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That's why Cedega exists.

VMware doesn't support 3D hardware acceleration, what you need is Wine or Cedega, I don't know about the other game, but Civ4 is running perfectly fine on my Linux machine under Cedega, check this guide for details.

Before you try to run a game under Wine or Cedega, I suggest you check their respective databases at appdb.winehq.org and transgaming.org/gamesdb.

What's the best way to get games to play on Ubuntu?

Probably your best bet is to subscribe to Transgaming's Cedega service, which, while not perfect, is the only solution out there for playing Windows games on Linux with any kind of decent performance that I've heard of.

Honestly, I hope this happens (I will be investing in a transgaming account again, but eh). It will help curb my gaming habit. I hope it does the same thing for a lot of other people (if I dont see some more support for Linux and Mac in the gaming world then game developers are going to stop making money off of me)

What Apple needs to do is hire the WINE people or Transgaming to get something usable on the Intel Macs and include it free of charge (no Quicktime Pro nag) with the OS. This would be a stop gap solution as Microsoft is planning on destroying everything with Vista anyway but it would at least lower the "Mac's aren't for games" cries.

First though, Apple needs to sit down with ATi, Intel, and likely soon nVidia and get their drivers in better working order. they have the push to be able to do this so there should be no reason not to. Currently, the Intel Macs perform significantly worse under World of Warcraaft under OSX than booting into XP. Yes, this is just one app but it is a driver issue. This needs to change immediately.

Apple also needs to woo the developers (developers! developers!) to OSX. It's not going to happen immediately but if they can prove that there is both a market and a valid gaming system (get rid of crappy GMA-950, fix drivers) then they might have a chance. Developers are already going to have to switch to Vista's new way of doing things, they could also switch to OSX.

So, first step: get the back catalog. Next step: get the developers. Apple has a serious chance here. They better not screw it up.

Don't worry, it will, just not from MS.

Cedega - http://www.transgaming.com/

Actually, the Unreal Tourniment and Doom series of games run NATIVELY on Linux. I know because I play onslaught in UT2004 all the time using Linux! If you want to play Half-life games, use Cedega.

The more people use BSD/Linux/Amiga/whatever, the more companies will develop games for BSD/Linux/Amiga/whatever.

I mean Pingus is fun for a while... but it doesn't take the place of Dawn of War. Neither can Heroes of Might and Magic III for Linux if you could manage to scrounge up a copy. (No, you can't have mine.)

There is some hope for Cedega, though I'm not currently impressed. It's not going to be able to replace my XP partition any time soon.

One of the ironies of modern electronic gaming is that the most free (as in GNU, ironically) and viable gaming platform is Windows. It's better than the locked down, DRM ridden consoles. Think of it, you can get horse armor on PC by making it yourself instead of paying for it. That's closer to Free Software than the current console model "it'll cost you, and don't dare try to hack our console." Of course, Vista may tip this, I think MS is learning some lessons from being a console maker.

Yes, the situation sucks. The real problem is that Microsoft still plays Monopoly with our PCs. It has very little to do with consumer choice.

Wrong, there's now a linux system for windows games. link

Of course they're dual-booting windows - how else are employees supposed to play the latest games?

Of course they're dual-booting windows - how else are employees supposed to play the latest games?

WINE? Cedega? Or how about na-tive?

• Photoshop: The GIMP - how many times does this need to be said, the interface is slightly different but the gimp has most of the features of photoshop plus a few of its own.
  Why don't I do the rest of the main Adobe stuff while I'm at it:
  
  • Pagemaker: Scribus
  • Illustrator: Inkscape
  
  
• Games: Cedega - but maybe you'd be better off using a console (not as in bash you blockhead) as they're cheap and while piracy for them is a bit harder its doable if you're commited.
• Autocad: a quick search reveals two commercial solutions LinuxCAD and VariCAD and a guide to getting AutoDesk's Autocad running under wine
• Dreamweaver: NVU, Amaya, hell even fckEditor or, if you're hardcore then vi(e)macs.

