games for Mandriva 2009 (Linux)

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I just got Linux Mandriva 2009 from my friend who downloaded it the other day so I decided to give it a try and well... its my main OS now. I can emulate windows programs w/ Wine but this has proven slow and buggy so I was curious what good games there are for Linux out there, Ive downloaded a couple such as OpenArena, the free Linux port to Quake 3 and stuff such as that but im looking for something good, free, and exclusive. On that note Im going to post a review of Mandriva '09 in the next couple days if I have the time.

[Hatta]

As great as Linux is, it's not a huge market so it doesn't get a lot of attention from game studios. It's gotten a lot of attention from ID though. Any Doom or Quake game is available on Linux. There was a company that made linux native ports of windows games, Loki Games, but they're defunct now. Still, there are some good older games available that way if you can get your hands on them. My favorite was Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

Wine has come a long way, and it's good for a lot of games now. Games I've played that have worked perfectly have been Civilization IV, Age of Mythology, Star Trek Bridge Commander, Warcraft III, most Touhou games, and that's really just off the top of my head. Of course, some games are better supported than others.

There are source ports of some great older games. Doom, Duke3d, Star Control 2, Freespace 2, Homeworld, to name a few. I also enjoy the shooters from ABA games (http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/index_e.html), debian has packages for most of those, I dunno about mandriva. And of course there are tons of emulators. Dosbox, Scummvm, MAME/MESS, Mednafen, ZSNES, Gens, etc.

There are a few original titles. If you like FPS, you should try Nexuiz and Warsow. Strategy, try Battle for Wesnoth or Globulation 2. One you absolutely must play is Nethack. It's a text mode dungeon crawler RPG. Despite it's graphics, it has one of the most rich and complex game worlds ever. It's quite simply one of the best games ever. Incredibly difficult too, it took me years to complete it successfully.

That's not everything available, but a good overview of what your going to find as for games on Linux. I spend most of my time on Dosbox and Wine. Look at the App DB and you'll find quite a few great games that work very well.

[Zer]

On linux, you'll probably want to be familiar with emulators since there's not a whole lot else to play. If your system is up to the task, most Valve games (Half-Life 1/2, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, and such) run fine on WINE. If not, then one favorite game of mine, Armagetron Advanced, is a native linux game with online multiplayer. It's basically just a lightcycles game (like in the movie TRON) except you can 'grind' a wall to go faster, and even 'double-bind' by hitting two keys binded to the same direction at the same time to turn against your own wall to gain speed even easier.
There's also all the ID games, of course. Buuut other than that I can't think of a whole lot, I never used linux much. And now I don't have much reason to, I have the best of both worlds: Windows with a Blackbox style UI. Alright, it's not quite the best of both worlds; it's still Windows, but it doesn't look like ass now.

[GSZX1337]

I can emulate windows programs w/ Wine

Wine
Is
Not
an
Emulator

Wine is a compatibility layer, it doesn't emulate any hardware.

Myth 1: "Wine is slow because it is an emulator"
Some people mean by that that Wine must emulate each processor instruction of the Windows application. This is plain wrong. As Wine's name says: "Wine Is Not an Emulator": Wine does not emulate the Intel x86 processor. It will thus not be as slow as Wabi which, since it is not running on a x86 Intel processor, also has to emulate the processor. Windows applications that do not make system calls will run just as fast as on Windows (no more no less).

Anyway, I hope you like DOS games, 'cause DOSBox is your new best friend. Also, have you checked out your distribution's repository, there should be some games there.

Some of my favorite Linux games (mostly FPS since that's what I usually play on my PC) are:
Nexuiz
Open Arena
Alien Arena
Urban Terror (supposably like Counter Strike, but I don't see it)
Beneath a Steel Sky (with DOSBox, it's included in the Ubuntu repos, maybe it's available in Mandriva's)
Super Tux
Tux Racer (or any incarnation of it)
Super Tux Kart
Trackballs
Tremulous
Wormux
Quake 3 (use this installer)
Quake 4 (these instructions should work)
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (use the .run file Here)
Enemy Territory (here's an installer)
Unreal Tournament 2004 (just pop the disc in, no third party installer needed)

As for Wine: try PlayOnLinux and Wine Doors.

Here's some sites I go to for Linux gaming:
linuX-gamers
[Phoronix]
Ubuntu Gamer's Arena (for Ubuntu, but can be useful for other distros)

[lisalover1]

Which Way Is Up
OpenArena
Extreme Tux Racer
Supertux 2
Ren'Py
KQ [Awesome 8-Bit RPG]
Xmoto
Frozen Bubble 2
Super Tux Kart

[Citizin]

There is also Warsow, a multiplayer FPS with cel-shaded graphics resembling Jet Grind Radio and such. I personally don't care for online games but just showing you another option as opposed to Open Arena or Nexuiz.

[Funk, E]

There are ports of SCUMMVM to Linux, and I believe that there's a port of The Ur-Quan Masters, as well.

[elph]

Free crossover for linux and mac today(!)

http://www.codeweavers.com/