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#1 2008-11-20 18:07:35

Bear Chow
Member
Registered: 2008-11-14
Posts: 5

Desktop for games

I'm new to Arch but not linux.  I don't play games myself and don't really know what's out there.  I have a spare computer my kids ages 6-15 have been playing a knoppix game live cd on for the last week.  I decided to go ahead and put together a gaming desktop for them.  I can't identify the games in the repository.  I know they're there but I don't recognize any of the package names.

Could someone please recommend a few games to start with and try to avoid any resource hogs as the computer is a few years old 1.5gz with 1g mem and a 64mb nvidia 440mx card. 

6 year old be nice to have some logic building.

10 year old tux racer I think is the name

12 year old I think there is something like civilization that looks interesting.

15 year old oh yea its the DOOM type game.

Thanks I searched for a similar thread but was unsuccessful, and when I do a google search I only get modern shoot em up 3D hits or MMO's.  There will be no internet connection on this computer.

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#2 2008-11-20 19:57:37

finferflu
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From: Manchester, UK
Registered: 2007-06-21
Posts: 1,899
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Re: Desktop for games

I would suggest you to head to The Linux Game Tome and have a look there.

For a shooter game, my personal recommendation is tremulous (in the community repo).


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#3 2008-11-20 20:03:18

cybermage
Member
From: Czech Republic
Registered: 2008-11-19
Posts: 12

Re: Desktop for games

logic building - huh, I'd say there are many games of this type, but all as a part of some Desktop Environment (KDE or Gnome) - it's something like those Knoppix games.

old Tux Racer - you mean Extreme Tux Racer ? Try packages tuxracer and etracer

civilization - There is FreeCiv (package freeciv) or Java-based (if I remember right) game FreeCol (probably http://www.freecol.org/ or google it)

As for the last kid - I don't like such games, most of them are multiplayer-only and you have pretty weak hardware (for this type of games), but at least OpenArena should work (it's free Quake III clone). But there is no package in Arch for it - you will have to google it (you can also build it from source using files from AUR)
OpenArena
Dark Horizons - http://www.darkhorizons-lore.com/download.php?list.9

If you want game packages for Arch and basic description, run pacman with -Ss parametres; if you want games, run:
pacman -Ss game - it'll write every package, that has in its description keyword "game".
You could also try other keywords, like "tux", "logic", etc.

My favourtie game is Wesnoth - 2D turn-based war strategy (no building), could be worth of trying too (150 MB packagge wesnoth)

Or try some freeware Windows games using Wine (such games are usually simpler and works in Wine), at Wine homepage - http://www.winehq.org/ - is also nice database of Applications and their description (if they work or not)
one such game (Doom-type game):
Hidden & Dangerous Deluxe - http://www.acid-play.com/download/hidden-and-dangerous/ or http://www.gamershell.com/download_3644.shtml

Last edited by cybermage (2008-11-21 12:20:41)

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#4 2008-11-21 14:43:07

theringmaster
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From: Air Force
Registered: 2007-07-16
Posts: 581
Website

Re: Desktop for games

You can use a doom player like prboom and use it to play freedoom or the real doom if you can find them.

I'd recommend urban terror though, modern blue vs red battles, based on quake 3.


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#5 2008-11-21 15:10:27

Daenyth
Forum Fellow
From: Boston, MA
Registered: 2008-02-24
Posts: 1,244

Re: Desktop for games

I don't know if there are any linux equivalents, but I remember an old game called Number Munchers. I played it as a kid, was fun and educational. Also I think in community firmicus or foutrelis maintains a set of edutainment games...

Anyway: http://www.pcgaming.ws/viewgame.php?gam … r_munchers

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#6 2008-11-21 15:32:21

Procyon
Member
Registered: 2008-05-07
Posts: 1,819

Re: Desktop for games

Definitely look here because it's categorized really well:
http://gwos.org/doku.php

For the 15 year old try out the Hexen and Heretic ports too. A lot more awesome than Doom.

For the 12 year old try FreeCol, it's fun. Freeciv sucks in my opinion.
With wine you can play some nice Tycoon games too (Simcity/Theme Park Railway/Rollercoaster Tycoon). (Transport Tycoon Deluxe is for Linux too as openttd, I never played it but I hear it's great)

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#7 2008-11-21 16:13:58

Inkaine
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2008-07-14
Posts: 88

Re: Desktop for games

I just wanted to propose that. Transport Tycoon Deluxe was a fun game - and openttd is an even better successor. Soon it will be 100% freeware (at the moment you still need some graphics files from the original game but they are downloadable as abandonware as well big_smile e.g. here).

