Re: [kidsgames] first_math

[Kidsgames Project Coordinator - Jeff Waddell <jeff@smluc.org>]

Hello Steve,

On Sat, 19 Feb 2000, Steve Baker wrote:

-->Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2000 12:13:01 -0600
-->From: Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>
-->Reply-To: kidsgames@smluc.org
-->To: kidsgames@smluc.org
-->Subject: Re: [kidsgames] first_math
-->
-->
-->I've been thinking about the distinction between kidsgames and SEUL/edu,
-->of course the latter group are thinking ONLY about educational material.
-->I also feel the need for games that are pure fun - possibly with little
-->or no educational value that are suited to children.
-->

"pure fun" :)  I like it....

-->We bought a bunch of Loki games for Linux just before Xmas - and really
-->of the six or seven games they make, only one is remotely suited for
-->kids under the age of about 10 - and that's RailRoad Tycoon - even
-->that is really difficult for my 9yr old.
-->

This is why we exist, I think.

-->Heretic, Civilization and Quake are REALLY unsuitable.
-->

Since there's freeciv, quakeforge, and heretic/hexen free source out
there, I would like to know what (if anything) we could do to these
systems to make them kid friendly.  Is it just a matter of creating kids
.pak files or are there fundamental server changes that we need to do to
utilize all that wonderful code that is available?  Does anyone want to
volunteer to explore this "realm" :)

-->If you want something non-violent and reasonably engaging, it's
-->really hard to find anything for kids that'll run under Linux.
-->Some that I can think of are:
-->
-->Pingus      - excellent - not finished to the point where it's playable.

Who has this working, and are we working with the author's of this to make
it better/more finished?

-->Tux_AQFH    - not finished - but enough to be playable.

Same question as above...although I hope we can safely say that the answer
to the second question is YES.... :)

-->The Penguin Machine - lots of promise - but hardly even started yet.

Same questions as above.

-->FlightGear  - excellent - finished enough to be interesting.

....

-->glTron      - interesting - but limited.

...

-->CircusLinux - I havn't downloaded this yet.

... Hi Bill

-->
-->...then there are 18 different Tetris clones (yes, really!) and
-->a bunch of old games from the 1980's that have been revamped and
-->cloned...but that's about it. (Unless you know different)
-->

I was just discussing TINT with one of it's enthusiastic developer's
tonight, and I hope that he will choose to join with us, so that we can
help drive that area as well.

-->Perhaps that's where the logical split is between the mission of
-->kidsgames and SEUL/edu?   Games (possibly with educational content)
-->versus Education packaged to look like a game?
-->
-->

I would agree with that, does anyone have anything to add to that.


Some that you missed are on the linuxforkids.com home page and a few more
include the batnav game and lmemory (batnav stands for Batalla Naval and
is a nice Battle Ship type game, lmemory is a memory matching game I
haven't got to work yet.)  Chris try to check them
out if you haven't already ...batnav.sourceforge.net and 

From lmemory's README file -- 
"This is based on the memory card game. I hijacked some of the routines
from the Linux Letters and Numbers game By Kirk Ismay, <captain@netidea.com>.
It was built using the GTK (Gimp ToolKit) for X.  It presently works
with 1.0.x and 1.1.x, but images load faster with the newer library.
"

Can't find where I got it from though....probably a freshmeat
search...hmmm

-- 
Jeff Waddell
jeff@smluc.org

Kids Games Project Coordinator
main website at http://smluc.org/SIA/kidsgames/


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