Gaming on Alpine

This page documents the various game-related packages that are available in Alpine Linux and lists alternative ways to game. If you are interested in developing games on Alpine Linux, visit Game development on Alpine Linux.

Installing Games

As when installing any other package, run the following:

$ doas apk add game

Where game is the name of the package containing the game, such as micro-tetris from among the available games.

Steam

Steam, a popular game distribution platform by Valve, can be run on Alpine Linux as a Flatpak or as this AppImage.

Wine

wine enables a variety of Windows software to be run, including games, under Linux. If one is using x86_64 architecture, then 32-bit applications will run in Wine's WoW64 mode, which may not be compatible with all software.

Wine inside docker

To run windows app/games inside a docker container on Alpine Linux, libcap is required in order to fix issues related to raw sockets.

RUN apk add --no-cache libcap
RUN setcap cap_net_raw+epi /usr/bin/wine-preloader

Permissions

To make sure that your user's account (youruser) is in the "games" group, first check whether the group is listed in youruser's groups listing:

$ id youruser

If "games" does not appear in the listing, then add the group to the user by executing the following:

$ doas adduser youruser games

Log-off and then log back on in order for the changes to take effect. Most games do not require this in order to work.

List of games

Below is a list of game packages that are available on Alpine Linux:-

Game	Package name	Description
AdvanceMAME	advancemame	Arcade simulator.
Aisleriot	aisleriot	Solitaire card games.
bsd-games	bsd-games	Traditional text mode games from BSD.
Chocolate Doom	chocolate-doom	Portable release of Doom, Heretic, Hexen, and Strife.
DOSBox Staging	dosbox-staging	DOS-emulator that uses SDL.
Dust Racing 2D (dustrac)	dustracing2d	Traditional top-down car racing game including a level editor.
Flare (game)	flare-game	Fantasy action RPG using the FLARE engine (not to be confused with flare, the unofficial Signal GTK client).
FlightGear	flightgear	Flight simulator.
Freeciv	freeciv	Free and Open Source empire-building strategy game.
Freedoom	freedoom	an entirely free software game running on a Doom engine.
Frotz	frotz	Z machine (Infocom interactive fiction) Interpreter.
GCompris	gcompris-qt	Educational software suite comprising of numerous activities for children aged 2 to 10.
GNU Chess	gnuchess	Play chess against the computer.
GZDoom	gzdoom	Modern game engine resembling modern FPSes compatible with Doom WADs
Highscore	highscore	A 'rewrite' of Highscore, formerly known as gnome-games.
KPat (KPatience)	kpat	A selection of solitaire card games packaged by KDE.
LBreakout2	lbreakout2	Ball-and-paddle game.
LBreakoutHD	lbreakouthd	Note: No level editor available. The successor to LBreakout2. lbreakout2 is needed for level creation.
LPairs	lpairs2	Classical memory game.
Luanti	luanti	An open source voxel game engine.
Micro Tetris	micro-tetris	A version of Tetris that uses ANSI escape sequences and can fit in embedded devices.
NetHack	nethack	A single player Rogue-like dungeon crawler or dungeon exploration game.
New BSD Games	nbsdgames	A package of 18 text-based modern games.
OpenRCT2	openrct2	A free and open-source reimplementation of “RollerCoaster Tycoon 2”. Note: Requires original files of “RollerCoaster Tycoon 2” to play.
OpenTTD	openttd	A business simulation game.
RetroArch	retroarch	Frontend for emulators, game engines, and media players using libretro.
ScummVM	scummvm	Engine for several graphical adventure games.
Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection	sgt-puzzles	Small programs offering puzzle games for one player.
SuperTux	supertux	Classic 2D jump'n'run side-scroller game in a style similar to the original Super Mario games.
SuperTuxKart	supertuxkart	Kart racing game with OSS mascots.
Xonotic	xonotic	The Free and Fast Arena Shooter. Clients are: xonotic-sdl or xonotic-glx. Install xonotic-server to run a dedicated server.

Support Software

This material needs expanding ...

Contributions/guidance encouraged – here or as new wiki pages. Thank you!

Available on Alpine Linux:-

game-devices-udev - Udev rules for various game controllers.
gamemode - Optimise Linux system performance on demand.
kodi-game-libretro* - Emulator add-ons for Kodi to enable older/retro games using the Libretro system.
libgnome-games-support - Code shared between GNOME games.
libkdegames - Common code and data for many KDE games.
py3-pygame - Python library for making applications and games based on SDL.
texlive-games - TeX Live games typesetting tools.
texmf-dist-games - Games typesetting using texmf-dist.