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25 Best Linux Games

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the kinda-sad-actually dept.

bobz writes "The Linux Game Tome has announced the winners of the Happypenguin Awards. Games, toys and libraries in 25 different categories were nominated and voted upon by the Linux gaming community. Take a look at the best Linux gaming has to offer." Alas, no SimCity 4, and no Sims Online.

16 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. List of Award Winners by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Free Games
    Best Free Game - Frozen Bubble

    Best Free 3D Action Game - Cube

    Best Free Arcade Game - Frozen Bubble

    Best Free Cards/Board/Gambling Game - PySol

    Best Free Multiplayer Action Game - BZFlag

    Best Free Multiplayer Strategy Game - Freeciv

    Best Free Role-Playing Game - NetHack: Falcon's Eye

    Best Free Simulation Game - Flight Gear

    Best Free Single Player Strategy Game - Freeciv

    Non-Free Games
    Best Non-Free Game - Quake 3 Arena

    Best Non-Free 3D Action Game - Return To Castle Wolfenstein

    Best Non-Free Arcade Game - Space Tripper

    Best Non-Free Cards/Board/Gambling Game - Eric's Ultimate Solitaire

    Best Non-Free Multiplayer Action Game - Quake 3 Arena

    Best Non-Free Multiplayer Strategy Game - Heroes of Might and Magic 3

    Best Non-Free Role-Playing Game - Ultima I: A Legend Is Reborn

    Best Non-Free Simulation Game - SimCity 3000 Unlimited

    Best Non-Free Single Player Strategy Game - Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

    Miscellaneous Categories
    Best Emulator - ScummVM

    Best Game Support Library - SDL

    Best Graphics - Unreal Tournament 2003

    Best Sound/Music - Frozen Bubble

    Best Toy - Celestia

    Most Original/Unique Game - Liquid War

    Most Promising Linux Game Project - Planeshift

  2. Linux games vs. shareware stuff for Win by October_30th · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why should we expect Linux games to be any better than the millions of shareware games made for Windows? I mean, I've never found freely available Windows game that would be fun.

    --
    The owls are not what they seem
    1. Re:Linux games vs. shareware stuff for Win by killmenow · · Score: 5, Funny

      The best way to play minesweeper is to set the grid size to its max and the number of mines to its min.

      This way, you have a big space with like only ten mines. A lot of times, you can clear the board with one click.

      YES! New Record! One Second! Woohoo!

  3. I hope they included nethack by MoreDruid · · Score: 5, Funny

    You turn around the corner. Your foe (Server, 58 Hp 3D1) awaits. You engage battle. You /. the server.
    You gained an experience level!

    --
    The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.
  4. Re:Quake III still kicks ass!!!!!!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And that atmosphere is.... brown.

  5. Re:Old by kvn299 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just because a game is old doesn't make it bad. In my opinion, a game that can withstand the test of time (such a SimCity or Civ) is worth a hundred new games, in my opinion.

  6. Linux needs games by TTMuskrat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IMO, Linux needs games in order to "make it" in the mass market. It already has the good O/S, it has the word processing software, it has GUIs if you want them - the only thing it doesn't have is a good games library.

    Once you get developers either making games specifically for Linux or devs porting other O/S games to Linux, then Linux will be ready to take down the MS behemoth. After all, once it has games, you wouldn't need a different O/S for anything and you could then use your Windows discs as really cool frisbees :)

    --
    Support bacteria! It's the only culture most people seem to get.
  7. Cut-n-Paste Karma Whoring by bellings · · Score: 5, Informative
    Free Games Non-Free Games Miscellaneous Categories
    --
    Slashdot is jumping the shark. I'm just driving the boat.
  8. Even Quake I was a knock-off by hpulley · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Doom was the original and even Castle Wolfenstein 3D before that should get the real credit but it didn't quite have the environment that Doom had (the secret levels paying homage to Wolf3D and Keen were great).

    Playing Doom with my Gravis Ultrasound MAX sound card so I could hear guitars in the music was just awesome. Simply hearing the music for level 1 was amazing. And the stereo separation was so good that I could kill enemies with the (single barrel only) shotgun with my eyes closed. Played great on Linux in an X11 window too.

    I wish another game would come along with the impact that Doom had. It was just SOOOO amazing and nothing has come close since. Every 3D shooter since is just the same old with better graphics and sound, aside from interesting forms of multiplayer action like Team Fortress and Infiltration. Pretty sad, actually, but at least 3D shooters haven't had to go down the cheesy movie route like adventure games.

    Multiplayer really came along with Quake. In Doom it worked better as a cooperative feature. Deathmatch was really born in Quake, along with Capture the Flag, Team Fortress, etc.

    --
    $#!^ happens, but why does it always have to happen to me???
  9. Huge omissions by fishdan · · Score: 5, Funny
    Actually, over all "su" is the BEST game ever.

    Let's not forget the old classic:

    cat /var/spool/mail/hotgirl | grep sex

    Although I think that's probably closly followed by 2 others:

    $IPTABLES -A FORWARD -i $EXTIF -o $INTIF -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

    tail - 200 access.log | grep "GET /scripts/root.exe?/c+dir HTTP/1.0"

    I got a new game recently: The Oracle 9i install! I've been playing this for MONTHS now, and I'm still not sure how it's gonna turn out! I love the way you have to keep trying different things until you finally solve it! Please no spoilers!

