4 Ways To Play Windows Game On Linux

Damien — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:34:26 +0000

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.

4 Ways To Play Windows Game On Linux originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Linux Howto: Miss Your Windows Application? Try WINE

Damien — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:34:44 +0000

For anyone who is keen to migrate to Linux platform, but can’t live without Windows application, then Wine can be a great solution for you.

What is WINE?

WINE stands for Wine Is Not Emulator. Here is what it is about:

“Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available. Wine provides both a development toolkit for porting Windows source code to Unix as well as a program loader, allowing many unmodified Windows programs to run on x86-based Unixes, including Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Solaris.”

Still don’t understand? What it simply means is that with Wine, you can basically install and run your Windows applications (though not all of them) on your Linux platform. All the supported applications are documented at the Wine Application Database (AppDB). At this moment, there are 8237 Windows applications in the AppDB verified to run under Wine, and it includes some of the popular software such as Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver 8, World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Microsoft Office 2000.

(Click the screenshot to enlarge) Sources from WineHQ

To install Windows application, you must first install Wine on your Linux platform.

To install Wine under Ubuntu Gutsy, open up your terminal,

wget -q http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/387EE263.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/gutsy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install wine

Once installed, you need to configure the Wine “C:” drive to link to an easily accessible folder. First create a “Drive C” folder in your home folder. In your terminal, type

winecfg

In the window that popped up, click on the “Drives” tab. Click on the letter C:, then follow by the “Browse” button. Navigate to your “Drive C” folder and press “OK”. Once done, press the “OK” again to close the window.

Now you are ready to install your Windows application. Here I will install my favorite text editor – PsPad with Wine

In your terminal, type

winefile

or go to System -> Preference -> WineFile. In the window that appears, navigate to the folder with your installer file.

Double click on the installer file.

Follow the instruction and install the application the way you did in Windows

After installation, open the winefile again and navigate to your “C:” Drive Program file folder. Under your application folder, double click on the .exe file to execute the application.

Done!

Here are some useful resources on Wine

http://winehq.org/
http://frankscorner.org/

Linux Howto: Miss Your Windows Application? Try WINE originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

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4 Ways To Play Windows Game On Linux

Linux Howto: Miss Your Windows Application? Try WINE