Ubuntu (Open Source) Games Review – Part 1

— Geekery

One of the things that I have learned to do, to live with my girlfriend, is adopt some games to play as part of my life. This allows me to cool down or relax after hard days work. It also allows me to reflect on what has happened during the day as the game puts me in a state of mind that is complimentary to letting everything slip away. It also gives me something to do while she is working on changing the world.

Considering both her and I run the wonderful Linux distro known as Ubuntu, I thought it was only suitable that I would find my relaxation in a game that might be accessible through the distribution. Considering I come from the background of an old PC gamer, (old read as ‘Jumpman‘) I figured that it would be easy to find a game I enjoyed.

Throughout the years, I have enjoyed games from The Heist on the Commodore 64, to Super Dodge Ball on the Nintendo Entertainment System. From Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold on the 386 to Gears of War on the 360. In other words: I like to consider myself an experienced gamer.

However, most of the reviews that I have read for open source games are more focused on comparing them to the hottest PC and console games. The other reviews are simply limiting the selected games to a certain genre or even just one game. Since Ubuntu comes with very easy to use installation tools for games, I thought that I would be able to find the game that was right for me. However, after downloading, installing, playing and uninstalling many games I have come to one conclusion: there should have been a better guide to let me know if these games were even worth learning how to play.

So, now that I have gone through this process, I have decided to take this guess work out of your hands and bring you the ultimate guide for Ubuntu (or open source) games.

Please Note: this guide is meant for those running Ubuntu. While the games listed in this guide may be easily accessible through other operating systems, this particular guide was written by a user of the Ubuntu distro.

So, first thing is first. How do you start installing your new games? I will state, yet again, that this guide was made for those using an Ubuntu distro of Linux. Considering that: this guide will contain steps that are familiar to users of that operating system. Now that I have repeated myself, I can go ahead with the first steps of the guide:

Getting Games Installed
Before you can start enjoying the many games that are offered in the open source realm, you have to familiarize yourself with the installation process. Unlike Windows, Ubuntu offers a very easy interface to start installing and playing brand new games on your computer.

  1. The very first step is to click on the “Applications” link in the top left corner of your screen:
  2. Then select Add/Remove.
  3. You will now be presented with the wonderfully easy interface for installing new software. To make this guide complete, we are going to be looking at all of the games that are available. To do this, you will want to be sure you are browsing all of the games available. Near the top right you’ll see a down arrow next to “Supported Applications”. Click there.
  4. Select “All Available Applications.
  5. The installation manager may take a moment to update with all of the new applications. Then you can select “Games” from the categories on the left.
  6. Now you can select which games you would like to install by clicking the box next to the game.

Now you’re all set! You can select multiple games and then click on the “Apply Changes” button. It will confirm which games you want to install, and then you can sit back and let the installation manager download and install your new game. It really is that easy!

Now for the part you’ve been waiting for, the game reviews! There are SO many games that are available through this method so it will take quite some time to complete the list. However, I will try to include as many games as possible in each part. Since this is the introductory article, we will start with the first 3 games on the list.

Abuse
This is a shoot ’em up side scrolling game that delivers about as much excitement as one would expect from a side scrolling game that places you in the futuristic year of 2009. The introduction consists of a graphic of you, Nick Vrenna, holding a smoking gun and looking very much like the female version of Predator from the movies.

Within the first moments of the game I was attacked by a giant UFO shooting missiles. Then I descended down a hole into an underground… area… and there were a bunch of werewolf, looking, things followed by some explosions on the screen from my awkwardly aiming predator-girl-sprite-man-thing. It turns out that if you shoot the werewolves, they explode into a few pieces. Oh, and there are random blinking things and walls that also explode violently when shot.

I tried the multiplayer aspect out. Luckily it exited the game when I ended the LAN with myself because I was about to stab my right eye with a spoon for yearning of a feeling other than this.

Here’s a screenshot of the cross hair that I attempted to aim with and some pieces of a werewolf exploding. I am the brownish blob in the middle. The pieces of werewolves are the reddish-brown blobs flying around me.

While this game may have had some saving graces back in the day, they certainly are not evident right now. I might consider playing this game again if I am bored. However, you can find better side scrolling action in online Flash games that put this game to shame.

Adonthell – Waste’s Edge (Homepage)
The description given of this game in the installation manager is this:

“A 2D graphical RPG game inspired by good old console RPGs like the ones on the SNES. This package contains the Adonthell engine. You’ll also need a game to be able to play. For this release, the official game is Waste’s Edge, found in the package adonthell-data.”

We’ll have to take their word for it. As the game would not run once installed. Should you feel inspired by such an amazing description of the game: you can check out their website to get this game going for you.

Airstrike
If you ever enjoyed the Intellivision back in the day, then you probably remember the awesome two player game Biplanes.

If not, there is a review of the game from GameSpot here. The premise is simple: blue plane vs red plane. This game is meant to be played with another person on the same computer as the AI on the default enemy is hilarious. The game has been updated a bit with new graphics and new obstacles but it is the same old dogfight. The controls are simple enough and the game play is not too fast paced. Overall, this game would be a good one to enjoy with a kid present, or maybe one of your old buddies who used to sit on the floor next to you staring up at the awesomeness that was Biplane.

Here is a shot of that dirty Red Baron being annihilated by the center, rotating, cannon… of death:

Well that’s it for part 1 of the reviews. Since you know how to install the games now, I will be able to include a larger number of games in the next part.

