Games for a little girl

[az]

My daughter has her own computer. She is three. It runs ubuntu and she plays happily with her linux applications like tuxpaint and lpairs and can also be entertained by playing macromedia flash games on the Dora the Explorer site.

The problem is her cousin. She is four and is used to a whole variety of boxed windows games for their computer. Caillou, Plumo, Blues Clues and a whole variety of cereal-box cd games, made for win9x.


I am giving her a computer and hadn't though twice about installing Hoary on it.

But...

Her games crash and burn in Wine. I cannot get them to install in the CVS verson of cedega. I have tried qemu with the accelerator module, but I cannot get it to install win95.

So, what would anyone suggest to keep my niece happy?

1- Dual-boot? It is not the best solution, since she may want to switch from tuxpaint to Blue's Clues and rebooting is not happy thing for a four-year-old.

2- Does the commercial version of cedega support windows installers well enough to work with crappy cereal-box-game cds? Most of these games do not even use Active-X, so is cedega still a better choice than wine? The last game I tried in Wine, it ran at about six times the speed with the equivalent high-pitched screech.

3- Run a windows-only box with cygwin for tuxpaint and other linux stuff?

4- Anything else?

[sonny]

Why don't you show her more games? There's a kind of suite in KDE (wich you can also install using Gnome) that is call Educational Package, it has some children games, as well as a typing curse (I'm teaching a little cousing to type in the keyboard with this), a game call mr potatoe head, and things like that, you should search for it in synaptics. Install SuperTux, whenever my little nephews come to my house I find supertux VERY helpfull, as well as tuxracer (they're 6-10 year-old), they also find puzzle games quite entertaining.

I hope you find this helpfull, cuz little kids should start using pcs as soon as they can talk, and if they start with Linux that's something we should support.

[charlieg]

Try:
Acorndrop:
http://acorndrop.sourceforge.net/
GCompris:
http://gcompris.net/
Childsplay:
http://childsplay.sourceforge.net/

There's also more listed under children/education (http://happypenguin.org/test/list?s_title=&s_author=&s_company=&s_description=&s_requirements=&s_category=kids&s_rating_op=eq&s_rating=any&s_rating_nr=on&s_license=any&s_sound=any&s_source=any&s_x11=any&s_console=any&s_3d=any&s_multiplayer=any&s_network=any&submit=Search&.cgifields=s_rating_nr) on http://happypenguin.org for you to browse.

[az]

Of course! My dauther uses these and is quite happy. Actually, we went over to my mothers house and she sat at the computer there. When she saw the windows98 screen, she cried.

The problem is my niece who is already used to these windows games. Just the other week, at her birthday party, she was given another boxed game.


My family knows not to buy those for my kids, but in her case, you cannot take away her birthday gift...

So I am stuck with having to find a way to run these games on the box I am giving her.

[arcanistherogue]

you might also want to try TuxKart. Real fun game, like Mario Kart. Brings me back to my N64 days.

Yeah, like one of the above posters said, just search synaptic for some games, and tux games.

Tux is child-friendly, unlike that crazy butterfly *shakes fist*

[poptones]

Competition for the market, dude... can you find mimics for the windows games? You don't want to take away a child's birthday gift, but if you provide something "better" that birthday gift falls to the floor and is forgotten. Four is a good age for weaning.

...a game call mr potatoe head...

Is it endorsed by Dan Quayle?

[az]

Better in what sense? They are almost all a variation on a theme and not terribly original. The characters are Trademarked, though.

I spent an afternoon grabbing the Print'n'Color images on the Dora the Explorer and Teletubbies site and made them all into compatible png format for tuxpaint.

Look, you guys do not have to seel me on this, *my* daughter already only wants to use linux. The problem is, as Seth Nichol, a gnome useability expert puts it: "Nothing is more friendly than what you are used to" and my niece is used to those boxed games. She is the one I am doing this for.

My question is really pertaining to whether or not Cedega is worth it. For example, can I use winetools to install stuff and run them in cedega?

[Yagisan]

My question is really pertaining to whether or not Cedega is worth it. For example, can I use winetools to install stuff and run them in cedega? I don't think cedega is worth it for what you want to do (these boxed games aren't directx games are they ?) Mayby give vmware a try ? If you haven't already seen this http://www.winehq.org/?issue=284 you might want to check it out.

