[Cialug] Next Meeting - 12/20

[dave]

David Champion wrote:
> Josh More wrote:
>>  Well, no one has mentioned a plan for the next meeting, so I'll throw
>> my hat in the ring.  (not literally though, as I quite like my hat).
>>
>> Given that it is so close to the holidays, how about a meeting that is
>> a combination swap meet and "show off your favorite games" night?
>>
>> Given the time of year, I think that playing Frozen Bubble and Penguin
>> Swing would be fun.  I'm sure others have fun games to suggest too.
>>
>
> bzflag ctf tourney. We can divide the teams up by distribution family. :)
>
> red - redhat / mandriva / suse
> blue - debian / ubuntu
> purple - slackware / gentoo / lfs
> green - *bsd / irix / hpux / aix
> black - mac / windows / vax vms / system-36
>
> The gentoo team will have to join the game in progress, since it will 
> take them a while to compile the executable. If you're starting a new 
> machine, you might want to start the installation now, and you might 
> be ready by the 20th.
>
> I don't think we'll have any VAX users now that Tom has moved to 
> Michigan, but just in case, Josh, can you give directions to the 
> freight elevator?
>
> One problem with this is the various distributions have differing 
> versions - so even though they all may have some version of bzflag, 
> they're not all compatible.
>
> -dc
FYI, if you're interested in practicing up a bit before hand, here's the 
web site for bzflag:

http://bzflag.org/

Most linux distros probably have this game in their repository.

If anyone's interested, I can run a server maybe Monday or Tuesday 
evening for a practise session.

It doesn't require a lot of horsepower, but you will need to have 3D 
graphics capability (opengl). You could in theory play it with a laptop 
with a trackpad or pointer stick, but you'd probably be happier using a 
mouse.

The control scheme is a little odd at first - the position of your mouse 
pointer relative to the targeting reticle in the center of your screen 
determines your speed and direction. Left mouse is fire, space drops the 
current flag, tab jumps (yes, jumping tanks.) Another important thing to 
remember is that if you're turning when you jump, you'll continue to 
rotate at that rate while you're in the air (but you travel in a 
straight line).

We've played some big ctf bzflag games at LAN parties before, it's a lot 
of fun.

-dc