Top 10 Lightweight Puppy Linux Games
Shoot’em Up: Xsoldier
Xsoldier is an old school vertical shoot-em up game in which you control a spaceship and shoot anything that you see. You collect Prisoners of War (POW) and other power-ups on your way and as you expect, there is a level boss at the end. Controls are the arrow keys for movement, with the left shift key for firing. Don’t think the game as a piece of cake, you will begin to receive guided missiles after the second level. Xsoldier is just 173KB and available as source code.
Shoot’em Up: Xgalaga
Retrogamers rejoice! Here is one of our first games in remake: Galaga. This number 1 shoot’em up game is not available as a .pet file but is 314KB in size in source code. For readers who do not know Galaga, I suggest taking a look at the computer games history, beginning with Space Invaders, followed by Galaxian, and finally Galaga.
Shoot’em Up: Zaxxon
If you haven’t played Zaxxon yet, you are again missing a big piece of computer gaming history. Released by Sega in 1982, Zaxxon was the first game in video game history to use 3-D from a third-person viewpoint. You command a spaceship through a castle shooting enemy missiles, turrets, planes and missiles. The objective is to complete the route through the castle without running out of fuel and you can refuel your ship by shooting fuel drums. The source download is 568KB.
Pinball: Linball
Pinballs are very good stress-relievers and here is a simple yet effective one for Linux. Linball, a pinball game for Puppy Linux with 3-D graphics is very fast and it is hard to keep up with the ball. If 3-D graphics are not your choice, then I suggest you keep away from this game. If not, go for it. The .pet is 2MB but requires LibSDL1.2-forDoom.pup.
Breakout
What a classic time waster! Destroy all the blocks with the bouncing ball and your paddle. Of course the graphics and physics are not the best but at least it takes you back to the times when you first started destroying bricks (Sinclair’s Horizons anyone?).Total download is 15.98KB.
Action/Puzzle: RocksnDiamonds
If you have ever played Boulder Dash on a Commodore 64 then most probably you won’t have forgotten its addictive gameplay. The game takes place in a maze where you try to collect a specified number of diamonds to complete each level, but at the same time stay away from the rocks and the guardian creatures. Be on your guard for creatures following you, and drop the rocks on them? The .pet file is 907.64KB but requires SDL libraries.
Platform: Secret Maryo Chronicles
No, there is no typo here; it is “Maryo” to avoid copyright infringements with Nintendo. The game is the same platformer we all know with the same concept. However our plumber Mario is replaced by the young boy Maryo who jumps from platform to platform, collecting goodies, eliminating the bad (and ugly) creatures, saving himself from evil traps, to reach the end of each stage. This game is a hidden gem because it is considered to be the best Mario clone in Linux by some users. The download comes at a big price of 72MB, including all the music and sound effects.
Puzzle: XShisen
XShisen is, as you guessed, a Mahjong puzzle game where you try to remove all the blocks from the tiled table. Be careful with this game though, it is highly addictive. Download is a .pet file in 38.7KB.
Puzzle: Xokoban
Another remake of the Far Eastern puzzle game Sokoban, where you are trying to place the blocks in a given place in a maze. The rules are very simple: you can only move one block in one direction (just up, down, left, right, no diagonals) at a time. Don’t think that it is so easy however, you will suffer trying to find the correct way to place them. Total download size is 42.97KB.
Logic: 5Ball
Putting five balls in a row or column by changing their direction is way harder than it sounds. You only have your left and right keys to control the balls and the attempt that seems logical may easily be totally wrong considering your next move. Be ready for this mind-bending game. .pet download size is 614.13KB.
More?
Of course there are more. There is Berusky, the addictive maze puzzle game, TKHearts the card game, PicPuz the puzzle game, LinXTris the Tetris game etc. If you want to move further on, then I suggest you to take a look at the Puppy Linux’s Game forum to find more Puppy Linux gaming titles. These people have more games than you can imagine.
