(32-bit layer)
Tested: Ubuntu 7.10 64bit - Gnome


Contrary to the indicative name, the world of Darwinia is not a natural phenomenon. It was created as a digital theme world - a Jurassic Park for polygons by the mysterious Dr. Sepulveda (who himself bears an uncanny likeness to renowned ZX Spectrum inventor Sir Clive Sinclair, tying into the retro presentation of the game). Housed in a massive network of surplus Protologic 68000 machines from the '80s, Darwinia is a world where the single-poly Darwinians, with their simple, but growing AI, can grow and evolve. And where the world can visit to see them gambolling in their natural, fractal habitat. Except, when the player arrives, something has gone horribly wrong. Darwinia has been infected by a virus, and Dr. Sepulveda is panicking, watching decades of research being corrupted and consumed. Since the player is the only other person there at the time, Sepulveda decides that the player can help him. The player is given access to the combat programs, simple tools that were meant as mini-games, mostly involving guns and blowing things up, but now the only attack against the virus. It soon becomes clear this is not enough, and that triggers the third aspect of the gameplay - evolution.

Darwinia fails to fall into any game genre, as it mixes elements from strategy, action, puzzle, hacker, and God games alike. Its retro styling coupled with colourful 3D design is unlike most games on the market, and its simple, intuitive gameplay is mysteriously profound. The player has the ability to run several programs through the Task Manager (a reference to the Windows Task Manager). The Squad program will give the player a close up action and stealth game, aiming and firing both primary and secondary weapons. The Engineer program can then reprogram buildings and collect Souls from the destroyed Virus to create Darwinians. The Officer program allows you to indirectly order the masses of Darwinians to run, occupy, and even attack, reminiscent of Lemmings. Strategy is required whether you use commando raids or control large battles. Research allows the player to develop bigger and better weapons, as the enemy viruses also get bigger and better. All this to complete Mission Objectives at a Location, as the player and the Darwinians wipe out the Virus in a Great War.

[More Info]

Make sure that the driver to your 3D graphic card is proper installed and working.
Check if your sourcelist is correctly set.

Next, installation of the 32-bit layer libs.

Code:

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
sudo aptitude install ia32-libs libc6 libc6-i386 libc6-dev libc6-dev-i386
wget http://www.boundlesssupremacy.com/Cappy/getlibs/getlibs-all.deb
sudo dpkg -i getlibs-all.deb
getlibs -p libgtk1.2

Done.

Insert Darwinia CD disc into your CD/DVD-rom.
Download the linux installer to your Desktop.

Download

Code:

cd ~/Desktop
sudo sh darwinia-full-1.3.0.sh

Done.

You can now launch Darwinia by Applications tab —> Games —> Darwinia

Enjoy!

Written and Published by Artificial Intelligence