Linux as a Server for Games

[Patrick C]

I'm going to be throwing a LAN party celebrating my birthday next weekend,
and I recently reinstalled the operating system on my old PC to use it as a
server for the party. As a result, I'm in the process of once again setting
up several servers (in the software sense) on the machine. I'm wondering if
there's significant interest within PLUG for me to put together some guide
documentation and maybe a presentation. I'm also willing to do something for
the client side, because all of the games at the party are playable on
Linux. In fact, I've been Linux-only at every LAN party I've attended or
hosted in the past year. Anyhow, here are the game servers I'm setting up:

   - Counter-Strike:
Source<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-strike_source>,
   a terrorist/counter-terrorist themed FPS
   - Team Fortress 2 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tf2>, self-explanatory
   kind of FPS. Same engine/server setup as CS:S
   - PvPGN <http://pvpgn.berlios.de/>, a free/open-source
Battle.net<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle.net>and Westwood
   Online Ladder
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_%26_conquer#Online>server
emulator (a fork of the defunct
   bnetd <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bnetd>)
      - Warcraft <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft_series>
III<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft_III:_The_Frozen_Throne>,
      a fantasy/Midieval RTS - Blizzard Ladder/Tournament functionality
      - Starcraft <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCraft_%28series%29>, a
      very old, low-requirement futuristic/sci-fi RTS with a huge fanbase -
      Blizzard Ladder/Tournament functionality
      - Diablo II <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_II>, an online
      multiplayer roleplaying game with a dark fantasy setting - Open/Closed
      Battle.net functionality
   - Nexuiz <http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/>, a free/open-source FPS based
   off of the Darkplaces <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkplaces> engine,
   with similar gameplay to Unreal or Quake (futuristic, fast-paced team or
   solo deathmatch and other styles).
   - Battle for
Wesnoth<http://web.archive.org/web/20070819175700/http://wesnoth.org/>(archive
link, temporarily down website resides
   here <http://www.wesnoth.org>), a free/open-source turn-based strategy
   game with a Midieval fantasy theme (hacked upon (maintained?) by the famous,
   sometimes infamous, esr)
   - Tremulous <http://tremulous.net>, a free/open-source FPS/RTS
   combination game with a futuristic theme with greatly variable gameplay
   between aliens and humans with completely different combat/base-building
   styles.

I'm running the servers off of Ubuntu 8.04.1 Server, whose repositories
contain all of the servers except for those of the two Source engine games
(CS:S and TF2). All of the client packages are available from
Debian/Ubuntu's repositories as well. All of the proprietary games run under
Wine with little or no tweaking, and all of the client/server packages for
the F/OSS games are up-to-date in Ubuntu except for PvPGN, which is out of
date by two minor versions and can be compiled from source easily if
absolutely necessary. If someone here is willing to create a Debian package,
it would not be difficult to create an Ubuntu i386 binary with MySQL support
for user data.

So, is anybody interested in a presentation or documentation on implementing
these server setups (simultaneously) and connecting to them from Linux
boxes?

--Patrick C.
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