Ecommerce web host - Chapter 23 . Gaming with Linux 635 Commercial
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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