Handle With Linux

Best racing game ever runs on linux!

Disclaimer: I'm not a racing game fan, in general I don't like racing games at all. So if I say something is the best racing game ever, it's not based on the usual things most racing fans would think make up the best racing game.

mindless gaming

Last night I was looking for a linux game, to do some mindless gaming on the and of a tiring day.
And I found the greatest thing, the racing game I've been playing a lot as a child is available as a remake and it runs on Linux. I've been looking for something similar to this game of and on for a long time now.

ultimate stunts

Obviously I've been looking in the wrong places! The game I'm talking about is stunts and it's available as a remake named ultimatestunts. The game is not finished yet, but it's very, very promising and it's already very playable.

Best game ever

The reason I think this is the best racing game ever, is not based on stunning graphics and realistic gameplay. No it's based on what games where intended for: the entertainment factor. Stunts was such a great game because of the fun and addictive game-play and the in-game level editor. And the most important thing about it: the complete lack of realism.

to addictive

Stunts was a stunt drive racing game, it let you do all kinds of crazy stunts. Loopings,corkscrews,jumps,etc..
Really great, the only downside to it was that it was much to addictive. And to my great surprise the remake is even better. The remake has all the great stuff of the classic stunts game, and adds modern graphics and network play to the mix. Imagine building your own stunt track and racing it with your friends over the internet.

FREE!

And last but not least: it's totally free, free as in free beer and free as in free software. So if you know how to code you can even have a hack at it now!

I'm really going to feel bad about this guy for destroying the rest of my productive live :-)

Release date

The game is scheduled for release in 2009 according to the schedule on the site. For now a (very playable )beta release is available in binary form and in source code.

compile it

I had to compile it for my system, not to difficult. If you want to do that:

(I'm running debian, minor differences may apply to your system)

You need hardware graphics acceleration (if your running compiz your ok)

I always install the build-essential package, easy way to install compilation prerequisites.
You'll also need libsdl-image and libsdl ( the dev versions ) search for these in your package manager.

Download the source code with data files here:

http://www.ultimatestunts.nl/index.php?page=2&lang=en

unpack the file, enter the map.

$tar xzvf ultimatestunts-srcdata-0751.tar.gz

$cd ultimatestunts-srcdata-0751/

then enter:

$./configure

$make

$su (in ubuntu you do $sudo make install)

enter your password

#make install (not in ubuntu)

#exit (not in ubuntu)

If the ./configure gives you a missing something in the output, install the missing items by searching in your package manager. And after that do:

$make clean
and start over from $./configure

start the game by typing ustunts at the shell.

screenshots on original site