I'm trying to install both of these, and I have no idea where to begin. Mplayer is a tar.bz2 btw. And cedega of course is in .rpm. Help would be most appreciated

What distro are you using?

Slackware 10.2

Wow, in at the deep end, eh? I'm afraid I know nothing about Slackware (I'm not even sure if it can load rpms). I could give you some code that might work for mplayer, but I think it'd be less than helpful. Best wait for a SlackGuru. If no one turns up I'll give it a try later.

Can Mandriva handle both?

Yup. Usually without blinking

Well hey, if that's the case. Where can I get a copy of Mandriva 2006, and how do I go about installing it (the packages I mean, not Mandriva)?

At the top of this page on the right hand side there's a box labeled 'Main menu'. Click on the 'Download Linux' button. If you're looking to buy a CD/DVD try eBay or go to http://distrowatch.com/ and check out the ads. But... I wouldn't be so quick to dispatch Slackware, its reputation for stability is way ahead of Mandriva. The reason Mandriva can read rpms is because it's built to, and I don't think Slackware is.

I'm pretty sure I can get both your programs up and running, but you might have to go back to get a different download of Cedega. I really think if you're planning on playing games you might be better of with the solidity of Slack, but as I said, I know nothing about it so it's better to wait and see if a better informed personage than me shows up.

Does Anyone know how to do this with Slackware?

For slackware for mplayer untar the archive, do a ./configure, make, make install.
This'll extract the files and you'll be left with a directory named something like 'mplayer-version'. cd into that directory and then type:
You should see the configure bit go by. If it fails for whatever reason (normaly a required dependency wasn't found), install the related dependency and repeat the ./configure until it completes w/o error. Then do a:
If that was successful do a:
if that was successful you should now be able to run mplayer from a command line. As for cedega I assume you have a transgamer account. Login to the transgamer website and goto download. Instead of downloading the rpm there should be a package named something like 'cedega-version-full.tgz'. In the end you want the one that ends in .tgz. Download and run the following command on it:
If it doesn't throw any errors you should be good to go.