Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Thomas Ward]

Hi Josh,

I am well aware of Android and its games. In fact, was considering one
for a very long time. Thing is while Android has a fair selection it
isn't the same selection so user preference would have a lot to do
with the purchasing process here. So while I haven't forgotten about
Android I'm uncertain myself if that is the way I personally want to
go for my phone purchase.


On 11/15/15, Josh K <joshknnd1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> don't forget about android. they have lots of games also.
>
> follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982
>
> On 11/15/2015 8:03 AM, Thomas Ward wrote:
>> Hi Dark,
>>
>> Oh, I know. An iPhone is becoming quite the handy little device. I'd
>> really like to get one, but my funds being what they are it is still
>> something off in the future for me. Although, it is definitely on my
>> list of things to do when time and money permits.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:
>>> Hi Tom.
>>>
>>> Well, I won't deny the expense, indeed this is why I have not upgraded
>>> from
>>>
>>> an Iphone 5 sinse I looked at the 6 series and there just wasn't enough
>>> by
>>> way of advantage to justify the expense (whether the 7 series will be is
>>> something I'll wait and see).
>>>
>>> However, on the positive side we are now getting to the point in game
>>> development terms where Ios has a really good selection of stuff
>>> available,
>>>
>>> everything from traditional games to trivia, interactive fiction or
>>> arcade
>>> and action titles.
>>>
>>> There was a time when the choice was more limited, but that's not the
>>> case
>>> anymore, and of course that's not counting arious other useful little
>>> programs, functions and applications that just happen to come in handy.
>>>
>>> All the best,
>>>
>>> Dark.
>>> - Original Message -
>>> From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
>>> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
>>> Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 2:44 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
>>> device/unit
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi Dark,
>>>>
>>>> Oh, I don't doubt that. Unfortunately, I am extremely cash strapped
>>>> right now so haven't had the funds or means available to purchase a
>>>> new iPhone so have had to do without that advantage myself. Still, I
>>>> do have it on the things to do once those funds become available to
>>>> me. I just looked at phone plans the other day and it might be
>>>> feasible in the next few months or so once I see my way through my
>>>> medical issues.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:
>>>>> Hi Tom.
>>>>>
>>>>> This is one thing I like my Iphone for it is true, particularly
>>>>> because
>>>>> these days there are a number of games available on it from the
>>>>> Choiceofgames titles and other complex rpgs like King of Dragon pass
>>>>> and
>>>>> Silver sword, to very simple arcade affairs like catch 52 not to
>>>>> mention
>>>>>
>>>>> all
>>>>>
>>>>> the blindfold card, board and puzzle games, actually I find it really
>>>>> handy
>>>>>
>>>>> for long train journies when I am tired of reading and want something
>>>>> else
>>>>> to do.
>>>>>
>>>>> All the best,
>>>>>
>>>>> Dark.
>>>>> - Original Message -
>>>>> From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
>>>>> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
>>>>> Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 1:56 AM
>>>>> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
>>>>> device/unit
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Jacob,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The
>>>>>> only
>>>>>> thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
>>>>>> want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
>>>>>> only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Ra

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Cara Quinn]

Hi Dark,

I am not sure of the differences between the Apple program vs the usual carrier 
based programs but apparently people do like it so I am assuming there is 
something worth checking into there.

As a matter of fact, I was actually not planning on upgrading from my current 
6+ to the 6S+ but the upgrade program has got me considering it just to have 
the latest iPhone for development.

Aside from the 3D Touch and better camera on the new phone, I am fairly content 
with my current phone but when it comes to development, it is always best to 
work on the most current platform as well as having a choice of former 
platforms as well with which to test software.

Anyway, I am not sure how cost-effective the monthly programs are here in the 
states in the long run, but it is nice to know that the tech is available for a 
less ridiculous up-front price both here and in the rest of the world. Very 
glad you saw cost benefits in the end from the monthly plan. That’s good to 
know. For gaming (among other things) it is always nice to have access to the 
latest tech.

I am always super impressed with all of the new games constantly coming out for 
mobile devices and the iPhone in particular. Each new generation of hardware 
just takes the gaming experience another leap forward and the new development 
libraries both from device manufacturers and third-parties just make the ease 
of coding new and incredible features that much better both for developers and 
customers alike.

Between iOS and Android, it is totally doable to really have all one’s 
computing needs taken care of in the mobile space. Personally, aside from my 
development work, I would be quite happy to take my computing completely mobile 
at this point.

I do %99 of my current gaming on a mobile device and prefer it that way.

-And, with a BT keyboard, I can do anything else I would like to do on a 
regular basis, in the mobile space.

As far as gaming goes, I am actually much more intrigued with the mobile space 
vs the full-on PC space since the mobile platform is a much more interactive 
platform in my opinion.

Both as a developer and as a customer, I love the idea of touch input, as well 
as kinesthetic interaction with the device. Couple all this with the compass 
and location awareness and the whole way one can interact with games can be 
much more immersive and can also foster entirely new gaming experiences from 
what has been common on the PC platforms.

So to get back to the original point of the post, it is nice to know that the 
distributed payment plans can actually be beneficial and allow more folks to 
get awesome and helpful devices!

Anyway, enough of my ramblings. :) thanks for your post and have a great 
evening!…

Cheers!

Cara
---
iOS design and development - LookTel.com
---
View my Online Portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn

Follow me on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/ModelCara

On Nov 15, 2015, at 7:36 AM, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:

Hi Cara.

I'm not sure how it is where you are, but I also did that with my phone here 
when I bought it in 2012 with the mobile provider three.

One of the nice things was that when I deducted the price of the actual Iphone 
itself from my yearly bill, the unlimited internet and phone calls were half 
what I was paying on my previous plan, so I actually made on the deal over all 
even though my phone bil itself was larger.

If I wanted to upgrade the phone, I could just do the same again, though as I 
said I'm waiting until a model turns up with sufficiently more advanced 
features relative to my Iphone five to make buying the thing actively worth 
while.

All the best,

Dark.
- Original Message - From: "Cara Quinn" <caraqu...@caraquinn.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2015 11:20 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit


> Also, on the Apple side, there is now a program where you can purchase an 
> iPhone on a monthly plan.
> 
> This way you would not need to spend a larger amount up front to get your 
> phone.
> 
> I believe this needs to be done at an Apple Store and then goes through your 
> carrier.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Cara
> ---
> iOS design and development - LookTel.com
> ---
> View my Online Portfolio at:
> 
> http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn
> 
> Follow me on Twitter!
> 
> https://twitter.com/ModelCara
> 
> On Nov 14, 2015, at 8:28 AM, Josh K <joshknnd1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> hey thomas, you can also get an unlocked accessible blu android phone running 
> 5.0 lollypop for $99 from amazon with talkback on it. I plan on getting the 
> blu super camera phone and it has gps on it and pretty much everything you'd 
> expect from a modern android phone.
> 
> follow me on twitter @jos

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[dark]

Hi Josh.

there are more games being developed for Android it is true, but the 
selection is still farely small compared to Ios, for example I don't believe 
there are too many really imersive 3D action games for android yet, and the 
Android version of King of Dragon pass is unfortunately inaccessible at the 
moment (though that might change in the future).


This isn't one of those "Ios good, Android bad" type of conversations, just 
noting that if your interested in games Ios at the moment is probably the 
way to go if you just get one.


This might of course change in the future, indeed I'm not beyond the 
possibility of getting an Android tablet myself for games, though there 
hasn't really been enough unique to Android yet, plus of course the 
compatibility business with different models and operating systems and such 
hasn't helped either.


All the best,

Dark.
- Original Message - 
From: "Josh K" <joshknnd1...@gmail.com>

To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2015 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing 
device/unit




don't forget about android. they have lots of games also.

follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982

On 11/15/2015 8:03 AM, Thomas Ward wrote:

Hi Dark,

Oh, I know. An iPhone is becoming quite the handy little device. I'd
really like to get one, but my funds being what they are it is still
something off in the future for me. Although, it is definitely on my
list of things to do when time and money permits.



On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:

Hi Tom.

Well, I won't deny the expense, indeed this is why I have not upgraded 
from


an Iphone 5 sinse I looked at the 6 series and there just wasn't enough 
by

way of advantage to justify the expense (whether the 7 series will be is
something I'll wait and see).

However, on the positive side we are now getting to the point in game
development terms where Ios has a really good selection of stuff 
available,


everything from traditional games to trivia, interactive fiction or 
arcade

and action titles.

There was a time when the choice was more limited, but that's not the 
case

anymore, and of course that's not counting arious other useful little
programs, functions and applications that just happen to come in handy.

All the best,

Dark.
- Original Message -
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 2:44 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
device/unit



Hi Dark,

Oh, I don't doubt that. Unfortunately, I am extremely cash strapped
right now so haven't had the funds or means available to purchase a
new iPhone so have had to do without that advantage myself. Still, I
do have it on the things to do once those funds become available to
me. I just looked at phone plans the other day and it might be
feasible in the next few months or so once I see my way through my
medical issues.



On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:

Hi Tom.

This is one thing I like my Iphone for it is true, particularly 
because

these days there are a number of games available on it from the
Choiceofgames titles and other complex rpgs like King of Dragon pass 
and
Silver sword, to very simple arcade affairs like catch 52 not to 
mention


all

the blindfold card, board and puzzle games, actually I find it really
handy

for long train journies when I am tired of reading and want something
else
to do.

All the best,

Dark.
- Original Message -
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 1:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
device/unit



Hi Jacob,

Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The 
only

thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really 
an

option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
those extremes.



On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:
Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which 
is

effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC
implemented

on
a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.

It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating,
and
don't seem 

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Cara Quinn]

Hi John, as I’d mentioned in my last note to Dennis, it is possible to simulate 
positional audio in a 3D virtual environment in software without the need for 
more than two speakers.

So honestly, I see no reason that 3D audio may not be possible on something 
like the Pie, provided it can run an appropriate audio engine.

Have a great night!

Cheers!

Cara
---
iOS design and development - LookTel.com
---
View my Online Portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn

Follow me on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/ModelCara

On Nov 16, 2015, at 3:30 PM, john <jpcarnemo...@gmail.com> wrote:

Seconded on the 48khz bit - most audio files used in games are actually 
44.1khz, if not less (early GMA was 22.05).
I'm not sure how many games actually make use of surround sound at all, and 
I can't think of any that require it, meaning that, presuming they ran on 
Linux which most don't right now, there shouldn't really be a problem with 
that either.

--
From: "Dennis Towne" <s...@xirr.com>
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2015 17:03
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing 
device/unit

A 48 khz sampling rate has nothing to do with audio quality.  Lack of
surround sound is probably pretty big though.

