Developer(s) | Bill Kendrick, David Bruce, Holger Levsen, Tim Holy, Sam Hart, Brendan Luchen, Jesus Mager |
---|---|
Stable release | 2.0.0 / April 14, 2011 |
Repository | |
Operating system | Cross-platform |
Type | Educational game |
License | GNU General Public License |
Website | www |
Tux, of Math Command (TuxMath, for short) is an open source arcade-style video game for learning arithmetic, initially created for Linux.
The first alpha of the game was released by its initial developer, Bill Kendrick, in September 2001, days prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks. It was decided that the imagery of exploding buildings was no longer suitable. Eventually the city imagery was replaced with igloos, to match the arctic theme of Tux, the Linux penguin, who stars in the game.
Since 1.7.0 the game also include a multiplayer mode and Factor-fraction activity called Factoroids.
The game-play mechanic is based loosely on that of the arcade game Missile Command, but with comets falling on cities, rather than missiles. Like Missile Command, players attempt to protect their cities, but rather than using a trackball-controlled targeting cross-hair, players solve math problems that label each comet, which causes a laser to destroy it.
The game has multiple user support (useful for schools), LAN multiplayer mode, on-screen tutorials and a training mode - over 50 bundled lessons ranging from simple number typing up through all four basic arithmetic operations with negative numbers and "missing number" questions (e.g. "3 x ? = 12"). Being an open source project, multi-platform support for Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS and others is available. Localization to over thirty (human) languages was created by the games community. Included is also "Factoroids", a clone of classic Atari video game "Asteroids", modified to be an activity to train factorization.
Originally written in C language and based on the SDL library, TuxMath has been rewritten in JavaScript in 2022, allowing it to be played from a web browser or from a smartphone. [1]
The web version of TuxMath allows to play the game where the player has to solve operations to shoot comet TuxMath, but not the "factoroid" game. It adds an "autolevel" option which adjusts the operations to the level of the player, levels with operations involving 3 numbers or more, a penalty (igloo destroyed) in the event of too many wrong answers.
TuxMath is included in numerous Linux distributions, including the Edubuntu flavor of Ubuntu. It is included as a game on the ASUS Eee PC. [2] It was also included on the Dish Network 721 PVR. [3]
Numerous schools use TuxMath, [4] and school newsletters, [5] educational, [6] software websites [7] [8] [9] and publications [10] [11] mention it, often together with other open source educational software.
Quake is a first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by GT Interactive. The first game in the Quake series, it was originally released for MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and Linux in 1996, followed by Mac OS and Sega Saturn in 1997 and Nintendo 64 in 1998. In the game, players must find their way through various maze-like, medieval environments while battling monsters using an array of weaponry. The overall atmosphere is dark and gritty, with many stone textures and a rusty, capitalized font. Quake takes inspiration from gothic fiction and the works of H. P. Lovecraft.
Rise of the Triad: Dark War is a first-person shooter video game, developed and published by Apogee Software in 1995. The player can choose one of five different characters to play as, each bearing unique attributes such as height, speed, and endurance. The game's story follows these five characters who have been sent to investigate a deadly cult, and soon become aware of a deadly plot to destroy a nearby city. Its remake was designed by Interceptor Entertainment and released by Apogee Games in 2013. The shareware version of the game is titled Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins.
IceWM is a stacking window manager for the X Window System, originally written by Marko Maček. It was written from scratch in C++ and is released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. It is customizable, relatively lightweight in terms of memory and CPU usage, and comes with themes that allow it to imitate the GUI of Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows 7, OS/2, Motif, and other graphical user interfaces.
Tux Racer is a 2000 open-source winter sports racing video game starring the Linux mascot, Tux the penguin. It was originally developed by Jasmin Patry as a computer graphics project at the University of Waterloo. Later on, Patry and the newly founded Sunspire Studios, composed of several former students of the university, expanded it. In the game, the player controls Tux as he slides down a course of snow and ice collecting herring.
