
- Stepmania
Category: Music Oriented
Description: Stepmania is a Dance Dance Revolution in which you use your fingers to hit the arrows as they come up towards the top of the screen. If you have a DDR pad, you can plug that into your computer and use that if you would please.
Home Page: http://www.stepmania.com/
- Tremulous
Category: FPS (First Person Shooter)
Description: Tremulous is a first person shooter featuring opposing humans and alien teams, with some elements of real time strategy (building your base, choosing units, etc.).
Home Page: http://tremulous.net/
- irrlamb
Category: Strategy
Description: irrlamb is a 3D game that involves a lot of physics and frustrating gameplay. The idea is to move yourself to certain parts of the map using different strategies and going across obstacles.
Home Page: http://code.google.com/p/irrlamb/
- War§ow (Warsow)
Category: FPS (First Person Shooter)
Description: The very competitive gameplay of War§ow focuses heavily on movement and trickjumping. It is also a fast paced game and features very unique graphics.
Home Page: http://www.warsow.net/
- Scorched 3D
Category: Strategy
Description: Scorched 3D is a turn-based artillery game modeled after the classic DOS game Scorched Earth. Players take turns honing in his aim on an opponent’s “tank” by adjusting angle, rotation and power and firing a weapon of choice each and every subsequent turn until he is able to hit/kill his target.
Home Page: http://www.scorched3d.co.uk/
- AssaultCube
Category: FPS (First Person Shooter)
Description: The game was designed to be slightly more realistic and more focused on team play than Cube while keeping the gameplay fast-paced and simple. In comparison to the gameplay speed of other games, AssaultCube is slower than Quake and Cube but faster than Counter-Strike.
Home Page: http://assault.cubers.net/
- FlightGear
Category: Simulation
Description: FlightGear is a collaborative project that aims to create a sophisticated free flight simulator framework. This customizability of FlightGear is illustrated by the wide range of aircraft models that are available in FlightGear, from gliders to helicopters, and from airliners to fighter jets.
Home Page: http://www.flightgear.org/
- World of Padman
Category: FPS (First Person Shooter)
Description: World of Padman is a first person shooter based on the Padman comic strip for the magazine Playstation Games created by the professional cartoon artist Andreas ‘ENTE’ Endres.
Home Page: http://www.worldofpadman.com/
- Neverputt
Category: Strategy
Description: Neverputt is a minigame packed with Neverball that features a 3D miniature golf course using the same physics engine as Neverputt.
Home Page: http://icculus.org/neverball/
- TrueCombat: Elite
Category: FPS (First Person Shooter)
Description: The game is a fast-paced modern tactical shooter with a focus on close-quarters gunfights and objective oriented teamplay. Two teams engage each other using modern weaponry, in the objective game mode there is one defending team.
Home Page: http://www.truecombatelite.net/
- Planeshift
Category: MMORPG
Description: PlaneShift is an MMORPG set inside a gigantic stalactite that features 12 playable races that all have their own homelands and characteristics.
Home Page: http://www.planeshift.it/
- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Category: FPS (First Person Shooter)
Description: Enemy Territory is a class based game. There are two opposing teams; the GDF (Global Defense Force), who are humans, and the Strogg, an alien race that are invading Earth. The date has not been announced for when it is to be released yet.
Home Page: http://www.enemyterritory.com/
NOTE: All of the screenshots above are all in-game, excluding Enemy Territory: Quake Wars because it is not out yet. You can see a video of the game here among many others
I hope this list makes you more aware of the excellent games that are available for Linux
Leave me a comment if you think another game should be added to this.
P.S. Check out the series of interviews Micahville is doing with renowned blogger. The first one is with Noah Kagan, an ex-Facebook employee. Read the post by clicking here.
america’s army
You forgot the wonderful xmoto and (slightly buggy) supertuxkart! (For the latter: latest svn version is way better than the package)
You seem to have forgotten UFO: Alien Invasion. A great turn based squad strategy game (in the vein of the old X-Com games). Probably the onle turn based strategy game ever to use the Quake 2 engine.
