/vr/ - Retro Games

I use GNU and have no issues playing most games. WINE works well for a lot of older Windows games and most good emulators are free software.

>>5525064
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring 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.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

>>5525084
I just say GNU. The operating system was founded by the GNU project in 1983, so it is still GNU, regardless if it uses Linus Torvalds' kernel or not. The goal was simply to have an entirely free clone of Unix, which was successful with the inclusion of Linux. So while Linux is important for GNU, it does not define GNU. It is simply used in GNU.

>>5525008
I've only played doom, hexen, chex etc. On my gnu machine but it works well. Side note, the ThinkPad tracpoint works surprisingly well for this.

>>5525084
Ah yes. The classic Stallman.

>>5525064
Good post, but he didn't mention Linux.

....

All you need is mednafen (console shit), mame (arcade shit), and wine (windows shit) and that covers 99% of retro gaming for Linux -- assuming the game doesn't have a native *nix port already.
Also, whatever you do OP, avoid installing a distro that uses systemd for its init.
I recommend Void and Artix.

>>5525371
>Not Linus Travolds

>>5525389
>Also, whatever you do OP, avoid installing a distro that uses systemd for its init.

please elaborate

>>5525407
http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/Arguments_against_systemd

>>5525008
Dosbox runs great on Linux, as do emulators. the few high performance emulators that don't run well on Linux are not /vr/. Most of the major games (Quake, Doom, etc) had native Linux source ports.

>>5525084
I will still continue to call it Linux for eternity because I’m not an autist.

>>5525008
Most of them should work as well as your GPU driver allows. I can't even play Sonic on Ubuntu without weird screen tearing.

>>5525364
I always had problems running Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain even on Windows 98. Wine worked perfectly.

Familiarize yourself with Lutris and thank me later:

https://lutris.net/

Honestly, Lutris is one of the best things to happen to Linux gaming. It handles Wine/ WineVK, DosBOX, GOG account, Steam, console emulation and just about anything else in one easy-to-manage front end that uses install scrips from an online database.

>mostly play RTS and CRPG's
>almost all of these run native on Linux

sometimes everything just works out

>>5525008
wine has much better support for old windows games than windows does

Biggest issue for me are Japanese computer emulators. Running emulators through WINE somewhat limits your options.

>>5526104
>wine has much better support for old windows games than windows does

Yeah, but Wine is a real pain to configure and set up, at times. That's why I suggest Lutris. It's a really good front end for handing just about all of your game library on Linux. Here is a screenshot I took of me installing MDK from GOG. Lutris downloads a nice script that downloads the .exe from my account on GOG's website (I have to enter my account details into the program, but it is all saved locally) then runs some scripts that installs it using Wine. It really makes this program ideal for running Win 9X era games. But Lutris is also good for Steam, emulators and other stuff too.

Ubuntu has Mame and mednafen on their app store.

Runs great.

I had a harder time setting up wine because im not tekasavvy enough yet but from what I have heard the performance drop is pretty low depending on how well supported your gfx card is

>>5526140
>Ubuntu has Mame and mednafen on their app store.
Only old, outdated versions even for the extremely recent 19.

>>5525084
Better finish Hurd then. Until that day, I USE LINUX

Go back to eating your Toejam

>>5526186

Well it seems to me to be updated.

Version mame0208 (0.208) is on the app store and the latest version is 0.209 (which was released yesterday, april 24th.

>>5525008
>>5525064
>>5525084

Modern loonix OS and WINE are not retro-aged. Technically this thread should be banned.

>>5527005
>Technically this thread should be banned.
technically, you are dumb, or haven't seen the other threads about retro gaming on non retro systems/OSs

>>5526649
Since when is the name of an OS determined by the name of its kernel?

>>5527074
This. Nobody calls Windows "NT" or OSX "XNU".

