Games night this Thursday 20 September
Hi Free Software Lovers, Hope you enjoyed Software Freedom Day as much as I did. We heard some exceptional talks and saw over 80 people in attendance at one point during the morning. A fantastic result, particularly thanks to the hard work of the Linux Users Victoria committee. Since too much free software is never enough, this Thursday is free software games night. Hope to see you there! Regards, Ben ----------------------------------- Melbourne Free Software Games Night ----------------------------------- Thursday 20 September, 6-9pm VPAC Head Office Training Room (see website) http://www.freesoftware.asn.au/melb/ We'll be playing a wide range of games including some casual and some multiplayer action games. No gaming experience is required. We're happy to help you get started. We'll order some pizza and eat in to allow more time for gaming. You don't need a laptop, but please bring one if you have one. There will be a number of desktop computers available. Internet access is available in case you need to download and install games. The list of games and versions will be sent around by Wednesday in case you'd like to get set up beforehand.
Hi Folks, I'm looking forward to the games night tomorrow night. Everyone is welcome, especially those who don't regularly play games. You'll probably still beat me! Here's a starting list of games if you'd like to download any before coming along. We'll also have copies on hand. http://www.freesoftware.asn.au/melb/ Regards, Ben Multiplayer games ----------------- We'd suggest you get the specified version so that multiplayer works. Bombermaaan (1.4.0) http://bombermaaan.sourceforge.net/ Battle for Wesnoth (1.10) http://www.wesnoth.org/ Nexuiz (252) http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/ Openarena (0.8.8) http://openarena.ws/smfnews.php Teeworlds (0.6.1) https://www.teeworlds.com/ WarMUX (11.04.1) http://gna.org/projects/warmux/ Single player games ------------------- Extreme Tux Racer http://extremetuxracer.com/ Fish Fillets Next Generation http://fillets.sourceforge.net/ Frozen Bubble http://www.frozen-bubble.org/ Pingus http://pingus.seul.org/welcome.html Secret Maryo Chronicles http://secretmaryo.org/ Super Tux http://supertux.lethargik.org/ Super Tux Kart (recent versions substantially improved) http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/ Tumiki Fighters http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/tf_e.html
On 19 Sep 2012 16:14, "Ben Sturmfels" <ben@stumbles.id.au> wrote:
I'm looking forward to the games night tomorrow night.
Me too! One small complication: we're not supposed to use the wired network in the room. Does anyone have a switch they could bring? Perhaps one with wifi? If not, I'm sure we'll have fun anyway :) Alex
On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 01:14:12AM +1000, Alex Fraser wrote:
On 19 Sep 2012 16:14, "Ben Sturmfels" <ben@stumbles.id.au> wrote: One small complication: we're not supposed to use the wired network in the room. Does anyone have a switch they could bring? Perhaps one with wifi? If not, I'm sure we'll have fun anyway :)
I just saw this, and won't have a chance to go back home to get my spare switch before the event. :( With a few of the games approaching 1Gb in size, transferring this all over wireless will be very painful. -Adam
On 20/09/12 10:55, Alex Fraser wrote:
On 20 Sep 2012 10:17, "Adam Bolte" <abolte@systemsaviour.com> wrote:
I just saw this, and won't have a chance to go back home to get my spare switch before the event. :(
I'll see if we have one spare.
Alex
I'll bring a 100Mb/s 5-port switch but doesn't have WLAN. I'll also bring lglive which apparently only needs one computer to run on and others can join as Terminal client. Sven
On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 03:44:23PM +1000, Sven@GMX wrote:
On 20/09/12 10:55, Alex Fraser wrote:
On 20 Sep 2012 10:17, "Adam Bolte" <abolte@systemsaviour.com> wrote:
I just saw this, and won't have a chance to go back home to get my spare switch before the event. :(
I'll see if we have one spare.
Alex
I'll bring a 100Mb/s 5-port switch but doesn't have WLAN. I'll also bring lglive which apparently only needs one computer to run on and others can join as Terminal client.
