It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussionGOG.com Now Supports Linux!(115 posts)(115 posts)
(115 posts)
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
This is my favourite topic
Posted August 19, 2014
50 games for the free OS available right NOW!

A while ago, [url=http://www.gog.com/news/gogcom_soon_on_more_platforms]we've announced our plans to add Linux support as one of the features of our digital platform, with 100 games on the launch day sometime this fall. We've put much time and effort into this project and now we've found ourselves with over 50 titles, classic and new, prepared for distribution, site infrastructure ready, support team trained and standing by, and absolutely no reason to wait until October or November. We're still aiming to have at least 100 Linux games in the coming months, but we've decided not to delay the launch just for the sake of having a nice-looking number to show off to the press. It's not about them, after all, it's about you. So, one of the most popular site feature requests on our community wishlist is granted today: Linux support has officially arrived on GOG.com!

The first 50+ titles we've have in store for you come from all the corners of our DRM-Free catalog. Note that we've got many classic titles coming officially to Linux for the very first time, thanks to the custom builds prepared by our dedicated team of penguin tamers. That's over twenty fan-favorite GOG.com classics, like FlatOut&Flatout 2, , <a href="http://www.gog.com/game/darklands">Darklands, or Realms of the Haunting we've personally ushered one by one into the welcoming embrace of Linux gamers. That's already quite a nice chunk of our back-catalog, and you can expect more from our dedicated Linux team soon!

Now, for the recent titles. We've got some indie games with native Linux versions that finally find their well-deserved spot in our store. Among them, debuting on Linux, CLARC - a well received original comedic Sci-Fi puzzler. On top of that, be on the lookout for two new additions to the GOG.com catalog: Gods Will Be Watching (coming in a couple of hours) and Unrest:Special Edition (Linux build coming right up!), both of them very fresh and intriguing. This is the very first time we can provide you with all the PC versions of a premiere game, and we will continue to do so in the future. If there's a Linux version of a title we're releasing, our aim is to deliver it to you Day-1. But enough about us, let's talk about the games. Here's what you can be playing on Linux today:

Anomaly Warzone Earth
Ascendant
Bionic Dues
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold - first time on Linux!
Blake Stone: Planet Strike - first time on Linux!
Bloodnet - first time on Linux!
Braveland
CLARC - first time on Linux!
Darklands - first time on Linux!
Darwinia
Defcon
Don't Starve + DLC
Dragonsphere - first time on Linux!
Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition
FlatOut - first time on Linux!
Flatout 2 - first time on Linux!
Fragile Allegiance - first time on Linux!
Gemini Rue
Gods Will Be Watching
Hammerwatch
Hocus Pocus - first time on Linux!
Kentucky Route Zero
The Last Federation
Legend of Grimrock
Litil Divil - first time on Linux!
Long Live the Queen
MouseCraft
Multiwinia
Normality - first time on Linux!
Pinball Gold Pack - first time on Linux!
Pinball World - first time on Linux!
Pirates! Gold Plus - first time on Linux!
Realms of the Haunting - first time on Linux!
Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender - first time on Linux!
Rise of the Triad: Dark War - first time on Linux!
Shattered Haven
The Shivah HD
Sid Meier's Colonization - first time on Linux!
Sid Meier's Covert Action - first time on Linux!
Sir, You Are Being Hunted
Slipstream 5000 - first time on Linux!
Space Pirates and Zombies
Spacechem
Stargunner - first time on Linux!
SteamWorld Dig
Super Hexagon
Surgeon Simulator 2013
Sword of the Samurai - first time on Linux!
Teslagrad
Unrest:Special Edition (Linux build on the way!)
Uplink
VVVVVV

As if this wasn't exciting enough, we've put more than half of these titles on a special promo! Head out to the promo page and find out which of them you can get up to 75% off until Tuesday, 9:59AM GMT. Of course, all of the games from the list above that you already own will be updated with Linux versions with no additional cost for you, just as you might have expected from GOG.com.

