SuperGamer Live DVD
A while back I took at a Linux distribution geared solely toward playing games called Live Linux Gaming. Well there’s another remastered distribution for gamers called SuperGamer. SuperGamer is based on VectorLinux and requires a dual layer DVD. It weighs in at roughly 8GB so it’s a bit on the chunky side as a download. But, given the number of games it comes with (more on that below), you can understand why it’s such a large download. SuperGamer is based on the 2.6.27.24 kernel and can run on 32 or 64 bit computers.
Installation
I initially tried, just for the heck of it to install SuperGamer using VMWare and VirtualBox. Please note that I do not recommend that you try to run any gaming distribution via virtualization as virtualization always slows down the games and ruins the experience for the most part. I just wanted to try it to see how well it would or wouldn’t work.
My installs in VMWare and VirtualBox didn’t get anywhere and I realized that I needed to burn it to a DVD and then boot right into it. I wasn’t sure if my iMac could burn a dual layer DVD (never needed to use one before) and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it could. So off I went to Walmart and…$20 later…I came home with a box of dual layer DVDs.
I burned my DVD and then popped it into my iMac and rebooted. I hit the alt key (option on a Mac keyboard but I use a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard so hence the alt key) and then picked the DVD option. I wasn’t sure how well SuperGamer would work with an iMac. Well I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.
Incidentally, I must be considered a bit odd when it comes to computing as I like to run Linux on iMacs using a Microsoft keyboard and Microsoft trackball. It either makes me a total freak or perhaps just a well rounded and open minded person. I’ll let you decide.
After booting into the SuperGamer Live DVD, all I needed to do was configure my video card and I was good to go. On my 24 inch iMac I was pleased to notice that I could run the SuperGamer Live DVD at 1900 x 1200 and on my Macbook Pro I was able to run it at the usual 1440 x 900 resolution. Configuring the video card is very easy and you can either try the autoconfig or choose your resolution yourself. I opted to pick it myself since I knew what both of them were.
I didn’t do a hard disk install of the SuperGamer Live DVD as I have no desire to run it directly on either of my Macs. I don’t play games much these days and I would not want to use up the hard disk space it would require. Nor do I want to deal with any potential Mac OS X versus SuperGamer headaches.
(4 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)
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Well, I’m not a gaming fan, and I have also never created a dual layer DVD – though I have used a few of them from Linux Format (UK) mags and they are great. That’s where I first got to try Virtualbox OSE and it convinced me that I was “missing out on something”.
I have used Vector Linux before, and so has my eight year old son, who would probably be the target if I were to give a distro like this a try. I might be more inclined to go to a fast order DVD shop though and just plunk down a few bucks (as long as it wasn’t more than a few bucks) to get this distro.
Chances are that I will pass on this one since it just isn’t my style. You did, however, Jim, make this an interesting review, interesting enough to make me wonder, “Am I missing out on something?” ;-) Well, I’ll resist, but it was a good review, thanks!
“won’t get the full version of Ultimate Tournament 2004″
Should that not read “Unreal Tournament”? and, although I like th econtent of your interview, I don’t think you did it justice. Having no sound on 2 machines in a gaming distro is more than a little bug. I would have rather you’d worked out how to fix it and posted that as well.
Homer wrote:
Thanks for catching that goof on UT, Homer. It’s pretty funny since I used to play it all the time. I think I had a brain fart when I was writing that part of the review.
As far as the sound goes, I was not able to get it working. I did try but it may have been a problem with the macs, I’m just not sure.
Brian Masinick wrote:
Brian,
Well it might be worth downloading it if you can burn a dual layer DVD. But if you really aren’t interested in gaming then this is probably a remastered distro you can pass on.
But I’m sure there are some gamers that will like it.
Heh, heh. Yeah, good point dragonmouth. It’s cutting edge and retro at the same time.
Would an 8GB Flash drive and Unetbootin work for this?
I thought this was based on Puppy when I saw those text config screens, the only place I’ve seen those in the last 4 years.
Monty
Why make this a dual-layer exclusive? I’m interested but would rather have a volume 1 and volume 2 that I can burn straight away, without having to presumably buy a single DL disc from a local computer shop at an inflated price (don’t want to buy bulk).
The author has limited the popularity of his release.