Though it still got a few bugs and incomplete features I’d say it is one of my favourite games.
It’s located at http://ufo.myexp.de/
OMG! you went through all that trouble and left out Unreal Tournement 2004 and Doom3 ??
How about Quake3, its available for linux too !
and UT 2004
Are you serious? These articles do nothing but make linux gaming look even worse.
You mention 17 linux games, then I can mention hundreds upon hundreds of windows only games. I use linux all the time for workstation and server work, but I wouldn’t play games on it because there’s nothing really worthwhile that a windows game hasn’t already made and done it better. There’s really no comparison between the two because they’re so vastly different. Pick your battles, gaming on linux isn’t one of them.
My god, you went through all that trouble to prove Linux is a gaming system and those are all the games you could find.
Again. What a lame gaming system it is.
Forget attempting to prove Linux is a gaming system. You cannot win.
It is not. Like it for what it is, not what you think it can compete in. It can’t
Digital Paint: Paintball 2.0
http://digitalpaint.planetquake.gamespy.com/
I think the point is that there are some good games you can play on linux if you give some of them a try. I don’t use linux, but it’s good that there are people like him trying to make it easier for people who do want to give linux a go and still have some fun while they’re there.
Wow, you left out Savage, Q3, UT, & AA?
Seriously, savage! Great game — Multiplayer RTS available for free.
Check it out:
http://www.s2games.com/savage/downloads.php
Probably one of the best games available for any platform
Savage is the most action you can possibly fit into a game
“ryan” and “butcher99″ seemed to have missed the point.
Linux is a completely viable gaming platform if people develop for it.
Enemy Territory Quake Wars (and the original) both run just as good, if not better on Linux then they do Windows. The same goes for UT, Doom 3, Prey, etc. etc.
Sure, you can “name hundreds” of games developed with Microsofts Direct X, which are limited to only Windows (and most typically run damn well under WINE, which he didn’t include) but that hardly makes windows a superior gaming platform.
It’s also possible to download the Neverwinter Nights 1 client for Linux.
Doom3, All Unread Series, All Quake Series, Neverwiner Nights, Medal Of Honor, Americas Army, and many more… have native Linux Ports.
You can also play World Of Warcraft, HL2/CS Source, Guild Wars.. … and so MANY more run on linux via other supportive means just FINE (I’m not gonna mention hunderds here). So whoever says you can’t play games on Linux are just ignorant bastards, lol.
The List above has some “lower end games” that most people have not hared of, but that does not mean they’re not fun. Get it straight chimps. Peace.
You should have made this a ‘top 10′ list and then left out the ones that suck. I seriously doubt you are a gamer.
Dboy
No Tux games on this list? Oh well, I guess this is for debunking. I’m surprised Armagetron isn’t on the list, but it isn’t the prettiest game out there.
Wesnoth? No Strategy Love?
Also does anyone have a half decent racing game? Not kart stuff. Racing
please add
body { background-color:#FFFFFF; }to your css thingy. you currently don’t have any color set and it looks gray on my browser.
Some reasons off the top of my head to use Linux:
Safer (no viruses coming through during online play)
More stable (less likely to crash mid game)
Games on Linux are probably on other systems (interoperability, play with friends on Windows or others)
FREE STUFF!!!!!!
I’m highly surprised Sauerbraten isn’t on here.
Hahaha when Second Life is in the top ten on your “games” list, you know you’re in trouble!
“Debunked”…riiight.
What about Legends? That game is awesome. It’s like tribes. http://legendsthegame.net/
Go and have a look at the current PC games chart. How many of these games have Linux ports?
I think you’re description of Stepmania should be changed to:
Stepmania is a Dance Dance Revolution clone in which you can download hundreds of songs to play from the internet. If you don’t have a DDR pad that can plug into your computer, you can use your fingers to hit the arrows keys instead.
I mean seriously, since when was playing DDR with your fingers the ‘normal’ way to play the game? :p
[...] Posted by Oz Music Blog on July 28th, 2007 http://www.micahville.com/2007/07/27/debunking-linux-and-its-relationship-with-gaming/ [...]
