Playing Games in Linux

It's the Christmas season, and it's time to look at playing around, games in particular. I've already mentioned Transgaming in a previous rant. I mentioned that I wasn't completely happy with the direction Transgaming is headed, but they have continued to make Windows-based games work in Linux. As a bit of a holiday treat I thought I would show a few screen shots from one of my favourite games of all time, Diablo II.

Diablo II can be run in full screen mode, but for the purposes of this article I set the game to run in an 800x600 window. Note the black borders surrounding the game. And though I was able to get Diablo II Lord of Destruction working once before with Cedega, only the original Diablo II seems to work for me in the latest Cedega 4.2. I find Diablo II doesn't work as well as I'd like it to. Certain things, the ESC key for example, do not work as they do under Microsoft Windows. But all things considered the game runs pretty smoothly under Linux.

I should qualify my rant a little. My computer does not meet the specifications Transgaming software needs. The video chipset on my notebook is 8MB, but not a supported 3D chipset. I'm sure that an Athlon 64 armed with the hottest NVIDIA card would run Diablo II beautifully, perhaps even better so than Microsoft Windows, but not on my notebook.

Another game which doesn't require a 3D chipset, and second on my list of all time favourite games, is a game that I discovered first on the Linux platform, Heroes of Might and Magic III. Heroes III is more of a strategy game than Diablo II. Though both games can be played for hours, weeks, and months, I love the fact that Heroes III has a native version, thanks to the now defunct Linux game company Loki.

If you're new to Linux you probably don't remember the first big push towards Linux. There was a time a few years back, when Linux exploded on to the market place. Almost every computer retailer stocked at least one Linux distribution on their shelves. About this time a small company called Loki started porting Windows games to Linux. Unfortunately the Linux game market simply wasn't hot, and Loki was way ahead of their time. But good things did come out of Loki's demise, more and more people started writing games that looked similar to games on Windows. There are in fact a number of the latest Windows games which companies are also releasing in a Linux version, and why not since Sony's Playstation 2 is Linux-based.

Heroes III for Linux is not as feature rich as Heroes Complete for Windows, but one has to realize that they are different products released at different times. Heroes III for Linux was released much earlier than Complete, which was released with a couple of expansion packs. Heroes Complete also comes with a map maker. Near the end of their existence Loki did start working on a map maker for the Linux version of Heroes III, but it doesn't include a number of the features the Windows version does and some of the functions are not implemented. So what's a gamer to do? Install the map maker using Transgaming's Cedega, or the straight version of WINE. Heroes Complete doesn't work under Cedega, but the map maker works enough that you can edit maps you've created in the Linux map maker and add details where necessary.

The Linux version of Heroes III runs very smoothly, there is no slow down of video. It can be run in full screen or windowed mode, and it can be played for hours. Extra maps from the Internet can be downloaded and placed in: ~/.loki/heroes3/maps. There are 3 modes,Single, Multi-player, and Campaign mode. In single mode you play one map and at the end your hero is rated for his ability to complete the map. In campaign mode your hero(es) can continue on to other maps which make up part of a larger campaign. Heroes don't necessarily continue, it depends on what the map maker specifies. Sometimes you'll finish one quest, start with new heroes on another map, and then have the option of either set of previous heroes for a third map. Campaign mode is by far the most fun because at higher levels some of the heroes can do some amazing things, converting hundreds of dead enemies into Skeletal Warriors for example. Multiplayer mode over TCP/IP crashes on my system, but Hot seat mode does not. Heroes III for Linux is agreat game. The best place to look for the Linux version is on sites like Ebay, or Amazon. Happy gaming and Merry Christmas.