Dennis Towne

On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 10:48 AM, Cara Quinn <caraqu...@caraquinn.com> 
wrote:
> Hi Travis,
> 
> Actually OpenAL does support positional audio in software with a stereo 
> setup.
> 
> So if OpenAL can run on the Pie, (which I am assuming it can) we could 
> have 3D audio.
> 
> Just a thought for now.
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Cara
> ---
> iOS design and development - LookTel.com
> ---
> View my Online Portfolio at:
> 
> http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn
> 
> Follow me on Twitter!
> 
> https://twitter.com/ModelCara
> 
> On Nov 16, 2015, at 8:54 AM, Travis Siegel <tsie...@nfbcal.org> wrote:
> 
> The pi doesn't have a very good sound chip in it.  It is only capable of 
> stero at 48KHZ.  It can't do surround sound, and all the tests I've done 
> on it seem to indicate even front/rear speakers make no difference, 
> there's only left/right on the pi.
> I did go hunting for sound cards that will work on the pi, and have found 
> 3 of them, though detailed specs on the various cards were not available, 
> so I have yet to determine of any of those usb sound cards could be used 
> to render full audio required for the kinds of games the vi community 
> would like to see.  I'm going to purchase one of the cards in a couple 
> weeks, and begin experimenting.  Hopefully I can find something that will 
> work for us as a whole, but of course, having more folks looking/playing 
> with the pi would of course speed any and all progress towards the goal of 
> build our own gaming machine.
> I would love to port anything of interest to the pi, but since I don't 
> know what is of interest, I'm kind of just nibling around the edges (so to 
> speak) and porting things I've already ported to the mac or linux from 
> before.  I'm of course perfectly willing to help anyone port anything if 
> they have the desire to make a version for the pi, but until we can find a 
> better soundsystem for the pi, basic audio games are all we'll be able to 
> make, since things are constrained by the pi sound at the moment.  Of 
> course, this doesn't mean we can't build up a nice collection of things to 
> play anyway, things that don't depend on positional audio will work just 
> fine.  I've written to RSG games asking for a pi version of their client, 
> since python is one of the major languages for the pi, I expect that 
> porting the rsg client would simply be a matter of including a proper 
> version of their compiled python code, and poof, it's all done. 
> Unfortunately, I received no response to my inquiry, so no idea if that's 
> due to lack of interest, lack of knowledge, lack of message receipt, or 
> some other reason.  However, I'll continue porting things I can get my 
> hands on, and perhaps, even without a great sound architecture, the pi 
> could still be used as a basic gaming rig by some.
> 
> 
> On Sun, 15 Nov 2015, Cara Quinn wrote:
> 
>> Hi Travis,
>> 
>> I have been thinking about a Raspberry Pie for a while. You answered many 
>> of my questions with this post but one that I have is how easy is it to 
>> set up with a visual impairment?
>> 
>> Also, you had mentioned that the sound is not great. I assume you can 
>> plug a headset into one?
>> 
>> Considering the headset idea, would it then be possible to install a 
>> third-party audio library such as OpenAL?
>> 
>> You ca

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[john]

There are talking linux installs - presumably you could also use one of 
these? Just boot from device x and install to device y, and you aught to be 
good to go.

--
From: "Jacob Kruger" <ja...@blindza.co.za>
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2015 6:24
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing 
device/unit

No idea if it includes orca, etc., but, here's a sort of announcement page
for the raspberry pi version of ubuntu mate, including both a torrent
download link for the image, as well as, I think, a direct download link -
they actually ask you to use the bittorrent, and offer seeding afterwards:
https://ubuntu-mate.org/raspberry-pi/

Also seems like you'd definitely need sighted help for initial boot-up, for
the setup wizard, but anyway.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."

- Original Message - 
From: "Josh K" <joshknnd1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 5:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
device/unit


> and I also read the latest ubuntu mate 15.10 has a version for the
> raspberry pie.
>
> follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982
>
> On 11/13/2015 11:20 PM, Jacob Kruger wrote:
>> Thomas, it's way more than just an interactive fiction gaming unit, but
>> that was my sort of context-specific posting to this list.
>>
>> It's a full debian linux PC that literally fits in the palm of your hand,
>> and in terms of portability, biggest issue would be needing to use it
>> with an external keyboard.
>>
>> My primary reason for actually getting hold of one was since want to try
>> using it as a small, portable, low-end web server, and have got 80% of
>> that process sorted - apache is installed, along with PHP script
>> processing, and now just need to still get MySQL support installed, and
>> good to go.
>>
>> Check out the mainstream documentation page:
>> http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianDocumentation
>>
>> And, the less than complete VI specific usage website:
>> http://www.raspberryvi.org/
>>
>> Did also try out frotz interpreter, with wumpus.z5 yesterday, via SSH
>> terminal, working on unit, and worked pretty much perfectly though.
>>
>> Stay well
>>
>> Jacob Kruger
>> Blind Biker
>> Skype: BlindZA
>> "Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."
>>
>> - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward"
>> <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
>> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 3:56 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
>> device/unit
>>
>>
>>> Hi Jacob,
>>>
>>> Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
>>> thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
>>> want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
>>> only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
>>> device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
>>> investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
>>> like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
>>> with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
>>> option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
>>> something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
>>> those extremes.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:
>>>> Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
>>>> effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC
>>>> implemented on
>>>> a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.
>>>>
>>>> It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating,
>>>> and
>>>> don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a
>>>> GUI,
>>>> which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen
>>>> reader, you
>>>> can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas
>>>> having
>>>> helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
>>>> i

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Jacob Kruger]

Josh, I configured/set up my wifi dongle last night, and it literally took 
me like 5 minutes overall - turned unit off, plugged in a realtek wifi 
dongle, turned it on, double checked that it had initiated the device, by 
scanning through boot up log, edit the one text file using the nano editor, 
switched unit off, and turned it on again, and good to go.


Instructions were pulled off this page:
http://raspberrypihq.com/how-to-add-wifi-to-the-raspberry-pi/

Think it really just depends on compatibility, etc.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."

- Original Message - 
From: "Josh K" <joshknnd1...@gmail.com>

To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2015 2:30 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing 
device/unit



how easy is it to set up wi-fi? I am totally blind and would be using orca 
or speakup. though i prefer orca and a gui but speakup is fine if needed.


follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982

On 11/15/2015 4:24 PM, Cara Quinn wrote:

Hi Travis,

I have been thinking about a Raspberry Pie for a while. You answered many 
of my questions with this post but one that I have is how easy is it to 
set up with a visual impairment?


Also, you had mentioned that the sound is not great. I assume you can 
plug a headset into one?


Considering the headset idea, would it then be possible to install a 
third-party audio library such as OpenAL?


You can see where I am going here. I am wondering what would need to be 
done here to bring this closer to an audio gaming environment.


Thanks for any feedback or insights you may have.

Have a  great day!

Cheers!

Cara
---
iOS design and development - LookTel.com
---
View my Online Portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn

Follow me on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/ModelCara

On Nov 15, 2015, at 12:34 PM, Travis Siegel <tsie...@nfbcal.org> wrote:

I bought a raspberry pi, case, power adapter, and pre-installed raspbian 
system (never did get the sd card with the raspbian installed on it 
though) and the entire bill including shipping was around the 85-90 
dollar mark.  It's an excellent little unit.  It has 4 cpus in it, and 
runs at 1GHZ, with 1GB of ram.  It uses standard micro sd cards, up to 
32GB (if I remember correctly) though some of the 32 gb cards don't 
behave properly, so there is that to look out for,
but otherwise, it is truly an excellent system.  I'm actually using it as 
my main pc at the moment, since my imac went belly up a few months ago, 
and the only other machine I have is an old xp machine that has some 
serious dll issues, so it doesn't like to run for more than an hour or so 
at a time, depending on when/how windows decides to do things.  I've 
never managed to fix it, because my xp pro disk is unreadable, and I've 
not found another xp pro hd I could copy the dlls from to repair my 
system.
I have other linux systems in the house, but mine was disassembled to 
give parts to my son who built his own computer for gaming purposes, and 
I've not managed to get the additional parts I needed to rebuild my linux 
machine, so the raspberry pi is filling in quite nicely as my main pc at 
the moment.  It works well enough, and I can run it for about an hour 
using one of those pocket juice things, though I've not (yet) 
experimented with other battery power devices, although there's one on 
the raspberry store that claims 8 hours of usage.  I do plan to purchase 
one of those, so I have a nice portable unit.
I'd actually been considering trying to turn mine into a gaming unit as 
well, (thus the writing of the memory game Jake referred to in his post) 
The sound isn't anything to write home about, so for the moment, complex 
audio games aren't possible, but otherwise, it's quite the neat little 
unit, and I'm looking forward to see what else I can accomplish with it.



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Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Travis Siegel]

The pi doesn't have a very good sound chip in it.  It is only capable of 
stero at 48KHZ.  It can't do surround sound, and all the tests I've done 
on it seem to indicate even front/rear speakers make no difference, 
there's only left/right on the pi.
I did go hunting for sound cards that will work on the pi, and have found 
3 of them, though detailed specs on the various cards were not available, 
so I have yet to determine of any of those usb sound cards could be used 
to render full audio required for the kinds of games the vi community 
would like to see.  I'm going to purchase one of the cards in a couple 
weeks, and begin experimenting.  Hopefully I can find something that will 
work for us as a whole, but of course, having more folks looking/playing 
with the pi would of course speed any and all progress towards the goal of 
build our own gaming machine.
I would love to port anything of interest to the pi, but since I don't 
know what is of interest, I'm kind of just nibling around the edges (so to 
speak) and porting things I've already ported to the mac or linux from 
before.  I'm of course perfectly willing to help anyone port anything if 
they have the desire to make a version for the pi, but until we can find a 
better soundsystem for the pi, basic audio games are all we'll be able to 
make, since things are constrained by the pi sound at the moment.  Of 
course, this doesn't mean we can't build up a nice collection of things to 
play anyway, things that don't depend on positional audio will work just 
fine.  I've written to RSG games asking for a pi version of their client, 
since python is one of the major languages for the pi, I expect that 
porting the rsg client would simply be a matter of including a proper 
version of their compiled python code, and poof, it's all done. 
Unfortunately, I received no response to my inquiry, so no idea if that's 
due to lack of interest, lack of knowledge, lack of message receipt, or 
some other reason.  However, I'll continue porting things I can get my 
hands on, and perhaps, even without a great sound architecture, the pi 
could still be used as a basic gaming rig by some.



On Sun, 15 Nov 2015, Cara Quinn wrote:


Hi Travis,

I have been thinking about a Raspberry Pie for a while. You answered many of my 
questions with this post but one that I have is how easy is it to set up with a 
visual impairment?

Also, you had mentioned that the sound is not great. I assume you can plug a 
headset into one?

Considering the headset idea, would it then be possible to install a 
third-party audio library such as OpenAL?

You can see where I am going here. I am wondering what would need to be done 
here to bring this closer to an audio gaming environment.

Thanks for any feedback or insights you may have.

Have a  great day!

Cheers!

