This week’s review was written by Philipp Geyer, who’s blog is currently under construction at http://nistur.chaosnet.org. Hopefully he’ll be writing more for us in future.

For my first guest post I’ve been asked to write about SuperTux, another Linux gaming classic. I could say here Super Mario Land and everyone would know what I was talking about. That would be a very short review and not highlighting some of the many good things about the game. To begin with, as with a lot of Linux games at the moment, SuperTux is a clone, it looks similar to Mario, it plays similar to Mario, it’s free. This is a game that is clearly designed to be played in the 5 minutes while the boss/teacher isn’t looking. It’s bright. It’s colourful. It’s fun.

The game plays the same as any other standard platform game. You play the part of Tux and you traverse a cold landscape being attacked by many different types of enemies, some resembling ice cubes, some snowballs and some robots, although what place they would have in the frozen Antarctic I shall never know. Controls are simple Left is left, Right is right, Down is duck, Space is Jump, Left Ctrl is fire. On top of this you can move the camera left and right with Delete/End. A nice feature if a little usefree.

Killing enemies actually makes you feel mean at some point, sure they’re dumb snowballs that just carry on walking until they hit a wall but when you jump on them and squash them they look so cute. Let’s do it again. When you get the Fire Flower the enemies suddenly provide much less of a problem, that is until you forget how slippery the floor is and end up diving head first off a platform to certain death.

Graphics and audio on the game are well done. Music is catchy and irritating. Graphics are clear and fit the style of the game very well. As it’s 2D it doesn’t show an awful lot of what Linux is capable of in terms of games, but is a great distraction when you need a break from doing work (or writing reviews!)

One of the best features of SuperTux, as with virtually any and every free native Linux game, the ease of creating levels. You need no specialist software and very little extra knowledge. SuperTux relies on a scripting language called Squirrel and loaded from plain text files. Guides and reference material is on the SuperTux Wiki. There is also a level editor for easier use if you so desire. Also the game has been ported to many different platforms, such as Windows, OSX, GP2X, Pocket PC, Nokia 770, Gamecube and even Dreamcast!

Over to you…

Have you played SuperTux?
Would you like to share a level you’ve made with us?
Are there similar games you’d recommend to those who enjoyed it?
Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.

Looking at Linux right now, we have several distinct sets of games available to us:

1. Free and open source native games.
2. Commercial native Linux games.
3. Console games playable using emulators.
4. Free and commercial Windows games playable using Wine/Cedega.

Each of these areas grows with some degree of separation from the others - increasing the compatibility of Wine doesn’t directly affect the number of native games available for example.

I think we can be fairly safe in assuming there will always be people with ideas and projects to ensure that open source games development will continue into the future. Similarly Wine and Cedega show no sign of dying any time soon, so we can imagine that compatibility with Windows games will continue to grow. Console game emulator development is limited both by our current hardware, and by the development of games consoles themselves. This leaves us one category to consider, commercial games which are available for Linux.

Where Are We Now?

Whilst a bold effort has been made by a few key developers, this is an area where Linux gaming still lags far behind Windows. Tux Games “the online store for Linux games” lists just under 100 titles - a tiny number compared to the thousands of total commercial releases.

Do We Want More Commercial Games?

In general, commercial games represent expensive and closed source software. Whilst a common selling point of Linux is its ability to perform on older hardware, new games releases require frequent hardware upgrades. For casual gamers and open source advocates, there probably seems to be little need for more commercial releases.

However, it’s not uncommon for Linux using gamers to keep a Windows partition just for gaming, and the lack of new commercial games is a common reason given for refusing to switch to Linux. Surely being taken seriously by games developers will eventually be a necessary step in Tux’s path to world domination (MUAHAHAHAHAHAH)?

But seriously, our inability to play the latest big game releases is not something the Linux community can continually overlook if we wish to appeal to a wider audience.

What Do You Think?

What can we do to encourage developers to release games for Linux?
Is it really necessary for the growth of the operating system?
Do you still boot Windows to play games?

