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PC Games (Games) Software Linux

Linspire To Run Windows Games 460

Posted by Hemos from the good-move dept.
Ken writes "Aviran's Place reports that Linspire and TransGaming released Cedega for the Linspire desktop Linux operating system, allowing Linspire users to play hundreds of popular Windows-format games right out of the box."
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Linspire To Run Windows Games More

Linspire To Run Windows Games

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  • Portability (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SadPenguin ( 776485 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:32PM (#12922222) Homepage
    Not a linspire fan, but i think its about time someone's thinking this way. Portability is key for widespread acceptance, and I like cedega, because in my experience, it works.

    • Re:Portability (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I'd rather see games run natively under Linux. Cedega is a discouragement.

      • Re:Portability (Score:4, Insightful)

        by menkhaura ( 103150 ) <espinafre@gmail.com> on Monday June 27, 2005 @02:43PM (#12923109) Homepage Journal
        Roger that. If there is no need to write native games for Linux, then why bother? The performance penalty will be high, Linux gaming will be slow and painful, and people will say: "Look at that Linux thingie, it's slow, it's incompatable [sic], it's hard to use...". Should more software houses follow iD Software's example, using open standards (OpenGL anyone?), portability would be dead easy, code would be better written, Linux gamers would have more options, and these soft houses would have faithful customers (I wouldn't have bought Doom 3 if it didn't run on Linux, and it runs smooth; now I know that iD respects its Linux customers, and I buy anything Linux they make)

        • Re:Portability (Score:3, Interesting)

          by pyser ( 262789 ) *
          If there is no need to write native games for Linux, then why bother?

          This is one of the things that killed the mass-marketability of OS/2. Since it would run Windows 3.1 apps, there was little need to provide a higher-performance OS/2-native version. Most apps written for OS/2 were excellent performers (e.g. DeScribe), but the market was too small to be viable.

    • Re:Portability (Score:3, Insightful)

      by eno2001 ( 527078 )
      Hmmm... I got Cedega and was still unable to play Riven or Uru. I also noticed they aren't on the list of games people want to play. But... I want to play them.

  • Most Importantly... (Score:5, Funny)

    by nxtr ( 813179 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:33PM (#12922232)
    Does it play Solitaire?

  • ongoing cost (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Laz7 ( 754088 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:33PM (#12922235) Homepage
    at 45USD a year, I think I will pass on that ...

    • Re:ongoing cost (Score:3, Informative)

      by qewl ( 671495 )
      Cedega/WineX is $15 for the minimal 3 month subscription which would get you all the precompiled binaries. Not too bad.

      http://transgaming.org/subscription/subscribe.html [transgaming.org]

    • Re:ongoing cost (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Cedega doesn't stop working when you unsubscribe, you just don't get new versions. So that means if you just want to get a version you would have to pay $15 and get all the updates for 3 months. You could buy a subscription once a year and spend only $15 a year, which is a lot less than most people spend on games.

  • Affordable (Score:3, Interesting)

    by teiresias ( 101481 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:33PM (#12922241)
    Kevin Carmony, president and CEO of Linspire, Inc. ..."Point2Play with Cedega is so easy and affordable, you'll be able to play Windows games on Linspire for less than it would cost to purchase a Windows system."

    Cedega = $44.95
    Game X = $40-50
    Total = $80-95

    Windows Home = $100~
    Windows Pro = $130~
    Windows Longhorn = Unknown

    Makes sense to me.
    • You forgot the game price in your Windows numbers. You're not going to get the game free when you buy Windows (unless you pirate, but then you could do that for Linux too).

      So it really is:

      Windows Home = $100~
      Windows Pro = $130~
      Game X = $40-50
      Total w/Windows Home = $140~$150
      Total w/Windows Pro = $170~$180
      • You're not going to get the game free when you buy Windows (unless you pirate, but then you could do that for Linux too).

        In which case you're probably not buying Windows, either.
    • Other posters have pointed out that you forgot to add the price of Game X in your Windows numbers.

      However, you also forgot to add in the price of Linspire which is ~$80-90 I think.

      So 80+40+45=165 for Linspire and $140 for Windows Home or $170 for Windows XP.

