Linux games

I’ve described how to do that in detail before and am too lazy to reformat all that for wordpress atm. See the following website:

The Quake II linux dedicated server HOWTO

Tags: FPS, Free Games, Non-free Games, Servers by spirit
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What this is all about

This article explains how to install and play your old LucasArts adventures under Linux. The games I’m talking about here are those adventures that are based on the SCUMM engine by LucasArts and include the following titles:

• Indiana Jones I
• Indiana Jones II
• Maniac Mansion I
• Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle
• Sam and Max Hit the Road
• Loom
• Zak McKracken
• Monkey Island I
• Monkey Island II

We’ll be using the scummvm interpreter to play these games. You will need the original games to play the titles mentioned above since they are still copyrighted. You can also play the following free titles with scummvm without any game media:

• Flight of the Amazon Queen
• Beneath a Steel Sky

Installing scummvm

You can install scummvm from the scummvm website but the recommended and easy way under Debian Etch is to simply use the version in the package repository.

# apt-get install scummvm

That’s it. You should now have a link to scummvm in your start menu. Type scummvm to start it if you don’t.

Installing the games

Ok, now that we’ve got the engine, what about some games? Under Debian Etch, let’s grab the free games that are in the repository first:

# apt-get install beneath-a-steel-sky flight-of-the-amazon-queen

Now copy any other games you own to your harddisk, I tend to copy them to ~/software/. You can also place .iso files there if you have the CDROM editions of Sam and Max or other games that were released on CDROM. Just create an ISO image of the CD (CD burning applications like k3b and simple tools like ddcan do that) and copy it there.

Now start up scummvm and add the game via the graphical menu (just navigate to the directory and click Add), then select it and click Start to play it.

Here’s a screenshot of Sam and Max under Linux:

Hint: Press F5 while playing to save (and load) your game in scummvm.

Tags: Adventures, Free Games, Non-free Games by spirit
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About Doom and Doom 2

I guess Doom is the reason why I wanted an x86 computer when I was in the 4th or 5th grade. It’s maybe the most famous FPS game out there, and I won’t waste my time here telling you things about this game you already know. You’re a space marine who has to save the world from evil daemons that are accidentely summoned by the UAC during teleportation experiments in the near future. There are multiple Doom engines available for linux, including zdoom, doomsday and prboom. This article describes prboom.

Prboom is released under the GPL and includes the game engine and free game media (maps, enemies, weapons, …). You can also use the engine to play the original version of Doom and Doom 2 if you still have the iwad files from your Doom/Doom2 CDROM or floppy discs(!).

Installation

There are prboom packages in the Debian linux repositories, so if you’re using Debian, setting things up is fast and easy:

1. Install the prboom package as root:
   apt-get install prboom
2. If you have the original iwad files of Doom/Doom 2 or the special editions (doom.wad, doom2.wad, tnt.wad, plutonia.wad, …), copy them to /usr/share/games/doom/.
3. Run prboom under your user account:
   prboom
   or
   prboom -iwad tnt.wad

You’re done, kill some daemons!

Tags: FPS, Free Games, Non-free Games by spirit
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