@Skreech
check out TORCS yet?
The Open Racing Simulator.
~ow3n
Umm… Competing Windows games will get people to convert, not arcade games like most of these. It’s stuff like Quake Wars, Unreal Tournament, etc. A lot of cross platform games that people would convert for are completely missed on this poor list.
Savage and the coming Savage 2! Best games on Linux ever!
You left out Alien Arena 2007 which is possibly the best free game for Linux. Check it out at http://red.planetarena.org
What about Tribal Trouble? That’s a pretty funky RTS
http://tribaltrouble.com
The unreal series as well should be added, I’m pretty sure they all have native linux versions.
Flightgear is cool but you forgot there is an EXCELLENT COMMERCIAL FLIGHT SIM available for Linux too.
XPLANE
http://www.x-plane.com/
Its better than MS Flight Sim, even on Windows.
Another good game – Pathological (a puzzle game)
[...] read more | digg story bookmark to [...]
Hm.
Anyone tried out Galcon yet?
It’s available both for win and linux.
I’t quite a simple game though, but great in it’s simplicity.
And quite addictive too ;-)
Quite a few of the games on the list I have not tried as yet. Thanks for sharing this.
[...] usuário compilou uma lista com 17 games(com imagens e links) para o sistema operacional Linux. Se alguém se interessar, alguns games da [...]
Those of you playing Frets on Fire may be interested in KoF, a fan community and distributor of new song releases for the game in question.
Thanks for the list, nice to have both a screenshot and a short blurb about each.
Hope you will consider expanding your list, with consideration of some of the games mentioned herein.
When it comes to the sheer number of games found on many Linux distributions (not including kdegames and such), it’s hard to decide on which one(s) to load up.
K R
SOF
to clear that up Solder of Fortune, Tribes (with the help of loki), and the UT’s (doe)
[...] to Linux because you think that there aren’t any games for it, then you should check out this article on Micahville. They link to 17 games that they believe every Linux user should try. Some of those [...]
Ignore all these naysayers! (I’m biased because my game is listed here)
It is quite sad the guy didn’t look a little harder and managed to miss some big name games. I’m amazed he include ET:QW but missed W:ET !
Quake3
RTCW
W:ET ( that trueCombat screenshot does not do it justice, check their website for much better screenshots – game play is sound too. Great fun. )
Quake4
Doom3
Prey
UT ( all of them I believe, I loved the liveLinux CD there released as a demo for UT2003 – just boot of the CD into Linux and play the demo – great, no install – I wish more people did this it would help let people play a game on Linux without having to worry about the install etc ).
I don’t worry about the naysayers, they have closed minds – for good reasons – if they opened their mind we’d all see how empty of actual knowledge they are!
How in the world do you not have Alien Arena in this list? It’s easily one of the best games for Linux. What about Q3 and UT? What a crappy list.
I have the Neverwinter Nights Platinum and it runs better in Linux than Windows. I just had to download the client and unzip the files that are on the DVD.
I think the implementation of OpenGL is better in Linux (at least in the games I tested).
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Too darn many FPS games!! For those of us who are too klutzy, too slow, to play these, it doesn’t matter WHAT platform they are on.
What I would like to see are some good single-player RPGs (NOT on-line MMORPGs) like the old Sega Genesis Phantasy Star series. I wouldn’t even insist on state-of-the-art graphics, the rather crude Sega graphics would be fine. Put the energy into creating gameplay, not into fancy pictures.
WoP is awesome for a FREE game!
Glad to find World of padman here.
Its truly one of the funniest free FPS ever.
There are much more games for linux than this few.
If you understand German you might find out at my blog
in the category Games.
Btw: the https: is caused due the mass of spam and comment DOS
please note that the certificate is self made and therefor unknown to your browser. Buying one is too expensive for a hobbyist blog ;)
[...] so I am seeing articles a lot that try to show Linux Gaming has something to offer. They then hold up a dozen first person [...]