[Kitty]

I had the same problem with my little sister and her win games (with horses and princess :). I find no other solution than dual boot. :( But she prefers gnome at win gui ! :)
I have not tried cedega, so I cannot help on this point.

Maybe you can look at wine and its GUI, xwine. Tell us if you find a solution !

[bored2k]

I would love to try out those games you all mention with my Cedega (heck, or even my Xover Pro) but I don't have any of them. If they are free to download or something, link me so I can test them out for you on Cedega.

[sonny]

Look, you guys do not have to seel me on this, *my* daughter already only wants to use linux. The problem is, as Seth Nichol, a gnome useability expert puts it: "Nothing is more friendly than what you are used to" and my niece is used to those boxed games. She is the one I am doing this for.
I think that a gift should be useful to the person you are giving it, and I don't think Linux would be helpfull for your niece, she won't understand what you are trying to do, and won't appreciate the present, you should give her a WinXP box, if you want her to convert to Linux, you should install all the Linux games that have windows installers, and see how she goes from there, in the future you might be able to change the OS.

[bored2k]

I think that a gift should be useful to the person you are giving it, and I don't think Linux would be helpfull for your niece, she won't understand what you are trying to do, and won't appreciate the present, you should give her a WinXP box, if you want her to convert to Linux, you should install all the Linux games that have windows installers, and see how she goes from there, in the future you might be able to change the OS.
I don't think I fully agree here. Like azz said, she _would_ get used to her boxed games and it would be hell for someone trying to make her completely leave those (just like his daughter can't stand a win98 login prompt). I think she could appreciate the Linux box present if it came in a nice presentable manner, wich is what azz is trying to do here ;).

Edit: Plus, the Windows XP you recommend is ridiculously expensive.

[sonny]

I don't think I fully agree here. Like azz said, she _would_ get used to her boxed games and it would be hell for someone trying to make her completely leave those (just like his daughter can't stand a win98 login prompt). I think she could appreciate the Linux box present if it came in a nice presentable manner, wich is what azz is trying to do here ;).

Edit: Plus, the Windows XP you recommend is ridiculously expensive.
My point is that an extreme change would only make the girl unconfortable with Linux, but if he starts by changin little aspects of the Child's pc then he might be able to change her without any complaint from the girl.

[jdodson]

I think that a gift should be useful to the person you are giving it, and I don't think Linux would be helpfull for your niece, she won't understand what you are trying to do, and won't appreciate the present, you should give her a WinXP box, if you want her to convert to Linux, you should install all the Linux games that have windows installers, and see how she goes from there, in the future you might be able to change the OS.

For the love of GOD DON'T SUGGEST THAT! Seriously, the Ubuntu forums goal is to get people _AWAY_ from the propreitary desktop, not bring them closer to the man and give the man money! *sigh*

Anyways, if I know Azz, and to a certain point I do, and to a certain point, we have never really met. I don't think he would setup a WinXP box.

Anyways, Azz I have some little sisters, they have some games you have described, I will snag those games and try them out in Cedega and get back to you on how it went. I hope you can wait a week or so, thats the next time I will be going to my parents town. Is that ok?

p.s. you daughter is cute, I have never cried at windows before, though it does invoke emotion in a negative way.

[sonny]

For the love of GOD DON'T SUGGEST THAT! Seriously, the Ubuntu forums goal is to get people _AWAY_ from the propreitary desktop, not bring them closer to the man and give the man money! *sigh*

Anyways, if I know Azz, and to a certain point I do, and to a certain point, we have never really met. I don't think he would setup a WinXP box.

Anyways, Azz I have some little sisters, they have some games you have described, I will snag those games and try them out in Cedega and get back to you on how it went. I hope you can wait a week or so, thats the next time I will be going to my parents town. Is that ok?

p.s. you daughter is cute, I have never cried at windows before, though it does invoke emotion in a negative way.
I don't think the girl will understand what Azz is doing for her, she just wants her games, she doesn't understand about patents, or open source, not even would know that Bill Gtaes is an evil man, she just wants to play all the cereal games she can.

Good luck with CEDEGA, I really mean it.

[shakin]

Why all this talk of Cedega? It's only useful for DirectX games. I suggest Crossover Office, as it supports many apps better than vanilla Wine. It's $40, which isn't ridiculous and you can get a 30-day trial (http://www.codeweavers.com/products/download_trial/) to ensure compatibility before you buy it.