"OK, but how will Linux support actually work on GOG.com" - you might ask. For both native Linux versions, as well as special builds prepared by our team, GOG.com will provide distro-independent tar.gz archives and support convenient DEB installers for the two most popular Linux distributions: Ubuntu and Mint, in their current and future LTS editions. Helpful and responsive customer support has always been an important part of the GOG.com gaming experience. We wouldn't have it any other way when it comes to Linux, and starting today our helpdesk offers support for our official Linux releases on Ubuntu and Mint systems.

Diversity and freedom of choice have always been an important part of the GOG.com way. We're very glad that we could improve our service with the addition of the free (and DRM-Free) alternative to the commercial operating systems. Talking with gamers is just as important, so we're counting on your feedback! If you've got any questions, suggestions, or run into any trouble, just tell us in the forum thread below this post. Just please be gentle, this is [url=http://youtu.be/qBxbPts5tOk" target="_blank]our very first time[/url] with Linux. Happy launch day, everyone!
Posted July 24, 2014
avatar
silviucc: I have not seen any of the Windows users complain about the use of dosbox or scummvm, why do you? For titles that use wine, there is a notice just below the system requirements that says this:

"Notice: game comes with a 32-bit binary only, this is a Wine game Patched to version 1.1"

It's in bold text too. Less whine about wine please.
avatar
niky45: you can't understand. well, it's alright. (/linux-fan-mode OFF)

I ALREADY said that wine is better than nothing. but a NATIVE port is even better.
wine makes lazy devels, and I think nobody wants that. plus, performance will (almost) always be better when running natively, since you have one layer less to leech resources.

and about the notice, well, I don't yet have any of the linux games, and I didn't look too thoroughly into them... but if it's there, well, its something.

*what I meant was: if GOG itself is porting those games, and they have the chance, PLEEEEAAASEEEE.... avoid wine. there are native ports out there (neverwinter nights, gemRB for the infinity engine games, etc), and they already work, so, don't just wrap a wine install and go.
We're not a porting company like Aspyr or Loki so we don't make native ports :) We just work to make games run on the two supported distros :) All the Linux native games come from our partners :)
Posted July 24, 2014
avatar
JudasIscariot: I would send a ticket with the games that fail to start when using a non-English language setting :)
avatar
hedwards: Right now that's not possible. It wants me to create a system profile, but the support article doesn't contain any information about how to do that.

I've tried to get both Rise of the Triad and Duke Nukem 3D to run and both of them won't work with German localization. The DOSBox will launch and I'll see the probing screen, but after that it crashes to desktop.

In both cases, changing the system language and renaming the various folders back to English fixes the problem.
avatar
hedwards:
Type in terminal

gog-system-report

and you should see a text document pop up on your desktop :)
Posted July 24, 2014
avatar
Redfern: So, i guess i should remove named games from http://www.gog.com/mix/games_that_have_native_linux_portselsewhere ? What do you think?
Up to you, it's your GOG Mix :)
avatar
cr1ogen: the games for linux should be in .run installer for intall the game wherever you want. is better than tar.gz
With our tar.gz's you can do the following:

1. Extract the contents in a directory of your choosing.
2. Type in terminal :

sudo ./start.sh --install

Then to run your game just type something like this:

gog-normality

Games with longer titles should be ran like so:

gog-rise-of-the-triad-dark-war

(You can TAB complete the game names so this saves you time :) )

:)
Post edited July 24, 2014 by JudasIscariot
Posted July 24, 2014
avatar
JudasIscariot: With our tar.gz's you can do the following:

1. Extract the contents in a directory of your choosing.
2. Type in terminal :

sudo ./start.sh --install

Then to run your game just type something like this:

gog-normality

Games with longer titles should be ran like so:

gog-rise-of-the-triad-dark-war

(You can TAB complete the game names so this saves you time :) )

:)
avatar
shmerl: Great, there are some neat tools there.
There is also ./start.sh --help available.

But it wouldn't hurt creating a small readme.txt and putting it in the tarball :)
Perhaps :) I'll pass that on to our chief pen-I mean Linux tech :P
avatar
critic12: Delighted to see linux support on gog.

