Kids Games?

[Tass]

I've been looking through the forums for information about games and see there's a lot out there about getting older retro games (and some not so retro games too ) up and running, but I'm specifically looking for some kids games - slightly educational would be good.

My son, just about to turn 4, is very interested in my new Raspberry Pi, but things like Scratch are a little above him.  I'm looking for games that he'd be able to play, that would keep his interest, and hopefully build his interest over the next few years as he starts to learn to use Linux.  Things like Maths games, Reading games, etc., would also be great as he's very interested in that at the moment and it'll keep in line with the Foundations aim.

Any suggestions?

[JeremyF]

These might  be in the Debian repositories for ARM, but you might  need to compile but I found 2 interesting ones.

http://packages.debian.org/sta.....mes/bouncy – Bouncy

http://packages.debian.org/sta.....childsplay – Childsplay

http://schoolsplay.sourceforge.....nshots.php – List of games in Childsplay — some of them are going to need working sound drivers

They seem fairly interesting.

[[Alternate route:

Write some easy games in Scratch (or Python+Pygame) for him to play. Be a super awesome parent.]]

[JeremyF]

Wait, actually Bouncy probably won't work.

[abishur]

These are old games, but they are *extremely* fun old (a kid playing them might think they were more cartoonish than "old"

Super Solvers Outnumbered (basic math via word problems)

Super Solvers Midnight Rescue (reading comprehension)

Super Solvers Treasure Mountain (Riddle solving - kinda reading comprehension)

They are all free dos game that can be found at Home of the Underdogs or Abandonia

To play them you'll have to install dosbox

apt-get install dosbox

And then you'll have to follow the instructions in this post if you want to get it working from the bash prompt (if you're doing it inside X11 than it will run with no problem)

to make them run after you've done the fix type in (you'll have to open "terminal" if you're under X11, the gui)

dosbox /path/to/the/exe/file -conf /path/to/conf/file/you/made -exit

That will auto launch into your game and the -exit command will automatically leave dosbox when the game is closed (with the -exit command it will take you to a dos prompt when you leave and you'll have to manually type in exit.)

The sound will be messed up at first but by hitting ctrl+F11/F12 you can speed up and slow down the emulation.  Just play around with it until you get the sound right. In the conf file you made you can edit the cycle speeds to a lower number and then load the program using the command above and the sound will be fixed from the get go.  I'd start at 1000 and work your way down in halves until you hit the right speed.  In Treasure Mountain it's supposed to be an upbeat little tune, but just fiddle with it until it sounds right to you and the character moves in a fluid manner.  The same setting will work for all three games.

[RaTTuS]

nethack - your never too young to learn

[Tass]

Thanks - I'll try these out!

[mtroj]

sudo apt-get install tuxtype

Tux Type has a good range of options - from child-friendly and very easy, to downright difficult for an adult. Includes visualizations and sound effects.