When you’re running Linux, you never have to be bored. That can mean writing Bash scripts or using libre Microsoft 365 imitators, but it can also mean real fun: gaming. Linux software repositories are replete with free games, including several that might feel familiar to you.
I recently explored several free games for Linux that are ports and clones of classics. I only scratched the surface, though. It turns out there are dozens more just waiting to be uncovered and enjoyed retro-style.
8
​​​​​​0 A.D.
Ever wanted to play Age of Empires, but historically accurate? That’s what 0 A.D. strives to be. It’s a real-time strategy game where your faction is based on an actual civilization from early history. Their buildings, clothing, heroes, and unique abilities are all based on the culture from that time period. So you can play as the Gauls against the Spartans—or work with them in trade. You can compete with both bots and humans in multiplayer.
Of all the games on this list, I’ve definitely played 0 A.D. the most. It was my go-to game to play remotely with my friends during lockdown. We spent hours building up cities, establishing trade routes, and forming and inevitably breaking alliances that turned into war. In the past, you had to know the IP address of the person whose game you wanted to join, but now there’s an actual lobby for creating, finding, and joining multiplayer matches.
0 A.D. is available on Flathub and in the Snap Store, but you can find it in most distro repositories too:
sudo apt install 0ad #Debian
sudo dnf install 0ad #Fedora
sudo pacman -S 0ad #Arch
sudo zypper install 0ad #openSUSE
7
BlockOut II
Warning: this games is probably the easiest on this list to get addicted to. BlockOut II is based on the MS-DOS BlockOut game from the late 80s, and it’s essentially Tetris but in 3D and from a top-down perspective. While its name sounds like a sequel, the game is really a clone trying to stay true to the original gameplay.
I started the game up and immediately got sucked in. You’re just trying to create a solid slab of cubes at the bottom of a pit using randomly generated 3D blocks that are slowly moving down the pit. Fail to create 5×5 grids and the cubes stack up, and you lose.
You can find BlockOut II in all the popular Linux repositories.
sudo apt install blockout2 #Debian and Ubuntu
sudo dnf install blockoutii #Fedora
sudo pacman -S blockout2 #Arch via AUR
sudo zypper in blockout #openSUSE
6
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is a modern and still-developed continuation of a game created in the 90s simply called Dungeon Crawl. It’s a roguelike where you explore a cave system looking for a mysterious orb, encountering all kinds of creatures along the way and developing your character and their powers. It supports both offline and online play, and at the website you can actually watch online players live as they work their way through dungeons.
You can find Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup in most Linux repositories. I’ll note that Stone Soup comes in two flavors: the SDL or “tiles” version, which is graphical, and the ncurses version, which is console-based. I’m assuming most readers want the graphical version, which can be found below, but if you want the terminal-based edition, you can find it in your repositories by searching for “crawl”.
sudo apt install crawl-tiles #Debian and Ubuntu
sudo pacman -S crawl-tiles #Arch
sudo zypper in crawl-sdl #openSUSE
5
Luanti
Alright, I’m not sure Minecraft exactly qualifies as a “classic” game when it’s still wildly popular. But the free and open source Luanti certainly feels like going back to the early days of Minecraft. You may already know Luanti by its former name, Minetest; it changed in late 2024. Its new name comes from blending the programming language Luanti games are written in, Lua, and the Finnish word luonti, which means “creation.”
As you can guess, Luanti is about mining and crafting. Just like in Minecraft, you control a character who can build structures and objects out of materials found in a vast voxel world. Depending on the game and the mods in use, that world may be filled with all kinds of creatures and treasures.
When you launch, you’ll have to immediately choose and download a game. That’s because Luanti is technically just a game engine, not a game in itself. You can choose from dozens of community-made games and hundreds of mods from a content browser in Luanti before generating a world. You can play with or without damage, and in Creative Mode.
To get started creating, you can find Luanti in several Linux repositories as well as on Flathub.
sudo apt install luanti #Debian and Ubuntu
sudo pacman -S lunati #Arch
sudo zypper in luanti #openSUSE
4
OpenHV
If you read my first roundup of these games, you’ll recall I showed you OpenRA, an open-source remake of Command & Conquer: Red Alert. This game, OpenHV forked OpenRA and replaced the sprites with permissively-licensed artwork that imitates the unreleased C&C game Hard Vacuum.
OpenHV has grown into its own separate project though. It’s more easily moddable, with a built-in map editor, letting you build your own missions and minigames. Multiplayer is also supported, both over the internet and on the local network.
If you want to try OpenHV, you can find it on Flathub and on the Snap Store. It’s also available on Arch Linux via the AUR:
sudo pacman -S openhv
3
OpenSpades
OpenSpades is a unique entry in this list because it uses the voxel style similar to Minetest (and Luanti) but is a multiplayer first-person shooter. It’s really based on a 2010s-era game called Ace of Spades.
I played a couple of rounds, and I can tell you it’s definitely the fastest-paced game on this list. You fight on a team, and you can both attack with your weapon and dig and build defenses using your spade. A match can involve up to 32 players. The game was highly rated on KDE’s Discover browser, though I’ll say servers were not very populated when I was there. It may take you, the person reading this, to keep it alive.
2
Sopwith SDL
If you enjoy WWI history or just blowing things up in retro gaming style, Sopwith SDL, sometimes called Sopwith 2, is the game for you. It’s based on an MS-DOS game from the 80s called Sopwith where you pilot a biplane styled after those of the famous British aircraft company, all the while dropping bombs on enemy structures to score points.
You can play against a bot in Sopwith SDL, and the game also supports multiplayer over TCP/IP connections. You’ll need to know your opponent’s IP address to set that up.
You can install Sopwith SDL on any distribution from Flathub, or from distro repositories with these commands:
sudo apt install sopwith #Debian and Ubuntu
sudo dnf install sopwith #Fedora
sudo pacman -S sopwith #Arch via AUR
sudo zypper in sopwith #openSUSE
1
Thrive
If you like a game that’s both fun and educational, this is probably the choice for you on this list. Thrive takes inspiration from the “cell stage” of the 2008 life simulation game Spore. You’re controlling an organism and trying to survive and, well, thrive. The end-goal is to reach the stage of a complex life-form.
Like 0 A.D., Thrive tries to stay true to life. In this case, we’re talking about literally life itself. It uses scientifically accurate terms and avoid holding your hand in figuring out how it all works. Thrive is still in active development, so it’ll be exciting to see what else happens in this game’s evolution—pun intended.
If you want to give Thrive a try, you can find it on Flathub. It’s also available on Arch distros via the AUR:
sudo pacman -S thrive
I hope you relive the fun you had with one of the classics these games inspired, or maybe discover how great they are for the first time thanks to Linux’s software repositories. You might also be interested in a comparison of retro gaming-centered operating systems, or maybe you’d like learn how to play unoffical ports on a Linux handheld.