Cara
---
iOS design and development - LookTel.com
---
View my Online Portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn

Follow me on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/ModelCara

On Nov 15, 2015, at 12:34 PM, Travis Siegel  wrote:

I bought a raspberry pi, case, power adapter, and pre-installed raspbian system 
(never did get the sd card with the raspbian installed on it though) and the 
entire bill including shipping was around the 85-90 dollar mark.  It's an 
excellent little unit.  It has 4 cpus in it, and runs at 1GHZ, with 1GB of ram. 
 It uses standard micro sd cards, up to 32GB (if I remember correctly) though 
some of the 32 gb cards don't behave properly, so there is that to look out for,
but otherwise, it is truly an excellent system.  I'm actually using it as my 
main pc at the moment, since my imac went belly up a few months ago, and the 
only other machine I have is an old xp machine that has some serious dll 
issues, so it doesn't like to run for more than an hour or so at a time, 
depending on when/how windows decides to do things.  I've never managed to fix 
it, because my xp pro disk is unreadable, and I've not found another xp pro hd 
I could copy the dlls from to repair my system.
I have other linux systems in the house, but mine was disassembled to give 
parts to my son who built his own computer for gaming purposes, and I've not 
managed to get the additional parts I needed to rebuild my linux machine, so 
the raspberry pi is filling in quite nicely as my main pc at the moment.  It 
works well enough, and I can run it for about an hour using one of those pocket 
juice things, though I've not (yet) experimented with other battery power 
devices, although there's one on the raspberry store that claims 8 hours of 
usage.  I do plan to purchase one of those, so I have a nice portable unit.
I'd actually been considering trying to turn mine into a gaming unit as well, 
(thus the writing of the memory game Jake referred to in his post) The sound 
isn't anything to write home about, so for the moment, complex audio games 
aren't possible, but otherwise, it's quite the neat little unit, and 

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Travis Siegel]

There are wi-fi dongles for the pi, but I've not used any, so can't speak 
to how easy they are to configure.  Jacob has though, and based on his 
comments on the raspberry-vi list, it wasn't difficult.
Here at home, I have 2 wi-fi routers in the house, and a 48-port hub that 
everything plugs into from the whole house, so we've got plenty of network 
connectors to play with, so generally, the only things that we use 
wireless for are the cell phones and tablets.  Everything else gets a 
wired connection, though I have to say, installing new ethernet jacks in 
the bedrooms is a bit of a task, even with sighted assistance, it's a bear 
to get all those colored wires in the right spots, and make sure none are 
stripped back too far, so that we don't get touching bare wires which can 
cause any manner of trouble with a connection. :)



On Mon, 16 Nov 2015, Josh K wrote:

how easy is it to set up wi-fi? I am totally blind and would be using orca or 
speakup. though i prefer orca and a gui but speakup is fine if needed.


---
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Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Josh K]

how easy is it to set up wi-fi? I am totally blind and would be using 
orca or speakup. though i prefer orca and a gui but speakup is fine if 
needed.


follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982

On 11/15/2015 4:24 PM, Cara Quinn wrote:

Hi Travis,

I have been thinking about a Raspberry Pie for a while. You answered many of my 
questions with this post but one that I have is how easy is it to set up with a 
visual impairment?

Also, you had mentioned that the sound is not great. I assume you can plug a 
headset into one?

Considering the headset idea, would it then be possible to install a 
third-party audio library such as OpenAL?

You can see where I am going here. I am wondering what would need to be done 
here to bring this closer to an audio gaming environment.

Thanks for any feedback or insights you may have.

Have a  great day!

Cheers!

Cara
---
iOS design and development - LookTel.com
---
View my Online Portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn

Follow me on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/ModelCara

On Nov 15, 2015, at 12:34 PM, Travis Siegel  wrote:

I bought a raspberry pi, case, power adapter, and pre-installed raspbian system 
(never did get the sd card with the raspbian installed on it though) and the 
entire bill including shipping was around the 85-90 dollar mark.  It's an 
excellent little unit.  It has 4 cpus in it, and runs at 1GHZ, with 1GB of ram. 
 It uses standard micro sd cards, up to 32GB (if I remember correctly) though 
some of the 32 gb cards don't behave properly, so there is that to look out for,
but otherwise, it is truly an excellent system.  I'm actually using it as my 
main pc at the moment, since my imac went belly up a few months ago, and the 
only other machine I have is an old xp machine that has some serious dll 
issues, so it doesn't like to run for more than an hour or so at a time, 
depending on when/how windows decides to do things.  I've never managed to fix 
it, because my xp pro disk is unreadable, and I've not found another xp pro hd 
I could copy the dlls from to repair my system.
I have other linux systems in the house, but mine was disassembled to give 
parts to my son who built his own computer for gaming purposes, and I've not 
managed to get the additional parts I needed to rebuild my linux machine, so 
the raspberry pi is filling in quite nicely as my main pc at the moment.  It 
works well enough, and I can run it for about an hour using one of those pocket 
juice things, though I've not (yet) experimented with other battery power 
devices, although there's one on the raspberry store that claims 8 hours of 
usage.  I do plan to purchase one of those, so I have a nice portable unit.
I'd actually been considering trying to turn mine into a gaming unit as well, 
(thus the writing of the memory game Jake referred to in his post) The sound 
isn't anything to write home about, so for the moment, complex audio games 
aren't possible, but otherwise, it's quite the neat little unit, and I'm 
looking forward to see what else I can accomplish with it.


---
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You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
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You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
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please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.



---
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If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
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All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
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If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Jacob Kruger]

Those wouldn't necessarily operate/cooperate on this somewhat limited 
hardware - know normal ubuntu, with gnome GUI won't.


Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."

- Original Message - 
From: "john" <jpcarnemo...@gmail.com>

To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2015 2:06 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing 
device/unit




There are talking linux installs - presumably you could also use one of
these? Just boot from device x and install to device y, and you aught to 
be

good to go.

--
From: "Jacob Kruger" <ja...@blindza.co.za>
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2015 6:24
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
device/unit

No idea if it includes orca, etc., but, here's a sort of announcement page
for the raspberry pi version of ubuntu mate, including both a torrent
download link for the image, as well as, I think, a direct download link -
they actually ask you to use the bittorrent, and offer seeding afterwards:
https://ubuntu-mate.org/raspberry-pi/

Also seems like you'd definitely need sighted help for initial boot-up, 
for

the setup wizard, but anyway.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."

- Original Message - 
From: "Josh K" <joshknnd1...@gmail.com>

To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 5:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
device/unit



and I also read the latest ubuntu mate 15.10 has a version for the
raspberry pie.

follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982

On 11/13/2015 11:20 PM, Jacob Kruger wrote:

Thomas, it's way more than just an interactive fiction gaming unit, but
that was my sort of context-specific posting to this list.

It's a full debian linux PC that literally fits in the palm of your 
hand,

and in terms of portability, biggest issue would be needing to use it
with an external keyboard.

My primary reason for actually getting hold of one was since want to try
using it as a small, portable, low-end web server, and have got 80% of
that process sorted - apache is installed, along with PHP script
processing, and now just need to still get MySQL support installed, and
good to go.

Check out the mainstream documentation page:
http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianDocumentation

And, the less than complete VI specific usage website:
http://www.raspberryvi.org/

Did also try out frotz interpreter, with wumpus.z5 yesterday, via SSH
terminal, working on unit, and worked pretty much perfectly though.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."

- Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward"
<thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 3:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
device/unit



Hi Jacob,

Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
those extremes.



On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:

Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC
implemented on
a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.

It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating,
and
don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a
GUI,
which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen
reader, you
can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas
having
helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now 
have

the
frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off
micro-USB
cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for
charging
their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone char

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Cara Quinn]

Hi Travis,

Actually OpenAL does support positional audio in software with a stereo setup.

So if OpenAL can run on the Pie, (which I am assuming it can) we could have 3D 
audio.

Just a thought for now.

Cheers!

Cara
---
iOS design and development - LookTel.com
---
View my Online Portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn

Follow me on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/ModelCara

On Nov 16, 2015, at 8:54 AM, Travis Siegel  wrote:

The pi doesn't have a very good sound chip in it.  It is only capable of stero 
at 48KHZ.  It can't do surround sound, and all the tests I've done on it seem 
to indicate even front/rear speakers make no difference, there's only 
left/right on the pi.
I did go hunting for sound cards that will work on the pi, and have found 3 of 
them, though detailed specs on the various cards were not available, so I have 
yet to determine of any of those usb sound cards could be used to render full 
audio required for the kinds of games the vi community would like to see.  I'm 
going to purchase one of the cards in a couple weeks, and begin experimenting.  
Hopefully I can find something that will work for us as a whole, but of course, 
having more folks looking/playing with the pi would of course speed any and all 
progress towards the goal of build our own gaming machine.
I would love to port anything of interest to the pi, but since I don't know 
what is of interest, I'm kind of just nibling around the edges (so to speak) 
and porting things I've already ported to the mac or linux from before.  I'm of 
course perfectly willing to help anyone port anything if they have the desire 
to make a version for the pi, but until we can find a better soundsystem for 
the pi, basic audio games are all we'll be able to make, since things are 
constrained by the pi sound at the moment.  Of course, this doesn't mean we 
can't build up a nice collection of things to play anyway, things that don't 
depend on positional audio will work just fine.  I've written to RSG games 
asking for a pi version of their client, since python is one of the major 
languages for the pi, I expect that porting the rsg client would simply be a 
matter of including a proper version of their compiled python code, and poof, 
it's all done. Unfortunately, I received no response to my inquiry, so no idea 
 if that's due to lack of interest, lack of knowledge, lack of message receipt, 
or some other reason.  However, I'll continue porting things I can get my hands 
on, and perhaps, even without a great sound architecture, the pi could still be 
used as a basic gaming rig by some.