Xandros, Inc. was a software company which sold Xandros Desktop, a Linux distribution. The name Xandros was derived from the X Window System and the Greek island of Andros. Xandros was founded in May 2001 by Linux Global Partners. The company was headquartered in New York City.
Frozen Bubble is a free software clone of Puzzle Bobble for a variety of home and mobile systems.
SuperTux is a free and open-source two-dimensional platform video game published under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The game was inspired by Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. series; instead of Mario, the hero in the game is Tux, the official mascot of the Linux kernel.
Roxor Games, Inc. is a 25-person company based in Austin, Texas that develops video game software for the arcade and home markets. Founded in 2002, Roxor works with developers of open source software to deploy games on a Linux-based hardware platform in the arcade and on multiple home consoles. Although their most well known product, In The Groove, is proprietary software, the developers regularly contribute code back to the open source project StepMania upon which In The Groove is based.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a real-time strategy video game in the Command & Conquer franchise, produced by Westwood Studios and released by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in 1996. The second game to bear the Command & Conquer title, Red Alert is the prequel to the original Command & Conquer of 1995, and takes place in the alternate early history of Command & Conquer when Allied Forces battle an aggressive Soviet Union for control over the European mainland.
Tux Paint is a free and open source raster graphics editor geared towards young children. The project was started in 2002 by Bill Kendrick who continues to maintain and improve it, with help from numerous volunteers. Tux Paint is seen by many as a free software alternative to Kid Pix, a similar proprietary educational software product.
Linux Game Publishing was a software company based in Nottingham in England. It ported, published and sold video games running on Linux operating systems. As well as porting games, LGP also sponsored the development of Grapple, a free software network library for games. As well as acting as a Linux game porter in of themselves, they also functioned as a publisher for other Linux game developers and porters. The company was dissolved on 3 May 2011.
An open-source video game, or simply an open-source game, is a video game whose source code is open-source. They are often freely distributable and sometimes cross-platform compatible.
Linux gaming refers to playing video games on a Linux operating system. Because many games are not natively supported for the Linux kernel, various software has been made to run Windows games, such as Wine, Cedega, and Proton, and managers such as Lutris and PlayOnLinux. The Linux gaming community has a presence on the internet with users who attempt to run games that are normally not supported on Linux. This includes a subreddit which has over 240k members as of January 2023.
The ASUS Eee PC was a netbook computer line from Asus, and a part of the ASUS Eee product family. At the time of its introduction in late 2007, it was noted for its combination of a lightweight, Linux-based operating system, solid-state drive (SSD), and relatively low cost. Newer models added the options of Microsoft Windows operating system and rotating media hard disk drives (HDD), and initially retailed for up to 500 euros.
SuperTuxKart (STK) is a free and open-source kart racing game, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3. It features mascots of various open-source projects. SuperTuxKart is cross-platform, running on Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS (beta), Android systems and Nintendo Switch (homebrew).
The OpenDisc project offered a selection of high quality open source software on a disc for Microsoft Windows users. The aims of the project were "to provide a free alternative to costly software, with equal or often better quality equivalents to proprietary, shareware or freeware software for Microsoft Windows", and "to educate users of Linux as an operating system for home, business and educational use".
Tux Typing is a free and open source typing tutor created especially for children. It features several different types of game play, at a variety of difficulty levels. It is designed to be fun and to improve words per minute speed of typists.
Asus EeeBox PC is a nettop computer line from ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated, and a part of the Asus Eee product family. First released on August 11, 2008, the Asus EeeBox PC series is marketed as a small, light, inexpensive and energy-efficient counterpart to the Asus Eee PC netbook / subnotebook laptop series. Its motherboard employs Splashtop technology called Express Gate by Asus.
EasyPeasy was a Linux-based operating system for netbooks. EasyPeasy was built upon Debian and Ubuntu, but was customized for low-powered computers and access to web applications. EasyPeasy is maintained as an open source project, though it primarily uses popular web applications or proprietary software over free and open source software alternatives when the functionality offered is deemed better by its users.