Notes on Linux

Some older games are still fun to play. I tend to play older games longer than most people, e.g. Railroad Tycoon 2. This game has excellent longevity but it would seem that the only way to buy it would be to find old stock on Ebay. One can have a lot of fun with extremely long games (more so than most) which I detail here. That game started in the year 1870 and went to 2749.

RT2 is an RTS or Real Time Strategy game first published in 1998. There is a tutorial, campaigns and scenarios for the player to work through and also a map editor. The Linux version is called "Railroad Tycoon 2 Gold Edition" which includes the Second Century expansion pack. It has the ability to be played over the internet but this feature doesn't seem to work in modern Linux versions. Even after all this time I still haven't finished all the campaigns.

Majesty Gold for Linux is another RTS game from LGP. You can see a description of the game and purchase it here. By buying it from here you are helping to support the development of an updated version of the game.

The game Majesty Gold also has great longevity. Even after playing the game off and on for years, I don't feel I have exhausted all the strategic possibilities. Sometimes I try to finish a quest with only one class of hero, e.g. playing "The Fertile Plain" and using only Temples of Krypta. Unfortunately the promise of downloadable quests was never fully realized. There were only two downloadable quests ever released: "Balance of Twilight" and "Wrath of Krolm". It is possible in theory to have more than one downloadable quest for 'majesty' the original game, but it is very problematic for the newer game 'majx'.

I have finished all the quests but one quest is by far the most difficult and that is "Legendary Heroes". The big problem in solving this quest is there is only 30 days of game time given before a huge earthquake destroys your palace. This is 30 minutes in real time if the game is played at regular speed. It is possible to win though and the two main strategies which seem to work best are 1) cover the map with wizard towers and using lightning on the barrows or 2) Recruit as many monks and possible and then put them in an outpost and then use the Wrath of Krolm to give them all super-speed (I have more fun with this method). My fastest time for this quest is 26 days.

Another interesting quest for Majesty Gold is "Valley of the Serpents". In this quest you must try to defend all the Elven Bungalows. To win you must have at least one Bungalow escape destruction and eradicate all the Snake Pits. One thing that makes this quest difficult is the Ice Dragons who will immediately try to destroy the Bungalows. Things escalate for both heroes and monsters as both sides receive re-enforcements throughout the quest. It is possible to get the jump on the monsters and destroy all the Snake Pits in as little as 8 days.

I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who still plays Majesty Gold or RT2. Judging by some of the comments I've seen these games still have a following.

Finally if you are interested in Linux games the place to check out is TuxGames. They have a great selection of games and continue to expand their selection. You can also chat with other gamers in #lgp on IRC on the Freenode network.