On Sun, 15 Nov 2015, Cara Quinn wrote:

> Hi Travis,
> 
> I have been thinking about a Raspberry Pie for a while. You answered many of 
> my questions with this post but one that I have is how easy is it to set up 
> with a visual impairment?
> 
> Also, you had mentioned that the sound is not great. I assume you can plug a 
> headset into one?
> 
> Considering the headset idea, would it then be possible to install a 
> third-party audio library such as OpenAL?
> 
> You can see where I am going here. I am wondering what would need to be done 
> here to bring this closer to an audio gaming environment.
> 
> Thanks for any feedback or insights you may have.
> 
> Have a  great day!
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Cara
> ---
> iOS design and development - LookTel.com
> ---
> View my Online Portfolio at:
> 
> http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn
> 
> Follow me on Twitter!
> 
> https://twitter.com/ModelCara
> 
> On Nov 15, 2015, at 12:34 PM, Travis Siegel  wrote:
> 
> I bought a raspberry pi, case, power adapter, and pre-installed raspbian 
> system (never did get the sd card with the raspbian installed on it though) 
> and the entire bill including shipping was around the 85-90 dollar mark.  
> It's an excellent little unit.  It has 4 cpus in it, and runs at 1GHZ, with 
> 1GB of ram.  It uses standard micro sd cards, up to 32GB (if I remember 
> correctly) though some of the 32 gb cards don't behave properly, so there is 
> that to look out for,
> but otherwise, it is truly an excellent system.  I'm actually using it as my 
> main pc at the moment, since my imac went belly up a few months ago, and the 
> only other machine I have is an old xp machine that has some serious dll 
> issues, so it doesn't like to run for more than an hour or so at a time, 
> depending on when/how windows decides to do things.  I've never managed to 
> fix it, because my xp pro disk is unreadable, and I've not found another xp 
> pro hd I could copy the dlls from to repair my system.
> I have other linux systems in the house, but mine was disassembled to give 
> parts to my son who built his own computer for gaming purposes, and I've not 
> managed to get the additional parts I needed to rebuild my linux machine, so 
> the raspberry pi is filling in quite nicely as my main pc at the moment.  It 
> works well enough, and I can run it 

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[john]

Seconded on the 48khz bit - most audio files used in games are actually 
44.1khz, if not less (early GMA was 22.05).
I'm not sure how many games actually make use of surround sound at all, and 
I can't think of any that require it, meaning that, presuming they ran on 
Linux which most don't right now, there shouldn't really be a problem with 
that either.

--
From: "Dennis Towne" <s...@xirr.com>
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2015 17:03
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing 
device/unit

A 48 khz sampling rate has nothing to do with audio quality.  Lack of
surround sound is probably pretty big though.

Dennis Towne

On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 10:48 AM, Cara Quinn <caraqu...@caraquinn.com> 
wrote:
> Hi Travis,
>
> Actually OpenAL does support positional audio in software with a stereo 
> setup.
>
> So if OpenAL can run on the Pie, (which I am assuming it can) we could 
> have 3D audio.
>
> Just a thought for now.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Cara
> ---
> iOS design and development - LookTel.com
> ---
> View my Online Portfolio at:
>
> http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn
>
> Follow me on Twitter!
>
> https://twitter.com/ModelCara
>
> On Nov 16, 2015, at 8:54 AM, Travis Siegel <tsie...@nfbcal.org> wrote:
>
> The pi doesn't have a very good sound chip in it.  It is only capable of 
> stero at 48KHZ.  It can't do surround sound, and all the tests I've done 
> on it seem to indicate even front/rear speakers make no difference, 
> there's only left/right on the pi.
> I did go hunting for sound cards that will work on the pi, and have found 
> 3 of them, though detailed specs on the various cards were not available, 
> so I have yet to determine of any of those usb sound cards could be used 
> to render full audio required for the kinds of games the vi community 
> would like to see.  I'm going to purchase one of the cards in a couple 
> weeks, and begin experimenting.  Hopefully I can find something that will 
> work for us as a whole, but of course, having more folks looking/playing 
> with the pi would of course speed any and all progress towards the goal of 
> build our own gaming machine.
> I would love to port anything of interest to the pi, but since I don't 
> know what is of interest, I'm kind of just nibling around the edges (so to 
> speak) and porting things I've already ported to the mac or linux from 
> before.  I'm of course perfectly willing to help anyone port anything if 
> they have the desire to make a version for the pi, but until we can find a 
> better soundsystem for the pi, basic audio games are all we'll be able to 
> make, since things are constrained by the pi sound at the moment.  Of 
> course, this doesn't mean we can't build up a nice collection of things to 
> play anyway, things that don't depend on positional audio will work just 
> fine.  I've written to RSG games asking for a pi version of their client, 
> since python is one of the major languages for the pi, I expect that 
> porting the rsg client would simply be a matter of including a proper 
> version of their compiled python code, and poof, it's all done. 
> Unfortunately, I received no response to my inquiry, so no idea if that's 
> due to lack of interest, lack of knowledge, lack of message receipt, or 
> some other reason.  However, I'll continue porting things I can get my 
> hands on, and perhaps, even without a great sound architecture, the pi 
> could still be used as a basic gaming rig by some.
>
>
> On Sun, 15 Nov 2015, Cara Quinn wrote:
>
>> Hi Travis,
>>
>> I have been thinking about a Raspberry Pie for a while. You answered many 
>> of my questions with this post but one that I have is how easy is it to 
>> set up with a visual impairment?
>>
>> Also, you had mentioned that the sound is not great. I assume you can 
>> plug a headset into one?
>>
>> Considering the headset idea, would it then be possible to install a 
>> third-party audio library such as OpenAL?
>>
>> You can see where I am going here. I am wondering what would need to be 
>> done here to bring this closer to an audio gaming environment.
>>
>> Thanks for any feedback or insights you may have.
>>
>> Have a  great day!
>>
>> Cheers!
>>
>> Cara
>> ---
>> iOS design and development - LookTel.com
>> ---
>> View my Online Portfolio at:
>>
>> http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn
>>
>> Follow me on Twitter!
>>
>> https://twitter.com/ModelCara
>>
>> On Nov 15, 2015, at 12:34 PM, Travis Siegel <tsie...

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Dennis Towne]

A 48 khz sampling rate has nothing to do with audio quality.  Lack of
surround sound is probably pretty big though.

Dennis Towne

On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 10:48 AM, Cara Quinn  wrote:
> Hi Travis,
>
> Actually OpenAL does support positional audio in software with a stereo setup.
>
> So if OpenAL can run on the Pie, (which I am assuming it can) we could have 
> 3D audio.
>
> Just a thought for now.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Cara
> ---
> iOS design and development - LookTel.com
> ---
> View my Online Portfolio at:
>
> http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn
>
> Follow me on Twitter!
>
> https://twitter.com/ModelCara
>
> On Nov 16, 2015, at 8:54 AM, Travis Siegel  wrote:
>
> The pi doesn't have a very good sound chip in it.  It is only capable of 
> stero at 48KHZ.  It can't do surround sound, and all the tests I've done on 
> it seem to indicate even front/rear speakers make no difference, there's only 
> left/right on the pi.
> I did go hunting for sound cards that will work on the pi, and have found 3 
> of them, though detailed specs on the various cards were not available, so I 
> have yet to determine of any of those usb sound cards could be used to render 
> full audio required for the kinds of games the vi community would like to 
> see.  I'm going to purchase one of the cards in a couple weeks, and begin 
> experimenting.  Hopefully I can find something that will work for us as a 
> whole, but of course, having more folks looking/playing with the pi would of 
> course speed any and all progress towards the goal of build our own gaming 
> machine.
> I would love to port anything of interest to the pi, but since I don't know 
> what is of interest, I'm kind of just nibling around the edges (so to speak) 
> and porting things I've already ported to the mac or linux from before.  I'm 
> of course perfectly willing to help anyone port anything if they have the 
> desire to make a version for the pi, but until we can find a better 
> soundsystem for the pi, basic audio games are all we'll be able to make, 
> since things are constrained by the pi sound at the moment.  Of course, this 
> doesn't mean we can't build up a nice collection of things to play anyway, 
> things that don't depend on positional audio will work just fine.  I've 
> written to RSG games asking for a pi version of their client, since python is 
> one of the major languages for the pi, I expect that porting the rsg client 
> would simply be a matter of including a proper version of their compiled 
> python code, and poof, it's all done. Unfortunately, I received no response 
> to my inquiry, so no ide
 a if that's due to lack of interest, lack of knowledge, lack of message 
receipt, or some other reason.  However, I'll continue porting things I can get 
my hands on, and perhaps, even without a great sound architecture, the pi could 
still be used as a basic gaming rig by some.
>
>
> On Sun, 15 Nov 2015, Cara Quinn wrote:
>
>> Hi Travis,
>>
>> I have been thinking about a Raspberry Pie for a while. You answered many of 
>> my questions with this post but one that I have is how easy is it to set up 
>> with a visual impairment?
>>
>> Also, you had mentioned that the sound is not great. I assume you can plug a 
>> headset into one?
>>
>> Considering the headset idea, would it then be possible to install a 
>> third-party audio library such as OpenAL?
>>
>> You can see where I am going here. I am wondering what would need to be done 
>> here to bring this closer to an audio gaming environment.
>>
>> Thanks for any feedback or insights you may have.
>>
>> Have a  great day!
>>
>> Cheers!
>>
>> Cara
>> ---
>> iOS design and development - LookTel.com
>> ---
>> View my Online Portfolio at:
>>
>> http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn
>>
>> Follow me on Twitter!
>>
>> https://twitter.com/ModelCara
>>
>> On Nov 15, 2015, at 12:34 PM, Travis Siegel  wrote:
>>
>> I bought a raspberry pi, case, power adapter, and pre-installed raspbian 
>> system (never did get the sd card with the raspbian installed on it though) 
>> and the entire bill including shipping was around the 85-90 dollar mark.  
>> It's an excellent little unit.  It has 4 cpus in it, and runs at 1GHZ, with 
>> 1GB of ram.  It uses standard micro sd cards, up to 32GB (if I remember 
>> correctly) though some of the 32 gb cards don't behave properly, so there is 
>> that to look out for,
>> but otherwise, it is truly an excellent system.  I'm actually using it as my 
>> main pc at the moment, since my imac went belly up a few months ago, and the 
>> only other machine I have is an old xp machine that has some serious dll 
>> issues, so it doesn't like to run for more than an hour or so at a time, 
>> depending on when/how windows decides to do things.  I've never managed to 
>> fix it, because my xp pro disk is unreadable, and I've not found another xp 
>> pro hd I could copy the dlls from to repair my system.
>> I have 

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Jacob Kruger]

No idea if it includes orca, etc., but, here's a sort of announcement page 
for the raspberry pi version of ubuntu mate, including both a torrent 
download link for the image, as well as, I think, a direct download link - 
they actually ask you to use the bittorrent, and offer seeding afterwards:

https://ubuntu-mate.org/raspberry-pi/

Also seems like you'd definitely need sighted help for initial boot-up, for 
the setup wizard, but anyway.


Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."

- Original Message - 
From: "Josh K" <joshknnd1...@gmail.com>

To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 5:12 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing 
device/unit



and I also read the latest ubuntu mate 15.10 has a version for the 
raspberry pie.


follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982

On 11/13/2015 11:20 PM, Jacob Kruger wrote:
Thomas, it's way more than just an interactive fiction gaming unit, but 
that was my sort of context-specific posting to this list.


It's a full debian linux PC that literally fits in the palm of your hand, 
and in terms of portability, biggest issue would be needing to use it 
with an external keyboard.


My primary reason for actually getting hold of one was since want to try 
using it as a small, portable, low-end web server, and have got 80% of 
that process sorted - apache is installed, along with PHP script 
processing, and now just need to still get MySQL support installed, and 
good to go.


Check out the mainstream documentation page:
http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianDocumentation

And, the less than complete VI specific usage website:
http://www.raspberryvi.org/

Did also try out frotz interpreter, with wumpus.z5 yesterday, via SSH 
terminal, working on unit, and worked pretty much perfectly though.


Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."

- Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" 
<thomasward1...@gmail.com>

To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 3:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing 
device/unit




Hi Jacob,

Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
those extremes.



On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:

Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC 
implemented on

a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.

It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating, 
and
don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a 
GUI,
which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen 
reader, you
can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas 
having

helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now have 
the
frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off 
micro-USB
cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for 
charging
their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone charging 
unit
have here, and plug in my earphones, then I could literally play most 
IF
games anywhere/everywhere, without having to drain my phone's battery, 
etc.


Does require connecting a USB keyboard, but, still - besides full-size
keyboard, it's a PC-in-your-pocket.

There's also at least one other raspberry-specific game I know of, but, 
am
also planning to play around with python code on this unit, etc. etc., 
so

let's see...

Overall, while it wasn't all that simple to get it up and running,
accessibly on my own, the total cost of what have here now is 
roundabout

ZAR700 = +-$55, or thereabouts, but anyway.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."
---
Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to
gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Cara Quinn]

Hi Dennis et al;

Not sure if your comment was directed to me or not. I was simply responding to 
the stereo comment.

To clarify this, OpenAL does simulate 3D positional audio using two speakers. 
It certainly can also take advantage of more speakers if more are available to 
it but it does a great job with only two as well.

For those who may not know, OpenAL is the default 3D audio library for iOS 
devices and the Mac so many of the games on iOS which use positional audio take 
advantage of at least some part of OpenAL.

However, to the comments that sampling rate has nothing to do with the quality 
of audio, perhaps I am misunderstanding y’all here, but it most certainly does. 
:)

Now, I am not saying that higher sample rates are better, but I am saying that 
they do matter when it comes to audio converters and such so yes, they can 
definitely affect the quality of audio.

As you say though, they do not have anything to do with 3D sound positioning..

Have a great night!

Cheers!

Cara
---
iOS design and development - LookTel.com
---
View my Online Portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn

Follow me on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/ModelCara

On Nov 16, 2015, at 3:03 PM, Dennis Towne  wrote:

A 48 khz sampling rate has nothing to do with audio quality.  Lack of
surround sound is probably pretty big though.

Dennis Towne

On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 10:48 AM, Cara Quinn  wrote:
> Hi Travis,
> 
> Actually OpenAL does support positional audio in software with a stereo setup.
> 
> So if OpenAL can run on the Pie, (which I am assuming it can) we could have 
> 3D audio.
> 
> Just a thought for now.
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Cara
> ---
> iOS design and development - LookTel.com
> ---
> View my Online Portfolio at:
> 
> http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn
> 
> Follow me on Twitter!
> 
> https://twitter.com/ModelCara
> 
> On Nov 16, 2015, at 8:54 AM, Travis Siegel  wrote:
> 
> The pi doesn't have a very good sound chip in it.  It is only capable of 
> stero at 48KHZ.  It can't do surround sound, and all the tests I've done on 
> it seem to indicate even front/rear speakers make no difference, there's only 
> left/right on the pi.
> I did go hunting for sound cards that will work on the pi, and have found 3 
> of them, though detailed specs on the various cards were not available, so I 
> have yet to determine of any of those usb sound cards could be used to render 
> full audio required for the kinds of games the vi community would like to 
> see.  I'm going to purchase one of the cards in a couple weeks, and begin 
> experimenting.  Hopefully I can find something that will work for us as a 
> whole, but of course, having more folks looking/playing with the pi would of 
> course speed any and all progress towards the goal of build our own gaming 
> machine.
> I would love to port anything of interest to the pi, but since I don't know 
> what is of interest, I'm kind of just nibling around the edges (so to speak) 
> and porting things I've already ported to the mac or linux from before.  I'm 
> of course perfectly willing to help anyone port anything if they have the 
> desire to make a version for the pi, but until we can find a better 
> soundsystem for the pi, basic audio games are all we'll be able to make, 
> since things are constrained by the pi sound at the moment.  Of course, this 
> doesn't mean we can't build up a nice collection of things to play anyway, 
> things that don't depend on positional audio will work just fine.  I've 
> written to RSG games asking for a pi version of their client, since python is 
> one of the major languages for the pi, I expect that porting the rsg client 
> would simply be a matter of including a proper version of their compiled 
> python code, and poof, it's all done. Unfortunately, I received no response 
> to my inquiry, so no idea if that's due to lack of interest, lack of 
> knowledge, lack of message receipt, or some other reason.  However, I'll 
> continue porting things I can get my hands on, and perhaps, even without a 
> great sound architecture, the pi could still be used as a basic gaming rig by 
> some.
> 
> 
> On Sun, 15 Nov 2015, Cara Quinn wrote:
> 
>> Hi Travis,
>> 
>> I have been thinking about a Raspberry Pie for a while. You answered many of 
>> my questions with this post but one that I have is how easy is it to set up 
>> with a visual impairment?
>> 
>> Also, you had mentioned that the sound is not great. I assume you can plug a 
>> headset into one?
>> 
>> Considering the headset idea, would it then be possible to install a 
>> third-party audio library such as OpenAL?
>> 
>> You can see where I am going here. I am wondering what would need to be done 
>> here to bring this closer to an audio gaming environment.
>> 
>> Thanks for any feedback or insights you may have.
>> 
>> Have a  great day!
>> 
>> Cheers!
>> 
>> Cara
>> ---
>> iOS design and development - 

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[dark]

Hi Cara.

I'm not sure how it is where you are, but I also did that with my phone here 
when I bought it in 2012 with the mobile provider three.


One of the nice things was that when I deducted the price of the actual 
Iphone itself from my yearly bill, the unlimited internet and phone calls 
were half what I was paying on my previous plan, so I actually made on the 
deal over all even though my phone bil itself was larger.


If I wanted to upgrade the phone, I could just do the same again, though as 
I said I'm waiting until a model turns up with sufficiently more advanced 
features relative to my Iphone five to make buying the thing actively worth 
while.


All the best,

Dark.
- Original Message - 
From: "Cara Quinn" <caraqu...@caraquinn.com>

To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2015 11:20 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing 
device/unit



Also, on the Apple side, there is now a program where you can purchase an 
iPhone on a monthly plan.


This way you would not need to spend a larger amount up front to get your 
phone.


I believe this needs to be done at an Apple Store and then goes through 
your carrier.


Hope this helps.

Cheers!

Cara
---
iOS design and development - LookTel.com
---
View my Online Portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn

Follow me on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/ModelCara

On Nov 14, 2015, at 8:28 AM, Josh K <joshknnd1...@gmail.com> wrote:

hey thomas, you can also get an unlocked accessible blu android phone 
running 5.0 lollypop for $99 from amazon with talkback on it. I plan on 
getting the blu super camera phone and it has gps on it and pretty much 
everything you'd expect from a modern android phone.


follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982

On 11/14/2015 9:44 AM, Thomas Ward wrote:

Hi Dark,

Oh, I don't doubt that. Unfortunately, I am extremely cash strapped
right now so haven't had the funds or means available to purchase a
new iPhone so have had to do without that advantage myself. Still, I
do have it on the things to do once those funds become available to
me. I just looked at phone plans the other day and it might be
feasible in the next few months or so once I see my way through my
medical issues.



On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:

Hi Tom.

This is one thing I like my Iphone for it is true, particularly because
these days there are a number of games available on it from the
Choiceofgames titles and other complex rpgs like King of Dragon pass and
Silver sword, to very simple arcade affairs like catch 52 not to mention 
all


the blindfold card, board and puzzle games, actually I find it really 
handy


for long train journies when I am tired of reading and want something 
else

to do.

All the best,

Dark.
- Original Message -
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 1:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
device/unit



Hi Jacob,

Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
those extremes.



On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:

Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC 
implemented


on
a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.

It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating, 
and

don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a
GUI,
which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen 
reader,


you
can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas
having
helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now 
have

the
frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off
micro-USB
cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for
charging
their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone charging 
unit
have here, and plug in my earphones, then I could literally play most 
IF

games anywhere/everywhere, without having to drain my phone's battery,
etc.

Does require connecting a USB key

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Josh K]

don't forget about android. they have lots of games also.

follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982

On 11/15/2015 8:03 AM, Thomas Ward wrote:

Hi Dark,

Oh, I know. An iPhone is becoming quite the handy little device. I'd
really like to get one, but my funds being what they are it is still
something off in the future for me. Although, it is definitely on my
list of things to do when time and money permits.



On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:

Hi Tom.

Well, I won't deny the expense, indeed this is why I have not upgraded from

an Iphone 5 sinse I looked at the 6 series and there just wasn't enough by
way of advantage to justify the expense (whether the 7 series will be is
something I'll wait and see).

However, on the positive side we are now getting to the point in game
development terms where Ios has a really good selection of stuff available,

everything from traditional games to trivia, interactive fiction or arcade
and action titles.

There was a time when the choice was more limited, but that's not the case
anymore, and of course that's not counting arious other useful little
programs, functions and applications that just happen to come in handy.

All the best,

Dark.
- Original Message -
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 2:44 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
device/unit



Hi Dark,

Oh, I don't doubt that. Unfortunately, I am extremely cash strapped
right now so haven't had the funds or means available to purchase a
new iPhone so have had to do without that advantage myself. Still, I
do have it on the things to do once those funds become available to
me. I just looked at phone plans the other day and it might be
feasible in the next few months or so once I see my way through my
medical issues.



On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:

Hi Tom.

This is one thing I like my Iphone for it is true, particularly because
these days there are a number of games available on it from the
Choiceofgames titles and other complex rpgs like King of Dragon pass and
Silver sword, to very simple arcade affairs like catch 52 not to mention

all

the blindfold card, board and puzzle games, actually I find it really
handy

for long train journies when I am tired of reading and want something
else
to do.

All the best,

Dark.
- Original Message -
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 1:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
device/unit



Hi Jacob,

Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
those extremes.



On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:

Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC
implemented

on
a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.

It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating,
and
don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a
GUI,
which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen
reader,

you
can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas
having
helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now
have
the
frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off
micro-USB
cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for
charging
their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone charging
unit
have here, and plug in my earphones, then I could literally play most
IF
games anywhere/everywhere, without having to drain my phone's battery,
etc.

Does require connecting a USB keyboard, but, still - besides full-size
keyboard, it's a PC-in-your-pocket.

There's also at least one other raspberry-specific game I know of,
but,
am
also planning to play around with python code on this unit, etc. etc.,
so
let's see...

Overall, while it wasn't all that simple to get it up and running,
accessibly on my own, the total cost of what have here now is
roundabout
ZAR700 = +-$55, or thereabouts, but anyway.

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Thomas Ward]

Hi Cara,

That's just it though. I happen to live in an extremely rural area and
thus there is no Apple stores near me within a hundred miles or so of
me. If I really want an iPhone I'd pretty much have to buy direct from
the carrier which do have payment plans. Just none of them currently
affordable for me given my limited funds right now.


