Linux, games, and Windows question

[miecz]

Which OS is used by gamers usually? Windows? I am thinking of switching to Linux, but I am wondering if I can still play games on it, like Halo. I read that an emulator is needed. Would you guys just recommend using Windows instead of Linux?

 

[Zorak]

Windows is the OS used by the majority of gamers; however, there are some linux devotees that also play many of the newer games out there.

The easiest/most lazy way of being able to play the games you want without having to mess around with anything extra to make them work is probably to just use windows. On the other hand, if you want a secure and stable platform that will rarely get viruses, use linux. If you still want to play games, then you should consider installing a program like wine or cedega to get windows only programs working in linux.

I am not going to do a commercial here for transgaming (or whatever the makers of cedega call themselves), but if you really want to use linux and play games, that will probably be your best bet as it can play games like morrowind (and i think Oblivion). Also, you should see if any games you want to play come in native linux versions (like doom3 does).

Hope this was of some use to you.

-Zorak

 

[bmouring]

Zorak makes some fine suggestions, but one that is popular as well is to simply dual-boot, i.e. I boot into Linux by default and only boot into Windows when I want to play a Windows-only game (the majority of games). Trying to setup gaming using WINE, even with the help of Cedega, isn't 100% so it's usually left to those that absolutely don't want the OS from Redmond on their machine and play games that are known to work well under WINE (which, by the way, is NOT an emulator, it's an API translation layer)

 

[trencin]

what is the website where you could get Cedega for linux. I am complete new to this and also I am trying to fix a problem with ubuntu ISO download to my CD

The reason I am askin about this Cedega or any other software that can allow you to play games on linux is because I dont feel like spending $90 on windows.

If you have the time please take a look on this post I made about my problems with the CD ISO burn

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/software/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=836046#836046

 

[linux_0]

You can get WINE which is legally 100% free here:

http://winehq.com/

Here's the games and applications database for WINE

http://appdb.winehq.org/

http://appdb.winehq.org/appbrowse.php

You can get Cedega here:

http://www.transgaming.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=2&meid=-1

Cedega is not free

Here's the games database for Cedega

http://transgaming.org/gamesdb/


As bmouring already pointed out dual-booting is an option.

I personally use Linux on all my machines and have one PC which dual boots Linux and another OS for non-Linux friendly games.

Now of course there are a few other options... FreeDOS for DOS games, VMWare, QEMU, Win4Lin( QEMU based ), ReactOS and there are Linux emulators for several consoles if you like console games.

VMWare and QEMU are not that great for modern games but they can handle some older games -- both are free.

:-D

 

[trencin]

Sorry for this noob question but you said linux emulator for console games meaning that you can play console games on a PC ???

 

[linux_0]

Yes you can play some console games on a PC.

There are emulators and such for most popular consoles for both Linux and windoze.

Google around for your_favorite_console+emulator+linux

 

[trencin]

wow thats amazing!!! PC all the way eh ^_^

 

[trencin]

i was looking around a bit and I couldnt find Xbox360 console games to be playable on the PC like halo 2. can yall please help me find one

 

[linux_0]

i was looking around a bit and I couldnt find Xbox360 console games to be playable on the PC like halo 2. can yall please help me find one

What kind of games do you like?

 

[trencin]

First Person shooters, and some good RPG'S

 

[linux_0]

Well... there's Morrowind, Oblivion, Half Life, Half Life2, Quake 1-4, Doom 1-3, Ghost Recon, Rainbow 6 and the rest of the Tom Clancy games... SoF, SoF2, Counter Strike, America's Army, Diablo 1-2, Warcraft 1-3, WoW, EverQuest 1-2, and a ton more I'm forgetting.

:-D

 

[trencin]

yeah basically those are the games I like. But I would really like to play Halo 2 ON PC if thats possible without any FPS problems I was looking around the sites and some were saying that a PC must be 4 times faster than a console or somethin but am not sure. Oh and could I play halo 2 Online or just by LAN ?? I Play Americas army V2.7 on my PC a lot, and was wondering if I could play it on Linux Ubuntu. I saw that they have V 2.6 on linux but not 2.7 maybe i am wrong but I'd like to know if there is a way to do that play on linux.