If you liked this part, please subscribe to my RSS feed to be sure you don’t miss out on the Ubuntu (Open Source) Games Review – Part 2.

Sears Brings Shears to the Privacy of its Consumers and the Consumers Fight Back

— Misc

Alright, something needs to be said here. What the hell is up with Sears lately? A company that has, for the most part, stayed out of the news has suddenly found itself in a lot of hot water.

Awful Marketing released a story today indicating that Sears has shut down the part of Manage My Home.com that allowed anyone to gain information about the purchase history of virtually any person who had shopped at the store.

However, it looks like it might have been a little too late. According to the Washington Post blog a class action lawsuit was brought against the retail giant in response to their huge oversight of their own privacy policies.

Here is the response that Sears had:

“We take our customers’ privacy concerns very seriously. As a result, we have turned off the ability to view a customer’s purchase history on Manage My Home until we can implement a validation process that will restrict access by unauthorized third parties.”

“Turned off the ability … until we can implement a validation process”? Something smells like male bovine feces to me.

As a web developer, I look at this statement and the first thing that comes to mind is: they wanted it cheap, quick, and now. Handling login and registration processes to keep information secure is a huge part of creating an interactive website. My gut feeling is that somewhere along the way one of the developers probably suggested that they create a secure way to access the information available. Including a sign-in or maybe even a registration (*gasp*). However, somewhere along the way, someone said to that developer: “Well, yea, that’d be great. But how much longer will that take us and how much will it cost?”

Ultimately, the bottom line was the victor for Sears. They could push their website out the door and show people just how cool it was to be able to access information about their previous purchases. I can almost see one of the executives of Sears sitting there in Hoffman Estates sipping on a $250.00 glass of single malt scotch in their $10,000 leather chair guffawing to himself because they got their new website out so quickly and with so little cost.

Well Sears, people are starting to pay attention. This is evident by the current downward slope of their stocks that has occurred as a result of these privacy hacks.

The worst part is: this isn’t the only thing that Sears has done to destroy its reputation in the realm of consumer privacy. Within the past week or two, Sears has also been in the news for the spyware installation that occurs when joining the Sears/K-Mart community. This includes, but is not limited to the transmission of bank logins, browsing history, and so on. More information about this can be found in the CA Security Advisor Research Blog.

Although it may just be a case of coincidence, this writer finds it hard to ignore that these blatant ill practices in terms of their consumer privacy policies come just days after the former head of the company, Edward Brennan passed away. Could it be possible that this person, whose family had worked for Sears for generations, was holding the beast back from chomping on the privacy of its consumers?

Or, has Sears really just decided that they no longer care about the consumer and jumped on the bandwagon of money before people, always?

In either case, I have decided that there are too many other stores out there just like Sears, and frankly, they deserve my business more.

Top 5 Men VS Women Fighting Videos Online

— List

If you’ve read any of my posts prior to this one then you probably know that my girlfriend Bonnie is a big fan of UFC, especially the fighter Chuck Liddell. I myself am a fan of mixed martial arts fighting and just fighting in general. While browsing an online fight video site that I frequent, I came across a vicious fight (the last listed one) between a man and a woman. This reminded me of a few other flicks that I had seen online.

Before you go all getting bent out of shape and tell me that it is horrible to see a man fighting a woman, please know that I did not organize these fights. I just think that watching them is interesting. In fact, I think that anything which challenges stereotypes and makes you step outside your normal boundaries is a good thing. Also, these are not videos of “women being beat up by men.” These are women who are willingly and consciously fighting against a male opponent. With all that being said: I bring you, without further ado:

The Top 5 Men VS Women Fighting Videos Online

DISCLAIMER: these videos contain real footage of actual human combat. As such, they may be unsuitable for some viewers and possibly NSFW (depending on where you work I guess).

  • Irma Verhoef vs Marc Gefferie
    This particular video includes an enthusiastic introduction for both fighters in, what looks to be, a pretty packed arena in the Netherlands. The fight itself is impressive with a lot of evident Muay Thai striking with some Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu style ground work.
  • Lucia Rijker VS Somchai Jaidee
    You may recognize Lucia Rijker as Billie ‘The Blue Bear’ from the 2004 hit movie Million Dollar Baby. This is a Muay Thai style fight with excellent foot and feet work from both contenders.
  • Blonde Woman VS The Mustached Man
    This looks to be an amateur cage fight with kickboxing rules. Once the fight starts the action starts and doesn’t even take a breather until the fight is over.
  • Stefan Raab vs. Regina Halmich
    This one first caught my attention as the original link I found said that it was Chuck Liddell, who my girlfriend adores, fighting a woman. Indeed, the blurry version of this video with the audio from another fight (link) did look a tad bit like Chuck. But I knew this couldn’t be so. After a bit of digging my suspicion was confirmed. In true Andy Kauffman style, it turns out it is German T.V. personality Stefan Raab in a rematch against the amazingly talented boxing champion Regina Halmich. She broke his nose in 2001. You’ll have to watch the video to see how this rematch in 2007 turned out.
  • Green Shirted Woman VS Bald Man
    This is the intense fight I spoke of earlier which originally sparked this post. This particular video is from Rio Heroes. Rio Heroes has quickly gained popularity with its brutal, live, online fights. The rules are vale tudo style which means that anything goes. This is an intense fight from start to finish and includes striking, grappling, and submission attempts.

    • Well there you have it! The top 5 online videos of men fighting women.

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