There are literally hundreds of games that run in Linux. Freely dis- tributed games include popular card games, board games, strategy games, and first-person shooter (FPS) games. The list of commercial games that will run in Linux has also grown steadily in recent years.

These days, many native Linux games are also network-enabled. You can battle tanks (BZFlag), create civilizations (freeciv), or play standard board games (gnuchess) against others on the Internet. In most cases, both the clients (playing the games) and the game servers (managing dozens or hun- dreds of players) will all run natively in Linux.

This chapter provides an overview of the state of Linux gaming today. It describes games that were created specifically to run in Linux, and explains how to find commercial games that run in Linux (either with a Linux version or running a Windows version along with Windows compatibility software, such as Cedega).

Overview of Linux Gaming

Linux is a wonderful platform for both running and, perhaps more especially, developing computer games. Casual gamers have no shortage of fun games to try. Hardcore gamers face a few more challenges with Linux. Here are some of the opportunities and challenges as you approach Linux gaming:

Plenty to play - If you just like to be diverted by playing some solitaire or shooting some asteroids, start with the Games menu on your desktop. Both GNOME and KDE desktops come with many more games than you will get on default desktop Windows systems. I provide a list of popular desktop games later in this chapter. If your Linux system doesn't have them, you can certainly get them.

3D acceleration - If you are a more serious gamer, you will almost certainly want a video card that provides hardware acceleration. Open source drivers for some video cards are available from the DRI project. Video cards from NVIDIA and ATI often have binary- only drivers available. Fun open source games such as PenguinPlanet Racer, BZFlag, and others that recommend hardware acceleration, will run much better if you get one of these supported cards and drivers.