    I'm also a big fan of the "adding a non-standard serial device" game, but I'm not very good at it yet.

    --
    Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
  10. Re:Old by StarTux · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And your point is?

    Of course some are over a year old, it takes time and costs money to port to Linux. Now if you stopped and thought about it and actually bought a couple of games for Linux from http://www.tuxgames.com you'd see more and more games appear a lot quicker from the bigger companies.

    OTOH, have you played Uplink? Just because it didn't end up on Happy Penguins winning list does not mean a thing, its one of the big surprises of 2002; a game by a small development team that is very addictive and was released on Linux at the same time as the Windows version. Its here http://www.introversion.co.uk.

    I didn't vote for Quake 3, its really quite sad people put that as the best game, as with all things Linux related my opinion differs. Perhaps next year they can limit the vote to commercial games released during the year. As for the free games, most are still in active development.

    The upshot of your argument and others who make it is that we'll never help break break the monopoly on the desktop with that attitude, and yes to begin with we need to help create the correct amount of market share (yes its hard to manage), but do you, when you see a game you'd like to play, e-mail the publishers and developers with a kind e-mail?

    Are you one of those people who runs a Linux gaming server? If so, write to the development and ask for a client and actually use that client.

    StarTux

  11. Re:Old by AKnightCowboy · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I think you took my comment a bit too literally. But to clarify using one of my examples, I played Civ 2 right up the moment Civ 3 was released. I expect to continue playing Civ 3 until the next one is released.


    Right, but did you wait a year or two to buy Civ 2 before you started playing it? Did you wait another year or two for Civ 3 before you bought it? The fact is, new games only come out for Windows. If you like to play new cutting edge games without waiting for years for someone to (hopefully) port it then settle with Linux for games. Personally I'm like most people, my windows box (and PS2) is for games and my Linux box is my file server, shell box for programming, and all around general purpose workhorse. The Windows box is just a desktop for browsing IE only sites and a game machine. The right tool for the right job.

  12. Re:Old by PunchMonkey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...almost all these games are over a year old. If I want to play games, I'll use Windows. If I want to get work done, I'll run Linux. It just doesn't make since to use a screwdriver to pound in a nail.

    It does if the hammer is going to cost you $200.

    I like your analogy though :-)

    Why use a $200 hammer that can't turn a screw when you can use a free screwdriver that can pound in a nail.

    I'm sure someone can reword that nicely into a sig...

    --
    I'll have something intelligent to add one of these days...
  13. Linux needs marketing by mausmalone · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm afraid of the flames I'm gonna get for this... but the problem with people adopting linux isn't linux, it's people.

    See, you say linux has a good OS, many good GUIs (I really love GNOME), and office tools for people to work on. I wouldn't disagree with you there... but that's not the problem. People just don't wanna use linux. And by "People" I mean "the masses."

    Here's an example. Dreamweaver is the most incredibly wonderful GUI-based web design program there is. It has everything anyone needs, and it outputs tight, compatible code. But do "people" use it? No.... I work in a place where we have enough licenses to go around, and what does everyone want? Frontpage. F'ing Frontpage. Not Claris Homepage, not Netscape Composer. F'ing Frontpage. And they ask me stupid things like "I want to use Frontpage, can you install it on the server for me?" ARGH!

    See, Frontpage isn't requested because it's... well.. good... or useable... or functional for that matter. Everyone wants it because it's MS Word for web pages. It may be a disgusting train wreck of a program the likes of which should warrant its creators' executions on a public street in broad daylight as a warning to other MS programmers, but the "people" are too lazy and dumb to contest their friend who says "Frontpage is the best" because he heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy who heard it from a sales-bot at CompUSA. Why do sales clerks reccommend Frontpage? Because it's wizard-based, and any monkey can do that... less chance of returned product.

    So the moral? "People" will continue to use Windows and slink away from linux as long as we keep thinking that they're too stupid to learn anything else. It's about time to shirk the attitude of "I use linux, but that's because I'm a genius. You lower life forms can use Windows." It'll go a long way.

    Oh, and never use your Windows discs as frisbees. Instead, keep them around to make copies for all of your friends. :)

    --
    -=-=-=-=-=
    I'd rather be flamed than ignored.
  14. Re:Stores to buy by slux · · Score: 5, Informative

    Tux Games sells Linux games exclusively and provides packages with Linux binaries even when the developers choose not to. (Medal of Honor: Allied Assault has been added as a preorder item already after the icculus.org announcement)

    Loki Games' has ceased to exist but their site still lists their resellers here, I'm sure many of them still stock Loki's old games and probably titles from other publishers too.

    Linux Game Publishing lists their resellers here.

  15. This list is why I keep a Windows box around. by Wakko+Warner · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Take a look at it -- best non-free game, Quake 3 arena? That came out, what, 3 years ago?

    The state of gaming on Linux is terrible, and, unfortunately, I don't see it getting better any time soon.

    - A.P.

    --
    "Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"