How To Install and Play TrackMania Nations Forever on Linux ?

When it comes to racing games, not many games come close to the popularity and success of the TrackMania franchise. And one of the most popular games from the TrackMania series has to be Trackmania Nations Forever, also known as “tmnf”. On the surface, TrackMania Nations Forever is an arcade racing game developed by Ubisoft Nadeo and released in 2008 alongside TrackMania United Forever, with Nations Forever being the free option and United Forever being the paid version at that time.


TrackMania Nations Forever : An All-In One Package

TrackMania Nations Forever is one of the most popular games overall for PC, with features such as free online servers, multiplayer support and huge library of user-made maps by the dedicated community of Nations Forever. On top of that, Nations Forever gives off a Hot-Wheels like aesthetic with elements such as loops, wall-rides and jumps integrated with the map designs.

On top of that, the player-base has made over 600,000 maps available on TrackMania Exchange, and each map falling in some category. These include –

  • Full-Speed/Stunt Maps These maps exaggerate the hot-wheels aspect present in the game, with elements such as loops adding to the overall experience to the maps.
  • RPG/Puzzle Maps – Focussed more on car-control and path finding, these maps test the mental and physical abilities of the player through puzzles and/or overall difficulty in completing the maps.
  • Technical/Race Maps – Giving off more of a F1-like feel, this map style put things like drifting and driving better racing lines at the forefront.

Moreover, by default you get 65 maps made by Nadeo, out of which only 20 are unlocked in the beginning. By clearing challenges on the unlocked maps, you can unlock even more maps you get by default.

Plus, there’s an annual event called “Kackiest Kacky” where the entire community joins together to compete on maps which are specifically designed for this competition. These maps are a celebration of the various tricks, bugs and exploits the game has to offer, whilst being a fun competition on its right.

The best part about this game is the online aspect of the game, where you can play with players worldwide on free online servers and compete on maps you might have not played on before. This increases the overall enjoyment and the competitive aspect of the game apart from the already competitive leaderboard on TrackMania Exchange.


System Requirements

TrackMania Nations Forever lies on the lighter end when it comes to games, especially considering that the game was made in 2008. Though, these low requirements should not indicate anything about the overall look and feel of the game. Please note, due to the current implementation, the game will be run with the help of wine.

Minimum System Requirements –

  • 256MB of RAM
  • 750MB of available disk space
  • Dedicated VRAM of 16MB capable of 3D acceleration
  • DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card
  • Pentium IV 1.6GHz / AthlonXP 1600+
  • 16 bit DirectX compatible sound card

Installing TrackMania Nations Forever

To install TrackMania Nations Forever, you must have snap installed on your system. If that’s not already the case then you can refer to this article to get started with snaps. If you already have snap enabled on your system, run the following command on your terminal –

sudo snap install tmnationsforever
Installing TMNF On Linux
Installing TrackMania Nations Forever On Linux

Then you can run TrackMania Nations Forever by running the following command on your terminal –

snap run tmnationsforever
Running TMNF On Linux
Running TrackMania Nations Forever On Linux

And you should get an output like the image below. Click on play to get started with TrackMania Nations Forever.

Running Trackmania nations forever Through Wine
Running TMNF Through Wine

Finally, you can either log into your account or create a new one to start playing the game.

Playing TMNF On Linux
Playing TMNF On Linux

Conclusion

Developed by Ubisoft Nadeo, TrackMania Nations Forever is truly a magical game, capturing the nostalgia of old-school games whilst being a fun and interesting experience. With graphics that can still keep up with today’s games if you don’t get your expectations too high, not many games can still claim that they’re actively being played after nearly 2 decades after their release.

If you want to explore TrackMania United Forever, you can refer to this article about installing TrackMania United Forever to get started with that game. Otherwise, if you want to learn more about the various tricks to improve on the game, you can refer to this video about the various tricks available in TrackMania to get better at the game.