>>5525371
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Stallman, is in fact, Richard Stallman, or as I've recently taken to calling it, Richard Matthew Stallman. Stallman is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning Richard system made useful by the Richard corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the Richard system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of Richard which is widely used today is often called "Stallman", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the Richard system, developed by the Richard Project.

There really is a Stallman, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Stallman is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Stallman is normally used in combination with the Richard operating system: the whole system is basically Richard with Stallman added, or Richard Stallman. All the so-called "Stallman" distributions are really distributions of Richard Stallman.

>>5525389
Also doxbox

Old games usually have a better time running on Linux through Wine then on modern Windows systems these days. Plus with DXVK you have even less trouble if you have a Vulkan compatible graphics card.

>ITT nerds arguing over the semantics of Linux as if it's ever ambiguous what someone means

Anyway, plenty of good native emus for Linux, and a handful of game ports as well. Try building stuff from source if you have the gumption, it'll ensure better integration with your drivers/OpenGL setup than prepackaged binaries.

>>5525008
Sourceports for a 64 bit system without the need for 32 libs's:

Quake > Quakespasm
Quake II > Yamagi Quake 2
Quake III > ioQuake3
Hexen2 > Hammer of Thyrion
Doom, hexen, heretic have many ports.

Linux installers for other games (most require 32 bit lib's or a 32 bit linux installation)

https://www.liflg.org/

GOG also have some nice games for linux.

>>5527430
PPSSPP is a very nice emulator no install required and light on resources. You can play games like the best version of Final Fantasy I, II and IV and all the retro compilations.

https://www.racketboy.com/retro/the-psp-retro-compilation-library

If you know what you're doing, retro gaming on Linux is absolutely superior to one on Win.

The only issue is Japanese PC stuff. Even something as Touhou needs Wine and as the wise sage once said "We don't care about Linux or freedom. We only care about eroge and those only work on Win."

>>5527441
Touhou doesn't run in XNP2?

>>5527441

http://fygar.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-192.html

Copy/paste url in google translate.
It's in Japanese but google translate does a pretty good job of explaining the steps.

>>5527441

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgK1sY_6P2Q

very good video.

>>5527485
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJGiEP9MVo4

>>5525008
retroarch works fine on any linux distro i have ever tried. pcsx2 also works. i got it from aur and i am playing sly cooper. good

is pop! a good choice for retro gaming?

>>5527496
It doesn't matter what linux distribution you use.
Pop! is based on Ubuntu. Ubuntu is based on Debian.
All 3 are equally capable.

>>5527490
bad advice. np2 (or one of its forks) is the best, anex is for toasters, and next is somewhere in between and basically doesn't have a niche.
and this thread is about linux anyway. xnp2 seems like the best native solution.

>>5525008
I only have issues with Japanese games that use some arcane forms of directx wizardry, otherwise pretty much I play runs fine.

>>5527501
>It doesn't matter what linux distribution you use.
>Pop! is based on Ubuntu. Ubuntu is based on Debian.
>All 3 are equally capable.

Things like Snap Packs and Flat Packs really unify Linux Distros more than they ever were in the past. Snaps and Flats are distro agnostic run-time environments that contain the necessary dependencies needed for the program. Just about all major and lesser distros supports one or both of these types of applications.

But, there are still some differences between distros, with the Ubuntu branch of Debian being more "general purpose" user friendly, Arch Linux being more "power user", Red Hat being business oriented. Manjaro has been quickly on the rise as one of the new popular forms of Arch. Pop! looks interesting from System 76, but I have yet to use it.

>>5528010
debian based distros use apt package manager and are generally more user friendly. Arch Linux and manjaro use pacman package manager and are rolling releases, meaning they get all the latest updates. Debian based distros are not but are more stable with less package breakages and problems. Redhat and fedora are not made for gaming

>>5525407
Systemd is fine, the vast majority of distros ship with it

>>5525407
neckbeard autism

You know, I think there is a good sourceport of Abuse in some distros.