There is a 24-port 100Mbit switch here on my desk at work (which is my personal property), but it's pretty big. I'm not sure I'll be able to bring it in with my gear on my bike, but will see how I go. How are we for Ethernet cables? I can bring in one or maybe two... -Adam
Sven Andriske ___________________________________________ +61(0)478 023 313 & Linphone: sven_andriske ******************************************* On 20/09/12 16:01, Adam Bolte wrote:
On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 03:44:23PM +1000, Sven@GMX wrote:
On 20/09/12 10:55, Alex Fraser wrote:
On 20 Sep 2012 10:17, "Adam Bolte" <abolte@systemsaviour.com> wrote:
I just saw this, and won't have a chance to go back home to get my spare switch before the event. :(
I'll see if we have one spare.
Alex
I'll bring a 100Mb/s 5-port switch but doesn't have WLAN. I'll also bring lglive which apparently only needs one computer to run on and others can join as Terminal client.
There is a 24-port 100Mbit switch here on my desk at work (which is my personal property), but it's pretty big. I'm not sure I'll be able to bring it in with my gear on my bike, but will see how I go.
How are we for Ethernet cables? I can bring in one or maybe two...
-Adam
+ 2 cables ,2m and 7.5m each. Sven
It's cool, we now have a switch courtesy of Andrew and Brian at work. Please bring a cable if you have one. We can try to find a few here, but I'm not sure how successful we'll be. See you soon :) Alex
Unfortunately I can't make it along tonight -- too behind in work -- though it sounds like a lot of fun. If there's still a desperate need for connectivity, I have an 8-port switch and some ethernet cables I could lend. But since I'm not going, somebody would have to swing by my place (in North Melbourne) to pick them up, and drop them back later. Since time's short, phone me, 0419-130-747, if need be. And, have fun! -- Smiles, Les.
Ben Sturmfels <ben@stumbles.id.au> writes:
Since too much free software is never enough, this Thursday is free software games night. Hope to see you there!
Thanks very much to the organisers. I had a lot of fun, and I hope everyone who came along got their fill of free software gaming! It was great to see the impressive quality and range of games under free software licenses. My favourite was Bub-n-Bros, but Teeworlds was getting everyone competitive and laughing. Great stuff, folks! -- \ “There are no significant bugs in our released software that | `\ any significant number of users want fixed.” —Bill Gates, | _o__) 1995-10-23 | Ben Finney
Yes, thanks everyone! I had a great time, and I look forward to doing it again. How about we have a normal discussion next month? We can discuss at the meeting how often to hold these games nights. Cheers, Alex
On 21/09/12 19:43, Alex Fraser wrote:
Yes, thanks everyone! I had a great time, and I look forward to doing it again. How about we have a normal discussion next month? We can discuss at the meeting how often to hold these games nights.
Thanks to everyone who helped organise it. I really liked finding out about the games other people were playing. Chromium B.S.U, Kiki the Nano Bot, etc. I was also surprised to see BlockOut there - a game I had long since forgotten about. I've been playing that a bit tonight. Regarding having the usual discussion next meeting, that sounds fine and I think is what everyone would be expecting. Are there any important topics for the agenda you have in mind at this stage? Cheers, Adam
Adam Bolte <abolte@systemsaviour.com> writes:
I really liked finding out about the games other people were playing. Chromium B.S.U, Kiki the Nano Bot, etc.
Kiki the Nano Bot <URL:http://kiki.sourceforge.net/> is a fun 3-D puzzle game on a scale so small that the electromagnetic bonding forces are stronger than gravity. In other words, there's no up or down, you can crawl any surface to solve the puzzles.
I was also surprised to see BlockOut there - a game I had long since forgotten about. I've been playing that a bit tonight.
BlockOut <URL:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockout> was a proprietary game in the 1980s; Adam and I (and many other kids) used to play it as a Japanese arcade game. It needed a joystick and seven buttons, six of which were used for rotating the blocks through three axes. It was a surprise to me when I found a free-software game of the same name that is an almost perfect imitation. I would think this is a clear trademark violation, if the trademark holder hasn't given special permission; maybe they have! But it seems there are a zillion clones of this great game <URL:http://www.blockout.net/> and this free-software version is considered the best. The only thing it's missing is the end-of-level disembodied grey head shouting important-sounding things unintelligibly :-) -- \ “Often, the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the | `\ strict truth.” —Mark Twain, _Following the Equator_ | _o__) | Ben Finney
On Sat, Sep 22, 2012 at 09:47:31AM +1000, Ben Finney wrote:
Adam Bolte <abolte@systemsaviour.com>
I was also surprised to see BlockOut there - a game I had long since forgotten about. I've been playing that a bit tonight.
