Open Source Games in Slackware Linux

When is the last time you checked up on the Open Source gaming community? There are some fairly awesome games out in the wild nowadays. Many have been developed for several years; they are robust, attractive, engaging alternatives to commercial wares on the shelf, and are designed to run with the latest, most secure version(s) of GNU/Linux available.

There was a time when you needed to master WINE before you could consider playing "real" games on Linux, but that just isn't true any more. I recently updated my system(s) to Slackware 11.0, which caused me to re-write my other pages on installing Lokigames releases and some modern(ish) FPSs. In doing it, I realized I had missed out on quite a few of the hot new Open Source developments. I'm not entirely convinced that a webpage describing how to build and install each is really necessary - they should each have a forum or mailing list that can probably help you better.
So for now, I'll just list 'n' link, and if I come up with any slick tricks or alternate methods of creation, I'll make a little blurb here.

FreeCIV (v2.2.3)
For Slackware 13.1

This game is really well made. If you liked the original Civilization series, you'll almost certainly like this version.
It is fairly trivial to compile and run freeciv. Just download and unarchive the source, descend into the unarchived directory, and do the self-build three-step
configure
make
make install

Pretty easy. run the game with
freeciv-gtk





OpenTTD (v1.0.5)
For Slackware 13.1

 
Just a quick post for anyone researching it...
The latest version of OpenTTD (1.05) seems to compile and run pretty well on Slackware 13.1, although, for the life of me, I cannot get it to play the midi music (neither the original nor the new OpenMSX).
Pretty straight forward stuff : download and unarchive the game, configure and compile
configure --with-midi=timidity
make
make install
then, as a normal user, in your home directory, make a directory called   .openttd  , and inside make two more directories   data   and   gm   .
mkdir ~/.openttd
mkdir ~/.openttd/data
mkdir ~/.openttd/gm

OpenTTD now supplies us with a graphics and sound set (Opengfx, OpenSfx, OpenMsx), so you don't have to use the originals any more, if that is your preference. If you use the Open sets, copy all the sounds and graphic files into the   data   directory, and the music into the   gm   directory. If you prefer the original art you can download the game from Abondonia. These are the files you need, from the original game:
sample.cat
trg1r.grf
trgcr.grf
trghr.grf
trgir.grf
trgtr.grf
gm_tt**.gm   (where ** = 01..21)

Copy all the   .grf   and   sample.cat   files into the   data   directory, copy all the   gm  files into the   gm  directory.
The game installs itself into
/usr/local/games/openttd
so I usually sym-link it into /usr/local/bin/openttd
ln  -s  /usr/local/games/openttd  /usr/local/bin/
and now you can start the gamel with
openttd



Timidity & openttd


I'll be honest - I had hoped to get the midi music happening again - I hadn't configured the last few updates midi-capable, and had begun to miss the old tunage. Unfortunately, I just can't get my head around it at the moment. Neither the OpenMSX, nor the original general midi files, seem to want to play. I've tried with both timidity configured as the external player, and libtimidity configured internally, but there is just no music to accompany the game for me, right now. Timidity plays all the files as a standalone application, so there must be some switch I'm not getting in the game itself.
If you want to take a crack at it yourself, here's how I did it in the past :



Grab either of the soundfont files for Linux from PersonalCopy.com here. Both the Unison.sf2 and PC51f.sf2 instrument sets sound quite good, much cleaner sound than the original Win95 instruments, although the trumpets have a crackle on the edge of the sound-byte that I really notice. If you're looking for something a little closer to the original, simpler, audio try the soundfonts from  Roland SC-55 v1.1.sf2 , the C8mgm.sf2 , the Silverspring 15 Soundfont (designed for old DOS games), or (may favourite so far) the 1M ROM dump from the AWE sound cards.


Compile Timidity with the usual three-step process (configure; make; make install) then make a directory called 
/usr/local/share/soundfonts
and unzip the Unison and/or PC51f SF2 files into it. Descend into the directory   /usr/local/share   and create a directory called   ./timidity  .Inside that directory, create the   timidity.cfg   file, and edit it so it looks like this:



Or for whichever soundfont you've chosen.
In the past, that would have set you up for playing the original midi tunage of TTD (by calling    openttd -m extmidi   ) . I personally would like to have the choice of playing with the original Windows instrument set, just for nostalgic reasons, but so far, have not found anyone who has ported the instruments over to .pat or .sf2 format (and I don't know how myself ).


