Defendguin - Reviews

Linux Journal Magazine The October 2004 issue of the Linux Journal magazine included a short review of Defendguin (along with XBill, Virus Killer and Freedroid RGP) on page 30. The Game of Security After dealing with the worm and virus traffic that a legacy OS dumps onto your network, you might feel like playing a game to relax. [...] Once upon a time, there was a rather popular arcade game called Defender, which over time, spawned a huge number of imitators (or homages). One of these creations, Bill Kendrick's Defendguin, pits our hero Tux against evil aliens bent on enslaving, assimilating and mutating a planet of peaceful penguins into deadly penguinoids. These aliens, who look an awful lot like the guy named Bill from XBill, turn the helpless denizens into flying, killing machines. Once a penguin gets transformed into a penguinoid, there is no hope for the poor beast -- just blast it. Better yet, blast the alien intruders and get those points up. The Defendguin site provides precompiled binaries for a number of platforms as well as the source code. To build Defendguin, you need the SDL development libraries. Should you choose to go the source route, it is a simple matter of extracting the bundle, typiung make and then sudo make install. To play the game, run the command defendguin and prepare yourself for a high-energy, fast-paced shoot-em-up. For full-screen action, add the -f option to the command. -Marcel Gagné

GamesForLinux.de Review For nice action and tidy graphics, Defendguin gets a high score here. A game that in any case is recommended: 4 out of 5 GamesForLinux.de Review

Linux Journal Magazine Review The February, 2000 issue of the Linux Journal magazine had a review of Defendguin on page 24. Defendguin Linux gamers tend to have a soft spot in their hearts for the disturbingly popular blast-Bill-Gates-to-pieces games, the family of games in which Bill Kendrick's Defendguin is the newest member. Yes, it's the classic Defender game, only the graphics aren't hollow line drawings. The trick is to save the Penguinoids from being mutated by little flying Gates saucers. In honor of the new journalistic tradition of pulling random quotes and holding them up as though they represent the entire commuinity, here's a stellar line from Digital Ebola on http://www.happypenguin.org/: "It's quite satisfying to blow Bill Gates up. That alone makes anything worth 5 stars." Check it out at http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/defendguin/. - Jason Kroll

• "Kinda cheesy. Funnier than hell. Sound definitely makes the game. It compiled without a hitch. Good potential here." - Digital Ebola

• "Runs nicely and looks great, doesn't crash either." - Dr. Brain

• "Slick game all around - the controls are nice & smooth, great sound is especially satisfying to hear in a free game. But my favorite feature ends in '.c'..." - Ben Miller

• "I recently download Defendguin 0.0.6 and it is a brilliant game."

• "The sound effects are chosen superbly... Flying borg-bills and walking penguins help make the game more interesting than the original... If you ever wanted to program games, this is a good object lesson in SDL... It compiled 'straight out of the box'. Very well done. Overall, it looks professional, plays well, is enjoyable and impressive. 5 stars." - Peter Salzman

• "I like the theme of this game." - Martin Lester

• "The humor value is very high... Aspiring game programmers will appreciate the code." - Jim Broderick

• "Nice game, great idea, good sound." - Ulrich Simon

• "This is my favorite of Bill's games. The ending is really funny!!" - Karl Bartel

• "Excellent!!! I think this is one of Bill's most well done games!!!!" - Don Llopis

• "Great 'defender' clone with a Linux twist! A must have for arcade hardcore-fans!" - Georgie

• "The gameplay is very close [to Defender] and yet now it's fun ... I'm amazed at the consistantly good work you do..." - Heow Eide-Goodman

• "Thanks for writing so many cool SDL games!" - Suzanne Skinner

• "...I am a huge fan of Defendguin." - 'MaxQuordlepleen'

• "Keep up the great work! I've found your software to be an inspiration (literally) on how to program games (especially myfavourite - Defendguin!)." - Lance Duivenbode

• "I installed ... Defendguin on my nephews' computer ... the other week. They love [it]. Great work. I'd recommend these to others with little kids." - Andrew

• "Some people have caught me installing the Debian package [of] Defendguin and playing it, but dont tell anyone." - M.E.

• "I would like to thank you for releasing such excellent games under the GPL. I have been programming for a few years, but a few days ago I decided to go ahead and try to pick up SDL. ... I downloaded the source code of Defendguin!, and, using it as an example, I was able to correctly control the sprite using the joystick. ... Your code is easy to understand and follow." - David R. Heffelfinger

• "Thanks for Defendguin, BTW! Rather enjoyed that one" - Jameson