BlockOut <URL:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockout> was a proprietary game in the 1980s; Adam and I (and many other kids) used to play it as a Japanese arcade game. It needed a joystick and seven buttons, six of which were used for rotating the blocks through three axes.
Actually, the version I played was BlockOut (v1) for MS-DOS on an 80286 with 640Kb RAM, a 40Mb HDD and 5.25" FDD - and that was apparently overkill for this. :) http://www.blockout.net/index.php?option=com_openwiki&Itemid=26&id=dos_blockout I just downloaded the DOS version to play in DOSBox for a quick comparison and got hooked again... Anyway, aside from slightly nicer graphics and sound effects in the free software version, the games appear almost identical.
It was a surprise to me when I found a free-software game of the same name that is an almost perfect imitation. I would think this is a clear trademark violation, if the trademark holder hasn't given special permission; maybe they have!
In game, select Credits from the main menu. There it says: Inspired from Blockout(r) (California Dreams 1989). Blockout(r) is a registered trademark of Kadon Enterprises, Inc., used by permission. This USA company produces hands-on sets of ploycubes since 1980. www.gamepuzzles.com So it would seem they were given permission, possibly in return for the website plug (and the website design looks almost as old). California Dreams... that's the same company that produced Street Rod - one of the other games I played back in the day. Looks like somebody has been making a free software Street Rod 3 game too! Too bad it's in alpha, and the developers are rewriting the entire game from scratch - it will likely be a long time before the next release (and it's already been years since the last). http://www.streetrod3.com/ The game also doesn't compile on GNU/Linux due to the old release being aimed at Windows users (which I think won't be the case going forward based on what I saw in the forums), but I briefly tested it under WINE and seems to work.
The only thing it's missing is the end-of-level disembodied grey head shouting important-sounding things unintelligibly :-)
Perhaps that was only featured in the Japanese arcade version, as I don't recall seeing this. 1989 was also the year the first Sound Blaster card was released (which as I understand it was the first consumer PC sound card able to properly playback voice). Sounds cards would also have been relatively rare in PCs until a few years later. This might help explain its absence - if the head was not able to speak. -Adam
Thanks, Adam, for recommending the PS3 controller as a game pad for use in GNU/Linux. I got one last night from EB - presumably the same kind you got, because it was also $8. The brand is "Spartan", which seems to be EB's generic brand. I plugged it in, and it just worked! Even in Blender - so now I can configure Cargo to use it. Mind you, I had tried to get an XBox 360 controller working before without success, so maybe I had already done some of the necessary configuration. Alex
On Sat, Sep 22, 2012 at 05:01:06PM +1000, Alex Fraser wrote:
Thanks, Adam, for recommending the PS3 controller as a game pad for use in GNU/Linux. I got one last night from EB - presumably the same kind you got, because it was also $8. The brand is "Spartan", which seems to be EB's generic brand.
That's the one! Actually, Ben S. showed me his gamepad at SFD working perfectly which prompted me to try it out. I figured that most PS3 controllers would talk the same protocol as the official controllers, and at $8 brand new it was worth the risk.
I plugged it in, and it just worked! Even in Blender - so now I can configure Cargo to use it. Mind you, I had tried to get an XBox 360 controller working before without success, so maybe I had already done some of the necessary configuration.
I've never connected a gamepad of any kind to my laptop before and everything worked without configuration. Come to think of it, I do have dongles for the original Xbox and PS1/2 controllers somewhere so might give those a try at some point. There was an article on Phoronix about joystick driver support improving just the other day actually. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE4OTE -Adam
participants (6)
-
Adam Bolte -
Alex Fraser -
Ben Finney -
Ben Sturmfels -
Les Kitchen -
Sven＠GMX