I know some of my son's games are Shockwave and Crossover supports the Shockwave plugin, so that sounds like a real possible solution.

[sonny]

Why all this talk of Cedega? It's only useful for DirectX games. I suggest Crossover Office, as it supports many apps better than vanilla Wine. It's $40, which isn't ridiculous and you can get a 30-day trial (http://www.codeweavers.com/products/download_trial/) to ensure compatibility before you buy it.

I know some of my son's games are Shockwave and Crossover supports the Shockwave plugin, so that sounds like a real possible solution.
You can be right about that... I think CrossOver is more efficient for little apps or stuff like that... and you are right about the shockwave, hopefully those games are shockwave base... are they Azz?

[az]

You can be right about that... I think CrossOver is more efficient for little apps or stuff like that... and you are right about the shockwave, hopefully those games are shockwave base... are they Azz?

I thought that crossover was really about MS Word. You are right about Shockwave. Many of those sites are flash, but a few of them use shockwave.... Although fewer sites are developed with it, I think. I was happy to think they were putting more effort into a truly cross-platform technology.

How good is the crossover plugin for shockwave, then? We are talking about a pretty slow computer.

Is there a lot of performance degradation?

I know wine and winetools support the installers pretty well, Is it even better with crossover?

[shakin]

I thought that crossover was really about MS Word. You are right about Shockwave. Many of those sites are flash, but a few of them use shockwave.... Although fewer sites are developed with it, I think. I was happy to think they were putting more effort into a truly cross-platform technology.

How good is the crossover plugin for shockwave, then? We are talking about a pretty slow computer.

Is there a lot of performance degradation?

I know wine and winetools support the installers pretty well, Is it even better with crossover?

The Shockwave plugin works on my son's P2 400, although I didn't test extensively. One of the main applications of Shockwave is for 3D games (I think a Dora game on the nickjr.com site is one of these) so 3D video drivers will help a lot. Performance isn't an issue otherwise because these are usually simple vector graphics.

Crossover definitely supports installers better than wine and winetools. I use Crossover instead of Wine for most things because of this.

[entvex]

azz can you use http://www.transgaming.com/ run windows games on linux ;-)

[sonny]

I thought that crossover was really about MS Word. You are right about Shockwave. Many of those sites are flash, but a few of them use shockwave.... Although fewer sites are developed with it, I think. I was happy to think they were putting more effort into a truly cross-platform technology.

How good is the crossover plugin for shockwave, then? We are talking about a pretty slow computer.

Is there a lot of performance degradation?

I know wine and winetools support the installers pretty well, Is it even better with crossover?
I have tried cross-over, and it's quite good, not just for MS releated software, but also with small aplications, and the shockwave thing is true, cuz I've tried some stuff in it; can't recall the names right now, though. You should give it a go, there's a free version of it, or you can download the Xandros free version, I think it's included in the cd.

[bored2k]

azz can you use http://www.transgaming.com/ run windows games on linux ;-)

You don't use a website to run games..

[majikstreet]

Looks like a spammer to me.

[charlieg]

There are lots of websites that do games for kids. Stuff like the cbeebies website (by the bbc):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/

Most games are in flash on these types of sites. I did have a load bookmarked but lost those bookmarks a while ago, so you'll have to search for yourself. Just google for "free online games for toddlers" and it'll throw up a few.

[matthew]

Azz, I have a 3 year old daughter and a 2 year old as well and have encountered the same problem. For the moment I am dual booting with winxp when she wants to play one of her games or she just plays them at her grandparents' house as they only use windows. Honestly, she plays them briefly and ends up getting tired of them quickly so I don't end up booting into windows too often. She does have gcompris, potato man and tuxpaint installed and ends up wanting to play those more often.
as usual, ymmv since each person has their own tastes. I will pay attention to this thread, though. If you find a way to install the little kid games in linux and get them working I'll be happy as well.

[RaymondQE]

You don't use a website to run games..
Just for clarification, that website that entvex pointed out is the homepage for the company that produces cedega.

[bored2k]

Just for clarification, that website that entvex pointed out is the homepage for the company that produces cedega.
I am aware of it, but apparently the user just popped in and did not read the other posts because we had already mentioned Cedega.

