10 Games from the Ubuntu Universe
Now and again, I show some new Linux users some of the games that are available for Ubuntu. Many of those times, theres a seasoned Ubuntu user close by, who says that they haven’t seen that before. I decided to put together a list of 10 games in the Ubuntu Universe that I have installed. I think I’ll also do other lists of 10 things in Ubuntu in the coming months.
Supertux
Ubuntu Package name: supertux
Supertux is a Mario Brothers type game. The levels are quite good, but not quite as good as the levels in the original Mario Brothers. You can’t go down pipes yet, and there’s no underwater levels.
Sopwith and Airstrike
Ubuntu packages: sopwith, airstrike
You might remember running Sopwith on an ancient DOS computer with a CGA screen. No? Must be before your time. Sopwith has been ported to Linux, and it’s exactly how I remembered it from ancient times. Last year I discovered Airstrike, it’s a two player game where you have two Sopwith-like planes, with the goal of destroying the other player 5 times to win.
Chromium
Ubuntu package: chromium
Chromium is a fun arcade-style space shooter.
Lincity NG
Ubuntu Package: lincity-ng
This is a 3-D clone of the original Sim City game.
Neverball
Ubuntu Package: neverball
In Neverball, you have to tilt a virtual world to keep a ball running to catch enough coins to pass to the next world.
Tremulous
Ubuntu Package: tremulous
Tremulous is probably the most impressive game in the Ubuntu Universe. Each time I show it to someone, they say that it’s the best free game they have seen so far.
Tuxkart
Ubuntu Package: tuxkart
This is a silly little racing game, but some of the billboards in the game is amusing (they still advertise VA Linux).
Planet Penguin Racer
Ubuntu Package: planetpenguin-racer
Most people know about this one, it was previously known as Tuxracer.
Wormux
Ubuntu Package: wormux
If you’ve played worms before, this is an open source clone of that.
Xmoto
Ubuntu Package: xmoto
Xmoto is an addictive offroad bike game where balance is everything.
X-Moto and Supertux’s latest versions are far better than the ones you can find in the repos.
Hm, Where is Battle for Wesnoth. I think that is the best game. And the new version is even better and prettier. Too bad that one is not in Ubuntu.
The most surprising finding for me was that there are not only arcade-style games in the Ubuntu repos, but also really complex games. Tremulous seems to be an example for that, although I didn’t play it yet.
The game I really began to love is “Battle for Wesnoth” (package: wesnoth). It is a tactical game with elements from role playing games in a medieval/fantasy word. It has really nice (though 2D) graphics and demanding campeigns.
Battle for Wesnoth is *huge*. I know many people who play it, but I dont know it very well myself. Thanks for mentioning it.
And yes, downloading xmoto directly gives you a much nicer version, the game is moving fast. I’m sure the Feisty universe will end up with a very recent version :)
Of course, the 10-list wasn’t a top 10 list, so if there’s any must-have games you can think of, please add them in a comment!
Don’t forget Nexuiz. Another great fps.
And version 0.3.0 of Supertux is available in the repositories, with many improvements.
Sopwith was such a lot of fun. I must have played it hundreds of times. There were newer versions where you played against an AI opponent, too. I wonder which version they ported.
Solarwolf is another very fun game. It’s based on “Solarfox”, an old atari game (iirc).
Where’s FlightGear and Torcs?
FlightGear = OpenGL flight sim
Torcs = OpenGL driving/racing sim
I have created a similar list. The most notable games missing from your list are:
Battle for Wesnoth
Frets on Fire
Glest
Tristan’s Favorite Linux Games
http://useopensource.blogspot.com/2006/12/tristans-favorite-linux-games.html
Tristan, I couldn’t find Frets on Fire and Glest in the archives. Are you sure it’s packaged?
sweet, thanks for this.
I’d never heard of Tremulous before. Very nice example of what the community can achieve.
You just killed any hope of a productive evening, though. thanks alot. ;-)
Since I like adventures, I think best games in repositories are
Beneath a Steel Sky
and
Flight of the Amazon Queen
following by
Nethack (or Falcon’s Eye).
You forgot to mention Frozen Bubble. I really enjoy it and it’s in universe.
Another game to look at if you like chromium is criticalmass.
