Today I am going to show you how to install a new game and at the same time learn how to install other programs on your Raspberry Pi. There are a plethora of educational, graphics, Internet and even games out there that you can easily install once you learn what I am going to show you today. The best part about it is that they are free!
How To Install Games And Other Software On The Raspberry Pi
You can discover new software to install using the command line, but there’s also a friendly menu system you can use in the desktop environment. On the Applications menu, hover over the Preferences option and click Add/Remove Software to get started. You need to have an active Internet connection.
The menu looks like this:
In the top left is a search box, where you can enter the name of a program you’re looking for, or a phrase such as “Frozen” to explore what’s available. On the left are categories you can click to see your options.
NOTE: If this does not show up for you then you may need to update your Raspberry Pi with the latest information. You can open a terminal and use this command:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
The main pane shows you the packages, with a scrollbar on the right that you can use to see the full list. Those that are already checked (or ticked) and shown in bold are already installed on your Raspberry Pi. You can click a package to see its description below. To select a package for installation, tick the box beside it. To remove it, untick it. In this example you will see a checkbox for the Frozen Bubble Game.
When you’ve finished choosing your software, click the OK button to install and remove the applications. You will be prompted to enter your password (which is raspberry, unless you’ve changed it). It can take some time to download and install the software, so it’s a good idea to choose a few applications and leave them to install in one batch while you do something else.
The menu ensures that any applications that your chosen application requires also get installed. When you install the game Frozen Bubble, for example, the menu automatically installed its separate data package for you.
Your software is now installed! You should be able to run it either from the shell by entering its name (for example, Frozen-Bubble), or through your Applications menu in the desktop environment.
The menu makes it easy to install software, but you might find that not all the software works well on the Raspberry Pi. It’s easy enough to try something, though, and remove it if it doesn’t do what you need. It’s all free.
In the case of Frozen-Bubble it will run in a smaller window when you first launch it from the desktop. There is no option in the GUI to change this. You can make it full screen by launching it from the shell (terminal window) by typing:
frozen-bubble ––fullscreen start in fullscreen mode
frozen-bubble ––no-fullscreen don’t start in fullscreen mode
frozen-bubble ––help gives you a list of all of the commands
Final thoughts:
“Frozen Bubble” is a simple but highly addictive game involving knocking down clusters of frozen bubbles. The bubbles come in several colors, and strategy involves getting as many bubbles down as possible with each shot.
There is no violence, horror or innuendo anywhere, and you can make new levels with a simple text editor (like vi or Notepad).
Logo for ‘Frozen Bubble’ The game is Open Source (GPL) and is written entirely in PERL, so you can inspect it, learn from it and change it if you wish.
Have fun playing this one folks as it is good for the whole family! -=Enjoy=-