This game doesn't yet work with cedega (a commercially developed fork of wine for gaming), but it's now the #1 game voted for by subscribers so the folk at transgaming will be working on it.

because you can't do that in Linux.

many people, including myself (GeForce FX 5900, non-ultra) have been playing WoW nearly bug-free for a long time. in fact, i heard most of the texture problems have been resolved, but most of those that remain are due to the ATi drivers. there are numerous known (and acknowledged) issues with ATi cards and drivers in particular, and the forums are rife with people complaining about their Ati stuff not working as expected.

that said, support improves every month with every new release, and with your subscription, you can vote for what matters to you. (and, since ATi issues come up every voting cycle, VOTE, DAMNIT.) (note, i typically vote -1 on most ATi issues, but i'll stop that if you agree to start voting.)

also, read the forums. it's a bitch, i know, but really, there is a lot of helpful information there if you just take the time to find it. the really big things get stickied (0x10000000 mem loc. fix for mouse in WoW, for example) and everything else will come up from time to time. and don't rule out your distro's forums, either. the official Gentoo gamer forum has threads for all sorts of problems that come up in Cedega, with tips on getting other games to work in vanilla Wine.

they claim it's out-of-the-box compatibility, but as with anything on linux, you have to care enough to fiddle with it a little.

I played Half-Life 2 on Cedega and it worked very well. Definitely worth the $5/month fee for an update subscription. I opened up CS:Source to see if it worked but I never tried anything past the menus, although I'm sure it plays great.

upgrade to faster connection, switch to kubuntu (free AND secure), or anything else equally secure.

If you need (unsecure) windows for anything, use vmware player (free), or wine (free), or if you need to play games with 3D acceleration then cedega (nonfree).

Remember about http://www.openoffice.org/ for office work, http://www.gimp.org/ for drawing, http://www.k3b.org/ for burning DVDs... and the list goes on and on.

ps: I've got some karma to burn, so here I'm whoring ;)

http://www.transgaming.com/ is there site

"I also emailed Transgaming about Cedega, but so far they still have nothing useful to say."

I just wanted to highlight what you have linked to as its something that has been very intriguing to me since the announcement of the transition to Intel processors. From http://www.transgaming.com/cedega_faq.php#8

"[8)] Does Cedega work on the Mac?
Cedega does not run on the PowerPC Mac OSX due to differences in the underlying architecture between PowerPC computers and x86 based computers."

There is an incredible opportunity here...

"Thanks for your interest! We don't have a ship date for this yet, or even a beta testing program, but we're hard at work on it and have a working prototype."

I also emailed Transgaming about Cedega, but so far they still have nothing useful to say.

Also, don't assume that KDE and GNOME are the only options. I personally run Window Maker (with various dockapps), with fspanel, and KeyLaunch, with xtrlock (invoked via keylaunch) as my screen lock. On top of that, I use various shell scripts that I've written over the years.

Desktop systems, especially for certain classes of users, are highly varied. Good luck trying to study them!

There is quite a few options that have good pro's and cons. Here is a few suggestions and my personal experiences. For a desktop environment here are a few suggestions. SuSE Pro Linux,
This desktop environment comes complete with a nice interface for installation. This includes the ability to use a domain for authentication information.
Pros: Good installer, Easy to configure, abundance of applications.
Cons: SMB configuration for Printer sharing is not simple nor easy but required to browse a windows network. Requires Lisa to browse windows base network. Apps list is weighty and can confuse. Will not play DVD's *(due to the DVD Consortiums direct actions.) The equipment and software is capable of it but disabled. While video games are not a plus for the Linux Desktop system you can get around this with Codega.
Novell Linux Desktop,
This seems to be a great alternative to the full weight of SuSE Pro. This environment comes with far fewer applications that the full beast of SuSE Pro and might need a few applications installed or compiled.

I would give both of them a go and see what you think.

The Novell Linux server is also a good beast but will not always play with within a previous AD environment. Mind you this has nothing to do with Novell's server product.

Hesperant
The Rainworks Project

I agree with one of the above posters: Wine is great.

The Apps Database shows Top X apps in each category. Gaming area has some surprising results, one of which being World of Warcraft (!) on their *GOLD* list, meaning it's virtually flawless.

Half-Life 2 is on there as well.

There's also other apps like Cedega which have a much larger library of supported games, but I believe you have to pay for it.

In any case, some of the most popular games out can run without a hitch.

What's a Cedega?

Cedega, available from
http://www.transgaming.com/ is a version of WINE with proprietary DirectX extensions. The idea is to allow Windows games to run unmodified on Linux.

- Greg

I've got Half-Life 2 running under Cedega (aka WineX) on Ubuntu. I get about 10 fps less than under XP, but it's playable.

