“Back when I started to use Linux well over a year ago, there
was one aspect of the operating system that was preventing me from
using it full time. 3D Gaming. The only real game available was
Quake 2, and that wouldn’t even run on my Riva TNT, which was,
aside from the Voodoo 2, the most popular 3D accelerator at the
time. Not surprisingly, I soon went back in the land of the Blue
Screen. A few weeks ago, I thought that I would give Linux another
whirl….”
“Some game companies are even making their own Linux ports, such
as Xatrix, with Kingpin; GT Interactive, with Unreal Tournament;
Vicarious Visions, with Terminus; UbiSoft, with Theocracy; Hyperion
Entertainment, with Sin and Shogo; and MP Entertainment, with
Hopkins FBI. The WINE project has enabled Linux gamers to play such
games as Half-Life, StarCraft, Caesar III, Command and Conquer: Red
Alert, WarCraft 2, Dune 2000, Blade Runner, Fallout 2, House of the
Dead, Mortal Kombat 4, Wetrix, and more. Here is a screenshot of
Half-Life running under WINE….”
“Despite the progress made in hardware and software support, as
of now, Linux is not a completely viable gaming platform. Not
enough hardware vendors are supporting their products, forcing 3rd
party programmers with inadequate knowledge of the hardware
specifications to make drivers. A gamer shouldn’t have to dish
out money to a third party in order to obtain drivers for their
sound card since the manufacturer is too lazy to produce their own
drivers….“