Xtetris

If you’ve never been hooked on Tetris, here’s your chance. This is a nice X implementation of a game that always seems to suffer when taken from the video arcade and placed on a home computer.

To see this game’s man page, type man xtetris.

To start this game, type xtetris in a command-line window.

The colors are nicely done and the movement is relatively smooth. However, if you’re used to the arcade version of Tetris, watch out for the following:

•  Left- and right-arrow keys move from side to side; up- and down-arrow keys rotate clockwise and counterclockwise. Most people have a preferred direction of rotation for the pieces; experiment to find out which way is right for you.

•  The spacebar, as is typical on home-computer implementation, slam-dunks the piece to the bottom rather than just hauling it down faster.

•  The colors of the pieces, although attractive, are sometimes confusing. For instance, the L-shaped piece that is yellow in the arcade version is purple in Xtetris, and the L-shaped piece that is purple in the arcade version is light blue in Xtetris. Again, very confusing if you’re used to the arcade version.

The purpose of the game? Arrange the pieces so they interlock without gaps. As soon as you create a (horizontal) row that’s completely filled, it vaporizes. This is good, because when the pieces stack up to the top, the game is over. (Pity the Cossack doesn’t come out and tap his feet when things start to get a little out of control.)

Xlander

This is an update of the old arcade game, Lunar Lander. You get a bird’s-eye view from the window of your lunar lander. By operating the main and directional thruster engines, you attempt to touch down softly on the landing pad. If things go wrong, instead of a bird’s-eye view, you get a meteorite’s-eye view!

To see this game’s man page, type man xlander.

To start this game, type xlander in a command-line window.

You may have problems getting the game to respond to your keyboard input. In that case, the moon’s surface is only a short plummet away.

Xmahjongg

This is an implementation of the old Chinese game. The graphics are attractively done; the ideograms on the pieces are very nice. The game builds your castle for you, of course. This alone speeds things up considerably.

There is no man page for Xmahjongg.

Xvier

Xvier is a relative of tic-tac-toe. On a 5×5 grid, you and the computer take turns placing your pieces; the first to get four pieces in a row, horizontally, diagonally, or vertically, wins. Xvier differs from tic-tac-toe in that you can only select the column where you want to place your playing piece; your piece then falls down the column to the lowest unoccupied row.

To see this game’s man page, type man xvier.

To start this game, type xvier in a command-line window.

You can change the level of the computer’s play by typing a number between 0 and 9 while in the game. However, in the higher levels, the computer thinks for a long time. Increase the level of play only one at a time. The default level of play is 0; you may not want to exceed 3.

Ico

Ico sets a polyhedron (a solid, multisided geometric shape) bouncing around your screen. Depending on the options specified, this three-dimensional polygon can occupy its own window or use the entire root window.

To see this game’s man page, type man ico. It can be started from the command line (within X Window) by typing ico. In fact, you should start it from the command line because of the options available. If you start it from the Demo/Gadgets menu, you will only get a wireframe polygon in its own, small window.

One interesting option you can use from the command line is -colors. If you specify more than one color, you get a multicolored polyhedron, with each face a different color.

With the -colors option, you must enter the colors to be used in the following format: rgb:<red intensity>/<green intensity>/<blue intensity>. The intensities have to be specified in hexadecimal notation; 000 is the lowest value and fff is the highest. For example, the complete command might be as follows:

ico -color rgb:000/888/fff rgb:e00/400/b80 rgb:123/789/def

This program is fairly resource-intensive and may slow down your system.

Maze

This draws a maze, and then solves it. There is no way you can solve it for yourself. Maze is a demo, not a game. On a fast system, it solves it too quickly to follow!

Xeyes

Not really a game, but cute anyway. Whenever you start Xeyes, you get a large pair of bodiless eyes that follow your cursor’s movements. Running four or five copies of Xeyes at once gives your system a surreal touch.

To see this game’s man page, type man xeyes.

To start this game, type Xeyes in a command-line window.

Xgas

This is a demo of how pure gases behave, but you don’t need a degree in thermo-dynamics and statistical mechanics to find this fun to watch. You have two chambers side-by-side, with a small opening in the wall between them. The chambers can be set to different temperatures. The neat part is when you place your cursor in one of the chambers and click the left mouse button—every click launches another gas particle in a random direction!

To see this game’s man page, type man xgas. Online help also is available.

To start this game, type xgas in a command-line window.

Xlogo

This displays the official X logo.

Xroach

This is halfway between a game and a demo. Don’t start this up if insects give you the shivers!

If you have ever lived in a roach-infested building, this will bring back fond (or not-so-fond) memories. Every time you start another copy of Xroach, a new set of roaches goes scurrying around your screen, looking for windows to hide under. Eventually you don’t see them—until you move or close some windows!

To see this game’s man page, type man xroach.

To start this game, type xroach in a command-line window.

If you start Xroach from the command line, you can add -squish. You can then try to swat the insects by clicking on them. Be warned, however: they’re fast. You can also specify what color the roach guts will be, should you succeed in squishing some.

Xhextris

This is a version of Tetris that uses pieces made up of hexagons. To start the game, type xhextris on an X Window command line. No man page is available.