[jacog]

I have decided to compile a list of adventure games you can play in Linux. Some are native Linux ports, but most will requre an emulator/runtime environment/interpreter to run. I have listed some below, but will grow the list as time goes by. I can only really confirm games which I have installed myself.

Also, any suggestions about how to sort this list... by game, by run method? Should this be a site in itself??

Games That Work - confirmed

Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
Runs perfectly well when installed using Cedega. All hardware acceleration, anisotropic filtering etc. works, so it will look as good (or bad) as if it were installed in Windows.

The Last Express
Installed the Windows version using Cedega. Runs perfectly, and we are busy playing through it as we speak. In theory, the DOS version can be installed using a DOS emulator. Problems have been reported using Dosbox, so try using DosEMU, or QEmu, with FreeDOS as the guest operating system.

Syberia
Got this running also using Cedega (as per daikatana's post), but in order the get it running fast and smoothly, had to disable Vertex shaders in the Cedega settings for the game.

Frasse and the Peas of Kejick
Running this using Cedega. I have read that one can also install/play it using the normal free Wine.

AGS Games
I have tried a number of these under Cedega, and all have worked flawlessly. Our PC goes a tad wacky though when switching to a 320x240 mode, and it's best to force a game into 640x480 mode, or to run it in a (feckin' tiny) window. There is a native Linux port of the AGS Engine, but I find that using Cedega works well enough and is generally more user-friendly and easy - a few clicks and your game is running.

Wintermute Games
Same. Use Cedega for best effect. It says on the WME site that games that are not in a single .EXE will not work, but I haven't got any to test with, so I can't say. And this might not be a problem with more recent versions of Cedega and/or WME.

ScummVM
Most of the LucasArts classics, as well as some titles from Revolution, classic goofball games such as Gobliiins, and other classics like Simon the Sorcerer I and II.

For a list of games and the interpreter itself, check here:
http://scummvm.org/compatibility.php

Ankh
A recent-ish port of Ankh is available at the below address.
http://www.rune-soft.com/englisch/Pr...ankh/text.html

Future Boy
Great text adventure. Sharp humour.
http://www.generalcoffee.com/futureboy/about.html

Narcissu
A "visual novel", which is a sub-genre of adventure games, therefore valid.
http://narcissu.insani.org/down.html

Actually, manyu of these are playable under Linux, if you are into that sort of thing.

Crossover Linux
Made to run Windows productivity applications under Linux, but they are moving towards games now.
http://www.codeweavers.com

Transgaming Cedega
A DirectX runtime environment specifically made to run Windows games under Linux.
http://www.transgaming.com

Classic Sierra Titles
Have a look at both Dasgii and FreeSCI for possible ways to run Kings Quest, Space Quest, Larry etc. Typically though, DOS emulators work just as well, perhaps better.

Dagii
http://www.dagii.org/
http://www.dagii.org/sshots.cgi

FreeSCI
http://freesci.linuxgames.com/?page=games

DOS Emulators

Dosbox
http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1

DBGL: The Dosbox Game Launcher (handy Dosbox companion)
http://home.quicknet.nl/qn/prive/blankendaalr/dbgl/

DosEMU
http://dosemu.sourceforge.net/

QEmu + FreeDOS
http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/

http://www.freedos.org/

Interactive Fiction
Many titles available here, as well as suitable interpreters for the various IF scripting languages.

IF Archive
http://www.ifarchive.org/

Games that don't work

Myst I through V
Most of the not working is due to the lack of Quicktime support. I have yet to try it on Crossover with Quicktime manually installed. I'll need to get the latest version of Crossover though that has better DirectX support.

[daikatana_]

I don't know about Syberia 2 but Syberia 1 runs for me rather well.

[jacog]

And how are you running it? More info!

[daikatana_]

Cedega 5.2.10 - default settings...
2.6.20.1 Kernel
Core2 Duo 2.4GHz -> O/Ced 3GHz, but the same results were with Athlon 64 Mobile 3000+

And I just tried Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and it works fine too, so you can add it to your List

[daikatana_]

Little Big Adventure for Windows works too

[rlpw]

You can also run most games for Windows in Linux using a Virtualbox

If you do not want to mess with Virtualbox you can always use Wine. Unlike Cadega Wine is free (And after all Cadega is Wine tweaked) The repositories for Wine latest can be found here.
Games that run on Wine and ways to get them to work can be found At the Wine Application Database and Franks Corner

I myself have been playing Neverwinter Nights on Linux using a set of instructions from the NWN Linux Forums. The game runs fantastically but the Bink movies do not play unless you do some real complicated work on them.

