Background
Linux gaming refers to all game titles that can run on Linux based operating systems. This can refer to free / open source games, which may also be commercial, that run natively on Linux, or proprietary games that have Linux ports. Linux gaming can also refer to Linux based gaming devices such as the Pandora gaming console, or gaming oriented distributions such as SuperGamer. Linux gaming can also be considered to be related to gaming on the Android platform, although there are distinct differences between the two systems and industries. In recent years Linux gaming has also become more closely related to gaming on other alternative platforms, such as Mac gaming.
As far as development is concerned, library support for Linux gaming is provided by OpenGL, ALSA, OpenAL and SDL, a cross-platform multimedia wrapper around system-dependent libraries, as well as Pygame. The DRI project provides open source video card drivers, and NVIDIA and ATI also release binary kernel modules for their video cards. Linux also runs on several game consoles, including the Xbox, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, GameCube, and Wii which allows game developers without an expensive game development kit to access console hardware. Several gaming peripherals also work with Linux, such as gaming mice from Roccat which have official Linux drivers and even a free software user-space utility. Several game development tools also run on Linux, including Game Editor and GtkRadiant.
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