Platform freedom is starting to be thing in gaming world today Steam Deck for instance has advanced much in a short time - and btw this would be amazing to game on it. Testing and building on one desktop Linux (such as Ubuntu or Linux Mint) will suffice and all the rest fall in place naturally. Linux is Linux. Assault Wing sure is a classic - next to the likes of Wings 2 and Gravity Force....

when hitting esc to quit the game it is off the screen. I have 2 monitors, could be related to that. https://imgur.com/a/Uhlx39l

if I can use a keyboard to access buttons, why not allow me to use the mouse?

https://imgur.com/a/FE3e0gu The text across the bottom that says player keys select, and f10 enters. Enter/Return should enter, f10 is counterintuitive. Player keys might should say player controls. that second gamer should be an automatic bot unless some hits the player controls for it. I didn't even notice that text on the bottom at first. maybe if it blinked or scrolled in or faded in and out to make me look at it....

my preference is to do keyboard controls. I prefer aswd and spacebar respectively for firing, ctrl for bombs and alt for specials 1 thru 4 for specials maybe q e for specials.