ggz(7) GGZ Gaming Zone ggz(7)NAMEggz - The GGZ Gaming Zone
DESCRIPTION
The GGZ Gaming Zone is a standards-conforming free online gaming infra‐
structure which provides many applications and games to people who like
to play on the internet or in local networks. GGZ, how the (recursive)
acronym is called, is available for many computer systems. This docu‐
ment focuses on the installations on Linux, BSD and Unix. On such sys‐
tems, GGZ-powered games often ship with the KDE and GNOME games pack‐
ages, and most distributors also include all components as released by
the GGZ project.
APPLICATIONS
GGZ is available on several platforms. A multitude of programs is
available to the user, and even more which operate on the system level
or are used by developers and administrators. Users will most likely
want to connect to a GGZ server on the internet, such as
ggz://live.ggzgamingzone.org, to play games against other people. Core
clients are used to perform this task. Functional clients exist in the
form of kggz for the K Desktop Environment (KDE), ggz-gtk for GNOME or
XFCE users, and ggz-txt for people who prefer command-line applica‐
tions. Of course, the clients are not bound to a specific desktop, but
the choices above will likely be influenced by the level of integra‐
tion. In particular, the GNOME client is often found embedded in GGZ-
enabled games of the GNOME project. A client under development is the
SDL-based víbora. Furthermore, a Java-based client and applet exists as
well. Running ggz will automatically select a suitable core client
depending on the desktop environment.
Special clients exist in the form of ggzap, a quick-launcher for the
KDE panel, and ggz-wrapper which is used for launching GGZ games from
the command line and instant messenger applications.
GAMES
Games are usually launched by the GGZ server, with corresponding game
clients running on the user's desktop. Plenty of games are available
for GGZ, most of them coming from the GGZ project itself but several
independent game projects do now provide GGZ support. Game clients are
implemented using multiple toolkits, some of which stem from certain
desktop environments. However, all games work equally well under all
desktops, it's just a matter of personal choice which of them are to be
installed - having all of them is just fine.
While some GGZ game clients are suited for online gaming only, others
also run locally like normal games happen to do. Those will be found in
the desktop's application menu.
FILES
The following layout can vary from site to site, depending on the com‐
pleteness of a GGZ installation and the operating system distribution
in use. It adheres to the File Hierarchy Standard (FHS) as much as
possible.
/usr/bin
GGZ applications, tools, and the games which provide single
player mode.
/usr/lib/ggz(d)
GGZ game clients and servers.
/usr/share/ggz(d)
Data files for game clients and servers.
/etc/ggz.modules
Game module registry for game clients.
/etc/ggzd
Configuration for the GGZ server, including rooms and game
types.
CONFORMING TO
GGZ Design Document, available at http://www.ggzgaming‐
zone.org/docs/design/
GGZ Main Client-Server Protocol Reference, available at
http://www.ggzgamingzone.org/docs/design/mainspec/
GGZ Client-Client Protocol Reference, available at http://www.ggzgam‐
ingzone.org/docs/design/clientspec/
GGZ Server-Server Protocol Reference, available at http://www.ggzgam‐
ingzone.org/docs/design/serverspec/
GGZ URI specification
Freedesktop.org specifications for desktop integration of games and
applications, more information at http://www.freedesktop.org/
File Hierarchy Standard for unix-derived operating systems, at
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/
AUTHORS
The GGZ Development Team <ggz-dev@mail.ggzgamingzone.org>
SEE ALSOkggz(6), ggz-gtk(6), ggz-txt(6), ggz-java(6)The GGZ Development Team 0.0.14+ ggz(7)