Also: Toribash, Darwinia, Defcon, Uplink, Oolite, Racer, and probably several more that I’ve missed.
As I understand it the intent of this article is not to prove that Linux “is a gaming system”, but to demonstrate that there are in fact a healthy number of great games for Linux, many of them free in both senses of the word, and some of them really quite professionally put together.
Linux as an OS is not an impediment to writing good games, nor is it the case that there “are no good games” for it, as some people seem to think. “Lack of commercial games” and “no good games” are two completely different things.
Sure, if I was *seriously* into PC gaming and having the “latest and greatest” commercial titles at my disposal, Windows would be the obvious choice right now. If I was that serious about gaming I’d also own a PC that cost more than my car did, and spend crazy amounts of my pay on games and keeping the hardware updated. Been there, done that, got tired of spending silly money so that I could be disappointed by yet another buggy, rushed-to-gold rehash of the same tired old formula.
Which makes me wonder, what’s so great about the big money commercial gaming industry anyway? They’ve forgotten how to innovate and are scared to try anything new in case the bottom line gets hurt too much. Is Linux really missing that much by *not* having their support?
It seems to me that I gain far more enjoyment from playing something like Scorched 3D, Toribash, Neverputt, even good old MAME, or Flash-based stuff like Desktop Tower Defense, than I ever remember deriving from those expensive “AAA+” titles on Windows. I guess it’s easier to be fresh and original when you don’t have a million-dollar budget to recoup.
Surprised no one mentioned X2: The Threat and the upcoming X3: The Reunion. The graphics for both are amazing and the size of the universe and amount of varying things to do is unmatched by any game I have played.
http://www.egosoft.com
http://www.linuxgamepublishing.com
[...] The Micahville blog has an excellent article on why Linux should not be dismissed as a serious gaming platform. It lists 17 awesome games for [...]
Well, I thnik we need to add some more interesting games:
- Warzone2100 – RTS, with the air of Tiberian Sun and Total Annihilation heritage. 3D engine with quite a lot of interesting effects.
- Beyond the Red Line (btrl) – Space Fighting game, which is very hard to play without a joystick. The graphics IMHO are awesome
- Urban Terror, the CS-like game on Q3 engine. I play it a lot and could not enjoy more.
- Astro Menace, a 3D space shooter.
- Phobia III, a ‘crimson land’-like game with a hard gameplay.
- TA Spring, a total annihilation-remake.
- Drop Team, a multiplayer war-game
- BosWars, a futuristic RTS
And, mind you, there’re tons of commercial games (like the full version of DropTeam).
Americas Army should be removed and never again mentioned as they dropped Linux support quite some time ago and do not care about it at all.
[...] Worth reading about games on Linux. GameToons will hopefully support Linux. link [...]
Arkanoid: Space Ball.
http://www.wegroup.org/images/stories/arkanoid-space-ball_1.jpg
Arkanoid style game. Linux version – freeware.
http://www.wegroup.org/games/arkanoid-games/arkanoid-space-ball.html
Rebunking linux gaming – no STEAM! (and I am saying 100% functional steam and Half Life 2 Team Deathmatch) – hacking to get partial functionality does NOT COUNT. And hacking Windows into Linux to run windows game IS NOT an argument for Linux. That is like saying a hair dryer would make a great toaster if I borrow enough pieces of the toaster (like everything but the heating element)!
Let’s get real people… Linux DOES NOT touch Windowz gaming natively, but it has some cool games no doubt. Linux is cool for the things it offers and the innovative open source community (and especially the Mini-OS that can be shoved in little devices like routers).
[...] Linux Gaming Tired of the doubting people, who think Linux has few or no gaming, a user speaks up, with screen shots, and a new game teaser promotion: http://www.micahville.com/2007/07/27…p-with-gaming/ [...]
Good answer, I am looking for the solution of the same question. Find the movies or mp3 you are looking for at your-download.org the most comprehensive source for free-to-try files downloads on the Web
for those with the easy argument…
windows is not for games too (if you take on account the mediocre system) but it has games, so is not about the os but the game makers
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