A couple of days ago we released a package named fun to CRAN, but I did not dare to send an announcement to r-packages@r-project.org as usual. This package is a collection of some classical computer games (e.g. the Mine sweeper and Five in a row) as well as other funny stuff. Some examples:
## install.packages('fun')
library(fun)
if (.Platform$OS.type == "windows") x11() else x11(type = "Xlib")
mine_sweeper()
library(fun)
gomoku()
You can take a look at the list of functions in this package by reading the HTML help page (go to help.start()), and I also need to mention the demos, e.g. see demo('TurtleGraphics') for a demo of Turtle graphics (how many people know the old Logo programming language?), and demo(package = 'fun') for a list of all demos in this package.
demo('RealTurtle', package = 'fun')
Although these topics are not new, they can still be good programming exercises.
We started writing this package more than two years ago, but it was almost forgotten later until a few days ago someone mentioned the game “Five in a row” in our web forum. This forum is almost the Chinese version of R-help, and it is not unusual for people to bring forward all kinds of funny ideas with R. If you are at useR! 2011 right now, you probably have heard from George Zhang about the Chinese R conferences these years, and this forum has been the sponsor and organizer ever since the first conference (which I initiated). However, please do not get a wrong impression that Chinese useRs are doing mine sweepers with R every day.
Feel free to share with us if you have more fun. The developers’ page is at: https://github.com/yihui/fun
P. S. This package may remind some people about the sudoku package (e.g. Joshua Wiley has noticed it), and some people may even remember this:
library(fortunes)
fortune('sudoku')
Donate
As a freelancer (currently working as a contractor) and a dad of three kids, I truly appreciate your donation to support my writing and open-source software development! Your contribution helps me cope with financial uncertainty better, so I can spend more time on producing high-quality content and software. You can make a donation through methods below.
-
Venmo:
@yihui_xie, or Zelle:xie@yihui.name -
Paypal
-
If you have a Paypal account, you can follow the link https://paypal.me/YihuiXie or find me on Paypal via my email
xie@yihui.name. Please choose the payment type as “Family and Friends” (instead of “Goods and Services”) to avoid extra fees. -
If you don’t have Paypal, you may donate through this link via your debit or credit card. Paypal will charge a fee on my side.
-
-
Other ways:
WeChat Pay (微信支付：谢益辉) Alipay (支付宝：谢益辉) 
When sending money, please be sure to add a note “gift” or “donation” if possible, so it won’t be treated as my taxable income but a genuine gift. Needless to say, donation is completely voluntary and I appreciate any amount you can give.
Please feel free to email me if you prefer a different way to give. Thank you very much!
I’ll give back a significant portion of the donations to the open-source community and charities. For the record, I received about $30,000 in total (before tax) in 2024-25, and gave back about $15,000 (after tax).