It's not free however... but then, neither is Half-Life! So to play commercial games under Linux, it costs me an extra $5 a month.

Worth it? Haven't decided yet, but it's damn cool.

Yep, skip Wine, go to Cedega. WoW a supported app, and although Cedega (WineX), by Transgaming, is based on Wine, they have made adjustments geared more towards gaming apps. Runs smoothly, and occasionally hiccups when they release a new patch. Transgaming

The vmware tools just installs an optomized vga driver. There is no 3d acceleration, and little, if any, 2d acceleration.

Transgaming would work better.

So this would be something that SwiftShader would be ideal for, then?

except for http://www.transgaming.com/showthread.php?news=172 and http://www.transgaming.com/showthread.php?news=173 , right?

except for http://www.transgaming.com/showthread.php?news=172 and http://www.transgaming.com/showthread.php?news=173 , right?

I'd say he's very much associated w/ Transgaming. He's even got his own page.

http://www.transgaming.com/gavstates.php

Transgaming surely lost my respect w/ this stunt.

In my version, the salesman sells the customer EVERY app he asked for PLUS CrossoverOffice and Cedega, and the customer STILL saves money! That's in addition to getting an OS that comes bundled with thousands of apps, doesn't phone home, and is "default deny" to the Internet's most virulent worms and viruses.

Yeah, I know... I'm preaching to the choir. As an AC, however, I'm obviously not karma whoring.

My friend, let me introduce you to Cedega and CrossOver Office. So what were you saying about Half-Life 2 and Microsoft Office not working again?

1. It's hard to pin down how many Linux installations there are, let alone users (or desktop installs.) But, people are trying.
   
   
2. It's hard to find the fraction of Linux users that play games. Some work can be done to estimate that.
   
   
3. Given some (probably unreasonable) estimates of the above, however, you can figure it out yourself.
   
   
4. Whatever the customer base for a Linux WoW, it has come a long way.
   

...they're just starting to feel the pinch of transgaming, wine, Linux and a world that realizes we don't need them to have game.

If you want to run WoW in linux, it runs, with a very few small bugs, faster than it does on a windows box with Cedega from http://www.transgaming.com/. What I want to know, is when http://www.ventrilo.com/ will be putting out a linux client so it's worth using Cedega for MMO games. Let's get on them, guys!

http://www.transgaming.com/

works for everything thats worth playing...

linux has no gaming capability.. HAHA!

If City of Heroes ran on Linux, I would probably go ahead to switch to a Linux-only system, if for no other reason than it's free and I don't have to buy a new version every few years.
then switch now! and it works too, i played CoH for months with cedega (right now i'm playing Guild Wars, also running in cedega).

You do not need windows to play games. You may need windows to play games designed to run on Windows though. But if you're dumping windows, you no longer have a need for those games.

That's why Cedega exists, right? Surely there are people out there who keep them in business. Probably all those Linux using CS1.6 players.

Linux, as it exists today, is a philosophical choice. I'm not supporting Redmond or any of the companies that butter their bread using that damnable product.

Please point out what "philosophy" Linux states, besides hating Microsoft? If you're looking for the UNIX philosophy, you need to be using real UNIX, i.e. 4.3BSD derived systems such as FreeBSD. I'm very interested in hearing about what, if any, positive philosophies Linux provides; as the userbase seems to reflect a mantra of endless hatrid towards the Microsoft Corporation (which may or may not be appropriate; irrelevant).

Also, please do not bother replying if your primary intent is to be Zealous; there's just no point.

What came first of the chicken and the egg? The vendors won't release games for Linux because the userbase isn't big enough and the userbase won't switch to Linux because the lack of games..

It's called market potential. Whenever your company releases $HARDWARE or $VIDEO_GAME they have to ask the marketing people "who will buy this?" Based on the answers, you get publishers paying for development of Microsoft only hardware drivers and Microsoft only video games.

(Neither video games or hardware are Free as in Beer. Free as in Speech is possible, but discussing price-free drivers and games is beyond the scope of my argument here.)

I was asking around last year about the market potential for Linux kernel GNU systems. The biggest problem is find out just how many people use Linux in the first place (http://counter.li.org./

So, given that it takes a market of at least 100,000 units sold to turn a profit on a top-release $50 game with a $1 million to $3 million budget, are there enough desktop linux users to suppport a Linux game release? Is the market there?

