There are only so many hours in a day that a person can build websites and stumble without it becoming monotonous. Hours of code research, revisions, and review… dozens of stumbled pages with random and insistent information… It can become overwhelming. The intelligent computer user avoids this peril by breaking from their labors to play games.
There are many reviews of Linux games. With 983,000 google results for the exact phrase, it appears that everyone writes about them. The games I list here are playable, mostly modern, and have short gameplay making them suitable for taking a break.
My platform is Feisty Fawn Kubuntu 7.04 on an amd64 with 512MB RAM.
Tetravex
First game up is Tetravex It gets the top spot for the latest update which added color to the tiles. The object is to match the tiles so that each touches another with the same number on adjoined sides. Quick and easy on a 3×3 grid but complex and challenging on the 6×6.
Kpatience
Kpatience is another winner and the platform of choice for klondike draw three. It includes fourteen different solitaire games. The cards are customizable as is the window background.
Decks
These deck choices are part of a KDE package and are available to other applications also:
Pysol
Pysol is another solitaire application and has good qualities of its own. The right click functionality is reminiscent of the Windows game.
Lbreakout2
Back to cards later, let’s get on to some arcade action. My favorite in this category is Lbreakout2. The game is themeable and has thousands of user contributed levels.
Supertux
The best side scroller for Linux is clearly Supertux. This is a well supported game that even has its own fan site.
Gnome Mahjongg
At other times a more contemplative game like Mahjongg is called for. This is the Gnome version. I prefer it out of the box over Kmahjongg. The latter app though has extra themes, tilesets, and backgrounds available here.
Shisen-Sho
Shisen-sho is a mahjongg like matching game. I play it frequently and would be thrilled if someone developed it further.
Chromium B.S.U.
Shooters are fun too and the best of the best is Chromium. This game is a blast. Almost hard to believe that it’s free.
Maelstrom
Maelstrom plays like a good game of Asteroids should. You turn, shoot, and jockey through space battling aliens, collecting powerups, and shattering asteroids.
Fish Fillets
Fish Fillets is a Linux port of the old Windows puzzle game. The object is to get both fish out.
I hope you enjoyed this tour of Linux games. I have twenty-one more screenshots ready for future episodes so stay tuned.