Running Windows games on Ubuntu

[G13]

Back story: I've been running Ubuntu for about a year now and I really don't know trout about it.

To the meat: I found Jedi Academy I and II for windows and I want to go to there. What programs do I need to do this? Google was unhelpful in that I am given program names that don't seem to exist and there are no real walkthroughs on how to set anything up. And Wine doesn't seem to be doing anything.

If anyone can help me, maybe explain things as you would to a toddler?

[Pike]

Disclaimer: You have about an 80% chance of this not working, no matter what you do, and it's not your fault. Wine is your best bet here but running games on Linux is a big ol' pain in the butt. There are drivers issues and other issues and so forth.

Anyways, you should be able to open the installer .exe with Wine and then it will install it for you just like a Windows game.

This site is your best friend: WineHQ - Wine Application Database It has a list of basically any game that anyone has attempted to run in Linux and lets you know about bugs and such. I went ahead and looked up Jedi Academy for you. It has a "silver" rating which means you may have some issues and crashes. Unfortunately there doesn't doesn't seem to be much info here; I would search the Wine section of Ubuntu Forums.

[CimminyCricket]

Depending on how large your HDD is you may as well try having your computer friend that installed Ubuntu set up a small windows platform on part of the harddrive, for games and such.

[G13]

Well I've done all that I could, or maybe all that I'm willing to do, and I've got nothing. I managed to get Minecraft to work not too long ago (I previously was unsuccessful in patching it) so I figured I must either be a wizard or my computer isn't actually as bad as I have been perceiving it to be.

Get Ubuntu, they said! You can still get your game on, they said! Perhaps I will just stick to my 64 bit world.

Thanks anyways for the help, brobots!

[Goldenboko]

Yeah if you wanted to game on your computer, Ubuntu was a bad choice. Sorry dude.

[Pike]

Minecraft works natively on Linux because it's a Java game so yeah. I ran Kubuntu exclusively for about six years and I did have some success with a handful of games like World of Warcraft and Civ IV but for the most part it is not a gaming operating system. That may change in the next few years since Steam and Valve are really pushing it now, but at the moment... it's not a good choice for gaming, sorry

[Cloudane]

You could try PlayOnLinux. Which is WINE simplified for those who are using Linux without a technical background, and I think with a number of game compatibility and performance tweaks.