Android Games

   I wouldn't be much of a gamer girl if I didn't do something on Android based games, now would I? :) So here we are. For hardware for this article, I'm using my newly acquired Motorola Photon 4G. From Phone Arena, here's what they have to say about the specs.

The Motorola PHOTON 4G for Sprint is not just a regular Android – it packs a dual-core Tegra 2 chip, along with WiMAX, CDMA and GSM connectivity. Specs-wise, it's somehow similar to the ATRIX 4G on AT&T, but has a different styling. It will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread and will have 4.3" qHD touchscreen, 8MP camera, 1GB RAM and a kickstand.

   Not too bad of specs for a cell phone really. Not the best on the market, but from my experience, still better than anything running iOS. Not much has been done to this phone besides rooting it. For those of you that have no clue what rooting a phone is good for or why anyone would do it, look in Google Play and there is a program/document you can get that explains it all. No need to waste space here to explain something you should know already.

   But first things first, I'm using the application Screenshot from Google Play. This is where having a rooted phone comes in handy. But anyway, onward to games!

   First up is Road Warrior. It's a side scrolling racing game.The story line of the game is simple and not really needed to have any fun with it. The object of the game is to just kill as many other drivers and win the race. Simple enough, right? Well, this is what makes the game interesting to me. You have the ability to upgrade your car with armor, and weapons.You have 4 weapon choices, and you can customize your car with wheels, tires, paint, armor and graphics. Not the best selection really but hey, look at Sony's portable version of Gran Turismo. No ability to upgrades. So a big plus one there. Game play is rather well thought out. Controls are simple. You a rotate clockwise and counter clockwise buttons, shoot, and brake. If you're thinking that sounds rather simplistic, you would be correct, but it doesn't hurt game play. You do flips to gain money, as well as destroy other cars. Nice shoot'em up. 


Overall, I give this one a 9 out of 10. 9 only because there are subtly things that could have been done better, but those things do not detract from the game enough to lower its score.

Android games...

   So yeah, I've decided since I finally joined the Android bandwagon, I should do some Android apps and games. I know... apps aren't exactly what the blog was about, but since I'm rather proficient with Linux of all sorts, Android is included. But, the difference is the Android apps will be ones that either help the functionality of the phone or help specific games, so it's still all about games. :) So, keep looking because there will be plenty of Android items reviewed.

   But, before that, a little info about the hardware I'll be using. I have a new (week old) Motorola Photon 4G. It's not a top of the line phone, but still a higher end middle range phone. Also, it's through Sprint. If you look at apps and game reviews on Google Play, I've got my name out there for a lot already.


   See you all soon! :)

Aleph One, Install Number 2

    Ok, in my last post I commented on issues with the previously posted way of installing Aleph One. So here we are, doing the install again, but with the tried and true method through the Terminal. Yes, for those of you newer, the mention of Terminal can be scary, but I promise it isn't. If you follow my tutorial word for word, it will work.

    Once again, I'm installing this on a TOshiba Satellite M115-S1061 laptop running Ubuntu 10.04.3. No, it isn't the most updated version of Ubuntu, but it does work better for me.

   Ok, lets get started. First thing you need to do is download the latest Aleph One source file from Bungie. This will get you the tar.gz file. Place this file on your desktop if it isn't there already. Some tutorials online say to extract it using Terminal, but you know what? It's just as easy to right-click and select extract here. So do that. Now you should have a folder named AlephOne-20120128 on your desktop.

    Now, before we go on, we need to install some extra things so that once Aleph One is installed, it will run. Copy and paste (CTRL+Shift+V) the following into Terminal:

sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2-dev libsdl-net1.2 libsdl-net1.2-dev zziplib-bin libzzip-dev libboost-dev libsndfile1 libsndfile1-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev libmadlib-dev libsmpeg-dev libspeex-dev libspeexdsp-dev libmad0-dev build-essential 

    Enter your password and hit enter. Select yes if it asks you to for the install. You'll see your screen scroll with a bunch of text. No need to worry about what it says, unless there's an error. If there is an error during the install of the files, go to the Ubuntu Forums and post there. After it finishes, it's time to compile Aleph One and install it. So in Terminal, we need to go to the Aleph One folder as the directory. Enter:

cd /home/username/Desktop/AlephOne-20120128

    Put your username in there, then hit enter. You just went into that specific folder. Now the fun begins. :) Enter the following into Terminal, each line being separate of course.

./compile

make

sudo make install

    Now your screen will scroll for a little while again, while it compiles the software. Once it finishes, it should look like this.