[RaymondQE]

I am aware of it, but apparently the user just popped in and did not read the other posts because we had already mentioned Cedega.
True. I too thinking that his comment was repeating ideas presented earlier in the thread. I was just clearing it up for other forum readers who might not be aware of the relationship.

Sorry for bringing this thread slightly off-topic. Anyways, continue on.

[sunwave]

I've a little Sister and i am a gamer too.

There is or will be the great problem, that most of their friends will be using Windows Boxes at Home and are playing Windows-Games. Under social aspects they would follow the majority and would like to play also windows games.

But if you or better she/he (your daughter/son) will be able to inspire the whole Ring of Friends to wanna game and play around Linux the Question would be contrary:

mamma, papa... My girlfriend (azz's daughter) have Linux installed and is playing 'frozen bubbles' Why don't WE have Linux ?

I think we should show them Tux from his best side and they would love him or not - if not, we have to accept.

But if we haven't shown all out of Linux, it's our fault.

Just my 5 cents..

[entvex]

lol http://www.transgaming.com/ is makeing Cedega.
it Runs windows games! like it was windows ? so you can use linux and play windows games ?


and im not a darn spammer!

[sunwave]

lol http://www.transgaming.com/ is makeing Cedega.
it Runs windows games! like it was windows ? so you can use linux and play windows games ?


and im not a darn spammer!
You both have not read the thread carefully! In the Thread Cedega was already discussed. But you've posted only a short drop of the Transgaming-Website.
Not everyone click on each WebLink in forums, because this platform is used to post advertisements. And such posts would be very fast assessed as SPAM.

So keep in Mind to drop a fiew more words about a Link and you shouldn't be called a spammer in the future.

I hope the off topic part of this thread is terminated.

Thanks.

[az]

lol http://www.transgaming.com/ is makeing Cedega.
it Runs windows games! like it was windows ? so you can use linux and play windows games ?


and im not a darn spammer!


Try it out for yourself:

http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=45


And do not use the "f" word. I hate editing other people's posts.

[sonny]

Azz have you seen the following web site?
http://happypenguin.org/
They have a LOT of games, perhaps a little (or much) sreaching would help you finding some games for your niece and daughter.

[az]

Azz have you seen the following web site?
http://happypenguin.org/
They have a LOT of games, perhaps a little (or much) sreaching would help you finding some games for your niece and daughter.


Thanks.

Again, I do not have trouble in keeping my daughter interested in her Ubuntu computer. The problem lies with the collection of windows games that her cousin holds dear because they were given to her as gifts.

Ideally, her cousin would like to browse a photo collection in GQview or fly around her hard-disk universe in Xcruise like her cousin (my daughter) *and* play Blue's Clues without rebooting.

My daughter does not have that problem because my family knows not to buy those things for us.

[skatedawe]

Beat up the cousin girl.

Or show them www.runescape.com, let them create a "free account".

[aveline]

Beat up the cousin girl.

Or show them www.runescape.com, let them create a "free account".
on both XP & Ubu, Firefox Crashes badly on that link of yours

wtf

aveline

[matthew]

on both XP & Ubu, Firefox Crashes badly on that link of yours
I had the same problem.

[gabester]

I have a 2-1/2 old daughter who has been using TuxPaint since age 1-1/2. I finally built an old computer up for her as an Ubuntu box to get her off mine in the evenings.

I was very happy to find how extensible TuxPaint is (this probably applies to the Windows version of Tuxpaint as well). You can add your own custom stamps by placing new PNG files in the "Stamps" directory. I scanned a few of her favorite storybook characters in, applied transparency with GIMP, and added them to TuxPaint. Now she can compose scenes with her favorite characters, greatly renewing her interest in the program.

However, lately she is on a gcompris kick- it meshes well with her pre-montessori daycare, and she enjoys figuring this one out on her own.

For Christmas we received a Windows-based Dora The Explorer game, but I was not able to get it to run using Crossover Office v5.01. It installs ok but won't run. I haven't tried Cedega. The problem appears to be with unfinished DirectX 9.0 support in Crossover. Maybe in Codeweavers version 6 (http://www.codeweavers.com/about/general/press/?id=20050809)?

If anyone figures out how to run the Dora games on Ubuntu please drop me a reply. Dora is my girl's current favorite "fair use" addition to Tuxpaint!