Week 3 - 7th October 2022

What sort of a game do you want to make?

There are lots of different types of games:

puzzle
platform
role play
sports
simulations
action adventure

and many more.

Please pay attention to the size of the screen and the number of buttons on it - this will limit what you are able to do (you won't be making any 3D games here), but there is still plenty of room to make a very fun game.

Why don't you write down or sketch out a few ideas.

Learning how to navigate the computer and the network

First steps:

Connect Keyboard, Mouse and game controller
Plug in the monitor and Raspberry Pi

Building on what you did last week where we were playing around with the GUI to create and move files accross the network (and chatting to one another!).

This week we won't be using a mouse, but typing commands (running little programs to di the same thing). This useful to know as when you write software (applications like Word or games) you don't tell the mouse where to click, you write what you want the computer to do.

Let's get going

We're going to create a directory (or as it's sometimes known a "Folder") and create and edit a text file in it without using the mouse.

First open File Explorer (the folder icon in the start bar) - you don't need to do this, but it will help you see the changes you make.

Open the 'Terminal' Application (a black Icon with a white arrow in it) you'll a window with a screen that looks like the one you see when you start the Pi up before you type 'startx'.

See if you can create a directory with your name and a text file containing the welcoming message.

Tips:

Try out some CLI commands ignore the < > when typing them:
- - ls Lists the files and directories in the 'current' location
  - mkdir <your_name> Creates a new directory
  - cd <your_name> Changes the 'current' location to the directory/folder you typed
  - touch name.txt Creates an empty file
  - nano name.txt Starts an application that allows you to edit the text file
  - rm name.txt Deletes a file
  - cd .. Moves the 'current' directory back (to its parent)
  - cp <source> <desintation> Copies a file from one location to another

When you've managed this see if you can find the file in the 'File Browser' using the mouse and open the file you've created by double clicking.

Connecting to other computers

First we need to find out the 'address' of our computer, you can do this by typing:

ip address | grep 192

you could just type "ip address" but that lists out a lot of information you don't need to know

grep just selects the row that's needed (gets rid of any line that doesn't have 192 in it).

Write down the number printed to the screen Should look something like "192.168.1.???"

Find out the IP address of a friends computer.

See if your computer can talk to their computer by typing

ping <your friends ip address> e.g. ping 192.168.1.42

To stop pinging press 'Ctrl & C' at the same time.

Now you know your IP Address and your friends quit the GUI and start 'emulationstation' - you'll try to play a game cooperatively with your friend.

Quiz

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