In the past, when I was still using the KDE,  I had to invoke the game like this:
artsdsp ./openttd -m extmidi

Not using the KDE any more, so i don't know if that is still relevant information.
What a great game, even without the music; the authors have done a fine job enhancing it.




FreeCol

This is a clone of Colonization. I played neither the original, nor this, as my belief is that it just another way to play on top of the Civilization engine. Looks good though, check it out if Colonization was your thing.



LinCity

Although I've purchased a couple versions of Sim City, I can honestly say that after I got rid of my Amiga 500 I never really looked seriously at it again. That said, I really know nothng more than my perusal of Lin City's website. It *looks* really, really good... If their coding skill is as good as their art work, this will be a game worthy of Sim City addicts everywhere.



ioQuake3

ID GPLed the Q3A engine!
  Have you played Quake 3 Arena? When id finished with the Q3 engine, they released the source code to the FOSS community (they've moved on to Quake 4), and ioQuake3 is the continuation of the original engine. It used to be that you still needed a commercial Q3A copy to install the game, because the artwork is still copyrighted by ID. If you adored Q3A and want to keep playing it, ioQuake3 awaits.
Here's how I installed it.



OpenArena

This project is rooted in the ioQuake3 project, but using GPLed media. The goal is to make a full, standalone FPS that doesn't require any commercial purchase.




Scorched3D (v43.2a)
For Slackware 13.1


A modern update of the mother of all bombing games, Scorched Earth. Much prettier, 3D graphics, kewler sounds effects, even ambient music. I vaguely recall playing this on an Apple IIe, not sure if the whole "economic" element that Scorched3D has, was present on the original...
Getting this game compiled and running on Slackare 13.1 isn't exactly intuititve. First, you'll need to install three libraries:
wxWidgets
freealut
openAL

All three can both be compiled with the usual routine, just download, unarchive, then
configure; make; make install
then run
ldconfig
to link them all in. There's one catch with openAL, though. Scorched3D is expecting openAL to install a config script, which it doesn't do any more, so the configuration fails. They include one, in the source code, but it looks like it is for Mac OS-X. It's not a big deal, though, becuase Slackware uses pgk-config, and the configuration file is happy with that. It is looking for openal-config in /usr/local/bin so just sym-link /usr/bin/pkg-config there as openal-config
ln -s  /usr/bin/pkg-config  /usr/local/bin/openal-config

Now follow the steps on Scorched3D's website to install :
cd  ./scorched3D/scripts
perl  createAMMakefile.pl
cd  ../
sh  ./autogen.sh
make
then, as root,
make  install

That should have everything compiled and ready to go. The last step is to sym-link the exectuables into a usable /bin path.
ln  -s  /usr/local/games/scorched3d/bin/scorched3d  /usr/local/bin
ln  -s  /usr/local/games/scorched3d/bin/scorched3dc  /usr/local/bin
ln  -s  /usr/local/games/scorched3d/bin/scorched3dg  /usr/local/bin

That should make it all good. Bomb's away!





Pingus

This is a Lemmings clone. Last time I played this, the ten or so "training" levels were all totally playable, but once they were done, it was not so easy to play additional levels. There is a level editor for you to make your own levels, and there are many 3rd party levels available, but it will be more than simply a matter of clicking to get them to play.
If you need a Lemmings fix, Pingus will ease the burden.



TORCS

One thing Linux has truly been lacking, in my opinion, is a really good racing game. I loved CMR-2.0 on my Windows PC, and my PS2 plays racing games almost exclusively. If you like to race, check out TORCS. It's not (yet) as polished as anything commercial, but it is getting there. Alternately, if you run UT2004 on your LInux box, check out Unwheel. It's a mod/mutator to convert UT2004 into a racing game.



fooBillard

The first Open Source game that really made me sit up and take notice. Very pretty, tidy appearance, excellent physics. Download an enjoy. Yes, that's how it's spelled.



GLTron

GLtron is basically a 3D version of the light-cycles, from the 1982 movie Tron.

Frozen Bubble

Well, I don't play this one myself, but I've heard so many people rave about it, it *must* be good <grin>, eh?



Spring

Tim B. emailed me with a link to this game, the screenshots look very kewl. It's an open sourec RTS, and your hardware is the game's only quantitative limitation.



Others?


If you know of any other fairly polished pieces, worth telling the world about, let me know.
HTH, "Have Fun"
I am Dan






Additional Info
Well, I've got a bunch of Lokigames releases, here's a webpage on how to instlal and run them.

I've got a webpage about old Lokigames releases.

Sometimes, there is simply no alternative to emulation.
Go here to see my WINE work
Go here to see my DOSbox work