    • Re:Affordable (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Nos. ( 179609 )
      If you're going to count the cost of the OS for Windows, you have to do it for the Linux side as well "Cedega with Point2Play requires Linspire Five-0" which according to the site is $99.00 new. Thus, we're now looking at $143.95 for the Linux way, or as you said, $100-$130 for the Windows.

    • Please note that (Score:5, Funny)

      by hyperstation ( 185147 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:50PM (#12922468)
      using an "it costs less" argument will not work:

      Windows XP Pro, via bittorrent: $0
      Game X, Y, Z, *and* A, via bittorrent: $0
      Total: $0

    • Re:Affordable (Score:2, Interesting)

      by d3bruts1d ( 639027 )
      Everyone is getting it wrong. lol You've forgotten that you also have to buy Linspire [linspire.com].

      Linspire: $49.95
      Cedega: $44.95
      Game X: $40-50
      TOTAL: $134.90-144.90

      If you really want to use Linspire, you also have to buy the CNR membership [linspire.com]. So that would add another $49.95/year.

      Now. Compared to Windows:
      Windows XP: $100-$250 (Priced @ Amazon [amazon.com])
      Game X: $40-50
      TOTAL:$140-$300

      Pricing Windows XP Home + Game could be cheaper than trying to run it on Linspire.... Though it could also be cheaper on Linspire than r

  • That's What They Said in the First Place (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Winkhorst ( 743546 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:34PM (#12922244)
    Actually, Lindows was supposed to run ALL Windows programs before they scaled back their early claims. Looks like it just got put on the back burner.
    • Robertson didn't know what he was talking about. He'd seen WINE in action, and assumed that it was close to being a complete replacement for Windows. He then went on to include it with Lindows and promised the world that he'd be Windows compatible. Somewhere along the line he learned the horrible truth (Win32 is an ugly, broken, and complex moving target) and backed off his claims.

      Unfortunately, this left Lindows in a bit of a lurch because it was less secure than most Linux distributions, and only had its application repository to carry it. My guess is that the Microsoft vs. Lindows lawsuit was what kept them on the map. Without all the press, it's posslble they would have languished into obscurity. Since then, the renamed Linspire has been slowly building back up to Windows compatibility.

  • Yes, but... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:34PM (#12922248)
    Yes, but will it run linux?

  • full text of article (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    TransGaming Releases Latest Cedega Portability Technology for Linspire Operating System Gamers Able to Play Hundreds of Microsoft Windows Games on Desktop Linux Right Out of the Box.

    Linspire, Inc. and TransGaming Technologies announced the release of Cedega for the Linspire desktop Linux operating system, allowing Linspire users to play hundreds of popular Windows-format games right out of the box. TransGaming's innovative Cedega portability technology, combined with the Point2Play graphical front end, off

  • Linux Games (Score:5, Informative)

    by ndansmith ( 582590 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:35PM (#12922264)
    You can play the games right out of the box, assuming that you can get functional drivers for your video card. For all of us who use ATI cards for games, this is not so exciting.

    • Re:Linux Games (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dreamchaser ( 49529 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:47PM (#12922425) Homepage Journal
      I'm surprised you were modded as insightful. The point was that they were including software support to run games via Cedega (Wine). If you bought an ATI card then given their track record with Linux drivers you get what you deserve. ATI's Linus drivers are known to suck. If you want to run Linux and play games, Nvidia is still the best for that purpose.

      This thread is about added software support in a Linux distribution, not about various hardware/driver issues on Linux.

    • Re:Linux Games (Score:2, Interesting)

      by StonedRat ( 837378 )
      I use the fglrx ATI drivers in ubuntu and never had a problem running doom3, ut2004 and most importantly tuxracer.
    • Allow me to append my statement from above, because it seems that many have misinterpreted it:
      "For all of us who use ATI cards for Windows gaming machines and want to switch to Linux."

      I thought it would be obvious that someone who is using "ATI cards for games" is using Windows, not Linux. Sorry for the confusion.

    • ATI? (Score:5, Informative)

      by phorm ( 591458 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @02:31PM (#12922940) Journal
      Actually, if you're using an ATI card you won't be doing too badly. They are making linux drivers which seem to be improving over time. There are issues with the drivers and they aren't as good as the NVidia ones, but then again even my windows ATI drivers have done some pretty funky things before.

