As most already know, it is possible to play some Windows games in Linux using Wine. Additionally, there are two prominent commercial spin-offs of Wine that are both designed specifically for gaming: Cedega and CrossOver Games. At one time, there was little difference between the three, other than the graphical configuration interfaces. But over time, each has developed its own feature set and, in some cases, support for Windows functionality that the others do not possess.

Wine is completely free, and most Linux distributions make it easy for users to install it. Cedega is available for $25 for a 6-month subscription. CrossOver Games sells for a one-time fee of $39.95. Wine and CrossOver Games are also available for Mac OS X. The makers of Cedega sell a similar product called Cider for Mac users.

Wine

Wine is a compatibility layer for Linux that allows users to run Windows applications. Unlike an emulator, which must also emulate hardware and the operating system, Wine accesses the Windows libraries and makes them work within Linux. This makes Wine faster than emulators and virtual machines.

There are a large number of games supported by Wine, and the project’s website hosts a substantial database of supported and unsupported games, often including details about how to get the games working.

Wine’s graphical configuration tool is called “winecfg” (Wine Configuration), and it includes tools for specifying drivers, configuring media, graphics settings, and desktop integration. By default, there is no graphical frontend for installing or running games, but there are free third-party programs that can act as frontends.

Wine runs OpenGL games very well and will also run many DirectX games. Some games require the installation of additional DirectX libraries that are readily available online. Windows .NET is not easy to install in Wine, but games that require it seem to run fairly well. Users can install many other additional packages, such as MS Core Fonts, using a handy tool called winetricks.

CrossOver Games

Developed by a company called Codeweavers, which also makes CrossOver Office, CrossOver Games is designed to be specifically for Linux gaming. Everything is controlled from a graphical interface where users can create “bottles” to hold multiple Wine configurations. This gives you with the flexibility to have drastically different configurations for your games.

CrossOver Games has a graphical installation tool for games and for additional libraries, including DirectX and .Net. All additional packages install easily, which usually makes installing games faster than with Wine. For configuration, it uses the same utility found in Wine.

Similar to Wine, CrossOver Games has a database of working titles, but the database is far from complete. Users would be better served to use Wine’s database to determine if a game will work in CrossOver.

Cedega

Developed by Transgaming, Cedega has a robust graphical interface with many features for tweaking graphics, sound, and more. It is based on an older version of Wine and has significantly deviated from Wine’s original code. In some cases, this has given it greater support for pixel shaders and other technology. In other cases, it means that some games will work in Wine but not in Cedega.

Cedega supports OpenGL and DirectX games and has added some DirectX compatibility beyond Wine and CrossOver. One significantly absent feature is .Net support. It seems to be impossible to install .Net in Cedega, making it unlikely that games requiring it will run.

Cedega’s website includes a large database of games, available to members only. In most cases, however, the database will only say if a game works or not, providing little other information about it. New games are not usually added immediately, as they often are with Wine. Users can upgrade Cedega as long as they maintain their subscriptions. After a subscription expires, the application continues to work on its own.

The Winner

Unfortunately, there is no clear winner. I have tested games in all three applications and found inconsistency across the board. A game that works in one may not work in the others. Therefore, the only way to get the maximum number of Windows games working in Linux is to have all three.

Wine’s community database has a significant advantage over the others, since it is the only way to know if a game that is not officially supported works. CrossOver has the best support for installing additional packages. Cedega’s strongest point is the graphics configuration utility and support for advanced shaders. Users can start Wine and CrossOver games from the user menu, whereas Cedega games must be started from within Cedega.

Compatibility with Windows games will never be perfect in Linux, but these three solutions all have their positive attributes, and a user who wants to play a limited number of Windows games on Linux will not be disappointed with any of them.

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Wine-Doors is an application designed to make installing windows software on Linux, Solaris or other Unix systems easier. Wine-Doors is built on top of the Wine package, and it provides a easy to use GUI with a one click access to download/install the most commonly used Windows app.

Download the installer file from the Wine-Doors download site. If you are using Ubuntu, download the deb file. Double click on the downloaded deb file to install it in your system.

Open the Wine-Doors application (Applications -> System Tools -> Wine Doors)

When you run it for the first time, it will prompt you to enter your name and company and verify that you have a valid Microsoft Windows license.

Once you click Proceed, it will then download and install a series of compatible font to your system.

When the installation is done, you will see the main screen where you can choose a series of applications to install.

