Native Pi gaming with the classics
Christian Cawley is playing Doom and other games on his Raspberry Pi without emulation.
Christian Cawley
OUR EXPERT
Christian Cawley has gained weight during lockdown, mostly from spending too much time with Raspberry Pis. He hopes to lose weight with some extra micro:bit projects.
You probably think of the Raspberry Pi as a useful computing tool that can also handle a bit of emulated gaming. But there are plenty of games that you can install on the Raspberry Pi without needing an emulator.
Open source games for Linux, classic games that have had the source code released, and games written in Python are all available. If an Arm-compatible build has been distributed, the game should run.
First person shooters, shoot-’em-ups, strategy games and more are all ready to install on the Raspberry Pi. While simple to install, though, configuration can be tricky - especially when it comes to finding a suitable controller.
You already know of one Raspberry Pi game that runs natively: Minecraft Pi. Many others are available and can be downloaded from the web or installed from repositories. Often they come ready to use, but in some cases, configuration is required to tailor the game for your Raspberry Pi model and controller setup (see boxout for more on controller setup).