Widelands might be worth a look as well (a Settlers II clone). Otherwise I can recommend supertuxkart, I think that was what you'd been looking for. Even my bro (23) and me (26) use to play that together from time to time ^^. And if someone liked Super Mario then supertux might be for you.

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#8 2008-11-21 16:51:08

Xyne
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Registered: 2008-08-03
Posts: 6,963
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Re: Desktop for games

For first-person shooters there are nexuiz, tremulous and warsow. I've run all of them on more modest hardware than that (some require you to turn down the settings of course).


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#9 2008-11-21 23:08:09

elmer_42
Member
From: /na/usa/ca
Registered: 2008-10-11
Posts: 427

Re: Desktop for games

Two very fun Linux games are Savage and Savage 2. Savage is free (as in beer), but I believe that Savage 2 has a small price tag that comes with it. I've only played the first one, but I hear Savage 2 is also very fun. I've also enjoyed the games Nexuiz and Urban Terror a great deal.


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#10 2008-11-22 00:35:57

MoonSwan
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From: Great White North
Registered: 2008-01-23
Posts: 881

Re: Desktop for games

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#11 2008-11-22 09:42:45

klixon
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From: Nederland
Registered: 2007-01-17
Posts: 525

Re: Desktop for games

Phun is great for kids that want to tinker and learn physics...


Stand back, intruder, or i'll blast you out of space! I am Klixon and I don't want any dealings with you human lifeforms. I'm a cyborg!

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#12 2008-11-22 10:23:05

shazeal
Member
From: New Zealand
Registered: 2007-06-05
Posts: 341

Re: Desktop for games

For the youngins Childsplay, Ive installed this at quite a few primary schools when I used to work for a company that supplied Linux servers to schools smile

http://childsplay.sourceforge.net/

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#13 2008-11-22 12:36:02

xen
Member
Registered: 2008-08-17
Posts: 56

Re: Desktop for games

+1 for Battle for Wesnoth, great game, very professional feel to it and plenty of extra campaigns made by fans. The problem with most of the free FPS games like DOOM was previously mentioned, they are generally multiplayer only.

Perhaps when you have finished setting up the desktop, you could write a wiki article with the games you chose for each age group and the names of the packages smile


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#14 2008-11-22 18:10:23

chilebiker
Member
From: Zurich, Switzerland
Registered: 2006-07-18
Posts: 161

Re: Desktop for games

Try "Sauerbraten" for a first person shooter. It also has a nice single player mode. You might tweak it a bit to get running fast enough, check out their website for more information.


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#15 2008-11-24 15:19:51

Bear Chow
Member
Registered: 2008-11-14
Posts: 5

Re: Desktop for games

Thank you very much for the suggestions.  I fought with the nvidia driver all weekend.  But I've got a nice base + gnome system up with all working hardware.  I've been tracking the packages I've installed and hopefully will try to put together a mini-wiki on what I find entertaining from a kids perspective.

  I've been wrestling with how much desktop control i'm going to allow them.  For the 6 year old.  I was just going to clear the screen and litter the desktop with launching icons.  But, and it's a big but, why would I ever want to prevent any of my kids from investigating and learning linux. 

  I did do some work with my 15 year who has no interest beyond, "now can I play the game?"  I think once I'm done I'm going to mirror the harddrive on a second partition.  Then leave it open for them to break, they'll call me, we'll work out the problems and fix it or I'll just dd right back to sda1.

  smile

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#16 2008-11-24 19:24:21

shazeal
Member
From: New Zealand
Registered: 2007-06-05
Posts: 341

Re: Desktop for games

I would just tar up the home dir once you have it setup rather than backing up the whole disk, if they dont have root permissions they wont be able to trash it. That way you can just rm the home dir and extract it rather than spend a few hours doing a dd. If you did want to do a full backup, I would still just tar the whole disk rather than mirror, that way if you want to later on you can just do an incremental tar of the changes to the disk.

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#17 2008-11-24 21:07:22

klixon
Member
From: Nederland
Registered: 2007-01-17
Posts: 525

Re: Desktop for games

in that case i would advise you to use a very strong password for the root-account. Kids are usually very keen with those sorts of things big_smile


Stand back, intruder, or i'll blast you out of space! I am Klixon and I don't want any dealings with you human lifeforms. I'm a cyborg!

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#18 2008-11-24 22:01:09

Ashren
Member
From: Denmark
Registered: 2007-06-13
Posts: 1,229
Website

Re: Desktop for games

What about the ultimate game: "Crack Daddy's Root Password"? You wouldn't even need a DE and it could work as a multiplayer game as well.

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