

Bioware's was home to many great games in past that totally defined RPG game genre with deep storyline, engaging gameplay, isometric graphics, and dungeons and dragons rules based gameplay. Almost all the games under infinity engine became hugely popular and are even today considered to be best games in their genre with huge dedicated fan base.

Infinity Engine was home to many great games in past that totally defined RPG game genre with deep storyline, engaging gameplay, isometric graphics, and dungeons and dragons rules based gameplay. Almost all the games under infinity engine became hugely popular and are even today considered to be best games in their genre with huge dedicated fan base.





Games Based on Infinity Engine:

These all time classic games can be played natively on Linux thanks to project called GemRB

About GemRB





GemRB (Game Engine Made with Pre-Rendered Background) is a "port" (actually a new implementation) of the original Infinity Engine to Linux/Unix, Mac OSX and Windows with some enhancements.





Installation Instructions for Linux





There are a number of methods through which you can install GemRB and infinity engine games. There are some prerequisites:





Make sure that you have original game disks and data as GemRB won't provide any. Secondly, you can install GemRB from a PPA on Ubuntu or from PlayDeb . Run the following commands:



sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sao/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gemrb





For other distributions, you can download pre-complied binaries and source from here





Method 1: Installing from GemRB Launcher and Game Installer

Download GemRB Launcher from here

Download NJW's Game installer from here

Make sure you have latest version of Python and PyGTK

Go to the source folder of the newly extracted archive of the GemRB Launcher

Edit gemrb_launcher.ini in a text editor and enter the path to GemRB executable. If you installed from PPA or PlayDeb it should be: /usr/games/gemrb

in a text editor and enter the path to GemRB executable. If you installed from PPA or PlayDeb it should be: Now run the file auto-installer.sh from the game installer's folder (not launcher) and follow on screen instructions

from the game installer's folder (not launcher) and follow on screen instructions Once finished, go to the source folder of GemRB launcher and launch gemrb_launcher.py

Note: NJW's game launcher can install only Baldur's Gate I and Planescape Torment. For other games follow the instructions below. Method 2: Using Unshield

Download unshield by running following command: sudo apt-get install unshield or appropriate command as per your distribution (more info here )

or appropriate command as per your distribution (more info ) Make a new new folder and CD to the folder using terminal

Make sure that the game CD is always in the drive

Run the following command to install cab file DATA1.CAB : unshield -L x /mnt/cdrom/DATA1.CAB

: This method works with Baldur's Gate I and II only . After you are done with unshield, follow reordering and installation instructions from here and here

. After you are done with unshield, follow reordering and installation instructions from and Now go to /etc/gemrb/ , make a copy of the file GemRB.cfg.sample and rename it as gemrb.cfg (in lowercase only)

, make a copy of the file and rename it as (in lowercase only) Edit it with a text editor and enter relevant paths for game data, saves and other things as mentioned in the file. You can also configure game settings like resolution etc.

Thats it. Fire up a terminal and run the command gemrb Method 3: Installing with Wine But not Playing with It

The first step is to download and install Wine from your package manager if you haven't already

In this method, we will install the game using Wine but won't use it to play the game

Insert your game CD or mount image of the game.

To make wine read CDs, you have to make a CD drive in Wine Config and point it to appropriate location

Go to Applications > Wine > Configure Wine and on to the Drives tab.

tab. Add a new drive as CDROM and point it to the location where the CD or iso image is mounted as per the screenshot below.