LinuxLinks Review
(3/10/05)
By Kevin E. Glosser
Installation
TransGaming provided us with an account. I believe it is identical to
any a TransGamer would get by purchasing a subscription. Just click on
"TransGamer Login", log in to their website and you will be
automatically directed to the page with the files you need to download.
You have three choices of file formats for each file you need. RedHat,
Fedora, and other rpm capable distro's may choose the rpm available.
Debian based distro's are also supported via their own native package
management protocol. For the rest, there are tarred gzip files(.tgz).
The first decision you will want to make, is whether to use Point2Play
or not. I highly recommend doing the former. If you choose to install
Point2Play, you can install Cedega with the click of a mouse inside the
program. I decided to choose this method due to Cedega's requirement of
running X Windows. I can think of no reason to avoid using Point2Play.
This is the method explained below, however you should be aware there is
an alternative.
Only one file is required to start your Cedega gaming experience.
Download Point2Play, install it, set it up, and then you can run the
Windows installers for your favorite games. In addition to this,
however, you might want to grab the Active X control available, as this may
be necessary for some games. My understanding is that certain titles use
Active X in HTML composed mandatory legal agreements, the type we have
all become accustomed to clicking "I agree" on without actually reading.
I have to admit, that the name "Active X" is a very negative one to me.
My dislike has nothing to do with it being from Microsoft. Rather, it's
from the quality of technology itself. Active X is rightly credited for
many of the exploits that allow malicious software to install itself
automatically via Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Many web surfers use Firefox
for Windows purely to avoid these vunerabilities. Installing the Active X controller
was not something I wanted to do. My fears are, by all logical
reasoning, unfounded in Linux. Yet, they still existed. Unfortunately, I
did end up having to install it.
Using sudo, I installed the rpm for Point2Play with the flags "ivh". I
was pleasantly surprised to see a GNOME menu entry appear for P2P. I
used it to launch the program and accepted the Cedega licensing
agreement. P2P started up and informed me that before I could play I had
to setup my account and install a version of Cedega. Fortunately, both
of these things are very quick and easy to accomplish.
I clicked on "Setup TransGamer Account" on the already open "Versions"
tab. I was then prompted for my username and password. And that was it,
I had successfully set up my TransGaming account.
Next up was installing Cedega itself. I clicked on the "Get Latest
Version" button and just like that, Point2Play downloaded the most
recent version of Cedega and installed it with no interaction required
by myself. The download window contained a status bar with an estimated
time left for completion. My broadband connection barely gave me enough
time to take a screenshot of the process.
After receiving a notification the process ended, Cedega was installed.
Yes, it's that simple when using P2P. I noticed another button labeled
"Download Microsoft Core Fonts" which was begging to be pressed. After
accepting Microsoft's licensing agreement that too was installed.
It should be noted that it is possible to install multiple versions of
Cedega. Let's say for instance if an older version plays a particular
game better, you can use it instead of the latest greatest. This also
appears to be a nice way to not have to commit to a newer version that
might keep you from enjoying the games you already have installed.
Although this feature may be necessary, I appreciated the fact it
existed, as well as how easy it is to use.
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