Linux CD-ROM Game System

You may want to play with a Linux game. But you may also have a thought that it is bothersome to install Linux. Like a consumer game console, we are very glad if it boots by just putting a CD-ROM into a drive and a Linux game starts. So I have made such a game system.

The CD-ROM contains a Linux game of course and pre-installed whole Linux OS. We can play a game by just booting from this CD-ROM. In other words, we use no hard drive. We don't care even if Windows is installed in a hard drive connected to a PC or even if it is empty. A game system starts from a CD-ROM without being concerned with a hard drive.

I made it seem to be a game machine more. That is, there is no login. Booting from a CD-ROM, a game just starts without a login screen. Because Linux is a kind of UNIX, you may think it is necessary to do login, but in fact, we can get rid of login if we set it well.

By the way, how can we save the save-data like a high-score of the game running on a read-only filesystem with just a CD-ROM ? Don't worry about it. Data are to be saved into a floppy disk.

Once we make this CD-ROM game system, carrying this CD-COM into a friend having a PC enables us to enjoy a Linux game without installing anything.

However, there are a few attentions. In case of a PC unlike a consumer game console, it is impossible to specify the hardware configuration like a video card or a sound card.

Because we set up the X Window System and the sound card in accordance with an own PC and fix it into a CD-ROM, the game may not completely work with the other PC that is not similar to the own PC in its hardware configuration.

However, even if considering only the own PC, it is very attractive that a game can be played by just booting from a CD-ROM anytime without being concerned with the contents of a hard drive.

Then I explain how to make this CD-ROM game system.