3D shoot 'em up games

Install an old school fake-3D first person shooter:

# aptitude install dsda-doom+M freedoom

You should be able to start it by issuing the following commands:

$ freedoom1

or:

$ freedoom2

depending on which "Phase" you want to play.

Inside the game, you may select "Options", then "General", and set "Video mode" OpenGL, "Screen resolution" 1600x900, "Aspect ratio" Auto, "Fullscreen video mode" Yes, "Exclusive fullscreen" No, "Vertical sync" No, "Uncapped Framerate" No, "FPS limit" 60, "OpenGL light mode" Indexed. Moreover, again inside "Options", "General", set "Number of sound channels" 32, "Enable v1.1 pitch effects" No, "PC speaker emulation" No, "Disable sound cutoffs" No, "Preferred MIDI player" Fluidsynth. In the next page of "Option", "General", set "Enable mouse" Yes, "Horizontal sensitivity" 10, "Vertical sensitivity" 10, "Free look sensitivity" 10, "Acceleration" 3, "Enable free look" No, "Invert free look" No, "Mouse strafe divisor" 4, "Dbl-click as use" No, "Vertical mouse movement" Yes, "Carry fractional tics" Yes, "Mouse stutter correction" Yes. In "Options", select "Sound Volume" and set "SFX Volume" 4 and "Music Volume" 4.

2D shoot 'em up games

Install a 2D puzzle shooter:

# aptitude install pangzero

Start it (after plugging the joypad or joystick in):

$ pangzero

and configure your player controls, by selecting "Setup Players": choose "Number Of Players" 1, select "Player 1 Joystick 0" and then click on left joypad/joystick button, click on the right joypad/joystick button, click on the fire joypad/joystick button, select (with the up or down button) the character with the space suit and select (again with the up or down button) the yellow color. Go back to main menu and select "Options": set "Slippery floor" off, everything on in the "Ball Mixer..." sub-menu, "Sound" on, "Music" on, "Widescreen", and "Show Website at exit" no.

Platform games

Install a classic 2D platform jump 'n run game:

# aptitude install supertux

You should be able to start it by issuing the following command:

$ supertux2

Inside the game, you may select "Options": check "Window Resizable", choose window resolution "800x600", check "Fullscreen", choose fullscreen resolution "Desktop", magnification "auto", vsync "on", aspect ratio "auto", check "Sound" and "Music", choose sound volume "20%", choose music volume "20%", check "Enable transitions", uncheck "Confirmation Dialog", check "Pause on focus loss"; select "Setup Keyboard" and set up "Up cursor", down "Down cursor", left "Left cursor", right "Right cursor", jump "Space", action "Left Control", peek left "Delete", peek right "PageDown", peek up "Home", peek down "End", and uncheck "Jump with Up"; if your joystick or joypad is plugged in, select "Setup Joystick", check "Manual configuration" and set up "Axis -Y", down "Axis +Y", left "Axis -X", right "Axis +X", jump "Button 6", action "Button 7", pause/menu "Button 5", peek left "Button 3", peek right "Button 1", peek up "Button 4", peek down "Button 0", and uncheck "Jump with Up".

Puzzle games

Install a tetris-like game:

# aptitude install ltris

You may start it with the following command:

$ ltris

In the main menu, select "Graphics" and choose Animations "On", Move "Smooth", Drop "Tile By Tile", Change Background "Yes", Display "Window", Frame Rate "No Limit". Then select "Audio" and choose Sound "On", Volume "6". Select "Advanced Options" and choose Quick Help "On", Clear Keystate "Down", Center Preview "Off", Collision Check "Sync".

Install a maths based game:

# aptitude install 2048-qt

Breakout games

Install a 3D breakout-like game:

# aptitude install briquolo

and configure it:

$ briquolo

Choose "Settings" and "Controls": set Keyboard speed "8.00" and Mouse speed "8.00". Choose "Ok" and then choose "Video": set Resolution "1600x900", Fullscreen "yes", Show FPS "no", Limit FPS "yes", FPS Max "60.00". Finally, choose "Ok".

Management games

Install a 3D city construction game:

# aptitude install opencity

Chess games

Install a graphical chessboard:

# aptitude install eboard

and configure it for your regular user:

$ eboard

From the Settings menu, check Highlight Last Move, uncheck Animate Moves, check Premove and Show Coordinates, uncheck Beep On Opponent Moves and Enable Other Sounds, check Popup Board Panes Upon Creation, uncheck Smart Discard Observed Boards After Game Ends, check Enable Legality Checking.

Install a chess engine:

# aptitude install stockfish polyglot

and an opening book:

# aptitude install gnuchess-book

In order to use them from within eboard, create suitable bookmarks: from the Peer menu, Play against Engine submenu, select Generic Engine... and set the options in the dialog window. In the "Side & Time" tab, choose "Human White vs. Computer Black", set "0" Depth Limit, check "Think on opponent's time"; in the "Engine Command" tab, set Engine command line "polyglot ~/.eboard/stockfish_polyglot.ini" and Directory to run from "~/.eboard/eng-out"; check "Add to Peer/Engine Bookmarks menu". Repeat the procedure again, but this time choose "Computer White vs. Human Black". You can edit these two newly created bookmarks: from the Peer menu, Engine Bookmarks submenu, select Edit Bookmarks... and set clearer captions, such as "Play chess as White vs. stockfish" and "Play chess as Black vs. stockfish". Finally, prepare the Polyglot configuration file:

$ sed 's|^Threads = 1|Threads = 2| ;
       s|^Book = false|Book = true| ;
       s|^BookFile = book.bin|BookFile = /usr/share/games/gnuchess/book.bin|' \
  /usr/share/doc/stockfish/polyglot.ini > ~/.eboard/stockfish_polyglot.ini

Real-time strategy games

Install a RTS game:

# aptitude install boswars

After starting it:

$ boswars

you may wish to configure it by clicking on the "Options" button: then click on the "Video" button and select "1024x768", uncheck "Fullscreen" and check "Use OpenGL". Finally exit and restart the game.