 

[linux_0]

yeah basically those are the games I like. But I would really like to play Halo 2 ON PC if thats possible without any FPS problems I was looking around the sites and some were saying that a PC must be 4 times faster than a console or somethin but am not sure. Oh and could I play halo 2 Online or just by LAN ?? I Play Americas army V2.7 on my PC a lot, and was wondering if I could play it on Linux Ubuntu. I saw that they have V 2.6 on linux but not 2.7 maybe i am wrong but I'd like to know if there is a way to do that play on linux.

Check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_2


I've never played it so I don't know but wikipedia rocks :-D

The original xbox is actually a crippled Intel PIII 750 or something like that.

The PC can play games just fine if you have the right hardware :-D

 

[trencin]

they do mention that halo2 will be available for VISTA which is another like $150 OS just to play it. But I didnt see on wikipedia where I could play that game on a PC before Vista comes out


EDITED: Are you playing any console games on your PC ??? just a question...If so what console and what emulator(s) 8)

 

[linux_0]

they do mention that halo2 will be available for VISTA which is another like $150 OS just to play it. But I didnt see on wikipedia where I could play that game on a PC before Vista comes out


EDITED: Are you playing any console games on your PC ??? just a question...If so what console and what emulator(s) 8)

Theoretically you can but I'm sure the developer locked it to the hardware or at least tried to.

Btw the xbox 360 is IBM Cell based while the original xbox is a crippled x86 PC both can run Linux although the manufacturer doesn't want you to.

Sorry this doesn't help you much :-(

 

[linux_0]

http://www.penguin-soft.com/penguin/man/6/fceu.html

http://www.ngemu.com/xbox

http://happypenguin.org/

http://www.linuxgames.com/

http://www.tuxgames.com/

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net

http://www.arcadeathome.com/console.phtml

 

[trencin]

thanks for the links. I sadly couldnt find halo 2 in any of them but thats cool i am more foucused on getting my linux up and running 8)

 

[linux_0]

thanks for the links. I sadly couldnt find halo 2 in any of them but thats cool i am more foucused on getting my linux up and running 8)

OpenGL games usually run GREAT under Linux. D3D games not so much, or not at all.

Your mileage will vary.

:-D

 

[trencin]

can you summarize what u mean by OpenGL and D3D?
And by the way are you running any emulators ??

 

[linux_0]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct3D


OpenGL is a 3D standard and is available on any platform ( so it will run on almost any operating system - but that doesn't mean openGL games will ).

D3D ( Direct 3D ) is a microsoft thing and is effectively microsoft only.


OpenGL games like Quake, Doom, etc usualy run great, in fact they have native Linux versions!

http://home.pacbell.net/freundj/openglgames/

 

[trencin]

Is halo/halo2
D3D ??

 

[linux_0]

I believe so.

http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iAppId=1986

I don't think it is very Linux / WINE friendly.


Other games run better though:

http://appdb.winehq.org/appbrowse.php?iCatId=16


Always try the native Linux version if you can find one before you try WINE or Cedega or any other method.

 

[trencin]

I just have a quick question I currently play Americas army v2.7 on windows OS, and would like to play it on ubuntu linux if thats possible. This guys seemed to have made it run smoothly as he says on this site but he used fedore core
Here is the site where he made it for linux and since I am a noob I would like to know how did he do that??
http://www.phoronix.net/forums/showthread.php?t=237

EDITED: I just noticed on the bottom of the last screenshot that he said he used it with WINE on Linux so I will check on to that site and see how to do that.

 

[trencin]

and it seems like that the site WINE has it Sweet!! But how do I download it onto linux once I get my Linux OS installed. You see i am going to run a PC thats pure Windows and other one thats going to be pure Linux Ubuntu which my friend will play Americas army on. Oh and by the way any GPU recommendations for the Linux game like ATI or Nvidia ??? I saw articels on tomshardware that Nvidia are really good for Linux but ATI is just the same, and of course i am not looking for hgih end GPU's. Here is the parts that the Linux PC will have
Motherboard

OR

ATI motherboard