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Chapter 23 . Gaming with Linux 637 The following sections describe Linux games from id Software, information about running Windows games using Cedega in Linux, and games from the now-defunct Loki Games still available from other sources today. id Software Games Among the most popular games running natively in Linux are Quake II, Quake III Arena and Return to Castle Wolfenstein from id Software, Inc. You can purchase Linux versions of these games or download demos of each game before you buy. If you have trouble getting any id Software games running in Linux, refer to the Linux FAQs available from id Software at: http://zerowing.idsoftware.com/linux. Quake III Arena Quake III Arena is a first-person, shooter-type game where you can choose from lots of weapons (lightning guns, shotguns, grenade launchers, and so on) and pass through scenes with highly detailed 3D surfaces. You can play alone or against your friends. There are multiplayer death-match and capture-the-flag competitions. Standalone play allows you to advance through a tournament structure of skilled AI opponents. This version of the game has a selectable difficulty level, from fairly easy to beat to downright impossible. A demo version of Quake III Arena for Linux is available from the id Software Web site (click the demo link at www.idsoftware.com/games/quake/quake3-gold/ and then look for the Linux demo). Figure 23-5 shows a screenshot from Quake III Arena. Figure 23-5: Quake III Arena is a popular first-person shooter game that runs in Linux. Note
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636 Part IV . Running Applications including Half-Life and Unreal Tournament. To see if your favorite Windows game will run in Linux and Cedega, refer to the TransGaming.Org Games Database at http://transgaming.org/gamesdb. . Games for Linux (id Software and others) Certain popular games have Linux versions available. Most notably, id Software offers its DOOM and Return to Castle Wolfenstein in Linux versions. Other popular games that run natively in Linux include Unreal Tournament 2004 and 2005 from Atari (www.unrealtournament.com). Commercial games that run in Linux without WINE, Cedega, or some sort of Windows emulation typically come in a boxed version for Windows with some sort of Linux installer included. (See Table 23-3 for a more complete list of games.) Linux games that were ported directly to Linux from the now defunct company Loki Software, Inc. are still available. While you cannot purchase the titles directly from Loki, you can go online to one of Loki s resellers at www.lokigames.com/orders/ resellers.php3. For example, Amazon.com (one of the listed resellers) shows 16 titles including Quake III, Myth II: Soulblighter, and Heretic II for Linux. Playing Commercial Linux Games To get your commercial games running in Linux, you should start from a site such as the Linux Game Tome (www.happypenguin.org) or Linux Gamers FAQ (http://icculus.org/lgfaq), which both provide information on commercial games that run in Linux and help in getting them to run. In most cases, you need to: . Purchase a legal copy of the game. . Go to a Web site that describes how to install, get patches for, and work around any issues related to playing the game in Linux. Here are examples of a few commercial games that run well in Linux: . Duke 3D Atomic Edition for Linux (3D Realms) Duke Nukem returns to earth to face aliens and clean up Los Angeles in this third chapter in the Duke Nukem series. Visit 3D Realms for official information about Duke 3D Atomic Edition (www.3drealms.com/duke3d). See the Icculus.org site (http://icculus.org/ duke3d/) for tips on getting it running. . Unreal Tournament 2003 (Epic Games) Multiplayer death match set in the future, where warriors face each other with awesome weapons and stuff. Includes a Linux installer. Got to Epic Games (www.epicgames.com) or Unreal Tournament site (www.unrealtournament.com)for the official information. Visit the Icculus.org site for tips on installing in Linux (www.icculus.org/ lgfaq#ut2k3_install). . Unreal Tournament 2004 (Epic Games) Adds new maps, characters, vehicles, weapons, and modes of play to the 2003 edition.