>>5527430
>Linux installers for other games (most require 32 bit lib's or a 32 bit linux installation)
>https://www.liflg.org/

I still have my original Unreal Tournament CD from 2000. The game does support Linux and even has a Tux logo on the back of the Jewel case. I believe Loki software from back in the day did the port.

Funny seeing Epic Games support Linux in all their early Unreal games back then, but these days Linux is still a bit of a low priority for them. Yes the UE4 engine does support Linux. But there's still no launcher from Epic.

>>5527508
NP2kai is also available for X Window systems and is still updated.

>>5525008
How do I deal with older games? I use Dosbox, Wine, and Proton. Need help with getting those older games running? Lutris is your friend.

>>5528616
How well does Lutris handle Japanese locale?

>>5528576
i'd forgotten about that one. seems np21/w is another option, too.
my mistake for assuming xnp2 was it and therefore the best.

>>5528683
Isn't 21/W for Windows only?
https://sites.google.com/site/np21win/download
>このエミュレータはWindows2000(SP4 SRP1v2必須)以降のホストでのみ実行できます。Linux等では実行できません。非Windows環境の場合はAZO氏のNeko Project II (NP2) 改変を使うとほぼ同等の機能が使えます。

>>5528684
https://sites.google.com/site/np21win/setup/freebsd-4-11

>>5528705
That's about running BSD within NP21/W, not about running NP21/W within BSD.
What you could try is running NP21/W in Windows 2000 and then installing Windows 2000 in it.

>>5528706
i suppose i could, but i would still be retarded.

>>5528347
Yeah Loki did a lot of the early Linux ports. Their SDL library is still widely used by cross-plaform games and engines to handle window creation, inputs and other annoying platform specific details.

>>5528347
>But there's still no launcher from Epic.
Everspace (UE4) on GOG runs fine on linux, you just need to start the game directly and not use the included start.sh script.

>>5527438
You can play the final fantasy 1 and 2 remasters and IV complete collection on a shitty laptop or android with PPSSPP, graphics are great and look much better than their other ugly official re-releases such as that on mobile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItHPxBlKv_0

>>5525389
Can't you actually remove systemd from quite a couple ubuntu versions like xubuntu and ubuntu-mate?

>>5530885
yes but it breaks your system and compatibility with all packages installed

>>5526130
This, manual config of wine is a PITA when a game needs some specific ridiculous configuration to run

>>5527495
The only problem i have with retroarch is that for snes it doesn't offer the same level of configurability as snes9x even using the snes9x core.

>>5530894
iirc doesn't MATE DE has no dependency on systemd, so only the gnome specific apps would be affected

>>5526130
Play on Linux automatically configures Wine for you

You (>>5527074) just got BTFO >>5527078

>>5528109
>Redhat and fedora are not made for gaming
Why is that, Wayland?

>>5525960
this and flatpak

>>5531054
They are more business / security oriented. They also have less gaming related packages in their repositories. You could game on them but i don't recommend it.

>>5528254
>Systemd is fine
yes, it's a great kernel, all it needs is a good init-system.

>>5528254
>Systemd is fine
Yes, it's a great OS, all it needs is a good init-system.

>>5531832
sudo rm -rf *.* /

As a bonus, you'll have access to a vast native catalog, such as SuperTuxKart and Xonotic.

>>5525084

>>5525008
it can ONLY play older games (before 2010 is a decent number) flawlessly. i use linux fulltime, im never really worried about old games working or not they almost always do (with few exceptions like all the gta games requiring autistic amounts of tinkering) and always have a way to play (most emulators being explicitly made with linux in mind even). i never use native ports of old games though, not even sourceports. the windows ports always fucking work better. for example, duke nukem 3d, the source port eduke32 has a port but it doesn't use your fucking timidity++ / fluidsynth or anything you wont fucking hear music without mp3 but it jest werks if you run the windows version in wine (?????). its the same for gzdoom and others. i always give it a try of course but if i have a problem sure enough the windows version works better, its annoying. and then its the opposite for newer games where if it doesn't have a linux port it will likely have many fucking problems, but thats not very relevant. i find linux runs older games better, because it runs them the same as windows, while doubling as just an all around better operating system

