Track Mania Nations Forever, the free racing game from developer Nadeo can now be installed and run rather easily on Linux thanks to a Snap package.
The package was created by Martin Wimpress and Alan Pope from Canonical as a "bank holiday weekend project". I spoke with Wimpress about it and tested it a bit, here's what he said about it:
In addition to having a cool Windows game, it is confined so it doesn't mess with whatever WINE stuff you might already have setup. The snap of tmnationsforever is also a template upon which anyone can create snaps of WINE compatible games and applications.
If your distribution doesn't have Snap support built in yet, find install instructions here. You can install it running this simple command in the terminal:
snap install tmnationsforever snap connect tmnationsforever:joystick
I've noticed, that it doesn't work on the NVIDIA 396 driver series, but it does work fine on the 390 driver.
To be clear, it's not finished yet and they are looking for feedback, which you can do so in this linked forum post. For those interested in the snap template to make your own, it's on GitHub.
I actually played one of the Track Mania games years ago before being a Linux user and I had a serious amount of fun with it, so things brings back some good memories.
I'm not often one to advocate the use of Wine, but taking into account that it's free, old and likely never to be ported to Linux, making use of Wine for a game that works so well seems like a perfect fit. Having it all configured for you with a single package like this, certainly makes it a lot easier too.
Article updated after publishing to point to the newer install method, it's no longer in the unstable channel.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quotesnap install tmnationsforever --edge
this killed my X and after re-logging I found all konsole tabs wiped out
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Mohandevir Jun 13, 2018
Quoting: libgradevHmmmm, Snaps + Wine + DXVK...
Witcher 3 on linux! Yes! Finally! :)
If they could find a way to stay legit with Steam, GoG or other online stores, that would be awesome! Some kind of specific launcher requesting our store credentials for validations, maybe?
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Quoting: pbWow, weird. Might want to report a bug to the snap people with all details.Quotesnap install tmnationsforever --edge
this killed my X and after re-logging I found all konsole tabs wiped out
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This game has worked in wine for years with pretty good performance even. I have had countless hours of online fun with this game under linux back in the days. This game and WoW were the first games i played in wine back in 2006-2007 and they both worked pretty good.
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slaapliedje Jun 14, 2018
Snaps have already had some malware uploaded to it. Looks like there definitely needs some more auditing to be done.
1 Likes, Who?
lucifertdark Jun 14, 2018
Quoting: slaapliedjeSnaps have already had some malware uploaded to it. Looks like there definitely needs some more auditing to be done.Thanks but no thanks, if I want to fight Malware I'll fire up Windows, I don't need that crap in Linux. Snap is gone from my system & staying gone.
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Quoting: slaapliedjeSnaps have already had some malware uploaded to it. Looks like there definitely needs some more auditing to be done.
The most I've heard about malware on snaps was that a couple of applications by a single developer had an undisclosed cryptocurrency miner built into them. No damage was done to anyone's computer or data, nor was any personal information scraped and sent back home.
The developer in question was attempting to commercially support his apps by integrating this CC miner and seemed to honestly not realize that this was going to be a problem. I suppose he thought that "CC-supported software is the new ad-supported software", which is an understandable conclusion for any blockchain enthusiast. It appears, at least to me, to be an attempt to innovate a new solution for commercially supporting a program that doesn't involve annoying the user with advertisements, as well as providing the developer with more freedom to create without being subjected to the ever-changing whims of advertising companies. Technically speaking, mining cryptocurrency isn't illegal, nor is supporting your software with it.
The real issue here is the lack of disclosure, since it's damn obvious when ads are on an application, but not as obvious when CC miners are on an application. Considering the resource usage and electricity bills involved in mining cryptocurrency, I do think that ethically speaking, disclosure should be absolutely necessary when implementing an idea such as this one.
In any case, Ubuntu pulled both offending apps almost immediately, contacted the developer, established a dialogue and determined that this was more of a case of ignorance than malice. I expect Ubuntu will be more proactive in enforcing ethical requirements in the future with regards to cryptocurrency supported software.
I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard for Ubuntu to create a script on their end which will automatically unpack snaps, run them and check for the presence of cryptocurrency mining activity before they appear on the store. They could also create an option for uploaders to disclose how a commercial application is supported. If there isn't any disclosure, but the system detects mining activity, the snap could be rejected before it even appears on the store. If they're not working on something like this as we speak, they damn well better start.
Last edited by Ryblade on 14 June 2018 at 1:25 pm UTC
0 Likes
abelthorne Jun 14, 2018
Quoting: slaapliedjeSnaps have already had some malware uploaded to it. Looks like there definitely needs some more auditing to be done.That's right and people have to be extra vigilant when installing things from the snap store. But in the case of TMNF, the snap package is done by Canonical developers.
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slaapliedje Jun 15, 2018
Quoting: RybladeCanonical/Ubuntu. The ones who put amazon searches by default within their Desktop Environment? Thought there was some other semi-shady things they did, like tracking searches and such?Quoting: slaapliedjeSnaps have already had some malware uploaded to it. Looks like there definitely needs some more auditing to be done.
The most I've heard about malware on snaps was that a couple of applications by a single developer had an undisclosed cryptocurrency miner built into them. No damage was done to anyone's computer or data, nor was any personal information scraped and sent back home.
The developer in question was attempting to commercially support his apps by integrating this CC miner and seemed to honestly not realize that this was going to be a problem. I suppose he thought that "CC-supported software is the new ad-supported software", which is an understandable conclusion for any blockchain enthusiast. It appears, at least to me, to be an attempt to innovate a new solution for commercially supporting a program that doesn't involve annoying the user with advertisements, as well as providing the developer with more freedom to create without being subjected to the ever-changing whims of advertising companies. Technically speaking, mining cryptocurrency isn't illegal, nor is supporting your software with it.
The real issue here is the lack of disclosure, since it's damn obvious when ads are on an application, but not as obvious when CC miners are on an application. Considering the resource usage and electricity bills involved in mining cryptocurrency, I do think that ethically speaking, disclosure should be absolutely necessary when implementing an idea such as this one.
In any case, Ubuntu pulled both offending apps almost immediately, contacted the developer, established a dialogue and determined that this was more of a case of ignorance than malice. I expect Ubuntu will be more proactive in enforcing ethical requirements in the future with regards to cryptocurrency supported software.
I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard for Ubuntu to create a script on their end which will automatically unpack snaps, run them and check for the presence of cryptocurrency mining activity before they appear on the store. They could also create an option for uploaders to disclose how a commercial application is supported. If there isn't any disclosure, but the system detects mining activity, the snap could be rejected before it even appears on the store. If they're not working on something like this as we speak, they damn well better start.
I think Snap as a 'Everyone else is doing A, let's do B until we lose and we end up ditching it and going with A' that Ubuntu is almost famous for.
0 Likes
Quoting: slaapliedjeCanonical/Ubuntu. The ones who put amazon searches by default within their Desktop Environment?
Yes, them. The same ones who made snapd capable of running on other distributions that don't track you at all. What's your point? Nobody is forcing you to use Ubuntu.
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