Now the platform is supported i hope you will consider releasing/repackaging your DOSBOX based games in a format such as tar.gz or zip (even if its considered beta or unsupported for linux users).
Im sure many linux users already use gog games through dosbox/scummvm/exult etc on many different distros, and the only real hurdle for advanced users is extracting the games out of the windows INNO setup installers !
Every game we released today has a tar.gz archive as well as a .deb package :)
Post edited July 24, 2014 by JudasIscariot
Posted July 24, 2014
avatar
shmerl: xdg-user-dirs wasn't installed for me, so gog-system-report.sh didn't work. Installing it fixes that.

I think you should host all those scripts somewhere on github, so users could propose enhancements and etc. One I can think of right way for example allowing using distro native Dosbox as an option.
If this happened on a supported distro could you send us a ticket, please? I tested a few final release candidate builds and we never needed to install xdg-user-dirs.
Post edited July 24, 2014 by JudasIscariot
Posted July 24, 2014
avatar
JudasIscariot: ...
sudo ./start.sh --install
...
avatar
InkPanther: Out of curiosity: how do we uninstall things installed this way?
Ahh right, my mistake to not include info on how to uninstall :)

sudo apt-get remove --purge gog-game-name (TAB to autocomplete the GOG game name :) )
Posted July 24, 2014
avatar
JudasIscariot: Ahh right, my mistake to not include info on how to uninstall :)

sudo apt-get remove --purge gog-game-name (TAB to autocomplete the GOG game name :) )
avatar
InkPanther: Thanks. :)
You're welcome :)
Posted July 25, 2014
avatar
Future_Suture: GOG is still missing a ton of native Linux clients for games it is already selling. Hope these native Linux clients make it over sooner rather than later!
Here's hoping :)

I also hope we manage to get native ports of some older games like Unreal Tournament 2004 and Neverwinter Nights :) Fingers crossed!
Posted July 25, 2014
avatar
jalister: Windows 7 will be supported until January 14, 2020.
avatar
Nesoo: Ha! I guess that I can safely change that to "once this computer breaks down" then, since I strongly doubt it will last that long! My average before needing to just build a new one is 5 years, and this one is something like 3-4 years old, though I'm hoping it lasts much longer as I can't really afford to go building a new one again any time soon.

Edit: I'd probably just switch to Mint now, but Linux-based OSes don't like my wireless network card (no card = no internet) and I don't feel like going through all the hassle to maybe possibly get it to work. So, I'm just going to wait until I build a new computer, and I'll make sure Linux is happy with all my parts when I do so.
If you want to know which wireless cards work best with most Linux distros, I suggest perusing WikiDevi. It shows which wirelss cards use what driver under most distros. I have a card that uses Atheros drivers under Mint 17 and it's great, I just plug it in and it works :D
avatar
JudasIscariot: Here's hoping :)

I also hope we manage to get native ports of some older games like Unreal Tournament 2004 and Neverwinter Nights :) Fingers crossed!
avatar
Future_Suture: Dude. Duuuuude. Oh my GOG, if that happens, you'll have some major exclusives on your hands. As far as I am aware, literally no retailer sells these for Linux!
Duuuuuuuude :D
Post edited July 25, 2014 by JudasIscariot
Posted July 25, 2014
avatar
JudasIscariot: Duuuuuuuude :D
avatar
Future_Suture: Please, make it so. Also, enlighten me as to why these games are missing from GOG, please. They all have native Linux clients so it's somewhat relevant to this announcement!
I have no clue, really. Sorry :(
Posted July 25, 2014
avatar
jamyskis: Just a couple of thoughts on my experiences with the GOG packages:

* Many of the DOSBox games use .conf files that switch resolutions. This is fine, but DOSBox seems to have problems with restoring the desktop resolution after the game is exited, forcing me to use xrandr to restore my default resolution. Maybe use fullresolution=desktop and then stretch using the filters?
That is interesting, on none of our testlab machines this has happened. Do you have a twin-monitor setup? We have experienced the problem with restoring screen resolutions, but it was on dual monitor setups (hence our recommendation on not using them).