      Now, for other craptacular cards such as the various intel, etc brands... you're going to be in trouble indeed. Many laptops and onboard video sets use them. They don't perform well in windows, and - in my experience - are even more troublesome (and unsupported) in 'nix thus far.

  • Immediate Relevance (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SparksMcGee ( 812424 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:35PM (#12922266)
    Not to rain on anyone's parade (this is certainly good news for Linux users, though of course it'd be best if it were free), but how much of th ecurrent Linux market overlaps with the Widnows market. It seems to me that if you're buying a gaming rig, you probably already have at least one HDD that boots windows automatically (especially given the relatively incremental hardware advances since last summer). I'm not saying it's not something Linux users should demean, but I'm just not sure that they can count on this gaining Linux market share since those who game, run windows, those who like Linux, run Linux. The Linux community may now run games, but is this supposed to bring new people into the fold as the blurb suggests?
    • Works best for new computer buyers looking at a machine in the store side-by-side. Linspire machine $400 vs. Windows machine $600. If they both run the same games, more people will buy the Linspire machine. Of course, TransGaming would have to allow a time limited subscription to be bundled with the system along with some popular and free Windows only games. From the article, it doesn't sound like this is what they plan to do.

  • No need for choice? (Score:5, Funny)

    by null etc. ( 524767 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:36PM (#12922282)
    "Gamers don't have to choose between Linux and Windows anymore," said Kevin Carmony, president and CEO of Linspire, Inc.

    They especially don't have to choose if they decide to say with Windows. I love marketing speak.

    • Your comment is illogical. The marketing comment was in fact valid.

      I read both statements a few times before bothering to say this, but don't decide its babble just because it came from marketing.

      The statement from Kevin should probably be broken down grammatically and semantically into "People who want the (fun|stable|non-MS) operating system that is Linux but also want to play games (primarily released for Windows) won't have to choose between the two anymore since they can now have their cake and eat

  • Uh Oh! (Score:2, Funny)

    by kerby74 ( 798328 )
    "Oh crap" Bill Gates 06/27/05

    • Re:Uh Oh! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Meagermanx ( 768421 )
      Actually, I don't think he's worried. If you want to game, you use Windows. Gamers already have it, have it set up with all their games, and if they use Linux, it's only as an alternate OS. Not a primary one. If this was free, that would be something, but charging $45.00 a year?
      "Yeah, well my free, community supported, open source OS can run almost all the games yours can for only $45.00 a year! So there!"

  • Alternate Articles (Score:2, Informative)

    by wo1verin3 ( 473094 )
    Link is already dead..

    - Newsforge [newsforge.com]

    - ADDICT3D [addict3d.org]

    Linspire, Inc. and TransGaming Technologies today announced the release of Cedega for the Linspire desktop Linux operating system, allowing Linspire users to play hundreds of popular Windows-format games right out of the box. TransGaming's innovative Cedega portability technology, combined with the Point2Play graphical front end, offers equivalent game-play experience and performance, making it possible for avid Linux gamers to play titles like Half-Life 2, W
  • It also uses the Windows security model!

  • Article mirror (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    In case of slashdotting...

    mirror is here [mirrordot.org]

    and article text:

    TransGaming Releases Latest Cedega Portability Technology for Linspire Operating System Gamers Able to Play Hundreds of Microsoft Windows Games on Desktop Linux Right Out of the Box.

    Linspire, Inc. and TransGaming Technologies announced the release of Cedega for the Linspire desktop Linux operating system, allowing Linspire users to play hundreds of popular Windows-format games right out of the box. TransGamings innovative Cedega portability tech

  • Cedega and "Out of the box" in the same sentence!? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cybereal ( 621599 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:39PM (#12922326) Homepage
    Oh come now. Just try to install Warcraft III with Cedega.

    I'm serious, that's the only game I was really hoping to play with Cedega when I tried it out. It flopped hard core, yet, WC3 is on their list of supported games with a flag indicating that it is playable.

    Lies.
    • They meant you can still play with the packaging... if you fold up the included pieces of paper, you can make one of those triangle football thingies.
    • Easy as PIE - even WINE runs WC3 Your video card/linux setup support is your problem.
    • Weird hardware, or a weird linux distribution.

