1. Install OpenTTD
Low resolution, but fun
Found this great free gaming site, which nspired me to install the latest OpenTTD. In other words, the FREE version of Transport Tycoon Deluxe.
OpenTTD is the best of both worlds — from previous recollections, LinCity was a poor contender next to the more popular & commercial SimCity and my initial reaction was — you expect me to actually like 4bit colour? OpenTTD seems to have improved on the lot of Unix and Linux freaks who demand better graphics, (retro is only cool if you play Atari) and we can only hope it gets better.
You can either download the new deb from OpenTTD site or use the old one in the Ubuntu repos.
After installing it, you will have to install a few extra files.
You can also use your original Transport Tycoon Deluxe data files (translation: you need to own a Transport Tycoon Deluxe CD) or use the free alternatives:
download OpenGFX, download OpenSFX and download OpenMSX.
Unstuff and move them into your /usr/share/games/openttd/data folder:
sudo mv <file> /usr/share/games/openttd/data
Now comes the interesting part. Once you start up OpenTTD.
Set the resolution.
If you have a high end card, you might be a tad disappointed, play around a bit. (Okay its not exactly high-res utopia compared to Eternalands and Openlife), but it has its charms.
For starters, the ability to download extra modules ( I downloaded the Netherlands and Swiss Alps) which means you can share landscapes. Being open source, this feature results in a hackers paradise and great place for kids.
If we can coax the developers to embrace a higher resolution: millions of colours as opposed to thousands, we could be on to something.
Considering its open source, I am sure this will happen soon. Better palettes for instance change the tonality of the resulting image landscape.
I rather like watching the end result of a couple of days of gaming. The sheer complexity of the finished worlds means there could just be a new fad in sharing virtual real estate. Think about it. Do you really want to waste time building a cybertopia? Get the virtual architects out there to create one for you. Test the results — which are bound to be more like art and less like a geography lesson, for which OpenTTD excels.
2.Install Osmos demo
This is a killer game and the demo has two introductory levels. Wish I had the $10 needed to burn the full version (translates into R80 which for me is two bags of groceries).
Download the latest osmos demo deb
3. Play Wormux
Amazing how some games evolve, from virtually nothing into virtual worlds on their own? Wormux is really looking stunning. Be warned its a 95mb download.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wormux/ppa
4. World of Goo Demo
When I first heard some geeks raving about World of Goo, I searched around the Net which looked like one giant sales pitch. Trawling through some of my RSS subscriptions via Google Reader, I found a more sober appraisal, along with the link to the demo. A free sample which deploys the physics engine of my NVIDIA 8400GS.
