Play the free SuperTuxKart racing game locally or online - Accelerated Fun

Fast-moving fun and original ideas are what characterize the free SuperTuxKart racing game. This article gives readers some playing tips.

- DANIEL TIBI

If you see a penguin in a racing car driving through Scotland, the Black Forest, or a Zen temple, it can only mean one thing – a round of SuperTuxKart [1]. The racing penguin has a mission to fulfill: Gnu, the grandfather of free software, has been kidnapped by the villain Nolok. Nolok is holding Gnu captive in his lava castle, Fort Magma. Demonstrate your driving skills in various challenges, advance to Fort Magma, and race against Nolok to free Gnu.

On Your Marks

Setting the game up on Linux could hardly be easier: Download the tarball from the website [2] (version 1.3 was released on September 28, 2021) and unzip the file. No installation is required: You simply run the run_game.sh file by typing the sh run_game.sh command in the shell.

Alternatively, you can install the game using your distribution’s package manager. SuperTuxKart is one of the oldest Linux games and is available from the repositories of all the major distributions. There’s even an Android version [3] for mobile devices.

Set

The start screen is clearly laid out (Figure 1). Click on the yellow field in the upper right corner to customize your name and enter the access data for an online account [4] to use multiplayer mode on the Internet.

Using the icons in the bottom bar, you can configure settings (wrench icon), look at your best times (crown), read a short explanation of the game (question mark), and start a tutorial (reading Tux), among other things.