Tux Racer
Version: 0.7.4 Web: http://bit.ly/2qOGms6
Studies show that eating herring is much healthier if you slide down the hill on your stomach at 200km/h. This pretty much sums up ExtremeTuxRacer, where the goal is to score points from your times and the amount of herrings you’ve collected.
ExtremeTuxRacer is one of the stars of open source gaming. It’s been around since 2000, and has been a classic showcase of Tux, the Linux mascot. The ‘Extreme’ prefix has only recently been added, though.
The game’s high-quality graphics, which show reflections from icy surfaces and finely detailed fur trees, combined with the cheerful music, makes the game fun and addictive. Recent versions of ExtremeTuxRacer give you more customisation options, starting with the character: you can choose to play as Trixi (a female penguin), FreeBSD’s Beastie or Samuel the seal instead of Tux. The game can be enjoyed by both children and adults, but there’s also a tactical element on offer. You can only accelerate up to 60km/h, after which you’ll need to try to keep your character on the icy parts of the map and do some fancy footwork to help it accelerate even more. You can tumble Tux when flying by holding down T and any of the arrow keys. This doesn’t help you win, but it looks amazing! You can change the time of day or add elements and try to complete your level with, say, a strong side wind while competing at night. ExtremeTuxRacer enables you to play through some practice levels, while in campaign mode you can try to win all of the cups in a chosen campaign. In each cup, you’ll have to complete courses within the specific time while collecting enough herrings, which isn’t as simple as it sounds!
It’s best to start out on the practice slopes, before progressing to the many levels that had been submitted by the Linux community.
“Do some fancy footwork to help Tux accelerate even more.”