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.

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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.

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Chromium

Ubuntu package: chromium

Chromium is a fun arcade-style space shooter.

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Lincity NG

Ubuntu Package: lincity-ng

This is a 3-D clone of the original Sim City game.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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Planet Penguin Racer

Ubuntu Package: planetpenguin-racer

Most people know about this one, it was previously known as Tuxracer.

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Wormux

Ubuntu Package: wormux

If you’ve played worms before, this is an open source clone of that.

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Xmoto

Ubuntu Package: xmoto

Xmoto is an addictive offroad bike game where balance is everything.

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44 Responses

  1. Noé says:

    X-Moto and Supertux’s latest versions are far better than the ones you can find in the repos.

  2. Gustav Tiger says:

    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.

  3. Fredo says:

    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.

  4. jonathan says:

    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!

  5. Don’t forget Nexuiz. Another great fps.
    And version 0.3.0 of Supertux is available in the repositories, with many improvements.

  6. Matthew says:

    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.

  7. Zach M says:

    Solarwolf is another very fun game. It’s based on “Solarfox”, an old atari game (iirc).

  8. aussiebear says:

    Where’s FlightGear and Torcs?

    FlightGear = OpenGL flight sim
    Torcs = OpenGL driving/racing sim

  9. 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

  10. jonathan says:

    Tristan, I couldn’t find Frets on Fire and Glest in the archives. Are you sure it’s packaged?

  11. dave says:

    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. ;-)

  12. Stevko says:

    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).

  13. pirast says:

    You forgot to mention Frozen Bubble. I really enjoy it and it’s in universe.

  14. Adam Bagnall says:

    Another game to look at if you like chromium is criticalmass.

  15. Ferk says:

    Enigma is the greatest puzzle game, and it is in the repos also

  16. christian says:

    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!

  17. Balcius says:

    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.

  18. mariuz says:

    i would add to the list http://openarena.ws/

    also i like uqm but is crashing at home (on 64bit)

  19. mysurface says:

    Cool! I definitely gonna try Wormux later.

  20. jonathan says:

    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.

  21. Gerardo Meléndez says:

    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

  22. Norman says:

    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.

  23. queernose says:

    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

  24. Stimpy says:

    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

  25. 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

  26. Ade says:

    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

  27. VistaH8R says:

    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

  28. Xarakiry says:

    Cooool,and what about simulators ?

  29. The Mobius says:

    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!

  30. NICK says:

    veeeery good my man

  31. DreaD says:

    DONT FORGET ABOUT AMERICAS ARMY
    best game ever.

  32. Chinasteve says:

    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!

  33. 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!

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