Thursday, January 3, 2008

Running OpenTTD on OLPC

Yes! it is possible! OpenTTD, an open-source clone of the classic game Transport Tycoon Deluxe can run on OLPC and all the kids can enjoy this great game!

Here is the pic:




You will need:
1) a PC running Ubuntu or Debian (or any other distro with dpkg-deb installed)
2) original files from TTD as described in readme:

Before you run OpenTTD, you need to put the game's datafiles into the data/
subdirectory. You need the following files from the original version
of TTD as OpenTTD makes use of the original TTD artwork.

List of the required files:
sample.cat
trg1r.grf
trgcr.grf
trghr.grf
trgir.grf
trgtr.grf

(Alternatively you can use the TTD GRF files from the DOS version: TRG1.GRF,
TRGC.GRF, TRGH.GRF, TRGI.GRF, TRGT.GRF. A few minor graphical glitches with
the DOS graphics remain. E.g. the autorail button in the rail toolbar doesn't
look as nice as with the Windows graphics.)

If you have all above, you can continue to setup:
  1. from your PC download openttd .deb package (http://www.openttd.org/downloads.php) I personally used the latest 0.6.0-beta2.
  2. start mc (midnight commander, if you do not have it installed: sudo apt-get install mc)
  3. find downloaded file and unpack content of CONTENTS/usr folder it to USB drive
  4. plug USB drive to OLPC
  5. start shell activity
  6. su
  7. I installed mc on olpc too, it's a very helpful tool: yum install mc
  8. start mc with command: mc
  9. from mc copy content of usr/share from your USB drive to /usr/share on OLPC
  10. copy usr/games/openttd file to /usr/bin/openttd (this way you will be able to run it from shell)
  11. install needed libs with this command: yum install compat-libstdc++-33
  12. exit mc: exit
  13. exit su: exit
  14. start openttd: openttd
That's it! go to options and select "Fullscreen"

Enjoy it!