SuperTuxKart, an open-source kart racing game, finally gets a new stable release after nearly one and a half year since the last release.

SuperTuxKart 0.9 comes with a new rendering engine that’s fully shader-based, two completely new tracks, online log-in support, different Kart physics, an achievement system, and numerous other improvements. With now needing OpenGL3.1+, SuperTuxKart developers recommend at least having one of below graphics for playing the game:

• AMD Radeon HD 3650
• Intel HD Graphics 3000
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600

Highlights of SuperTuxKart 0.9:

• Fully shader-based rendering engine
  •  New tracks Cocoa Temple and Gran Paradiso
  • Graphical improvements to many other tracks
  • New karts Amanda, Gavroche, Sara (as wizard and racer)
  • Improved tux, adiumy, Suzanne and Xue.
• Online login which allows to:
  • connect with friends and see when they are playing
  • vote for addons
  • collect online achievements
• Different kart physics
• In-game Grand Prix editor
• Random Grand Prix generation
• Achievement system

How to Install SuperTuxKart 0.9 in Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Elementary OS Freya:

1. For all Linux users, select download “supertuxkart-0.9-linux.tar.gz or “supertuxkart-0.9-linux.tar.xz” from the link below:

Download SuperTuxKart 0.9

2. Install the required library libopenal1 via Ubuntu Software Center, or by running below command in terminal:

sudo apt-get install libopenal1

3. Unpack the downloaded archive and run the run_game.sh script from in the result folder to start the game:

For those who don’t see the Run option, go to Nautilus file browser’s menu Edit -> Preferences -> Behavior -> select “Run executable text files when they are opened”, and re-open the file browser.

To Create a launcher for the game, so you can launch it from Application Menu or the Unity Dash.

In below steps, I assume that you’ve extracted the game to your user Downloads folder.

1. Open terminal from menu or the Dash. When it opens, run command to edit the .desktop file:

gedit ~/Downloads/supertuxkart-*-linux/data/supertuxkart.desktop

When the file opens, replace values of Icon and Exec with file path to the icon and run_game.sh script.

In below picture, you may replace “handbook” (without quotes) with your username.

2. Finally copy or move this file to user’s Home .local/share/applications/ folder (press Ctrl+H to view hidden folder), so that your system can read it.

Do it in your file browser, or just run below command in terminal:

mv ~/Downloads/supertuxkart-*-linux/data/supertuxkart.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/