Enigma is the greatest puzzle game, and it is in the repos also
Another formally commercial game that is now open source: Star Control 2, now released as “Ur-Quan Masters” or package name uqm. Man, that was the best!
Good work. Anyway, I can’t find tremulous in my repositories, where did you find it?
As from the screen-shot, looks great, would like to try. The strong points of Ubuntu are not games but functionality and robustness while running serious applications, but we should attack the myth of linux being boring, as well. And these games do it nicelly.
Good website, sorry for my weird English.
i would add to the list http://openarena.ws/
also i like uqm but is crashing at home (on 64bit)
Cool! I definitely gonna try Wormux later.
The Rasx(), those games wouldn’t run properly in a virtual machine, they require 3d acceleration and OpenGL, which wouldn’t work in most emulators.
Hello!
Nice suggestions, after viewing this page I installed almost all of those games to my son on Slackware ;)
I have some other good games that you didn’t include: torcs and lbreakout.
Greetings
I’ll add my vote to Frozen Bubble. It’s very addictive.
Missing from Ubuntu repos is oolite (although it is in Debian Sid afaik). [http://oolite.aegidian.org/] Inspired by the classic game “Elite” that first came out in the days of the BBC — *so even older than Sopwith* — it is great. There is also VegaStrike, which is in the repos (“vegastrike”), a more complex version also inspired by Elite.
scumm of the earth unite
try MI1 ,2 , 3 , dig , full throttle , maniac mansion , day of tentacle , sam max . Its another world out there with the old games played on scumm for linux port .
this is really the best
And what about Fish fillets? is very addictive, sad that FF2 is only for winbugs
Oh, and rRootage is nice too
And almost forgot… flobo puyo, the best puyopuyo clone
great post!
found you by searching for ubuntu games in google.com so some nice seo there.
i got myself a brand new toshiba Satellite A200-14E with an nvidia graphics card so setting up x and xgl is a breeze
thanks for the list, gonna jam these games right now
winston
Part of my install scripts that I run on new Ubuntu clients – might save you some time:-
Login as root (or sudo /bin/bash), then:-
apt-get -y install armagetron
apt-get -y install kmahjongg
apt-get -y install pingus
apt-get -y install neverball
apt-get -y install frozen-bubble
apt-get -y install wesnoth
apt-get -y install bzflag
apt-get -y install flightgear
apt-get -y install xpilot-ng
apt-get -y install rplay-client
apt-get -y install rplay-server
apt-get -y install tremulous
apt-get -y install planetpenguin-racer
apt-get -y install lbreakout2
apt-get -y install oolite
apt-get -y install torcs
apt-get -y install scorched3d
apt-get -y install wormux
apt-get -y install nexuiz
apt-get -y install openarena
apt-get -y install vegastrike
apt-get -y install supertux
apt-get -y install freeciv
apt-get -y install chromium
apt-get -y install airstrike
apt-get -y install lincity-ng
apt-get -y install supertuxkart
apt-get -y install xmoto
apt-get -y install uqm
I used Ubuntu and I found one game particularly interesting and addictive. I do not know the name of this game, but that is what I need help with. It involved multiple cubes of numbers on 4 sides. you were supposed to match these numbers in a specific order in order to win the game. What is the name of it, and where might I possibly find a Windows Vista or XP version of this. Thanks EMAIL ME PLEASE. Sector9sk8er@aol.com
Cooool,and what about simulators ?
X-Moto has passed away many many hours when I found the beta a few years ago and played it at school. I’m glad to see it’s getting some publicity, the game is so addictive!
veeeery good my man
DONT FORGET ABOUT AMERICAS ARMY
best game ever.
Wesnoth–love it.
Funny thing is I’m even more addicted to two other games.
One is Pioneers. It’s Settlers of Catan (if you know about it, it’s a fun board game developed in Germany) on the computer and you don’t have to mess with all that online pay-to-use stuff. The AI is alright for learners, but you can also play against friends or people on the server.
Finally, Angband. It’s classic. All the graphics are just like the letters on your keyboard, but the 100 levels of challenge are always there. I may have only gotten to level 30 or so, but that’s because I have to quit when I get too addicted!
Thanks for all the game suggestions!
This is a great list, I will be sure to feature a few from this list in my next post in the game section of my site. Well done!