Linux as a Server for Games

[Patrick C]

I have one last update on this topic. The party went very well. In fact, it
went even better than I imagined! There's also good news relevant to PLUG. A
friend of mine with a brand new computer and no room for his old one gave it
to me the day before the party. I did a stock Ubuntu 8.0.4.1 install and I
was able to do absolutely everything necessary for the LAN party without
ever touching (or even installing) Windows, from big things like 3D
acceleration all the way down to the CD/DVD drive emulation I use at LAN
parties to install games. The games all performed well and ran without any
extra tweaking on the latest version of Wine precompiled with a patch for a
couple of game-related fixes (the debs are in some guy's PPA, so I didn't
have to recompile myself). Even better, there were some Wine-related hacks
that I was able to do to get functionality that does not exist on Windows,
such as windowed-mode for old games like Starcraft that do not support it
and support only one resolution now non-native to most LCDs.

I also have some cool general Linux tips for running things on the server
side to do things that would be difficult or impossible on other platforms.
For example, I used init scripts that I modified myself to launch the game
servers with the screen command in such a way that I can access their
administrator consoles at any time with just SSH. This is very useful in a
world of game server consoles that must otherwise be accessed through the
full game client. I was also (with the help of a few fellow PLUGgers) able
to put together a little script for using top to monitor only the scripts of
my game-serving processes.

I'm glad to say that I'm glad the entire home-hosted party of around 16
people went without a single hiccup (for the first time in years) and again
say that I'd be glad to do a presentation on both sides of the client/server
fence for PLUG if there is sufficient interest.
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