It would appear .love was suitable for binfmt_misc, using .love file extension and the ZIP magic as the key. What about /usr/lib/games/mari0/mari0.love , chmod +x /usr/games/mari0 -> /usr/lib/games/mari0/mari0.love register with binfmt_misc user types 'mari0' or .desktop file references /usr/games/mari0 directly Whether this would work - Does love (the interpreter) care whether it's argument has .love as an extension? Would it break if you supplied a symlink?