Linux

On systemd-based distributions it’s possible to boot to the BIOS from Linux Have you ever found yourself working on a computer that’s just so blindingly fast that you just cannot mash the key you need to get into the BIOS fast enough? It might be possible to reboot from your Linux system into the BIOS of your computer. Not all systems support this feature. On the one system we tested this on which didn’t boot to the BIOS the error message mentioned something about the EFI partition. But I was able to successfully run the command on a couple of systems, a 4th gen and 8th gen system. ...

The problem is power management (workaround) You’ve installed Xubuntu 22.04 on your laptop and things are going smoothly… Then you close the lid on your laptop and discover when you open it back up again that when you move the mouse it moves, but you cannot right or left click for some reason? The issue appears to be with power management. The work around we found that appears to fix this is to edit the file: ...

Switching printers at home Other than running out of toner, there was nothing wrong with the HP Laserjet P1102w printer we have at home. The printer printed cleanly, was compact, and was connected to our wireless network, so any machine on our network could print to it. In fact, I was planning on buying more toner this evening after we did our usual scouring of thrift shops. I thought there was a small chance I might find the right HP 85A toner at one of the stores we planned to go to. I did find some other toner at one of the thrift shops, and the $5.95 price tag wasn’t bad, but it was for a different model in the same line of printers. But this was actually after spotting an even better deal, an HP Laserjet 1320 duplex printer for a whopping $10.95. ...

Great, and a pain Discord is one of those programs I love to hate. I like Discord because it’s a good way for people to connect with me about Computer Recycling, and I find it really handy for connecting with people about Game Development and Game Jams. But the process for updating Discord on Linux isn’t good. Normally, I update most software on my system by opening a terminal (Windows Key + T) and typing: ...

A dice game with a sense of humour If games like Torchlight II, Diablo III, or my favourite - Grim Dawn are your thing, Knights of Pen & Paper II will seem like a snooze-fest to you. While Knights has elements of a role playing game, it’s not an “Action” role playing game (ARPG), but more mimics the kind of play you might get from playing Dungeons and Dragons with a game master. Unfortunately the game is NOT multiplayer, so one of the best parts of D&D is missing from Knights of Pen & Paper II, but if you’re okay with playing solo, this might be a fun title for you. ...

Previous GameMaker experience I bought version 1.4 of the Gamemaker game engine on a Humble Bundle many years ago. At the time Gamemaker ONLY ran under Microsoft Windows. It was possible to export games to Linux (Ubuntu/Debian-specifically), but you couldn’t run the game engine itself under Linux. Version 2.x came along, and I paid to upgrade to 2.x as well. Some time between when I bought 1.4 and 2.x I started working on my Asteroids-like clone, Fasteroids: (https://chaslinux.itch.io/fasteroids). Many professional developers suggest starting and finishing a project as quickly as you can, then moving on to something else. Of course I didn’t listen and kept adding “features” to Fasteroids, which lead to the game being pretty messed up, and me losing interest. ...

After this experience, and some back and forth with GameMaker, the GameMaker team switched the licensing back to a one time fee (except for console exports), and they released a beta version of the engine for Ubuntu-based systems. The team continues to update this beta along with the normal code. Since I previously had experience with GameMaker I’ve decided to stick with it. I’ve been really thrilled with it as bugs I’ve run into have been fixed a short while after I’ve reported them, and the community have been great helping me solve issues. ...

Reviving an old project Today I realized that, since redoing this web site, I still haven’t added any information about the game I made back in 2017-2020. Recently I revived Fasteroids, and made some changes to both simplify the game, but also with the idea that the game should be able to scale to 4k in the near future. Before I ramble on more, you can download Fasteroids for Linux or Windows from: ...

Vikings – Wolves of Midgard (crashes after the Kalypso video) Vikings – Wolves of Midgard is a linear action role playing game (ARPG) that lets you go back and repeat quests several times until you’re overpowered. Recently I’ve tried a number of role playing games only to find they were lacking in graphics, the controls were too jank, or they just required obscene amounts of time to make any progress. I like Vikings – Wolves of Midgard, because I find that despite the fact that the story is almost aways the same, you can complete quests over and over again until you’re overpowered. The controls are not bad, especially compared to some of the games I’ve played lately. Best of all it runs natively under Linux. ...

Bards Tale III – my introduction to 3D like adventure Back in the late 1980’s I worked for Simcoe Computer Consultants at the 400 Market, outside of Barrie, Ontario. The 400 Market was a mixed market of many vendors, one of which was Simcoe Computer Consultants. I spent the weekends manning the company’s booth, selling the odd item, and spreading the word about the company’s computers and services. One weekend Cec, one of the company owners, mentioned that a lead from the market had helped them sell a bunch of computers, and I was welcome to pick a piece of software as a reward. I picked Bard’s Tale III, Thief of Fate, a dungeon crawling game with a 3D-like interface. Bard’s Tale III quickly became one of my favourite games, it mixed D&D elements with a more urgent element where one wrong turn could lead to a face to face encounter with deadly monsters. ...