i have just started using linux and i have unbuntu but what i want to know is can it play my windows 98 games or will i have to download and install some software?

Well there are some good games for linux like: Unreal tournament, Quake 4 and others, which run on LINUX.

For those which does not run on LINUX you have to use maybe another software like:
*Wine
*WineX
*Vmware

Regards

Here is a little more info for anyone who needs it.

Wine is software that allows some windows programs to run on Linux. It hsan't got much support for newer games but it is getting better all the time. Plus it is free. I would have thought that it runs 98 games though.

WineX or Cedega is software designed to run games on linux that are native to windows. You have to subscribe to get this. It is about $5 a month I believe. I have used this and thought it was pretty poor. Didn't work with any of the games I wanted.

VMware is something that lets you run an operating system inside another one. For example you could run Win98 inside of your Ubuntu Linux. My knowledge on this is pretty sketchy though.

Ironfistchamp

if you choose VMware and the game has direct x.. direct 3d... etc... the support in Vmware for direct x extensions is buggy and can be a little sketchy feeling while it is being used. What I mean by that is stability wise. Try compiling the cvs of winex or subscribe to Cedega for $5 US a month.

Wine work fine with some games, like Call of Duty, AmericanMcGee Alice, Commandos... check my website imaginux.com for more infos, you need loki installers for some games, and you can take last wine version.

American McGee's Alice works great with cedega, but it does cost $15 for the first three months.

I don't like wine myself, just gives me problems. I install something, then wine itself disappers in the menu, and I can't configure it if something isn't right, and I can't install a second game.

Or crossover office, which is just a commercial version of GPL WINE. Cedega's version of WINE it is based off of is frozen at someting like around WINE-2003 or 2002 some month and day. It was the version before WINE changed from the MIT licesning schemen to GPL. So Cedega is based on a really old version of WINE, that coupled with the fact that Cedega progress has slowed down to a crawl. I'm not against Transgaming, but hold on for something unexpected happening in the future, like Transgaming going out of business. Seems their own customers hate them.

American McGee Alice works fine with wine. With wine, no need to have menu, juste launch your exe with "wine", or open a terminal and type wine file.exe (and then have the debug).

With cedega, I could play less games than with wine...