On 11/15/15, Cara Quinn <caraqu...@caraquinn.com> wrote:
> Also, on the Apple side, there is now a program where you can purchase an
> iPhone on a monthly plan.
>
> This way you would not need to spend a larger amount up front to get your
> phone.
>
> I believe this needs to be done at an Apple Store and then goes through your
> carrier.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Cara
> ---
> iOS design and development - LookTel.com
> ---
> View my Online Portfolio at:
>
> http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn
>
> Follow me on Twitter!
>
> https://twitter.com/ModelCara
>
> On Nov 14, 2015, at 8:28 AM, Josh K <joshknnd1...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> hey thomas, you can also get an unlocked accessible blu android phone
> running 5.0 lollypop for $99 from amazon with talkback on it. I plan on
> getting the blu super camera phone and it has gps on it and pretty much
> everything you'd expect from a modern android phone.
>
> follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982
>
> On 11/14/2015 9:44 AM, Thomas Ward wrote:
>> Hi Dark,
>>
>> Oh, I don't doubt that. Unfortunately, I am extremely cash strapped
>> right now so haven't had the funds or means available to purchase a
>> new iPhone so have had to do without that advantage myself. Still, I
>> do have it on the things to do once those funds become available to
>> me. I just looked at phone plans the other day and it might be
>> feasible in the next few months or so once I see my way through my
>> medical issues.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:
>>> Hi Tom.
>>>
>>> This is one thing I like my Iphone for it is true, particularly because
>>> these days there are a number of games available on it from the
>>> Choiceofgames titles and other complex rpgs like King of Dragon pass and
>>> Silver sword, to very simple arcade affairs like catch 52 not to mention
>>> all
>>>
>>> the blindfold card, board and puzzle games, actually I find it really
>>> handy
>>>
>>> for long train journies when I am tired of reading and want something
>>> else
>>> to do.
>>>
>>> All the best,
>>>
>>> Dark.
>>> - Original Message -
>>> From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
>>> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
>>> Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 1:56 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
>>> device/unit
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi Jacob,
>>>>
>>>> Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
>>>> thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
>>>> want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
>>>> only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
>>>> device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
>>>> investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
>>>> like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
>>>> with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
>>>> option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
>>>> something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
>>>> those extremes.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:
>>>>> Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
>>>>> effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC
>>>>> implemented
>>>>>
>>>>> on
>>>>> a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.
>>>>>
>>>>> It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating,
>>>>> and
>>>>> don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a
>>>>> GUI,
>>>>> which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen
>>>>> reader,
>>>>>
>>>>> you
>>>>> ca

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Thomas Ward]

Hi Dark,

Oh, I know. An iPhone is becoming quite the handy little device. I'd
really like to get one, but my funds being what they are it is still
something off in the future for me. Although, it is definitely on my
list of things to do when time and money permits.



On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:
> Hi Tom.
>
> Well, I won't deny the expense, indeed this is why I have not upgraded from
>
> an Iphone 5 sinse I looked at the 6 series and there just wasn't enough by
> way of advantage to justify the expense (whether the 7 series will be is
> something I'll wait and see).
>
> However, on the positive side we are now getting to the point in game
> development terms where Ios has a really good selection of stuff available,
>
> everything from traditional games to trivia, interactive fiction or arcade
> and action titles.
>
> There was a time when the choice was more limited, but that's not the case
> anymore, and of course that's not counting arious other useful little
> programs, functions and applications that just happen to come in handy.
>
> All the best,
>
> Dark.
> - Original Message -
> From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
> Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 2:44 PM
> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
> device/unit
>
>
>> Hi Dark,
>>
>> Oh, I don't doubt that. Unfortunately, I am extremely cash strapped
>> right now so haven't had the funds or means available to purchase a
>> new iPhone so have had to do without that advantage myself. Still, I
>> do have it on the things to do once those funds become available to
>> me. I just looked at phone plans the other day and it might be
>> feasible in the next few months or so once I see my way through my
>> medical issues.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:
>>> Hi Tom.
>>>
>>> This is one thing I like my Iphone for it is true, particularly because
>>> these days there are a number of games available on it from the
>>> Choiceofgames titles and other complex rpgs like King of Dragon pass and
>>> Silver sword, to very simple arcade affairs like catch 52 not to mention
>>>
>>> all
>>>
>>> the blindfold card, board and puzzle games, actually I find it really
>>> handy
>>>
>>> for long train journies when I am tired of reading and want something
>>> else
>>> to do.
>>>
>>> All the best,
>>>
>>> Dark.
>>> - Original Message -
>>> From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
>>> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
>>> Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 1:56 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
>>> device/unit
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi Jacob,
>>>>
>>>> Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
>>>> thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
>>>> want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
>>>> only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
>>>> device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
>>>> investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
>>>> like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
>>>> with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
>>>> option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
>>>> something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
>>>> those extremes.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:
>>>>> Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
>>>>> effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC
>>>>> implemented
>>>>>
>>>>> on
>>>>> a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.
>>>>>
>>>>> It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating,
>>>>> and
>>>>> don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a
>>>>> GUI,
>>>>> which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen
>>>>> reader,
>>>>>
>>>>> you
>&g

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Cara Quinn]

Also, on the Apple side, there is now a program where you can purchase an 
iPhone on a monthly plan.

This way you would not need to spend a larger amount up front to get your phone.

I believe this needs to be done at an Apple Store and then goes through your 
carrier.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

Cara
---
iOS design and development - LookTel.com
---
View my Online Portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn

Follow me on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/ModelCara

On Nov 14, 2015, at 8:28 AM, Josh K <joshknnd1...@gmail.com> wrote:

hey thomas, you can also get an unlocked accessible blu android phone running 
5.0 lollypop for $99 from amazon with talkback on it. I plan on getting the blu 
super camera phone and it has gps on it and pretty much everything you'd expect 
from a modern android phone.

follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982

On 11/14/2015 9:44 AM, Thomas Ward wrote:
> Hi Dark,
> 
> Oh, I don't doubt that. Unfortunately, I am extremely cash strapped
> right now so haven't had the funds or means available to purchase a
> new iPhone so have had to do without that advantage myself. Still, I
> do have it on the things to do once those funds become available to
> me. I just looked at phone plans the other day and it might be
> feasible in the next few months or so once I see my way through my
> medical issues.
> 
> 
> 
> On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:
>> Hi Tom.
>> 
>> This is one thing I like my Iphone for it is true, particularly because
>> these days there are a number of games available on it from the
>> Choiceofgames titles and other complex rpgs like King of Dragon pass and
>> Silver sword, to very simple arcade affairs like catch 52 not to mention all
>> 
>> the blindfold card, board and puzzle games, actually I find it really handy
>> 
>> for long train journies when I am tired of reading and want something else
>> to do.
>> 
>> All the best,
>> 
>> Dark.
>> - Original Message -
>> From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
>> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 1:56 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
>> device/unit
>> 
>> 
>>> Hi Jacob,
>>> 
>>> Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
>>> thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
>>> want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
>>> only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
>>> device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
>>> investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
>>> like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
>>> with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
>>> option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
>>> something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
>>> those extremes.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:
>>>> Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
>>>> effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC implemented
>>>> 
>>>> on
>>>> a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.
>>>> 
>>>> It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating, and
>>>> don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a
>>>> GUI,
>>>> which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen reader,
>>>> 
>>>> you
>>>> can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas
>>>> having
>>>> helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
>>>> interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now have
>>>> the
>>>> frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off
>>>> micro-USB
>>>> cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for
>>>> charging
>>>> their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone charging unit
>>>> have here, and plug in my earphones, then I could literally play most IF
>>>> games anywhere/everywhere, without having to drain my phone's battery,
>>>> etc.
>>>> 
>>>> Does require connecting a USB keyboard, but, still - besides full-size
>>>

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Travis Siegel]

I bought a raspberry pi, case, power adapter, and pre-installed raspbian 
system (never did get the sd card with the raspbian installed on it 
though) and the entire bill including shipping was around the 85-90 dollar 
mark.  It's an excellent little unit.  It has 4 cpus in it, and runs at 
1GHZ, with 1GB of ram.  It uses standard micro sd cards, up to 32GB (if I 
remember correctly) though some of the 32 gb cards don't behave properly, 
so there is that to look out for,
but otherwise, it is truly an excellent system.  I'm actually using it as 
my main pc at the moment, since my imac went belly up a few months ago, 
and the only other machine I have is an old xp machine that has some 
serious dll issues, so it doesn't like to run for more than an hour or so 
at a time, depending on when/how windows decides to do things.  I've never 
managed to fix it, because my xp pro disk is unreadable, and I've not 
found another xp pro hd I could copy the dlls from to repair my system.
I have other linux systems in the house, but mine was disassembled to give 
parts to my son who built his own computer for gaming purposes, and I've 
not managed to get the additional parts I needed to rebuild my linux 
machine, so the raspberry pi is filling in quite nicely as my main pc at 
the moment.  It works well enough, and I can run it for about an hour 
using one of those pocket juice things, though I've not (yet) experimented 
with other battery power devices, although there's one on the raspberry 
store that claims 8 hours of usage.  I do plan to purchase one of those, 
so I have a nice portable unit.
I'd actually been considering trying to turn mine into a gaming unit as 
well, (thus the writing of the memory game Jake referred to in his post) 
The sound isn't anything to write home about, so for the moment, complex 
audio games aren't possible, but otherwise, it's quite the neat little 
unit, and I'm looking forward to see what else I can accomplish with it.



---
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Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Travis Siegel]

Which reminds me.  If anyone else has a raspberry pi, and wants to see 
what games are available for it, hop over to

http://www.softcon.com/pi/
and check out what I've already ported/written for the pi for gamers. 
Admittedly, it's not much (yet) but I just started, and I expect to have 
plenty more on the page eventually.



On Sun, 15 Nov 2015, Travis Siegel wrote:

I bought a raspberry pi, case, power adapter, and pre-installed raspbian 
system (never did get the sd card with the raspbian installed on it though) 
and the entire bill including shipping was around the 85-90 dollar mark. 
It's an excellent little unit.  It has 4 cpus in it, and runs at 1GHZ, with 
1GB of ram.  It uses standard micro sd cards, up to 32GB (if I remember 
correctly) though some of the 32 gb cards don't behave properly, so there is 
that to look out for,
but otherwise, it is truly an excellent system.  I'm actually using it as my 
main pc at the moment, since my imac went belly up a few months ago, and the 
only other machine I have is an old xp machine that has some serious dll 
issues, so it doesn't like to run for more than an hour or so at a time, 
depending on when/how windows decides to do things.  I've never managed to 
fix it, because my xp pro disk is unreadable, and I've not found another xp 
pro hd I could copy the dlls from to repair my system.
I have other linux systems in the house, but mine was disassembled to give 
parts to my son who built his own computer for gaming purposes, and I've not 
managed to get the additional parts I needed to rebuild my linux machine, so 
the raspberry pi is filling in quite nicely as my main pc at the moment.  It 
works well enough, and I can run it for about an hour using one of those 
pocket juice things, though I've not (yet) experimented with other battery 
power devices, although there's one on the raspberry store that claims 8 
hours of usage.  I do plan to purchase one of those, so I have a nice 
portable unit.
I'd actually been considering trying to turn mine into a gaming unit as well, 
(thus the writing of the memory game Jake referred to in his post) The sound 
isn't anything to write home about, so for the moment, complex audio games 
aren't possible, but otherwise, it's quite the neat little unit, and I'm 
looking forward to see what else I can accomplish with it.