Applications that you can install right within Wine-Doors include:

• Visual C++ Libraries
• Firefox 1.5 and 2.0 (anyone know why is there a need to install a older windows version of Firefox in your Linux?)
• Internet Explorer 6
• Opera 9
• Quicktime 7
• Winamp5
• Windows Media Player 6 and 9
• 7zip 4
• DVD Decrypter 3
• Dreamweaver 8
• Flash 8
• Total Commander 7
• Eudora 7
• CDex 1
• 3DMark 2000
• MetaTrader 4 (Forex trading platform)
• Notepad++ 4
• Irfan View 4

And even some games:

• Soldat
• Prey
• Steam
• Half Life 2
• World of Warcraft 2
• Warcraft 3
• Call of Duty
• RollerCoaster Tycoon2

and many other applications. If the list of applications is not sufficient for you, you can also add extra repository to it.

Scroll down the list to find the application that you want to install. Click on the Install link on the right to add it to the Queue section. (Note: Clicking the Install link does not install the app. It only adds to the Queue)

Go to the Queue section.

Highlight the applications that you want to install and click Apply at the bottom. Wine-Doors will then proceed to download the applications from its repository and run the installer.

Once the installation is completed, you will be able to access it from your menu bar.

If you install commercial Adobe apps like Dreamweaver 8 or Photoshop CS2, Wine-Doors will download the demo version (valid only for 30 days) and you need to have a license key to unlock it. Dreamweaver CS3 is not available in the repository (perhaps it is because it doesn’t work out of the box), nevertheless you can still follow the tutorial here to install Dreamweaver CS3 in Ubuntu.

Other features

Manage Wine processes

Wine-Doors allows you to view all the currently running Wine processes and give you the option to kill all processes or reboot wine. This is useful for resetting/terminating an application when it crashes.

Support Cedega

If you are a subscriber of Cedega, you can import your Profiles into Wine-Doors and install game from here.

No uninstaller

Unlike CrossOver, Wine-Doors does not provide a way to uninstall the applications. If you are looking for ways to uninstall applications, you have to do it the Wine way:

Open a terminal and type:

wine uninstaller

You can then select the applications that you want to uninstall.

Refer to the guide here to uninstall applications in Wine.

Have you tried WINE, CrossOver and Wine-Doors. Which one do you prefer?

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Playing Windows games on Linux is not really a difficult task. Most gamers are reluctant to migrate to Linux because they have this misconception that Windows games cannot be played on Linux. How wrong they are. If you are one of those avid gamers that I mentioned above, here are 4 ways that you can play Windows games on Linux.

1) Wine

The obvious way to install any Windows applications on Linux is via Wine. At the time when WineHQ released the stable 1.0 version, it has already supported more than 200 Windows games. Before you install any games on Linux, you can first check out Wine AppDB whether your game is already supported in Wine.

2) PlayOnLinux

PlayOnLinux (POL) is a python based script based on Wine code. It is a useful tool that aim to help Linux users run Windows games on Linux without having to go through the scary command line interface. The main features of POL lies in its ability to allow each application to be installed within its own wineprefix. What this means is that one can easily install/modify/remove Windows games without affecting the systems or other applications. POL is open source and has a strong community support on their POL forum. Being a python script, it is not limited to any Linux distribution. Whether you are using Ubuntu, Fedora or Gentoo, you can find installation and usage instructions on the POL site.

3) CrossOver Games

CrossOver Games is an addition to the popular CrossOver series. Unlike other CrossOver products, which are aimed primarily at office productivity applications, CrossOver Games focuses on the stability of installing Windows games on Linux (and Mac OSX). As the same as PlayOnLinux, CrossOver Games provides a click and install method that makes it simple for anyone to use. The latest version of CrossOver Games has already tested to work with more than a hundred Windows games, including the popular World of Warcraft, Half-Life2 and Counterstrike.

CrossOver Games costs $39.95

4) Cedega

Formerly known as WineX, Cedega is a proprietary software from Transgaming Technologies specifically designed for running game written for Windows under Linux. Being a proprietary product, users must subscribe to Transgaming membership to enjoy the full functionality of Cedega.

As a fork of Wine, Cedega strength lies in implement the Mircosoft DirectX API on Linux. Installation of games using Cedega is make to mimics the experience that Windows users have. You insert the disc, run setup.exe, wait for the game to finish installing and finally enjoy your game.

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