ch65.htm

linux-unix130.linux.and.unix.ebooks130 linux and unix ebookslinuxLearning Linux - Collection of 12 E

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<A NAME="Heading34<FONT COLOR="#000077"><B>NOTE: </B></FONT>There seem to be

	some problems with startup messages overwriting parts of the chessboard.

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<P>Mille Miglia Type <TT>mille</TT> at the command prompt. This is the Linux version

of a Parker Brothers racing game. You should read the man page before starting, because

the game's commands are not very intuitive. To see the man page, type <TT>man mille</TT>.

Monopoly Type <TT>monop</TT> at the command prompt. This is a character-based version

of the Parker Brothers game Monopoly. The computer does not actually play; it simply

keeps track of who owns what and how much money each player has. You can play by

yourself, but it's pretty obvious that you will, eventually, win! Unfortunately,

the board is not displayed in any form, making it quite difficult to keep track of

what's happening. This is an interesting effort, but the play is poor. A man page

is available.

<H4 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading35<FONT COLOR="#000077">Simulations</FONT></H4>

<P>The following games let you try your hand at being in charge. They are open-ended,

in that each game is different and does not follow a canned plot. They combine character

graphics, for instance a radar display, with text readouts and text-based commands.

Air Traffic Control Type <TT>atc</TT> at the command prompt. Type <TT>man atc</TT>

and read the man page first; otherwise, you will be responsible for one or more air

tragedies! This game runs in real time. A good supply of caffeine will probably help

you do well. Sail Type <TT>sail</TT> at the command prompt. You have a choice of

over 20 scenarios, mainly historical battles involving sailing ships. You are the

captain, and determine what course to sail and what weapons to use. You can access

a man page by typing <TT>man sail</TT>; it's worth reading beforehand, because some

commands are obscure or confusing. Trek Type <TT>trek</TT> at the command prompt.

You can &quot;go where no one has gone before,&quot; hunt (and be hunted by) Klingons,

and so on. You can access a man page by typing <TT>man trek</TT>; read it before

playing, to avoid being a disgrace to the Federation.

<H4 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading36<FONT COLOR="#000077">Video Games</FONT></H4>

<P>The following games all rely on a full-screen display, although all graphics are

assembled from the standard character set. Robots Type <TT>robots</TT> at the command

prompt. Robots on the screen pursue you; your only hope is to make two robots collide,

at which point the robots explode. The resulting junk heap destroys any robots that

run into it. You move about the screen using the <TT>hjkl</TT> keys, as used by the

<TT>vi</TT> editor (diagonal movement is allowed, using <TT>yubn</TT>). Moves are

simultaneous: each time you move, so do the robots. Sometimes, though, you have to

teleport to get out of an impossible situation. You die if a robot touches you; otherwise,

after clearing the screen, you go on to a bigger and better wave of robots. You can

access a man page by typing <TT>man robots</TT>.



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<A NAME="Heading37<FONT COLOR="#000077"><B>NOTE:</B> </FONT>Linux distributions

	might include a version of Robots that has been hacked or modified so that you can't

	make a misstep that brings you in contact with a robot (thus leading to your demise).

	This takes away from the challenge of the game.

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<P>Snake Type <TT>snake</TT> at the command prompt. Use the <TT>hjkl</TT> keys to

move around, picking up money (the <TT>$</TT>) while avoiding the snake (made up,

appropriately, of <TT>s</TT> characters). The snake gets hungrier as you get richer.

Escape the room by running to the <TT>#</TT> character, or be eaten by the snake!

You can also type <TT>w</TT> in an emergency to warp to a random location. You can

access a man page by typing <TT>man snake</TT>. Tetris Type <TT>tetris</TT> at the

command prompt. The Tetris play screen is drawn with clever use of various characters.

Ironically, although it does not look anywhere near as professional as Xtetris or

other full-graphics versions, it plays very well--especially if you're used to the

arcade version of Tetris. The movement keys consist of <TT>,</TT> to move left, <TT>/</TT>

to move right, and <TT>.</TT> to rotate (counterclockwise!). The spacebar drops the

piece. You can vary the control keys by using options with the <TT>tetris</TT> command.

See the man page (type <TT>man tetris</TT>) for details. Worm Type <TT>worm</TT>

at the command prompt. You are a worm, moving about the screen and eating numbers.

As you eat the numbers, you grow in length. Do not run into yourself or into the

wall! How long can you get before you (inevitably) run into something? Note that

you still slowly crawl forward, even if you don't enter a move command.</P>



<P>You can access a man page by typing <TT>man worm</TT>.

<H4 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading38<FONT COLOR="#000077">Math Games and Utilities</FONT></H4>

<P>The following programs are small and interesting, although perhaps not that exciting.

Arithmetic Type <TT>arithmetic</TT> at the command prompt. You are asked the answer

to simple addition questions. This goes on until you type Ctrl-C to exit. You can

access a man page by typing <TT>man arithmetic</TT>. BCD Punch Card Code, Morse Code,

Paper Tape Punch Code Type <TT>bcd</TT> at the command line to convert text you type

to a punched card, type <TT>morse</TT> to see your text converted to Morse code,

or type <TT>ppt</TT> for paper punch tape output. If the command line doesn't contain

any text to encode, the programs go into interactive mode. Note that the Enter character

you must use to finish each line of input gets coded as well. The <TT>bcd</TT> man

page covers all three programs. Factor Type <TT>factor</TT> at the command line.