      Don't expect everything 'mainstream' to work properly on the plethora of hardware/distribution combinations out there.

      On SuSE linux (~8.2-9.3) Warcraft III in Cedega/Point2Play really is easy. No settings to configure, everything works out-of-box.
      I'm sorry to say that the current situation is unfortunate; the truth of that matter is that it will work out-of-box, but only with certain configurations, and there is no real way to improve that without greater unif
  • If it can do what they say it can do, they should be able to tweak the program to run Windows ordinary programs with ease. Yes, Wine does an excellent job, but imagine if they tried making it for ALL Windows programs!

  • Not interested (Score:5, Informative)

    by Thomas DM ( 895043 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:44PM (#12922394) Homepage
    Not really interesting.

    Cedaga costs $44.95 and you also need Linspire Five-0 which costs $49.95 so that's almost $95.

    I'd rather have a dual-boot system with Windows than some sort of emulation software that may not boot a quarter of my games.

  • Hundreds eh?... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Timbo ( 75953 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:45PM (#12922403) Homepage
    What they say: "allowing Linspire users to play hundreds of popular Windows-format games right out of the box."

    What they mean: "about 90 or so games run after spending hours changing config files and trying different version of cedega. 90 is nearly 100 right?"
  • "Gamers don't have to choose between Linux and Windows anymore,"

    Could they, until now?
    (just joking! or should be...)

  • They released Cedega for Linspire that costs $45 (and includes a WHOLE YEAR) to download and install .. through Linspires "buy software" function...

    Am I missing something here?

    Isn't Cedega / P2P like $5 a month??

    Oh, and isn't the redundant "Click here to pay for a software that will let you click to play a game.." kinda .. well .. weird?

    Flame away.

  • Cedega is not an answer.. (Score:5, Informative)

    by kuzb ( 724081 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:54PM (#12922524)
    ...It's a gateway to thousands more user problems. While my hat is off to the Transgaming team for their countless hours of time, effort and dedication to the winex project, and gaming on linux in general, it's far from a good solution. Certainly not one I would unleash on the clueless.

    Most games don't play well, or play with really annoying issues. For example, many in-game videos do not play properly in Cedega, and if you can't skip them, you might be sitting there a long time waiting for them to finish. A good example of this is Black and White, where the opening video can't be skipped, and plays at about 3fps.

    There was (may be fixed now, I don't know) another issue where you couldn't install games spanning multiple CDs without copying the contents of those CDs to the hard drive. So now you're involving the commandline, and/or file managers in order to install a game. Not quite as point-and-click easy as windows.

    Many games which rely on Directplay for their multiplayer functionality do not work at all. Warcraft 3 is a good example of this. Works great single player (assuming you skip all the in-game videos) but fails horribly in multiplayer.

    Lastly, most copy protections are not recognised under Cedega/Linux, forcing the user to go out and find a crack for their game.

    The solution here is not to run Windows games, but to find more ways to convince major game developers that they should release ports to linux directly. All this Linspire/Transgaming thing is going to do is frustrate people who just want to play games. It will unquestionably leave more with a negative opinion of Linux in general.

  • Forget games (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 27, 2005 @01:58PM (#12922567)
    I think consumers are more worried about anti-virus software and spyware blockers. I mean, I looked around and I found virtually *no* anti-virus software for linux desktops! If only I could run Norton Antivirus in Wine, then I could *really* make the switch!

    Heck, Linux also needs to get up-to-speed on good defrag software, desktop-icon cleaner software, and maybe a closely bundled browser and media player! There are _a lot_ of opportunites for Wine in this space I believe.

