Tag Archives: Darwinia

Installing a Boxed Darwinia on Linux

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Today I bought a boxed copy of Darwinia from Best Buy. I was pleasantly surprised that it came with a keychain of a Darwinian and poster. Another surprise was the reduction of the price from $29.99 CAD to $9.99 CAD.

What dismayed me was that I could not run the Linux installer on the CD. Then I read on the Introversion forums that the US box distributors, did not bother adding two important files for the Linux installer. The workaround is:

  1. Install wine. [sudo aptitude install wine]
  2. Run setup.exe under wine to install the Windows version of the game. [wine /media/cdrom/setup.exe]
  3. Then run the Linux installer, but uncheck the option to copy the files from the CD. [sudo sh /path/to/darwina-installer.sh]
  4. Copy main.dat and sounds.dat from the folder where wine installed Darwinia, to the lib folder of the Linux install. [sudo cp /path/to/wine/main.dat /usr/local/games/darwinia/lib/ && sudo cp /path/to/wine/sounds.dat /usr/local/games/darwinia/lib/]
  5. Run darwinia as if nothing happened. [darwinia]

The extra steps are a nuisance, but the Linux client for Darwina works flawlessly. I tested this install process under Ubuntu Linux 7.10, but it should work under any newer Linux distro.

Gardening

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Today was a very nice day. Naturally beautiful weather means time for gardening and general yard work. Fortunately I happened to have a very productive day. A fair bit pruning and stick bundling, and the backyard’s appearance is vastly improved.

Of course, gardening isn’t all sunshine and roses. Had do some sanitation work after the neighbourhood’s “cute” cats… cute yeah right… where’s my rail gun anyways? You get the point. So I came up with an innovative solution, inspired by Darwinia. Robotic killer ants! Seriously, ants are territorial and in packs are serious problems. The only problems are the anthills, aphids and occasional sting. Robots with little metal pincers, hive mind behaviour, and recall so that I can work without getting my behind pinched… Think about the benefits… I could takeover the world! *gloats*

Finished typing up the legalize… now I have to edit it. Yay!

Wrath. Reloaded.

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DIE SPAM!!! Or the battle cry of the last battle in Darwinia. The Temple level was big a challenge, but once you figure it out it is pretty simple. Wished I had rockets though, because that would of speed up the final bosses’ demise. I stayed up until 5:00am playing the game, and now I am finished. I must say I enjoyed myself throughly. But I am glad its over… I mean I can go and clean up the mess I made… but… nah. I have other more important things to do.

Life is a usual: nag, drag, work, nag, drag, work… ad nauseum. Starting work on Wednesday of next week. At least I will have money. Even if that is the only thing I can look forward too, as I still will have to do a lot of tasks at home. Have not even looked into archery equipment, or high speed net (which I decided I might leave until before school starts). Need to pay off school, and look for a way of getting my sorry excuse of a behind to school and back again. I will have to look at that immediately.

Yup. I have decided to start a new black op… a clone of the game Sinksub. I enjoyed that game, and now I plan to do in Python using pygame or C using SDL. Still should be fun. It is a short game, and not much involved in it. So I hope to make something in about an afternoon or so.

Oh well, have to run off and type up some more of the legalize that I have neglected to do. And do some groceries… I sort of miss my friends… but I have a fair bit to do. Bye for now!

Think Outside the Box!

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Yes, the title has nothing to do with what happened today. But than again, I am all for random, and spontaneous titles (and behaviour). Anyhow… getting back to reality…

Another day went by; and was pretty much like yesterday. Later on during the night, I played a fair bit of Darwinia. Hence, getting up was a problem. Later on went on to beat two more levels today. Getting harder, and longer, but thanks to a number of acquisitions, and stratagems I have survived fairly well. Even thought I had a few raging battles, and a number of ugly surprises. I sort of gotten tired of the game, so I am going to let age for a few days. Just don’t want its novelty to rub simply by over-gaming. Yes, it is possible to game too long. 😉

Actually the last few levels in Darwinia have kept me on my toes. The battles are getting more vicious, mobile and having multiple fronts. Thank goodness for the Armour weapons… and the increased tech levels. Sigh I could write a book on my experiences… 😉

Right now, I am sitting with seven pages of legalize Engrish, and I have to edit it into a spanking, understandable, legal statement of my mother’s accident. Yuck is the word. So I will reenter into electronic format and then hack my way through it. I must sharpen my stylus, and bust out my red pen. And maybe a revision control system… (OK that is taking it too far). Anyhow, that is my new black op. YAY!

Hmmm… got to mod this site one of these days… (foreshadowing)

Follow the Green Sprites, Man.

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Yay! Another day ended. No luck with meeting up with Kat, but then again today was a wet, slushy, and mushy day for a walk. Even in an enclosed mall. Again, I played the part of house-son (a.k.a. a son who gets all the jobs of a housewife, with none of the rewards). Wee!

Domenic, my good friend in Michigan just wrote me an email. He is in the middle of his exams, so I guess he will coming back to Brampton soon. Awesome! Good luck on your exams.

Highlight of the day: Darwinia. One of my friends managed to acquire the full version of the game, and lent me a copy. I like the whole atmosphere, and retro style of the game. It has just the right mix of RTS, RPG, and strategic wargame, for me. While sometimes the battles can get quick, and rather messy, at least I get to pick them. I managed to finish the first two islands so far, and have enabled links to the Mine, and Generator level. Should be fun.

Wednesday, will my first day of work… “safety” training. In order words, waste of time mostly. But I apparently will get paid for it which is execellent. Other than that, nothing new. Played a round of FZERO today, and noticed that I have become better at it. Almost finished the last race of the Kings’ League. Kept on getting blown up halfway throught the last lap, which was a shame. Oh well, I guess I will have to make my own clone this summer. Should be fun.