When I first started reading about installing Yellow Dog Linux I noticed a lot of complaints about the limited memory or the lack of hardware accelerated OpenGL support on the PS3. Fortunately, it turns out that you can do quite a lot with what we have available. The following is a list of various computers and game system emulators*, native Linux games, and source ports that I have used successfully on my PS3:
System -> Emulator
- Amiga -> e-uae
Games such as Shadow of the Beast, Stunt Car Racer, Adventure Construction Set OK. OS3.X runs fine, too. - Amstrad CPC -> sdlmess
- Apple II -> sdlmess
- Arcade Games -> sdlmame
Most games up to the early 90’s / Mortal Kombat run OK. - Atari 2600 -> stella
- Atari 7800 -> sdlmess
- Atari 800 -> atari800 emulator
- Atari Lynx -> mednafen
- Atari ST -> hatari
- Coleco/Adam -> sdlmess
- Commodore VIC20 -> VICE, sdlmess
- Commodore PET -> sdlmess
- Commodore Plus4 -> sdlmess
- Commodore 64 -> VICE, sdlmess
- Commodore 128 -> VICE, sdlmess
- Fairchild Channel F -> sdlmess
- Gameboy -> mednafen, gnuboy-sdl
- Gameboy Color -> mednafen, gnuboy-sdl
- Gameboy Advanced -> mednafen
- Mac OS 7.5.3 (68K) -> Basilisk II
68K versions of Warcraft II, Prince of Persia, Lode Runner, Oregon Trail all OK. - MSX Computer -> openmsx
- NES -> mednafen, fceultra / gfceu
- NeoGeo Pocket Color -> mednafen
- Odyssey 2 -> sdlmess (not 100% accurate)
- Sega Genesis -> sdlmess (partial or no sound in many games), Xe (multi-system)
- Sega Master System -> mednafen, sdlmess (smsj)
- Super Nintendo -> snes9x / snes9express, snes9x-gtk
- TRS-80 -> sdlmess
- TurboGrafx-16 /PC Engine -> mednafen
- PC MS-DOS -> DOSbox, QEMU
- PC Windows 3.1/95/98/2K/XP -> QEMU
Diablo v1.09 and Starcraft run OK. Diablo II very slow; no in-game sound. Duke Nukem 3D & Rise of the Triad a bit slowly, but playable. Pokerstars online poker client OK. Thief extremely slow/unplayable, but with sound/voices. ( all under Win98 ) - Vectrex -> sdlmess
- ZX Spectrum -> sdlmess
That leaves a few I haven’t been able to run:
- Atari Jaguar (almost runs in sdlmess — not fast enough or 100% accurate)
- Intellivision (should be working in sdlmess, I think, not sure why not)
- Nintendo 64 (if possible would probably require accelerated video)
- Nintendo Gamecube (if possible would require accelerated video)
- Nintendo DS (desmume might work eventually?)
- Sega Saturn (yabause runs very slowly, not playable)
- Playstation (err… what’s the point?)
Haven’t tried yet:
- Apple IIGS
Aside from running emulators …
Java 5 and 6 plugins for Firefox run various Java games well including: Runescape MMORPG, multiplayer games on flyordie.com (online Chess, Reversi, 3D Pool, etc).
Installed Opera and Java 5 plugin OK. Seems a little faster than Firefox but could just be me. See this post by Paul (ppietro) on the Yellow Dog Community Board for setup instructions.
Various native Linux games:
SuperTux, Freeciv, Mega Mario, Rocks’n'Diamonds, Blob Wars: Metal Blob Solid, Pingus, FreedroidRPG, Battle for Wesnoth, Ri-li, Solarwolf
These source ports of early “3D” FPS games can all run smooth on the PS3 without OpenGL:
- Doom 1 & 2, Heretic, Hexen, Strife -> vavoom
- Descent II -> dxx-rebirth
- Duke Nukem 3D -> icculus.org source port
- Rise of the Triad -> icculus.org source port
- Quake II -> icculus.org source port
- Hexen II -> Hammer of Thyrion
- Marathon II + mods -> Aleph One
(Of the above FPS games, I had to compile all from source except for vavoom)
* There are some legal issues surrounding emulation and the use of game and/or system ROM images. A good summary can be found in this Wikipedia entry.