games

Wrapping Up the Mars Lander

In my last few articles ("Let's Go to Mars with Martian Lander" and "Mars Lander, Take II: Crashing onto the Surface"), I've been building a variant on the classic video game Lunar Lander, with a few simplificatio

Let's Go to Mars with Martian Lander

This is the beginning of a series of articles where I develop a variation on the classic lunar-lander game themed around the planet Mars. To do this in three dimensions can be rather complicated, so in the spirit of the original arcade game (that I became rather obsessed with, I should admit), I'm going to tackle the simplified two-dimensional problem.

Android Candy: Quick Games

The biggest problem I have with gaming is that it takes far too long to get "into" games. I'm generally very busy, and my gaming time usually lasts as long as it takes for the dentist to call me in from the waiting room (or possibly how long it takes me to use the bathroom, but eiw, let's not go there).

Handheld Emulation: Achievement Unlocked!

I love video game emulation. My favorite games were produced in the 1980s and 1990s, so if I want to play them, I almost always have to emulate the old systems. There is usually a legal concern about ROM files for games, even if you own the original cartridges, so I'm not going to tell you where to find ROMs to download or anything like that.

Non-Linux FOSS: Snk

I'm apparently in a silly-game mood this month, because I stumbled across an open-source project I couldn't keep all to myself: Snk. If you remember the classic game of snake, Snk is the same concept, but smaller, harder and with music.

My Humble Little Game Collection

I currently have the flu. Not the "sorta queasy" stomach flu, but the full out Influenza with fever, aches and delirium-ridden nightmares. Bouts of crippling illness tend to be my only chance to play games. Thankfully, since I'm such a terrible gamer, being sick doesn't really hurt my skills very much!

Android Candy: Party Like It's 1994!

I really stink at video games. I write about gaming occasionally, but the truth of the matter is, I'm just not very good. If we play Quake, you'll frag me just about as often as I respawn. I don't have great reflexes, and my coordination is horrible.

IndieBox: for Gamers Who Miss Boxes!

There are lots of cool ideas on the Internet that never really make it out of the "startup" phase. IndieBox has been around only for a few months, but I really, really hope it catches on. Here's the idea: Every month, you get a Linux/Mac/Windows-compatible Indie game in the mail.

Super Pi Brothers

I don't game as much as I used to. Although I've certainly spent countless hours of my life in front of a Nintendo, SNES, or after that, playing a first-person shooter on my computer (Linux only, thank you), these days, my free time tends to go toward one of the many nongaming hobbies I've accumulated.

Valve—It Really Does Love Linux

I've teased about Steam, speculated about Steam and even bragged about Steam finally coming to Linux. Heck, check out the screenshot for just a partial list of games already running natively under our beloved OS. Little did I know that the folks at Valve not only planned to support Linux, but they're also putting a big part of their future behind it as well!

Android Candy: Gurk—8 Bits of Awesome

Gurk really shouldn't be awesome. The controls are awkward on-screen arrow keys. The graphics make the original Nintendo look state of the art in comparison. The gameplay is slow. And yet I just spent two hours straight playing it!

It's Getting Steamy in Here!

After months of me promising Steam would be coming to Linux, it's finally here. The early verdict: it's pretty great! The installer is a simple pre-packaged .deb file for Ubuntu (or Xubuntu in my case), and the user portion of the install looks very much like Windows or Macintosh. In my limited testing, I've found the Steam beta to be at least as stable as Desura.

Trine 2 from Frozenbyte

One of the great things about independent game companies is that they realize Linux gamers exist—and we're willing to spend money. Frozenbyte is the indie game developer that brought us Shadowgrounds, Shadowgrounds Survivor and Trine. Frozenbyte was kind enough to send me a review copy of its newest release, Trine 2.

Getting Steamy with Desura

I remember the first time I tried to install Quake on Linux. I was so excited to have a native "real" game to play, that I couldn't grab my installation CD fast enough. Unfortunately, I didn't really take good care of my media, and the CD was too scratched to read.
Brain Workshop diagram

Project - Brain Workshop

If you're looking to improve your mental faculties, especially in the area of memory, check out this project. According to the Web site: Brain Workshop is a free open-source version of the dual n-back brain training exercise.

Linux Gaming: OpenClonk

Until recently, I had presumed that a Clonk was the sound that my hard drive made just before I realized that I hadn't backed it up properly. However, in this case, a Clonk is a tiny chap who can jump, climb and fire weapons in the service of reaching his goal. OpenClonk runs on Linux and is the latest in a series of side-view platform games that started life as a DOS shareware series.
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