---
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Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Cara Quinn]

Hi Travis,

I have been thinking about a Raspberry Pie for a while. You answered many of my 
questions with this post but one that I have is how easy is it to set up with a 
visual impairment?

Also, you had mentioned that the sound is not great. I assume you can plug a 
headset into one?

Considering the headset idea, would it then be possible to install a 
third-party audio library such as OpenAL?

You can see where I am going here. I am wondering what would need to be done 
here to bring this closer to an audio gaming environment.

Thanks for any feedback or insights you may have.

Have a  great day!

Cheers!

Cara
---
iOS design and development - LookTel.com
---
View my Online Portfolio at:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/models/Cara-Quinn

Follow me on Twitter!

https://twitter.com/ModelCara

On Nov 15, 2015, at 12:34 PM, Travis Siegel  wrote:

I bought a raspberry pi, case, power adapter, and pre-installed raspbian system 
(never did get the sd card with the raspbian installed on it though) and the 
entire bill including shipping was around the 85-90 dollar mark.  It's an 
excellent little unit.  It has 4 cpus in it, and runs at 1GHZ, with 1GB of ram. 
 It uses standard micro sd cards, up to 32GB (if I remember correctly) though 
some of the 32 gb cards don't behave properly, so there is that to look out for,
but otherwise, it is truly an excellent system.  I'm actually using it as my 
main pc at the moment, since my imac went belly up a few months ago, and the 
only other machine I have is an old xp machine that has some serious dll 
issues, so it doesn't like to run for more than an hour or so at a time, 
depending on when/how windows decides to do things.  I've never managed to fix 
it, because my xp pro disk is unreadable, and I've not found another xp pro hd 
I could copy the dlls from to repair my system.
I have other linux systems in the house, but mine was disassembled to give 
parts to my son who built his own computer for gaming purposes, and I've not 
managed to get the additional parts I needed to rebuild my linux machine, so 
the raspberry pi is filling in quite nicely as my main pc at the moment.  It 
works well enough, and I can run it for about an hour using one of those pocket 
juice things, though I've not (yet) experimented with other battery power 
devices, although there's one on the raspberry store that claims 8 hours of 
usage.  I do plan to purchase one of those, so I have a nice portable unit.
I'd actually been considering trying to turn mine into a gaming unit as well, 
(thus the writing of the memory game Jake referred to in his post) The sound 
isn't anything to write home about, so for the moment, complex audio games 
aren't possible, but otherwise, it's quite the neat little unit, and I'm 
looking forward to see what else I can accomplish with it.


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Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[dark]

Hi Tom.

This is one thing I like my Iphone for it is true, particularly because 
these days there are a number of games available on it from the 
Choiceofgames titles and other complex rpgs like King of Dragon pass and 
Silver sword, to very simple arcade affairs like catch 52 not to mention all 
the blindfold card, board and puzzle games, actually I find it really handy 
for long train journies when I am tired of reading and want something else 
to do.


All the best,

Dark.
- Original Message - 
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>

To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 1:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing 
device/unit




Hi Jacob,

Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
those extremes.



On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:

Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC implemented 
on

a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.

It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating, and
don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a 
GUI,
which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen reader, 
you
can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas 
having

helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now have 
the

frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off micro-USB
cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for 
charging

their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone charging unit
have here, and plug in my earphones, then I could literally play most IF
games anywhere/everywhere, without having to drain my phone's battery, 
etc.


Does require connecting a USB keyboard, but, still - besides full-size
keyboard, it's a PC-in-your-pocket.

There's also at least one other raspberry-specific game I know of, but, 
am

also planning to play around with python code on this unit, etc. etc., so
let's see...

Overall, while it wasn't all that simple to get it up and running,
accessibly on my own, the total cost of what have here now is roundabout
ZAR700 = +-$55, or thereabouts, but anyway.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."
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list,

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Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Thomas Ward]

Hi Jacob,

Oh, cool. That puts things in an entirely new light. I can see where
you are coming from with this, and admit it would be something worth
looking into. I'd love to have a handheld Linux device like that I
could take around with me with an external keyboard. It sure would
make life much simpler. Keep us posted on how this project goes.


On 11/13/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:
> Thomas, it's way more than just an interactive fiction gaming unit, but that
>
> was my sort of context-specific posting to this list.
>
> It's a full debian linux PC that literally fits in the palm of your hand,
> and in terms of portability, biggest issue would be needing to use it with
> an external keyboard.
>
> My primary reason for actually getting hold of one was since want to try
> using it as a small, portable, low-end web server, and have got 80% of that
>
> process sorted - apache is installed, along with PHP script processing, and
>
> now just need to still get MySQL support installed, and good to go.
>
> Check out the mainstream documentation page:
> http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianDocumentation
>
> And, the less than complete VI specific usage website:
> http://www.raspberryvi.org/
>
> Did also try out frotz interpreter, with wumpus.z5 yesterday, via SSH
> terminal, working on unit, and worked pretty much perfectly though.
>
> Stay well
>
> Jacob Kruger
> Blind Biker
> Skype: BlindZA
> "Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."
>
> - Original Message -
> From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
> Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 3:56 AM
> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
> device/unit
>
>
>> Hi Jacob,
>>
>> Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
>> thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
>> want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
>> only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
>> device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
>> investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
>> like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
>> with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
>> option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
>> something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
>> those extremes.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:
>>> Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
>>> effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC implemented
>>>
>>> on
>>> a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.
>>>
>>> It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating, and
>>> don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a
>>> GUI,
>>> which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen reader,
>>>
>>> you
>>> can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas
>>> having
>>> helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
>>> interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now have
>>> the
>>> frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off
>>> micro-USB
>>> cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for
>>> charging
>>> their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone charging unit
>>> have here, and plug in my earphones, then I could literally play most IF
>>> games anywhere/everywhere, without having to drain my phone's battery,
>>> etc.
>>>
>>> Does require connecting a USB keyboard, but, still - besides full-size
>>> keyboard, it's a PC-in-your-pocket.
>>>
>>> There's also at least one other raspberry-specific game I know of, but,
>>> am
>>> also planning to play around with python code on this unit, etc. etc.,
>>> so
>>> let's see...
>>>
>>> Overall, while it wasn't all that simple to get it up and running,
>>> accessibly on my own, the total cost of what have here now is roundabout
>>> ZAR700 = +-$55, or thereabouts, but anyway.
>>>
>>> Stay well
>>>
>>> Jacob Kruger
>>> Blind Biker
>>> Skype: BlindZA
>>> "Roger Wilco want

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Josh K]

and I also read the latest ubuntu mate 15.10 has a version for the 
raspberry pie.


follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982

On 11/13/2015 11:20 PM, Jacob Kruger wrote:
Thomas, it's way more than just an interactive fiction gaming unit, 
but that was my sort of context-specific posting to this list.


It's a full debian linux PC that literally fits in the palm of your 
hand, and in terms of portability, biggest issue would be needing to 
use it with an external keyboard.


My primary reason for actually getting hold of one was since want to 
try using it as a small, portable, low-end web server, and have got 
80% of that process sorted - apache is installed, along with PHP 
script processing, and now just need to still get MySQL support 
installed, and good to go.


Check out the mainstream documentation page:
http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianDocumentation

And, the less than complete VI specific usage website:
http://www.raspberryvi.org/

Did also try out frotz interpreter, with wumpus.z5 yesterday, via SSH 
terminal, working on unit, and worked pretty much perfectly though.


Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."

- Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" 
<thomasward1...@gmail.com>

To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 3:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing 
device/unit




Hi Jacob,

Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
those extremes.



On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:

Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC 
implemented on

a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.

It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating, 
and
don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of 
a GUI,
which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen 
reader, you
can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to 
Thomas having

helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now 
have the
frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off 
micro-USB
cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for 
charging
their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone charging 
unit
have here, and plug in my earphones, then I could literally play 
most IF
games anywhere/everywhere, without having to drain my phone's 
battery, etc.


Does require connecting a USB keyboard, but, still - besides full-size
keyboard, it's a PC-in-your-pocket.

There's also at least one other raspberry-specific game I know of, 
but, am
also planning to play around with python code on this unit, etc. 
etc., so

let's see...

Overall, while it wasn't all that simple to get it up and running,
accessibly on my own, the total cost of what have here now is 
roundabout

ZAR700 = +-$55, or thereabouts, but anyway.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."
---
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You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
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Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Thomas Ward]

Hi Dark,

Oh, I don't doubt that. Unfortunately, I am extremely cash strapped
right now so haven't had the funds or means available to purchase a
new iPhone so have had to do without that advantage myself. Still, I
do have it on the things to do once those funds become available to
me. I just looked at phone plans the other day and it might be
feasible in the next few months or so once I see my way through my
medical issues.



On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:
> Hi Tom.
>
> This is one thing I like my Iphone for it is true, particularly because
> these days there are a number of games available on it from the
> Choiceofgames titles and other complex rpgs like King of Dragon pass and
> Silver sword, to very simple arcade affairs like catch 52 not to mention all
>
> the blindfold card, board and puzzle games, actually I find it really handy
>
> for long train journies when I am tired of reading and want something else
> to do.
>
> All the best,
>
> Dark.
> - Original Message -
> From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
> To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
> Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 1:56 AM
> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
> device/unit
>
>
>> Hi Jacob,
>>
>> Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
>> thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
>> want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
>> only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
>> device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
>> investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
>> like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
>> with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
>> option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
>> something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
>> those extremes.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:
>>> Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
>>> effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC implemented
>>>
>>> on
>>> a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.
>>>
>>> It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating, and
>>> don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a
>>> GUI,
>>> which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen reader,
>>>
>>> you
>>> can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas
>>> having
>>> helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
>>> interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now have
>>> the
>>> frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off
>>> micro-USB
>>> cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for
>>> charging
>>> their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone charging unit
>>> have here, and plug in my earphones, then I could literally play most IF
>>> games anywhere/everywhere, without having to drain my phone's battery,
>>> etc.
>>>
>>> Does require connecting a USB keyboard, but, still - besides full-size
>>> keyboard, it's a PC-in-your-pocket.
>>>
>>> There's also at least one other raspberry-specific game I know of, but,
>>> am
>>> also planning to play around with python code on this unit, etc. etc.,
>>> so
>>> let's see...
>>>
>>> Overall, while it wasn't all that simple to get it up and running,
>>> accessibly on my own, the total cost of what have here now is roundabout
>>> ZAR700 = +-$55, or thereabouts, but anyway.
>>>
>>> Stay well
>>>
>>> Jacob Kruger
>>> Blind Biker
>>> Skype: BlindZA
>>> "Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."
>>> ---
>>> Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
>>> If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to
>>> gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
>>> You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
>>> http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
>>> All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
>>> http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
>>> If you have any questions or concerns regardi

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[dark]

Hi Tom.