Note that top-release $50 PC games for Windows sell upwards of 200,000 units in their first year, and upwards of 100,000 units for their next few. For example, Blizzard's Wold of Warcraft (http://www.blizzard.com/ cost $5-10million to make but sold 600,000 at $39-50 in its first 6 weeks. But that is on the extreme end of the spectrum.

Assume 50% of home desktop Linux users play computer video games[0].

Using counter.li.org numbers Linux desktops = 0.025% (0.0125% gamers) of all desktops, then a WoW for Linux would have sold 144 copies in it's first 6 weeks[1]. Stats at geek.com (http://www.geek.com/ for 2004 show Linux desktops = 1.12 percent of the market. Assuming the highest number of Linux desktop gamers being 0.56 percent of the total gaming market, then a WoW for Linux would have sold 3,000 copies in it's first 6 weeks at $39-50.

That means between $7,200 and $150,000 could have been spent by Linux desktop users on WoW. While $7k will only pay a Bangladeshi salary, $150,000 would nicely cover one or two interns to make sure WoW compiles and runs on Linux[2][3].

0. Or assume a higher rate of gameplay, but consider less than 100% market penetration of your game, so that 50% market penetration is reached.

1. Note that Transgaming (http://transgaming.com/ needs far more paying customers pending their $5 votes than this to start work on a title, and WoW has been voted #1 priority by transgaming.com customers for several months before being supported.

2. Assuming a baseline Linux is being supported (e.g. SDL $VER + Glib $VER or LSB (http://www.linuxbase.org/) or Distro $FOO) and no additional cost for shipping and delivering the binaries.

3.$15 per month implies $2,160 to $45,000 a month to keep that Linux port updated. Considering Blizzard.com is reporting a 1.11 patch to the 5 year old Diablo II, over a similar 5 years a WoW monthly income could have added $225,000 to Blizzard's coffiers.

not to mention that Transgaming's Cedega runs all the games the parent mentioned...

1. better Cedega Support - http://www.transgaming.com/
2. native installers - http://liflg.org/
3. Greater development in the SDL world
4. Push for support of
      http://www.happypenguin.org/
      http://www.linux-gamers.net/
      http://www.icculus.org/

In case you don't know/are interested, you can run World of Warcraft on Linux using Cedega.

As I am a Mac user who owns a PC explicitly for the purpose of gaming, I am quite happy with the switch. Soon I'll be able to ditch my PC, and have a dual-booting Mac instead. I'll keep a Windows partition around as a gaming platform.

Shucks, I'll have to reboot to play games, until VirtualPC or another suitable product works well enough on Intel Macs.

Now, you probably already know about this, but it's still worth a mention, if you want to continue with your gaming but forgo the discomfort of using windows, you can try using the freely available transgaming CVS, or purchase a subscription for cedega and point2play for a much easier option, especially for commercial copyprotected games.

http://www.transgaming.com/

I seem to imagine this

Ok, only FYI (as many of these topics were covered in other replies) and certainly not for karma (as this topic is dead at this point), here is the definitive guide for playing Lucasarts/Sierra games on modern PC's:

First, Linux PC's:
Lucasarts games: http://www.scummvm.org/
AGI Sierra games (Lsl1, Sq1, Sq2, Kq1-3, etc): http://sarien.sourceforge.net/
SCI0 Sierra games (Sq3, Lsl2-3, Kq4): http://freesci.linuxgames.com/
SCI1 Sierra games (Sq4-5, Lsl5-6, Kq5, etc) and oddballs like willy beamish and all those old games like tunnels of armageddon: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/
Windows Sierra games (Sq6, Lsl7, etc): http://www.transgaming.com/ (or apt-get install wine)

Any platform, Sierra games: This guy has done the unpossible, writing timing fix patches for the games so you don't have to kludge them with slowdown utils: http://geocities.com/belzorash/

Windows PC's:
LucasArts games: http://www.scummvm.org/
AGI Sierra games: http://www.agidev.com/nagi.html
SCI Sierra games: http://sourceforge.net/projects/vdmsound/
Windows games:
http://home.planet.nl/~harms646/larry7.html
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancement s/ResChange.shtml
Games that just don't work right:
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/

And just for grins, because it's freaking awesome:
http://www.agdinteractive.com/
http://people.freenet.de/lucasfangames/maniac/game s_eng.htm
Good luck, let me know if you have any problems.