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Chapter 23 . Gaming with Linux 635 Commercial Linux Games When Loki Software, Inc. closed its doors a few years ago, the landscape of commercial gaming in Linux changed. Loki produced Linux ports of popular games, including Myth II and Civilization: Call to Power, to name a couple, and many hoped it would help Linux become the premier gaming platform. Since then, no other company has stepped up to port that wide a range of best-selling games to Linux. Today, commercial games that run natively are led by several popular games from id Software (described in the next section) and a few gaming companies that have ported individual titles to Linux. Some Loki games are still available for purchase on the Web. They sell for a fraction of their original price, but you are on your own if they don t work because Loki Software is no longer there to support them. The Loki Games Demo is still around, if you want to get a feel for a particular Loki game before it disappears completely. (I describe how to find demo and packaged Loki Games later in this chapter.) In the wake of Loki s demise, TransGaming Technologies has been working on an approach to bringing popular games to Linux that relies on a version of WINE called Cedega (formerly known as WineX). In most cases, instead of having different ports of popular games (as Loki did), TransGaming lets users run existing Windows games in Linux by adapting Cedega to each game that needs a tweak here and there. Although the state of Linux gaming has improved somewhat in the last few years, Linux is still emerging as a gaming platform. Linux has some of the technology needed to support advanced games, but the technology and developer support have not yet really come together. Most serious gamers still maintain a Windows partition to support their gaming habits. According to top game developers, there are significant hurdles both technological and economic that hinder development of games for Linux. In particular, the relatively small size of the Linux gaming market means that incentives to overcome some technical issues are not particularly strong. However, these limitations are not overwhelming. As you ll see later in this chapter, even the hardcore game nut can successfully use Linux. How you get started with Linux gaming depends on how serious you are about it. If all you want to do is play a few games to pass the time, I ve already described plenty of diverting X Window games that come with Linux. If you want to play more powerful commercial games, you can choose from: . Games for Microsoft Windows (Cedega 4.0.1) Many of the most popular commercial games created to run on Microsoft operating systems will run in Linux using Cedega. To get RPM versions of Cedega, you must sign up for a Cedega subscription at www.transgaming.com. Make sure to check in with www.linuxgames.com to see if there is a relevant HOWTO for working with the particular game you have in mind. Many games are covered there
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634 Part IV . Running Applications . A science advisory may also appear to let you choose your city s research goals. Click Change and select Writing as your new research goal. You can then select a different long-term goal as well. Click Close when you are done. . If your new Warrior is now blinking, press the S key to assign sentry mode to the Warrior. . Select Reports from time to time to keep track of statistics about your Cities, Units, Economy, Science, and other attributes of your world. Those moves provided familiarity with some of the actions of Freeciv. To learn some basic strategies for playing the game, choose Help.Help Playing. PlanetPenguin Racer (TuxRacer) With PlanetPenguin Racer, you guide Tux the penguin (the Linux mascot) down a snow-covered hill as fast as you can. Planet Penguin Racer (ppracer command) is an open source (GPL) version of TuxRacer, which was once freeware, but was later made into a commercial game by Sunspire Studios. To advance in PlanetPenguin Racer, you need to complete courses in the allotted time while overcoming whatever obstacle is presented (gathering herring or negotiating flags). You move up to try different courses and achieve higher-level cups. Figure 23-4 shows a screenshot of PlanetPenguin Racer. Figure 23-4: Race Tux the penguin down a mountain.
