Running Linux, 5th Edition

Tux Racer

What would a chapter on Linux games be without a game featuring the Linux mascot Tux? Tux Racer is a 3D racing game, but instead of a car or other vehicle, you race Tux the penguin down an ice hill on his stomach. Success depends on how quickly you complete the race and the number of herrings you eat along the way.

Figure 7-11. Frozen Bubble two-player mode

Tux Racer began as a completely open source project up through Version 0.61. With the increased success and improvements to the game, Tux Racer 1.0 was released as a boxed commercial product from Sunspire Studios. Although you could purchase Tux Racer 1.0 from the official site at www.tuxracer.com, the open source 0.61 release was still available for download at tuxracer.sourceforge.net. This release is what is commonly included with most distributions.

Start Tux Racer either through your menu or by typing tuxracer on the command line. The opening menu gives you the option to enter an event or practice. The events are a series of races, and each race requires that you complete the previous races to advance. As you select from the available races, you can see the maximum time and number of herrings needed to advance. If either of those requirements aren't met, you will have to try the race again.

The controls in Tux Racer are fairly simple to learn, but the finer points of controlling Tux can take time to master. The left ...