Gaming

Revision as of 15:47, 21 August 2026 by Krstek (talk | contribs) (Fixed a typo.)

Game launchers

Games can be run by different applications. Some are able to include libraries from different platforms.

Application Platform Description nixpkgs
Steam Steam Stable support for Windows games. Linux games often incompatible due to interoperating differences. steam steam-run steam-runtime steam-original steam-unwrapped steam-small
Lutris Epic Games, EA App, Flatpak, GOG, Humble Bundle, Steam, Ubisoft Connect, Wine lutris lutris-free lutris-unwrapped
Heroic Epic Games, GOG, Prime Gaming, Wine Supports gamepad navigation. Unlike Lutris, uses open-source Legendary for Epic Games. heroic heroic-unwrapped
Itch.io Itch.io itch
PPSSPP PSP emulation ppsspp
PCSX2 PS2 emulation
RPCS3 PS3 emulation Contains unfree blobs (PS3 firmware). rpcs3
RetroArch Retro games emulation
Wine Windows emulation wineWow64Packages winetricks
Dosbox DOS emulation dosbox
Nixpkgs Linux games

List of NixOS supported games

Name Category Description nixpkgs
The Dark Mod Stealth, FPS Stealth game inspired by the Thief series. pending pull request
Endless Sky Space simulation, RPG Explore a universe with different factions and ships. available
Veloren RPG, Sandbox Multiplayer voxel RPG set in a procedurally generated world. available
Armagetron Advanced Arcade, Racing A multiplayer Tron-like lightcycle racing game. available
0 A.D. Strategy, Historical Historical real-time strategy game. available
SuperTuxKart Arcade, Racing Kart racing game (like Super Mario Kart) featuring Tux and friends. available
OpenRA Strategy, RTS Open-source implementation of Command & Conquer. available
FreeCiv Strategy, Turn-based Civilization-building strategy game. available
FreeDink Adventure, RPG Free, portable and enhanced version of the Dink Smallwood game engine available
OpenTTD Simulation, Management Business simulation game based on Transport Tycoon Deluxe. available
Battle for Wesnoth Strategy, Turn-based Turn-based strategy game with fantasy themes. available
FreeDoom FPS Free alternative to the Doom series. unavailable
Xonotic FPS, Arena shooter Fast-paced multiplayer shooter. available
LinCity Simulation, Management City simulation game. available
LinCity-NG Simulation, Management City simulation game.
Mindustry Strategy, Sandbox Sandbox tower defense game. available
NetHack Rogue-like, RPG Rogue-like game. available
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead Survival, Rogue-like Post-apocalyptic survival game. available
Shattered Pixel Dungeon Rogue-like, RPG Rogue-like dungeon crawler with pixel graphics. available
Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection Puzzle Simon Tatham's portable puzzle collection. available
Luanti Sandbox An open source voxel game engine. available

Example of games installation

Renowned Explorers: International Society

Tested with version renowned_explorers_international_society_522_26056.sh from gog.com. It can be played with steam-run, but it needs some libraries that are not normally included in Steam's FHS environment. One way to solve this is to add an overlay:

  nixpkgs.overlays = [
    (self: super: {
      steam-run = (super.steam.override {
        extraLibraries = pkgs: with pkgs;
          [
            libxkbcommon
            mesa
            wayland
            (sndio.overrideAttrs (old: {
              postFixup = old.postFixup + ''
                ln -s $out/lib/libsndio.so $out/lib/libsndio.so.6.1
              '';
            }))
          ];
      }).run;
    })
  ];

Adding libxkbcommon, mesa, and wayland is straightforward. The game expects the shared library sdnio.so.6.1 to exist, so we need to create a symbolic link after the installation of sndio.

See also