    See how it shows no errors for the compile step? Does yours look the same? Yes? Good. Then do what it says. Enter "make", without the quotes, and press enter. More scrolling will happen while it works. It will take a while so relax and do something or watch the scrolling text. :) Once it finishes, enter "sudo make install", without quotes, of course. Just enter your password and press enter.

   Now there you have it! Aleph One is installed. :) But before you can play your favorite Marathon scenario, you need to install the game files. Not hard or a lengthy process, so let's get started. :) It's time to go back to the Bungie webpage again. Pick out your fav scenario, and download it to your desktop. I'll be doing Marathon Infinity this time.

    When you download your scenario, you should have a ZIP file. Right-click and extract it. Once you have it downloaded and extracted, you should have a folder with contents similar to this.

    Now, press Alt and F2. You should have a window pop up like this.

    Enter "gksudo nautilus", without quotes. Enter your password when it asks for it and after that, you have a superuser Nautilus window. Now we have to find the Aleph One folder.Go to file system/usr/local/share/AlephOne. I recommend you create a backup folder in your home folder of the contents of the Aleph One folder. After you do that, just drag everything from your scenario folder into the Aleph One folder. Overwrite anything there it asks for.

    And there you have it! If you want a menu entry for the game, go to System/Preferences/Main Menu and create a new entry in the area of choice, using "alephone" as the command.



More coming soon!

Aleph One Update

   Ok, I have to do an update on Aleph One before I go on t the next game. I started having issues with it after about 2 reboots. So I'm working on a proper install guide for installing Aleph One using the traditional route. This time I'll add photos and maybe even do a Youtube video.

First game. :)

    Well, more like games, lol. Today I will be talking about Aleph One. It is a great engine to run the Marathon Trilogy, or any of the open source games that continue the Marathon legacy.

    Today, this will be installed using Ubuntu 10.04.4. These instructions will work with all versions up through the most recent version released.

    There are two ways of doing this One, is to download the source code and compile the software. That's all fine and dandy if you're well versed on the command line, but more than likely, if you're reading this, then you most likely aren't. So, we will do it the easy way. :)

    First thing you need to do is to click on System/Admin/ and Software Sources. Enter your password and hit Enter. Once the window opens up, look at the tabs at the top. Click on "Other Software". At the bottom you will now see a button labeled "Add". Click it, and in it enter this:

http://ppa.launchpad.net/gjditchfield/ppa/ubuntu

    That is the repository that holds Aleph One. Click on Ok, then Close, the it will ask you to reload. Let it do that, then go to Applications/Accesories/Terminal. In the Terminal, enter the following.

sudo apt-get update 

    I do it a second time to make sure the repository was correctly installed and that it has the right key. After that, Enter:

sudp apt-get install alephone 

    Enter "Y" if it asks, and grab a cup of coffee for a second. Once that finishes, you now have Aleph One installed! But wait! There's more! Having Aleph One installed properly is great and all, but it won't run without the game files from Bungie. Download the game of choice, Marathon M1A1, Marathon 2: Durandal, or Marathon Infinity. Right click and extract the tar file. The folder you get needs to have its contents put in the folder for Aleph One now.

    Press "Alt" & "F2" at the same time. In the box, type:

gksudo nautilus

   Enter your password if it asks for it, and now you're in your system as a superuser. Navigate from System, to Usr/share/games/Aleph One. There's where those game files need to be.

    Or, on the other hand, if you want all the games downloaded and ready to play at a moments notice, then instead of putting all those files in the Aleph One folder, put that folder on your desktop or home folder. THen, when you want to play the game, navigate to the folder where the game files are, and double click on the map file, and voila!

    There you have it. Installing Aleph One and the Marathon Trilogy. Simple enough right? Exactly. :)


    Now, my personal review of the games. I've played the Marathon games since they were Apple only starting in 1994. Makes me feel old saying that, lol. Running the games using the Aleph One engine in Linux puts the original versions to shame. Less glitches, smoother graphics, OpenGL (if your video card supports it), and better support. I haven't tested Net Play in the Aleph One run versions of the games yet, but so far, I give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Awesome job Bungie!

Welcome!

    Welcome to the first post in the Linux Gamer Girl blog! Here, I will show you the oldest to latest and greatest Linux based games (not solely Linux but multi platform also) and how to install them. I run a custom version of Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS I built specifically for gaming on a Toshiba Satellite M115-S1061 laptop. Soon I will be on an older Dell desktop also. But, I won't be doing just Ubuntu, no ma'am. I will do installs in various versions of Fedora, OpenSUSE, Debian, and several other of your favorite flavors of Linux. I hope you enjoy this and if you have any requests, please send them to my Google+ account that is being set up now.