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Chapter 23 . Gaming with Linux 633 Exploring Your World To begin exploring, move the Settlers and the Explorer: 1. Using the numeric keypad, press the 9 key three times to begin exploring. You can move the Explorer up to three times per turn. You begin to see more of the world. 2. When the next unit (a Settler) begins blinking, move it one square in another direction. When you have made all the moves you want to make (or all that the game allows), the Turn Done button is highlighted. Click Turn Done to start your next turn. Information for the city is updated (the city changes and grows, simply through the passage of time reflected in the turns). 3. Click the City to see the city window. Notice that information about the city has been updated. In particular, you should see food storage increase. Close the city window. 4. Continue exploring and build a road. With the Explorer flashing, use the numeric keypad to move it another three sections. When the Settler begins blinking, press R to build a road. A small R appears on the square to remind you that the Settler is busy building a road. Click Turn Done. Using More Controls and Actions Now that you have some understanding of the controls and actions, the game can begin taking a lot of different directions. Here are a few things that might happen next and things you can do: . After you take a turn, the computer gets a chance to play. As it plays, its actions are reported to you. You can make decisions on what to do about those actions. Choose Game.Message Options. The Message Options window appears, containing a listing of different kinds of messages that can come from the server and how they will be presented to you. . As you explore, you will run into other explorers and eventually other civilizations. Continue exploring by selecting different directions on your numeric keypad. . Continue to move the Settler one square at a time after it has finished creating the road. The Settler will blink again when it is available. Click Turn Done to continue. . At this point, you should see a message that your city has finished building Warriors. When buildings and units are complete, you should usually check out what has happened. Click the message associated with the city, and then click Popup City. The city window appears, showing you that it has additional population. The food storage may appear empty, but the new citizens are working to increase the food and trade. You may see an additional warrior unit.
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632 Part IV . Running Applications . The menu bar contains buttons you can use to play the game. The Game menu lets you change settings and options, view player data, view messages, and clear your log. The Kingdom menu lets you change tax rates, find cities, and start revolutions. The View menu lets you place a grid on the map or center the view. The Orders menu is where you choose the items you build and the actions you take. The Reports menu lets you display reports related to cities, military, trade, and science, as well as other special reports. . A summary of the economy of your civilization appears under the overview map. Information includes number of people, current year, and money in the treasury. . Ten icons below the overview information represent how money is divided among luxuries (an entertainer), science (a researcher), and taxes (a tax collector). Essentially, these icons represent how much of your resources are placed into improving each of those attributes of your community. . When you have made all your moves for a turn, click Turn Done. Next to that, a light bulb indicates the progress of your research (increasing at each turn). A sun icon starts clear, but becomes brighter from pollution to warn of possible global warming. A government symbol indicates that you begin with a despotic government. The last icon tells you how much time is left in a turn. . The Unit box shows information about your current unit. You begin with two Settlers units (covered wagon icons) and one Explorer (a man icon) unit. Click on a Settler, Explorer, city, or other unit to use it or learn about it. Building Your Civilization Start building your civilization. The Freeciv manual makes these suggestions: . To change the distribution of money, choose Government.Tax Rates. Move the slider bars to redistribute the percentage of assets assigned to luxury, science, and taxes. Try increasing science and reducing taxes to start off. . Change the current unit to be a settler as follows: Click the stack of units on the map and click one of the Settlers from the menu that appears. . Begin building a city by clicking Orders.Build City. When prompted, type a name for the city and click OK. The window that appears shows information about the city. It starts with one happy citizen, represented by a single icon (more citizens will appear as the game progresses). . The Food, Prod, and Trade lines reflect the raw productivity statistics for the city. The first number shows how much is being produced; the second (in parentheses) shows the surplus above what is needed to support the units. The Gold, Luxury, and Science lines indicate the city s trade output. Granary numbers show how much food is stored and the size of the food store. The pollution level begins at zero. . Close the city window by clicking Close.
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Chapter 23 . Gaming with Linux 631 Figure 23-3: Choose a nation to begin Freeciv. 3. Choose a nation, name a leader, select your gender, choose the style of the city, and then click OK. At this point, you should be ready to begin playing Freeciv. Beginning with Freeciv Check out the Freeciv window before you start playing the game: . Click the Help button for topical information on many different subjects that will be useful to you as you play. (You can find more help at the Freeciv site.) . The world (by default) is 80 50 squares, with 11 8 squares visible at a time. . The active square contains an icon of the active unit (flashing alternatively with the square s terrain). . Some squares contain special resources. Press and hold the middle mouse button for information on what special resources a square contains. (With a two-button mouse, hold the Ctrl key and click the right mouse button.) Try this a few times to get a feel for the land around you. This action also identifies any units on the terrain, as well as statistics for the unit. . To see the world outside your 11 8 viewing area, click the scroll bars outside the map. At first, the part of the world you haven t explored yet will be black. As units are added, areas closer to those units will be visible. (Press C to return to the active part of your map.) . An overview map is in the upper-left corner of the Freeciv window. As the world becomes more civilized, this provides a good way to get an overview of what is going on. Right-click a spot on the overview map to have your viewport centered there.
