Southend Linux Wiki Site

(FPS) First Person Shootems

Listed here on this page are some of the games we know will work on Linux systems and especially that of Ubuntu. The purpose of this wiki is to provide the means to install these games and relate any quirkiness of it's installation rather than the information to get to the next level within the game. If you are put off from using Linux due to the perceived lack of games this and the following sections are for you. Some of the information below we obtained mostly form other site's such as
http://happypenguin.org
http://linux-gamers.net
http://ubuntusoftware.info/ultimate
http://games.linux.sk
and others, under such circumstances links to the relevant sites have, where possible been added.

Definitions

FPS Definition: A first person shooter, commonly called FPS in the gaming arena, is a game in which the player sees the action on the screen as if he or she were looking through the eyes of the main character he or she is playing. The shooter section of the term indicates that the majority of game play in these games will require the use of rifle or pistol type weaponry. First person shooters are widely popular across multiple platforms, there are many variations of this type of game, such as tactical first person shooters, where the gameplay is less run and gun and more strategy based via the shooter element. The term FPS can also refer to 'frames per second,' but in Video Game Strategies this does not apply unless we are specifically referring to the frame rate of a video game.

Classic Shoot Em's such as "Doom" or "Quake" require the movement of one body (Male or Female) through a maze of tunnels or landscapes against forces that far exceed your own. You mission should you decide to accept it, is to blast the living hell out of every single object that moves, and proceed to do so on each and every level - this has been termed fun.

As Ubuntu is one of the most popular distro's available to date, it has massive repositories to download from generally the preferred installation method is to install from the "Gnome-Application-Installer" or the "Synaptic-Package-Manager". Either method will download all necessary dependencies for the games given below unless otherwise indicated.

How to find the name of the game you want to install

First try Google with search terms for the given name you are looking for and Linux this should bring up many pages where others have created pages or forums that specify howto do something along the line of what you have searched for. Next armed with the information use the search in either the "Gnome-Application-Installer" or "Synaptic-Package-Manager" to locate the game you want.

To save a lot of time and space we have chosen to demonstrate the installation from the command line in terminal. Before attempting such an installation use the following at the start of each new session (once each day you attempt to install).

#> sudo apt-get update
#> Password:
#> sudo apt-get upgrade

Each time you use sudo you may be asked for your password, provided you are the default account owner your standard password can be used.

With the preliminaries over we can now install some of the games we have found within the shoot em category.

Sauerbraten

Sauerbraten (a.k.a. Cube 2) is a free multiplayer/singleplayer first person shooter, built as a major redesign of the Cube FPS.

     

http://sauerbraten.sourceforge.net

#> sudo apt-get install -y sauerbraten sauerbraten-data

Alien Arena

Set perhaps in the future surroundings which are very unfamiliar with little devils for Aliens and many of them. During installation you will be asked the question if you wish to proceed normally the default is (Y/n) under which circumstances you can just press the enter key, however where a package can not be verified it will default to (N/y) in which case if you press the enter key installation will abort. To continue with installation press the lower case "y" instead. You can dispense with the response question by using "-y --allow-unauthenticated" after install and before alien-arena thus:

#> sudo apt-get install -y --allow-unauthenticated alien-arena

   

http://www.alienarena.org

#> sudo apt-get install alien-arena

Action Cube

ActionCube is a total conversion of FPS called Cube. Set in a realistic looking environment, as far as that's possible with this engine, while gameplay stays fast and arcade. This game is all about team oriented multiplayer fun.

   

http://www.splashdamage.com

#> sudo apt-get install -y actioncube

Open Arena

Again futuristic and much along the lines of that above each game supports a wide variety guns and ammunition. Open Arena is a mod of the FOSS Quake 3 Engine. With features including multi player and single player mode, many maps, various weapons, not to mention mods along with dozens of tutorials and a couple of different game modes.

  

http://openarena.ws

#> sudo apt-get install -y openarena

Tremulous

Futuristic again but with a twist as you need to construct equipment to sustain you own life and battle the baddies.

  

http://www.tremulous.net

#> sudo apt-get install -y tremulous

Nexuiz

We have been advised the game can be very hard to catch onto, as it uses unique gameplay, but this is very rewarding. Nexuiz, unlike the other FPS’s, this has extremely complex graphics. We can not comment on how good or bad (bad as in good) it is, this is something you need find out for yourselves, perhaps more skill is required for this game.

  

http://nexuiz.com
http://alientrap.org

#> sudo apt-get install -y nexuiz

All of the above games require little by way of actual effort to install using the names given you can also install these using one of the package managers.

The following shoot ems require more thought than effort to install.

RTCW Enemy Territory

Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (full install) - Wage war in team-based combat. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is an online multiplayer game, where the players interact with each other over a network in two teams (axis and allies) to defend or destroy mission objectives. No game download would be complete without a howto for installing Wolfenstein although if you weren't using the command line to install before you certainly will for this one.

download enemyterritory right click to "save link as" select the folder destination for this file so you can locate it later.

If you worried that the download took little time don't be running the script itself downloads the necessary files and installs when ready. As part of the installation you must agree twice to proceed rather than start the application on completion press exit the application will immediately initialise an Enemy Territory update which, you will need to agree to each window in turn and again rather than press start select exit to finalise and accommodate dependencies. You may also wish to setup a link from the games menu from your desktop otherwise you can run "et-installer.sh" from the command line, terminal session.

   

Run a terminal window

#> cd "path_of_saved_file" (change directory to where you have saved this file)
#> sudo sh et-installer.sh
#> Password:

Please visit http://ubuntusoftware.info for the latest Ubuntu & Wolfenstein game information.

A little more complex perhaps but you are well on the way to genius geek status (well maybe).

And the complexity continues:

Alien Arena 2007

This installation is a little more challenging than that above but with a little bravado on your part, achievable none the less. Alien Arena 2007 does not exist in the Fiesty or Gutsy Repository so we need to tell the Package manager where to find the necessary files, we do not have any idea just how different it is to AlienArena or even if it is, all we can tell you is how to install on the basis that it might be better.

  

The first thing you need do is edit this file sources.list this is located in the directory /etc/apt editing this file you will need to add in /etc/apt/sources.list this line between the quotes
"deb http://ubuntusoftware.info/ feisty all" add this repository as is usual with Linux is not the only way to achieve the same end result, but it is the most straight forward. The easiest way to edit a file like this is to use vim (or Vi improved) or any other suitable editor, as this is a system access file you will need to use the sudo command with it you can copy and paste the command bellow into a terminal window.

WARNING!! Once you have started this script you are advised not to close the terminal window from which it was called until fully completed, doing so will necessitate the need to restart the script to finialise the installation.

#> sudo vim /etc/apt/sources-list
#> Password:

Next you need to update the repositories and upgrade this could take a while so a coffee break might be in order.

#> sudo apt-get update
#> Password:
#> sudo apt-get upgrade

Lastly you need to install the AlienArena2007 package we suggest if everything installs as expected that you install using the following commands.

#> sudo apt-get install -y --allow-unauthenticated alienarena2007
#> Password:

That is pretty much it, have fun!