[jacog]

Originally Posted by daikatana_

I don't know about Syberia 2 but Syberia 1 runs for me rather well.

Ah ha... switched off Vertex shaders... now runs quite fast. Might have been a graphics card related issue.

[jacog]

Originally Posted by rlpw

You can also run most games for Windows in Linux using a Virtualbox

If you do not want to mess with Virtualbox you can always use Wine. Unlike Cadega Wine is free (And after all Cadega is Wine tweaked) The repositories for Wine latest can be found here.
Games that run on Wine and ways to get them to work can be found At the Wine Application Database and Franks Corner

Ah yes, good old Frank's

Haven't tried VirtualBox, but in my experience, virtual machines usually only work for 2D games, not so well for 3D games. Wine's Direct3D support has gotten quite good over the years though... for some games you'll even get a better frame rate running under Wine/Cedega than actually running them in Windows. Bizarre, but have experienced this for myself.

[daikatana_]

Originally Posted by jacog

Ah yes, good old Frank's

Haven't tried VirtualBox, but in my experience, virtual machines usually only work for 2D games, not so well for 3D games. Wine's Direct3D support has gotten quite good over the years though... for some games you'll even get a better frame rate running under Wine/Cedega than actually running them in Windows. Bizarre, but have experienced this for myself.

Haven't tried it either, I always use VMWare, but since they have to emulate the whole machine, overall performance is not good (at least with VMWare), I guess it will be the same with VirtualBox. But of course, if Cedega/Crossover/Wine don't work, you can run the game in virtual machine and you can be sure it will work.

Btw, I have experienced the same thing for some games, it ran slighly better in Cedega than in windows, which was kinda funny

[sadiqu]

You forgot about FBI Hopkins, it's compiled for linux, so you don't need Cedega or some other emulator to run it.

[daikatana_]

BTW, after seeing your post, I have decided to try out as many games as I can under linux, so maybe it can help you with your compilation


Just tried Zork Nemesis and Woodruff, but can't make it work under Cedega or Crossover.

[jacog]

Go for it.

I know Neverhood and Grim Fandango are possible to run... but might require some poking.

And I have not managed to get a single node-based panoramic view type game to work.

And I will try Bone and Sam&Max shortly... but last time I tried Out From Boneville, the 3D models had weird spikes sticking out of them. Fone Bone looked like something out of Spawn.

[daikatana_]

Next I am going to try Overseer, Dreamfall and Fahrenheit. Perhaps today...

[daikatana_]

This is a bit funny, I just tried Gens32 with Cedega, and it runs better than native Linux port. I know it is not an adventure game, but you can run adventure games with it I am just playing Snatcher, and works great so far.

[Wormsie]

Question: If I have an ATI graphics card, is buying Cedega a total waste of money? They recommend nVidia, probably because of its better 3D acceleration support...

Grim is reported to work with an old version of Wine. Or you might want to see how Residual is doing (dig the ScummVM pages). I was able to run Grim without glitches through the intro cutscene - but then it apparently got stuck, as I was unable to move Manny with the keyboard...

[daikatana_]

Well, I have tried both, GeForce and Radeon under Linux, but Ati's Linux drivers are quite terrible. I tried for example Unreal Tournament 2004, because there is a native Linux port. With GeForce, it ran slightly better than in Windows but with Radeon, it was about 2x slower. After that I have decided never go for Ati card again

[jacog]

I have had similar bad experiences with ATi.

And by the way, have tried Syberia 2. Installs, runs, but then freezes up once you start playing. Will muck around with it some more.

Also tried Faust. It doesn't get through the installer. I will try running the version already installed on the WinXP partition.

[rlpw]

Originally Posted by Wormsie

Question: If I have an ATI graphics card, is buying Cedega a total waste of money? They recommend nVidia, probably because of its better 3D acceleration support...

The only way to get any type of performance out of the ATI card is with the Proprietary Driver Package. The best way to Install it is with Envy which now has a GUI and will install either the ATI or Nvidia proprietary drivers for you. With you using Ubuntu it's the best thing Wormsie.

[Wormsie]

Originally Posted by rlpw

The only way to get any type of performance out of the ATI card is with the Proprietary Driver Package. The best way to Install it is with Envy which now has a GUI and will install either the ATI or Nvidia proprietary drivers for you. With you using Ubuntu it's the best thing Wormsie.

I was sceptical when I installed that and I was right - I ended up with a broken index. That's why I don't use automatix and the like, they are just bound to cause more problems than solve them.

[rlpw]

That's weird, it worked great for me on Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Linux Mint. I didn't have to fight it or anything.