Share all your thoughts and opinions below.

For our first review at Games Kernel, we’re going to be looking at a version of the Linux gaming classic, Tux Racer.
Since Tux Racer was first released in 2000, it has had a fairly confusing history with several different versions (both commercial and free) being released. In this review we’ll be considering Extreme Tux Racer specifically, but in general the various different releases are all fairly similar. It’s based of Planet Penguin Racer, which was in turn based off the original Tux Racer, and is released under the GPL.

Extreme Tux Racer sees you guide Tux the penguin down a mountain, gathering as many herring as possible on route. You play through a series of cups comprising of several tracks, each requiring you to meet certain time and herring requirements to progress. You can control Tux’s left and right motion, as well as paddling in order to give a slight speed boost, and flapping to become briefly airborne.

Whilst the game isn’t hugely impressive in terms of graphics, there are some nice touches. The snow and ice of the course look good, and you leave a convincing trail behind you as you slide. The jingly music which at first is bright and cheery grows irritating after a while, but it can be disabled.

The game is simple to play, with a limited options and controls, but whilst the starting tracks are easy enough to appeal to small children, you are can add more challenging tracks. A limited number of courses can be downloaded from The Extreme Tux Racer Forums, but building your own tracks only requires an image editor - check out the ETR Wiki. If anyone does create a track, please feel free to link to it in the comments below so everyone can check it out.

So whilst I’d imagine most people have checked out Tux Racer at some point, if you haven’t yet go give it a try and leave us your feedback.

If you liked our introduction to Wine and Cedega you may be interested in PlayOnLinux. It’s basically a project to get your games which will run through Wine installed as quickly and easy as possible.

What is PlayOnLinux’s aim?
After using Wine we realised that it sometimes needs complex commands. PlayOnLinux helps you to soften the process, making your life even easier in the Linux world. More, some people who care about the games they own won’t come to Linux simply because they want to be able to play them again. Our script will help them to move on Linux.

So if you’re worried about being able to get your Windows games working under Linux, or you don’t want to mess around with Wine, check it out.

Introduction

Whilst the purpose of this blog is mostly to focus on games which can be played natively under Linux, it is not the only option. This post is an overview of Wine (WINE Is Not an Emulator – hooray for recursive acronyms!) and Cedega, which can both be used to run some Windows software, including games, under Linux.

What Are Wine And Cedega?

As its name suggests, Wine and Cedega are not emulators.

Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available. — WineHQ

Essentially, they should allow Windows software to be installed and run under Linux, in the same way as it would be under Windows. Not all software works completely, or at all, but the number of applications is constantly growing.

What’s the Difference?

The first difference you’ll probably notice is that whilst Wine is completely free, Cedega charges a subscription fee to download their prepackaged releases and for support – currently $5 a month for a minimum of 3 months.

Originally, Cedega is a fork of Wine, focusing only on gaming. As such it handles newer 3d games better, however for older 2d games Wine can still perform better, and it also works well with a lot of other software aside from games.

What Can’t They Do?

Generally, brand new games won’t run with Wine or Cedega when they are released. A lot of MMORPGs will not work because of hack-prevention methods they employ. Games written in Dark Basic also tend to have problems.

What Games Can I Play?

Whether a game will work depends on your system and the versions of Wine or Cedega you’re using, so there is no complete list of games which will run. You can however find databases which will give you some idea of how a game will perform at the Cedega Games Database and Wine Application Database. Some notable working games include World of Warcraft, Civ IV, and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

Where can I get support?

Wine and Cedega’s website offer a lot of help on getting hold of and using each of them. The linuX gamer’s community forum has a board specifically for Wine and Cedega, and other more general linux forums such as Linux Questions are also often willing to help. If you ask a question here I’ll try my best to help find the answer, but I’m far from an expert on this topic.

Over To You…

Anything I’ve obviously missed from this guide?
Do you use Wine, Cedega, neither or even both? How useful do you find them?
Any tips for new Linux gamers?
Nice Place To Hide Yourself Photograph by JAIRO BD