My suggestion is to contact support directly. If you tell us what your setup is, we may be able to reproduce the bug and make appropriate fixes.

* I've noticed that the Linux version of Sir, You Are Being Hunted has an interesting method for handling resolutions - it maintains the desktop resolution at all times, and the resolution setting is actually that of the framebuffer, much like consoles like the Wii U do. The downshot of this is that this seems to cause some absolutely horrible screen tearing that even VSync can't fix.
X needs to die :( All Im going to say. Screen tearing has always been horrible because of it. It may also be a bug of the Unity game engine. Can you tell us your setup and what drivers do you use?

* The Mint package installer (and I assume by extension, the Ubuntu one as well, as they're the same) seems to struggle with larger packages. I never noticed this before as I've rarely had to deal with DEB files as large as this, but the package installer tends to freeze for a minute or so while it's trying to parse the package contents, much in the same way that Windows struggles with large installer packages with UAC. This is particularly noticeable with Teslagrad, to a lesser extent with SYABH. Not much of a problem with the smaller DOSBox games. Not tried it with dpkg directly yet.
Yes, unfortunately that is a big problem. These package manager interfaces seem to be terrible in working with larger DEB files. The best thing you can do is install from terminal using dpkg -i. It speeds up things greatly.

We can only hope that developers of Ubuntu and Mint do something about their package managers once more people start using big DEBs.
Posted July 25, 2014
avatar
JudasIscariot: I also hope we manage to get native ports of some older games like Unreal Tournament 2004 and Neverwinter Nights :) Fingers crossed!
avatar
heliar: As for NWN the Linux binaries (executable files, not platform-independent game data files) are freely accessible via BioWare website. I think there was a how-to somewhere on GOG forums, so one can play native version right now, giving he owns a Windows version (e.g. GOG one).
Right but we still would need permission should we pursue the Linux version of NWN :)
Posted July 25, 2014
avatar
yaster: You need to add filters to the Library (My Games). It's nightmare to navigate and search doesn't works with linux keyword...
We've added this option. You can now type "linux", "ubuntu", "mint", "mac" or "osx" in the search field on My Account and the list will be filtered accordingly.
Posted July 25, 2014
avatar
Crosmando: I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/LInux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
[...]
avatar
archy2: Sigh.

You GNU crusaders never stop, do you?

The thing is, your axiom that "the operating system" consists of the kernel plus all the tools you need to work in a text terminal, is totally outdated and arbitrary.
Modern computer users don't even use a text terminal, they use a graphical desktop environment, and they would consider that a part of the operating system too.
So if your idea of "all major components must be represented in the name, and those with bigger code size first" were actually applied consistently to modern Linuxes, you would have to call them something like "Gnome/Xorg/Systemd/Gnu/Linux". Have fun saying that monstrosity of a name every time instead of short and sweet "Linux"... :P

Or, you could stop and realize that semantic nit-pickery crusades do nothing to benefit the Linux community, and only harm its outside perception.
Just friggin' accept that "Linux" has become the established brand name for the whole operating system; put your energy to better uses. Mkay?
Archy :) It's just a copypasta :)
Post edited July 25, 2014 by JudasIscariot
Posted July 25, 2014
avatar
JudasIscariot: Right but we still would need permission should we pursue the Linux version of NWN :)
avatar
archy2: What about its spiritual predecessors, the Infinity Engine games?
Their win32 GOG.com versions all work on Linux with Wine, even with 3D acceleration enabled and everything.

The only Linux-specific problem I encountered with them, was that one of them (I think Icewind Dale) froze when trying to save the game, but there is a simple work-around for that.

Or does the fact that Beamdog is releasing Enhanced editions for some of those games, make it more difficult for GOG.com to get Linux licences for them?
We still need permission to distribute Linux versions or games made to work on Linux either via Wine or GemRB.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionGOG.com Now Supports Linux!(115 posts)(115 posts)
(115 posts)