Well, I won't deny the expense, indeed this is why I have not upgraded from 
an Iphone 5 sinse I looked at the 6 series and there just wasn't enough by 
way of advantage to justify the expense (whether the 7 series will be is 
something I'll wait and see).


However, on the positive side we are now getting to the point in game 
development terms where Ios has a really good selection of stuff available, 
everything from traditional games to trivia, interactive fiction or arcade 
and action titles.


There was a time when the choice was more limited, but that's not the case 
anymore, and of course that's not counting arious other useful little 
programs, functions and applications that just happen to come in handy.


All the best,

Dark.
- Original Message - 
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>

To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 2:44 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing 
device/unit




Hi Dark,

Oh, I don't doubt that. Unfortunately, I am extremely cash strapped
right now so haven't had the funds or means available to purchase a
new iPhone so have had to do without that advantage myself. Still, I
do have it on the things to do once those funds become available to
me. I just looked at phone plans the other day and it might be
feasible in the next few months or so once I see my way through my
medical issues.



On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:

Hi Tom.

This is one thing I like my Iphone for it is true, particularly because
these days there are a number of games available on it from the
Choiceofgames titles and other complex rpgs like King of Dragon pass and
Silver sword, to very simple arcade affairs like catch 52 not to mention 
all


the blindfold card, board and puzzle games, actually I find it really 
handy


for long train journies when I am tired of reading and want something 
else

to do.

All the best,

Dark.
- Original Message -
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 1:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
device/unit



Hi Jacob,

Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
those extremes.



On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:

Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC 
implemented


on
a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.

It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating, 
and

don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a
GUI,
which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen 
reader,


you
can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas
having
helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now have
the
frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off
micro-USB
cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for
charging
their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone charging 
unit
have here, and plug in my earphones, then I could literally play most 
IF

games anywhere/everywhere, without having to drain my phone's battery,
etc.

Does require connecting a USB keyboard, but, still - besides full-size
keyboard, it's a PC-in-your-pocket.

There's also at least one other raspberry-specific game I know of, but,
am
also planning to play around with python code on this unit, etc. etc.,
so
let's see...

Overall, while it wasn't all that simple to get it up and running,
accessibly on my own, the total cost of what have here now is 
roundabout

ZAR700 = +-$55, or thereabouts, but anyway.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."
---
Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to
gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched 

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Josh K]

hey thomas, you can also get an unlocked accessible blu android phone 
running 5.0 lollypop for $99 from amazon with talkback on it. I plan on 
getting the blu super camera phone and it has gps on it and pretty much 
everything you'd expect from a modern android phone.


follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982

On 11/14/2015 9:44 AM, Thomas Ward wrote:

Hi Dark,

Oh, I don't doubt that. Unfortunately, I am extremely cash strapped
right now so haven't had the funds or means available to purchase a
new iPhone so have had to do without that advantage myself. Still, I
do have it on the things to do once those funds become available to
me. I just looked at phone plans the other day and it might be
feasible in the next few months or so once I see my way through my
medical issues.



On 11/14/15, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:

Hi Tom.

This is one thing I like my Iphone for it is true, particularly because
these days there are a number of games available on it from the
Choiceofgames titles and other complex rpgs like King of Dragon pass and
Silver sword, to very simple arcade affairs like catch 52 not to mention all

the blindfold card, board and puzzle games, actually I find it really handy

for long train journies when I am tired of reading and want something else
to do.

All the best,

Dark.
- Original Message -
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 1:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
device/unit



Hi Jacob,

Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
those extremes.



On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:

Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC implemented

on
a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.

It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating, and
don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a
GUI,
which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen reader,

you
can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas
having
helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now have
the
frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off
micro-USB
cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for
charging
their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone charging unit
have here, and plug in my earphones, then I could literally play most IF
games anywhere/everywhere, without having to drain my phone's battery,
etc.

Does require connecting a USB keyboard, but, still - besides full-size
keyboard, it's a PC-in-your-pocket.

There's also at least one other raspberry-specific game I know of, but,
am
also planning to play around with python code on this unit, etc. etc.,
so
let's see...

Overall, while it wasn't all that simple to get it up and running,
accessibly on my own, the total cost of what have here now is roundabout
ZAR700 = +-$55, or thereabouts, but anyway.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."
---
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gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the
list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.


---
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You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
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All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
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If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the
list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.



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Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Josh K]

I'd like one with ubuntu mate 15.10 to have a graphical desktop 
installed onto it and the orca screen reader. because i like both having 
a graphical interface and the terminal when needed.


follow me on twitter @joshknnd1982

On 11/14/2015 9:39 AM, Thomas Ward wrote:

Hi Jacob,

Oh, cool. That puts things in an entirely new light. I can see where
you are coming from with this, and admit it would be something worth
looking into. I'd love to have a handheld Linux device like that I
could take around with me with an external keyboard. It sure would
make life much simpler. Keep us posted on how this project goes.


On 11/13/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:

Thomas, it's way more than just an interactive fiction gaming unit, but that

was my sort of context-specific posting to this list.

It's a full debian linux PC that literally fits in the palm of your hand,
and in terms of portability, biggest issue would be needing to use it with
an external keyboard.

My primary reason for actually getting hold of one was since want to try
using it as a small, portable, low-end web server, and have got 80% of that

process sorted - apache is installed, along with PHP script processing, and

now just need to still get MySQL support installed, and good to go.

Check out the mainstream documentation page:
http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianDocumentation

And, the less than complete VI specific usage website:
http://www.raspberryvi.org/

Did also try out frotz interpreter, with wumpus.z5 yesterday, via SSH
terminal, working on unit, and worked pretty much perfectly though.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."

- Original Message -
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 3:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing
device/unit



Hi Jacob,

Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
those extremes.



On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:

Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC implemented

on
a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.

It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating, and
don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a
GUI,
which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen reader,

you
can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas
having
helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now have
the
frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off
micro-USB
cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for
charging
their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone charging unit
have here, and plug in my earphones, then I could literally play most IF
games anywhere/everywhere, without having to drain my phone's battery,
etc.

Does require connecting a USB keyboard, but, still - besides full-size
keyboard, it's a PC-in-your-pocket.

There's also at least one other raspberry-specific game I know of, but,
am
also planning to play around with python code on this unit, etc. etc.,
so
let's see...

Overall, while it wasn't all that simple to get it up and running,
accessibly on my own, the total cost of what have here now is roundabout
ZAR700 = +-$55, or thereabouts, but anyway.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."
---
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You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the
list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.


---
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If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Thomas Ward]

Hi Jacob,

Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
those extremes.



On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger  wrote:
> Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
> effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC implemented on
> a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.
>
> It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating, and
> don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a GUI,
> which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen reader, you
> can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas having
> helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
> interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now have the
> frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off micro-USB
> cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for charging
> their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone charging unit
> have here, and plug in my earphones, then I could literally play most IF
> games anywhere/everywhere, without having to drain my phone's battery, etc.
>
> Does require connecting a USB keyboard, but, still - besides full-size
> keyboard, it's a PC-in-your-pocket.
>
> There's also at least one other raspberry-specific game I know of, but, am
> also planning to play around with python code on this unit, etc. etc., so
> let's see...
>
> Overall, while it wasn't all that simple to get it up and running,
> accessibly on my own, the total cost of what have here now is roundabout
> ZAR700 = +-$55, or thereabouts, but anyway.
>
> Stay well
>
> Jacob Kruger
> Blind Biker
> Skype: BlindZA
> "Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."
> ---
> Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
> If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to
> gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
> You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
> http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
> All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
> http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
> If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
> please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
>

---
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If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.

Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing device/unit

[Jacob Kruger]

Thomas, it's way more than just an interactive fiction gaming unit, but that 
was my sort of context-specific posting to this list.


It's a full debian linux PC that literally fits in the palm of your hand, 
and in terms of portability, biggest issue would be needing to use it with 
an external keyboard.


My primary reason for actually getting hold of one was since want to try 
using it as a small, portable, low-end web server, and have got 80% of that 
process sorted - apache is installed, along with PHP script processing, and 
now just need to still get MySQL support installed, and good to go.


Check out the mainstream documentation page:
http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianDocumentation

And, the less than complete VI specific usage website:
http://www.raspberryvi.org/

Did also try out frotz interpreter, with wumpus.z5 yesterday, via SSH 
terminal, working on unit, and worked pretty much perfectly though.


Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."

- Original Message - 
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>

To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2015 3:56 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Portable interactive fiction game playing 
device/unit




Hi Jacob,

Cool. Sounds like a nifty little gaming device you got there. The only
thing is while I do like interactive fiction games I'm not sure I'd
want to pay out the investment for something like this myself since I
only play interactive fiction  games occasionally. If the /Raspberry
device had a broader spectrum of games I might actually consider the
investment in something like it since it would come in handy in times
like now when I may be in the hospital for an extended amount of time
with little to nothing to do. Dragging around a laptop isn't really an
option in my case and I don't have a smartphone so I could see
something like your Raspberry Pie being a nice little device between
those extremes.



On 11/12/15, Jacob Kruger <ja...@blindza.co.za> wrote:

Am currently playing around with a raspberry pi unit/device, which is
effectively a low-level full linux/debian operating system PC implemented 
on

a piece of hardware roundabout the size of a box of cigarettes.

It took a little bit of effort to get it up and running/cooperating, and
don't seem to be able to use orca screen reader with it's version of a 
GUI,
which is x-windows, but, after installing speakUp console screen reader, 
you
can switch between the multiple console windows, and thanks to Thomas 
having

helped me out with the relevant commands a while ago, to install frotz
interpreter on a linux system - sudo apt-get install frotz - I now have 
the

frotz interpreter installed on this unit, and since it runs off micro-USB
cable for power - the same thing most modern smart phones use for 
charging

their batteries - if I plug it into the portable cellphone charging unit
have here, and plug in my earphones, then I could literally play most IF
games anywhere/everywhere, without having to drain my phone's battery, 
etc.


Does require connecting a USB keyboard, but, still - besides full-size
keyboard, it's a PC-in-your-pocket.

There's also at least one other raspberry-specific game I know of, but, 
am

also planning to play around with python code on this unit, etc. etc., so
let's see...

Overall, while it wasn't all that simple to get it up and running,
accessibly on my own, the total cost of what have here now is roundabout
ZAR700 = +-$55, or thereabouts, but anyway.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
"Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..."
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