Tux Racer | |
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Developer(s) | Sunspire Studios |
Publisher(s) | Sunspire Studios |
Director(s) | Jasmin Patry |
Composer(s) | George Sanger Joseph Toscano |
Platform(s) | Linux, Windows, Mac |
Release | Linux:
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Genre(s) | Racing |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Tux Racer is a 2000 open-source winter sports racing video game starring the Linux mascot, Tux the penguin. It was originally developed by Jasmin Patry as a computer graphics project at the University of Waterloo. Later on, Patry and the newly founded Sunspire Studios, composed of several former students of the university, expanded it. In the game, the player controls Tux as he slides down a course of snow and ice collecting herrings.
Tux Racer was officially downloaded over one million times as of 2001. It also was well received, often being acclaimed for the graphics, fast-paced gameplay, and replayability, and was a fan favorite among Linux users and the free software community. The game's popularity secured the development of a proprietized release that included enhanced graphics and multiplayer, and it also became the first GPL-licensed game to receive an arcade adaptation. It is the only product that Sunspire Studios developed and released, after which the company liquidated.