    Heck, couldn't someone make a linux distro that boots into X/Wine by default?
  • Having tried Transgaming's software and gui front end, and only getting 1 game out of the 15 I have to work. It definately isn't worth the $5.00 usd that they want you to pay per month to use their services. Hours of frustrated tweaking, redownloading, reinstalling, reeverything... and still end up with a useless gui that takes up much needed anime room. Save the dough until they actually put some effort into game support. Transgaming forums are full of help requests and zilch for feedback from transga

  • Hrrrrrm. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by WWWWolf ( 2428 )

    Given the general idea on average geek's opinion on Linspire's suitability for anything, and how Transgaming has kept up their relations with Wine folks and rest of the opensource community, wouldn't it just make sense to call this "Linspire Evil-in-a-Box" and bundle Doom III with it (Not native, of course - running in Cedega!) to draw people's attention away from the true "evil" in the box? =)

    But seriously, I've been playing a lot of games in DOSBox lately, and I just wish there was something as brillian

  • Wrong solution (Score:5, Insightful)

    by suitepotato ( 863945 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @02:10PM (#12922706)
    Pure and simple if the Linux community is going to squak about Windows, bash Microsoft, and copy everything they do, then they might as well quit now. Innovation and providing the end users with what they want is where it is at. Microsoft does it, Linux doesn't. Simple.

    TuxRacer proves that decent graphics and speed are possible natively on Linux. Linux based game design and publishing is needed, not using Windows games on Linux. As Linux is proven to be capable of running games of its own just fine, more publishers will port their games natively to Linux. Trying to co-opt Windows apps onto Linux is kludgy and ultimately screams "we're unoriginal me-too hacks". The Linux world needs to innovate, carve its own path, and create not copy. Until then, it isn't going to be getting where we want it to go, which is to be loved for being what it is and not used simply because we are angry with Microsoft.

    • Re:Wrong solution (Score:4, Insightful)

      by deaddrunk ( 443038 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @02:28PM (#12922908)
      Which is indeed the case until you remember that one OS has a stranglehold on the market. Look at the alternatives to MS Office. What's the first thing they need to offer to stand a chance? Compatibility with the beast.

      Microsoft did this themselves with their ability to read and write Lotus and guides to using Word if you're used to Wordperfect.

      If there were 10 equal games in town instead of one Linux would already be shining; as it is it has to be compatible with the platform that the overwhelming majority of software only runs on.

  • Win is a dead end for games (Score:4, Insightful)

    by WillAffleckUW ( 858324 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @02:26PM (#12922888) Homepage Journal
    Most gamers have moved on to platforms like PS2, and are drooling while they see the specs on the PS3 (or whatever they were calling it last week) and the GameFrog (or whatever the Nintendo thing is).

    Seriously, I can't remember the last time I bought a Windows game. Maybe a few years ago? So long as I can get Fable (ya ya, so it's xBox, but it's not even that great) and Lego Star Wars and Sims: The Urbz and suchlike, why would I want to buy a Win game?

  • Wait before buying... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by loose_cannon_gamer ( 857933 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @02:47PM (#12923154)

    I'm not a fully crazed gamer, but I do enjoy playing games a lot, and my hardware isn't that bad. That said, I split my time between development work and gaming, and dual boot (windows being purely for games and finance management).

    For a while I tried to be windows free, pure linux, and I even got a cedega subscription. I was disappointed, in that I could only get about 1 title in 10 to actually work, and none without serious UI gotchas, visual artifacts, crashes, etc. This was 6 months ago, and it is possible that things have changed.

    So while this is a fine idea, I highly recommend proving it out. I know I am not going to be an early adopter, as I felt like the claims made by cedega were, in my experience, wholly unsubstantiated back then. The idea is great, but the last time I tried it, the technology and stability just weren't there.

  • Happy Cedega User (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Bob9113 ( 14996 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @03:35PM (#12923795) Homepage
    I use Cedega on Ubuntu and Debian, so far only to play World of Warcraft. I get 20 FPS with a fairly anemic NVidia card (GeForce 2 MX 400) at 1024x768. Installation was dead simple (they provide .debs). There's usually a minor bug or two when a new release of WoW comes out (Blizzard, understandably, doesn't test on Cedega before releasing patches), but they have consistently been fixed within 24 hours. I have maybe 200 hours in the game, and am completely satisfied with Cedega. I haven't tried Point2Play, but I hear it makes it easier if you're not comfortable with dpkg -i from the command line.

  • Required Reading . . . (Score:3, Interesting)

    by npsimons ( 32752 ) on Monday June 27, 2005 @04:43PM (#12924777) Homepage Journal
    Why you shouldn't use Cedega/WineX and why you should discourage others from using it. [timedoctor.org]


    Go ahead, mod me troll if you must, that doesn't mean the reasons listed at the above link are wrong.

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