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630 Part IV . Running Applications Figure 23-2 shows the window that appears when you start Freeciv. Figure 23-2: Play Freeciv to build civilizations and compete against others. If Freeciv won t start, you may be logged in as root. You must be logged in as a regular user to run the civ command. You can play a few games by yourself, if you like, to get to know the game before you play against others on the network. The following procedure describes how to start your first practice Freeciv game: 1. Select Start New Game. (Besides starting the client, this action also starts civserver, which will allow others to connect to your game, if you like.) You are asked to choose the number of players, skill level and other game options. 2. Select 2 to play against the computer or more if you want others to join in, then click Start. A What Nation Will You Be? window appears on the client, as shown in Figure 23-3. Note
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Chapter 23 . Gaming with Linux 629 In this example, name should be replaced with the name of the ICS host. In ICS mode, you can watch games, play against other users, or replay games that have finished. The ICS host is a gathering place for enthusiasts who want to play chess against others on the Internet, watch games, participate in tournaments, or just meet chess people. Here s an example of starting an ICS session at chess.net from a Terminal window: $ xboard -ics -icshost chess.net Welcome to . . . login: guest When you first visit, type guest and press Enter to log into the chess server as a guest. (You can add a real account later by typing /register.) The XBoard window opens on your screen. Keep an eye on the Terminal window where you started the session. Someone will probably challenge you to a game within a few moments. For example, if a challenge ended with Type /accept 102 to accept the sought challenge, you d respond: chess% /accept 102 You can begin playing. To learn more about how to play, visit http://chess.net/ help. Select the Beginners Manual to start. Other chess servers you can try include the Internet Chess Club (ICC) at www.chessclub.com or Free Internet Chess Server at www.freechess.org. Freeciv Freeciv is a free clone of the popular Civilization game series from Atari. With Freeciv, you create a civilization that challenges competing civilizations for world dominance. A commercial port of Civilization for Linux (Civilization: Call to Power) was created a few years ago by Loki Games (described later in this chapter). The commonly distributed version of Freeciv contains both client software (to play the game) and server software (to connect players together). You can connect to your server and try the game yourself or (with a network connection) play against up to 14 other players on the Internet. To install Freeciv, check out the download page on the www.freeciv.org Web site. Choose your language, start downloading, install, and have fun. You can start Freeciv from a Terminal window by typing: $ civclient & Note
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628 Part IV . Running Applications have the computer play against itself, or replay stored chess games. You can even play chess against other users on the Internet using Internet Chess Servers (ICS). The XBoard program is an X-based chess game that provides a graphical interface for gnuchess. GNU Chess (represented by the gnuchess package) describes itself as a communal chess program. It has had many contributors, and it seeks to advance a more open and friendly environment of sharing in the chess community. With XBoard, you can move graphical pieces with your mouse. To play chess against the computer, launch XBoard (from most KDE menus, click Games.Board Games.XBoard). Then start by just moving a piece with your mouse. While in the XBoard window, select Mode.Two Machines to have the computer play itself. Select File.Load Game to load a game in Portable Game Notation (PGN). Figure 23-1 shows the XBoard window with a Two Machines game in progress. Figure 23-1: In the XBoard window, you can either play against the computer or replay saved games. You can use XBoard to play online against others by connecting an XBoard session to an Internet Chess Server (ICS). To start XBoard as an interface to an ICS, type the following command: $ xboard -ics -icshost name
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