This command provides you with the prime factors of any number you supply. You can

type <TT>factor &lt;</TT>number<TT>&gt;</TT> to factor just the one number, or <TT>factor</TT>

without any number to go into interactive mode. Numbers can range from -2,147,483,648

to 2,147,483,648. The following is a sample run of Factor:<FONT COLOR="#0066FF"></FONT>

<PRE><FONT COLOR="#0066FF">darkstar:/usr/games$ factor

123

123: 3 41

36

36: 2 2 3 3

1234567

1234567: 127 9721

6378172984028367

factor: ouch

darkstar:/usr/games$

</FONT></PRE>

<P>Primes Type <TT>primes</TT> at the command prompt. If you include a range on the

command line, Primes displays all prime numbers in the range. If no range is included,

Primes waits for you to enter a number, and then starts displaying primes greater

than that number. The program is surprisingly fast! You can access a man page by

typing <TT>man primes</TT>.

<H4 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading39<FONT COLOR="#000077">Multiplayer Game:

Hunt</FONT></H4>

<P>This game requires several players. You have to hook up other terminals to your

system (for instance, a character-based terminal to your serial port).

<H4 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading40<FONT COLOR="#000077">Full Graphics Game:

Sasteroids</FONT></H4>

<P>You must have a VGA or better color display for this game. Type <TT>sasteroids</TT>

at the command prompt. The game takes over the screen, switching you to color graphics

mode. This is a relative of the arcade game Asteroids. The following keys control

your ship: 

<TABLE BORDER="0">

	<TR ALIGN="LEFT" rowspan="1">

		<TD WIDTH="118" ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">Left arrow key </TD>

		<TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">Rotate counterclockwise </TD>

	</TR>

	<TR ALIGN="LEFT" rowspan="1">

		<TD WIDTH="118" ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">Right arrow key </TD>

		<TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">Rotate clockwise </TD>

	</TR>

	<TR ALIGN="LEFT" rowspan="1">

		<TD WIDTH="118" ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">Up arrow key </TD>

		<TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">Thrust </TD>

	</TR>

	<TR ALIGN="LEFT" rowspan="1">

		<TD WIDTH="118" ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">Down arrow key </TD>

		<TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">Enables the shield (one per ship) </TD>

	</TR>

	<TR ALIGN="LEFT" rowspan="1">

		<TD WIDTH="118" ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">Left Ctrl key </TD>

		<TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">Fire </TD>

	</TR>

	<TR ALIGN="LEFT" rowspan="1">

		<TD WIDTH="118" ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">Left Alt key<BR>

					</TD>

		<TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">Hyperspace<BR>

					</TD>

	</TR>

</TABLE>

It takes a while to get the hang of the controls. The layout is very different from

the standard arcade control layout. No man page is available.

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<H4><A NAME="Heading41<FONT COLOR="#000077">Other Thinking Games</FONT></H4>

</CENTER>

<P>The following programs might actually be a bit frustrating to play with initially,

but they can also provide hours of addiction! Sokoban Imagine yourself in charge

of a warehouse containing a maze and lots of bales of cotton. Each bale is so heavy

that you can only push it and not pull it. So don't push a bale into a spot where

you cannot push it out. Each level in this game gets more and more challenging as

you attempt to collect all the bales into a loading area where you can move to the

next level. The source code is available from <TT>sunsite.unc.edu</TT> in the file

<TT>sokoban-src.tar.gz</TT>. DOOM This exciting, though controversially gory, game

is now ported to Linux as well. Complete with sound support and exquisite graphics,

this Linux port does its DOS counterpart justice. One problem to keep in mind though,

is that your colormaps in X may be mixed up once your cursor moves out of the X terminal

you run DOOM under. Two other things to keep in mind--you have to rebuild your kernel

to add the sound support, and the version 1.666 of DOOM will not run external WAD

files. (I recommend that you get the registered version.) Conquest This is an elaborate

game of global conquest with equally complex instructions and display. At least the

files are in an executable form, and you do not have to build them. One thing to

remember is to use the <TT>xconq</TT> file and run <TT>xset</TT> <TT>fp</TT> <TT>rehash</TT>

to bring up the correct fonts. A comparable game, called Empire, is also available

in source from <TT>tsx-11.mit.edu</TT>, but you need a network connection to run

this game.

<CENTER>

<H4><A NAME="Heading42<FONT COLOR="#000077">Miscellaneous Demos and Utilities</FONT></H4>

</CENTER>

<P>The following programs might interest you. If you're a werewolf, the fourth one

will be particularly useful! Caesar Type <TT>caesar</TT> at the command line. This

program attempts to decrypt encoded words. Type <TT>man caesar</TT> to see the man

page. Fortune Type <TT>fortune</TT> at the command line for your Linux fortune-cookie

message. Number Type <TT>number &lt;</TT>number<TT>&gt;</TT> at the command line.

Converts the Arabic number given as <TT>&lt;</TT>number<TT>&gt;</TT> (for example,

41) to its equivalent in English (forty-one). Phase of the Moon Type <TT>pom</TT>

at the command prompt. The program tells you the current phase of the moon. As the

man page mentions, this can be useful in predicting the behavior of others, and maybe

yourself, too! Type <TT>man pom</TT> to see the man page. Rain Type <TT>rain</TT>

at the command prompt. Your screen becomes rippled like a puddle in a rainstorm.

On most Linux console screens, the program runs too fast to look even remotely convincing.

Press Ctrl-C to exit. Worms Type <TT>worms</TT> at the command prompt (do not confuse

with the Worm program, above). This fills your screen with squirming worms. Like

Rain, the program runs much too fast on a Linux console screen. A man page is available

if you type <TT>man worms</TT>.

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<H3><A NAME="Heading43<FONT COLOR="#000077">Summary</FONT></H3>

</CENTER>

<P>You should now be able to while away the time by sitting at your machine and playing

your favorite games. If you haven't installed the X Window system yet, maybe this

is the extra incentive you need!









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