>>5526130
depends, ive never had to fuck with wine at all to play older games, always only the newer ones. i just install wine, then run winecfg installing only wine-mono. this just sets up the ~/.wine default directory and allows you to change the location of directories (i always change the my documents directory as i dont want windows garbage in my documents folder), i dont fuck with multiple winearches anymore because it doesn't matter. anyways i literally just double click the executable or use a shortcut in my start menu and the game opens every single time

>>5533117
Urban Terror and openRA are good games.
Free and open source with an active online community.

>>5533243
I was being flippant. I unironically play Wesnoth. 0ad is pretty alright.

>>5533250
>Wesnoth
Come play openRA :)

>>5527084
5/7 perfect kek!

>>5531930
>*.*
Are you having a laugh m8? Back to MS-DOS with ye, you're clearly not ready for the Linux command-line, you can't even delete everything properly.

>>5527084
0/funny, 10/cringe

>>5533117
>tfw actually really like both of those
fossfag games are underrated, i played the shit out of the netplay builds for super tux kart with my friends over christmas, and those aren't even close to my favorites (freedoom 2 and super tux)

>openttd
>teeworld
>the dark mod
>warzone 2100
>dwarffortress
>freeorion
>minetest
>red eclipse
>hedgewars
>freeciv

>>5533179
>it can ONLY play older games (before 2010 is a decent number) flawlessly.
A lot of newer indie games work well too.

>>5533986
first of all a preemptive apology as this isn't retro. like what? terraria freezes a great deal more than its windows counter part, risk of rain has game breaking but consistent crashes that literally prevent playing half the game as opposed to windows erratic crashes, even the ~2010 ports of several big names have serious problems like team fortress 2 using up three times as much ram to run than on windows, not even on the same settings (low on linux high on windows) though i think this was finally fixed like last year, and counter strike go does NOT run for me on my system without removing the video file backgrounds, or to bring up a few "platinum" proton games, risk of rain 2, in my own experience i cannot run the game at all as it simply does not work on most intel gpus, and even shit like quake live has its own problems like freezing if you try to use the server browser etc etc. thats not to say im telling you these games work better in wine, oh no they are all even more fucked in that case and the native ports are the only way to really play these games, i would just never sell linux on native ports. its strength is definitely older games, where there are mature winehq pages to guide you

>>5531930
>not a regular expression (carefully formatted like a smiling cartoon cat face) to delete everything except thumbnails, logs and other junk files

>>5533452
Cataclysm DDA, bruh.

>>5533179
>eduke32 has a port but it doesn't use your fucking timidity++ / fluidsynth or anything you wont fucking hear music without mp3
Where did you get it from? It works fine for me but I usually compile source ports myself.

>>5533342
>>5534979

:(){ :|:& };:

>>5536049
Does that really do something? I don't understand how, there's no actual command being run in there. Could you run me through what each part of it does?

>>5525008
I remember reading that Wine has near-perfect support for Windows 95 or something like that

>>5537961
The name of the function is ":". It gets called for the first time after the semi-colon.

>>5538050
Ah, now I get it. It's a recursive thing, so all that'd do is waste system resources.

>>5538074
and keep spawning itself until the system runs out of memory

>>5537978
i believe it. i remember trying to play assassin 2015 and swarm assault in windows 7, neither worked. but sure enough it works fine in linux through wine. there is also that major color problem in windows 7 at least where shit looks like rainbows without closing explorer or using compatibility mode and so on which i dont recall ever happening in wine

Pretty much a majority of emulators use OpenGL (and sometimes Vulkan) firstly so naturally they all work perfectly on Linux. Also a lot of older Windows games that aren't on Steam/Proton can be ran with Wine pretty well, plus something like Lutris/PlayOnLinux makes it easy to set up.