Introduction

For a lot of new Linux users, one of their first questions will be “Can I still play my Windows games?”. Whilst we will be looking at using Wine and Cedega to do this in our next article, it should not be assumed that this is the only option for gaming under Linux.
In fact, there are a great many native Linux games, and their quality and number is constantly increasing. Solitaire, mah-jong and the usual ‘casual gaming’ suspects are all available, but so are 3D first person shooters, racing games and turn based strategy. What’s more, these games are almost always free (as in beer) and often open source.

What is available?

Whilst it’s true that there isn’t the same range of native games for Linux as there are commercial games releases, in general there are a least a few quality games in each genre. The Linux Gamer’s Game List refuses to “list games which suck” but currently details almost 400 games. The Linux Games Tome, a collection of Linux games and toys now has over 1000 entries.

How complete are these games?

As with most Open Source projects these games are continually in development, but that doesn’t prevent many of them from reaching professional levels of completion. The gap between different games can be huge.
Take Tremulous for example – not only entirely playable and feature complete, but an innovative combination of first person shooter and real time strategy gameplay. On the other hand there is Planeshift, an MMORPG which is far from complete now, but is constantly expanding and improving.

How do I get the games?

Normally, you will be able to obtain some games through your Linux distribution’s package manager. Games can also be discovered and downloaded through sites like The Linux Games Tome.

Over to you…

Any tips for new linux users and gamers?
What’s your view on native Linux gaming right now?
Feel free to add your comments, questions, thoughts and advice below.

Life Is Like A Game Photo by Łŏŋĕłŷ