| Author: | Francesco Poli |
|---|---|
| Contact: | invernomuto@paranoici.org |
| Version: | 0.20 |
| Copyright: | Expat license |
| Notice: | Copyright (c) 2009-2025 Francesco Poli Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. |
| About this document | |
|---|---|
| Web form | HyperText Markup Language |
| Source form | reStructuredText |
| Web stylesheet | Cascading StyleSheets |
| Build directives | Makefile |
In another document (HTML, reST) you saw how to set up a programming environment on our example Debian testing workstation/desktop box. If you have got some spare time, you may install some games!
If you have a joystick or a joypad, you may want to install the test program:
# aptitude install jstest-gtk
and start it, with the joystick or joypad plugged in:
$ jstest-gtk
You may click the properties button and then the mapping button in order to change the axis and button mapping. For instance, for a Microsoft SideWinder Freestyle Pro joypad, you may set the following order for the axes:
0: ABS_X 1: ABS_Y 2: ABS_THROTTLE 3: ABS_HAT0X 4: ABS_HAT0Y
and the following order for the buttons:
0: BTN_TRIGGER 1: BTN_THUMB 2: BTN_THUMB2 3: BTN_TOP 4: BTN_TOP2 5: BTN_PINKIE 6: BTN_BASE 7: BTN_BASE2 8: BTN_BASE3 9: BTN_BASE4
and then save the mapping/calibration so that it will be automatically restored whenever you plug in the same device:
# jscal-store /dev/input/js0
If you like games that require quick reflexes...
Install an old school fake-3D first person shooter:
# aptitude install dsda-doom+M freedoom
You should be able to start it by issuing the following commands:
$ freedoom1
or:
$ freedoom2
depending on which "Phase" you want to play.
Inside the game, you may select "Options", then "General", and set "Video mode" OpenGL, "Screen resolution" 1600x900, "Aspect ratio" Auto, "Fullscreen video mode" Yes, "Exclusive fullscreen" No, "Vertical sync" No, "Uncapped Framerate" No, "FPS limit" 60, "OpenGL light mode" Indexed. Moreover, again inside "Options", "General", set "Number of sound channels" 32, "Enable v1.1 pitch effects" No, "PC speaker emulation" No, "Disable sound cutoffs" No, "Preferred MIDI player" Fluidsynth. In the next page of "Option", "General", set "Enable mouse" Yes, "Horizontal sensitivity" 10, "Vertical sensitivity" 10, "Free look sensitivity" 10, "Acceleration" 3, "Enable free look" No, "Invert free look" No, "Mouse strafe divisor" 4, "Dbl-click as use" No, "Vertical mouse movement" Yes, "Carry fractional tics" Yes, "Mouse stutter correction" Yes. In "Options", select "Sound Volume" and set "SFX Volume" 4 and "Music Volume" 4.
Install a 2D puzzle shooter:
# aptitude install pangzero
Start it (after plugging the joypad or joystick in):
$ pangzero
and configure your player controls, by selecting "Setup Players": choose "Number Of Players" 1, select "Player 1 Joystick 0" and then click on left joypad/joystick button, click on the right joypad/joystick button, click on the fire joypad/joystick button, select (with the up or down button) the character with the space suit and select (again with the up or down button) the yellow color. Go back to main menu and select "Options": set "Slippery floor" off, everything on in the "Ball Mixer..." sub-menu, "Sound" on, "Music" on, "Widescreen", and "Show Website at exit" no.
Install a classic 2D platform jump 'n run game:
# aptitude install supertux
You should be able to start it by issuing the following command:
$ supertux2
Inside the game, you may select "Options": check "Window Resizable", choose window resolution "800x600", check "Fullscreen", choose fullscreen resolution "Desktop", magnification "auto", vsync "on", aspect ratio "auto", check "Sound" and "Music", choose sound volume "20%", choose music volume "20%", check "Enable transitions", uncheck "Confirmation Dialog", check "Pause on focus loss"; select "Setup Keyboard" and set up "Up cursor", down "Down cursor", left "Left cursor", right "Right cursor", jump "Space", action "Left Control", peek left "Delete", peek right "PageDown", peek up "Home", peek down "End", and uncheck "Jump with Up"; if your joystick or joypad is plugged in, select "Setup Joystick", check "Manual configuration" and set up "Axis -Y", down "Axis +Y", left "Axis -X", right "Axis +X", jump "Button 6", action "Button 7", pause/menu "Button 5", peek left "Button 3", peek right "Button 1", peek up "Button 4", peek down "Button 0", and uncheck "Jump with Up".
Install a tetris-like game:
# aptitude install ltris
You may start it with the following command:
$ ltris
In the main menu, select "Graphics" and choose Animations "On", Move "Smooth", Drop "Tile By Tile", Change Background "Yes", Display "Window", Frame Rate "No Limit". Then select "Audio" and choose Sound "On", Volume "6". Select "Advanced Options" and choose Quick Help "On", Clear Keystate "Down", Center Preview "Off", Collision Check "Sync".
Install a maths based game:
# aptitude install 2048-qt
Install a 3D breakout-like game:
# aptitude install briquolo
and configure it:
$ briquolo
Choose "Settings" and "Controls": set Keyboard speed "8.00" and Mouse speed "8.00". Choose "Ok" and then choose "Video": set Resolution "1600x900", Fullscreen "yes", Show FPS "no", Limit FPS "yes", FPS Max "60.00". Finally, choose "Ok".
If you like games that require more thinking than action...
Install a chess engine:
# aptitude install stockfish
Install a graphical chess client:
# aptitude install pychess
and configure it for your regular user:
$ mkdir -p ~/.pychess $ pychess
In the Tip Of The day dialog window, uncheck "Show tips at startup" and click on the Close button. In the Ask for permissions dialog window, uncheck the downloadable external components and check "Don't show this dialog on startup", then click on the OK button.
From the Edit menu, choose Preferences. In the General tab, accept or modify the proposed names for the first and the second human player, uncheck "Hide tabs when only one game is open", uncheck "Use main app closer [x] to close all games", uncheck "Auto rotate board to current human player", uncheck "Auto promote to queen", uncheck "Face to Face display mode", uncheck "Use a linear scale for the score", check "Show captured pieces", uncheck "Prefer figures in notation", check "Colorize analyzed moves", uncheck "Show elapsed move times", uncheck "Show evaluation values", uncheck "Show FICS game numbers in tab labels", uncheck "Show threatened and not protected pieces", choose "Full board animation". In the Hints tab, check "Use opening book", choosing "pychess_book.bin" Polyglot book file, setting "13" Book depth max and checking "Exact matches only"; uncheck "Use local tablebases", uncheck "Use online tablebases", check "Use analyzer" selecting "stockfish", uncheck "Use inverted analyzer", set "3" Maximum analysis time in seconds, uncheck "Infinite analysis", set "20" Maximum analysis depth, check "Infinite depth". In the Themes tab, leave the default settings. In the Sound tab, uncheck "Use sounds in PyChess". In the Save tab, choose Save files to ".pychess" (the directory you have previously created within your regular user's home directory), choose Use name format "games" .pgn, uncheck "Save elapsed move times", uncheck "Save analyzing engine evaluation values", uncheck "Save rating change values", check "Indent PGN file", check "Save own games only" and then uncheck "Auto save finished games to .pgn file".
Install a RTS game:
# aptitude install boswars
After starting it:
$ boswars
you may wish to configure it by clicking on the "Options" button: then click on the "Video" button and select "1024x768", uncheck "Fullscreen" and check "Use OpenGL". Finally exit and restart the game.