How to Get AdVenture Capitalist on a Chromebook

So, you want to play AdVenture Capitalist on your Chromebook.

If you’ve been asking yourself:

“How do I get AdVenture Capitalist on my Chromebook?“

“Can Chromebooks even run AdCap?“

“How do I get angels?”

You’ve come to the right place.

(Well, except for that last question. You should know that one =]).

In this tutorial, we’ll go over how to set up, download, install, and play AdVenture Capitalist on a Chromebook.

Without wasting any more time on unnecessarily long (and boring) introductions, let’s just get straight to the goods.

Sound good? Let’s capitalize, capitalist!

Last updated: 9/7/19.

Mission briefing: Getting AdVenture Capitalist on a Chromebook

So here’s the plan of what we’ll be doing to get AdVenture Capitalist running on your Chromebook:

• A possible shortcut
• Enable Developer Mode
• Get Crouton
• Install Linux
• Install Steam
• Get AdVenture Capitalist
• Play the game!

That’s about it!

If you’ve never done anything with Linux before, you’ll be pleasantly surprised that you’ll be able to a lot more with your Chromebook that you’ve ever imagined.

Linux is basically another “operating system,” which will let you do things like download the best possible media players, play games like World of Warcraft or Path of Exile, or even get other browsers on your Chromebook like Firefox, Opera, and even Microsoft Edge should you really want to.

I’d say the hardest part about this guide would be installing Linux because these steps do involve punching in some commands into a command prompt- kind of like what you see in the movies with all those badass hackers, and stuff.

But don’t worry. We’ll break down the steps and go through this one-by-one. You can also leave a comment if you need more help and I’ll get back to you ASAP.

Others may also help you out as we have an awesome community here of Chromies!

The easy way: Google Play Store

For newer Chromebooks, they’re already equipped with the ability to play games from Google Play, which means you can literally just download AdCap as an Android app from the Store and play it on your Chromebook. No messing around with Linux and stuff.

If you have access to the Play Store, here how to get AdCap on Chrome OS:

1. Start the Google Play Store app from the Launcher.
2. Search for “adventure capitalist” or click here.
3. Install the game.
4. Launch the game!

If you don’t already have access to the Store, you may be able to get the update early by forcing the integration on your device.

Note that this only works if your model is confirmed to be getting the update some time in the future. You can definitely check out this list to see if your Chromebook is on there. If it is, you can try to get the Play Store early.

For everyone else, we’re going to do this the old-fashioned way- through Linux!

Don’t worry though, you’ll be able to do a lot with Linux on your machine. I suggest even if you have the ability to get the game as an Android app to still try out the LInux method because you’ll be able to get Steam and a lot more on your device.

Preliminary stuff

Well, this would be the first step, I presume.

Developer Mode is basically a fancy way to allow you to make changes to your Chromebook by “overriding” Chrome OS security rules. Nothing more.

When you enable Developer Mode, you’ll be able to do more things on your device. But the only thing we’re really interested in is getting AdVenture Capitalist so you can buy the moon, so let’s keep it simple.

To enable Dev Mode, you’ll have to press a special keyboard combination. Note that doing this will wipe your entire Chromebook, meaning that everything you have saved on it will be deleted!

So that’s why we need to back up your stuff!

Back up your Chromebook data

So the first thing you want to do is back up your Chromebook.

Check out the tutorial I wrote as it covers the process in detail. You can back up your laptop to most external hard drives, flash drives, SD cards (if your Chromebook supports them), or even to Google Drive or Dropbox.

(Don’t have any devices to back up to? Check out this list of some Chromebook-compatible external hard drives. I gotchu.)

Why should I back up my stuff?

Note that everything you have saved on your local disk will be deleted. This means stuff in your “Downloads” folder or any other custom folders you’ve created. Pictures, documents, videos, and all the funny cat memes you’ve saved will be wiped!

Also, your Chromebook settings will also be deleted, such as Night Mode, zoom levels, and even your Chromebook wallpaper.

Your Google Account, however, will remain intact. So stuff like Gmail, Google Docs, and all your Chrome Browser extensions and apps will be saved. That stuff is saved online, so wiping your laptop won’t affect any of that.

After you get all that taken care of, now we can proceed with the thing we’re doing!

Enable Developer Mode

Here’s how:

Turn off your Chromebook.

1. Press “ESC + Refresh + Power” and hold them together!
2. Your Chromebook will show a screen that has a warning prompt saying “Chrome OS is missing or damaged.” This Is completely normal. Go ahead and hit “CTRL + D” and also the Enter key when prompted.
3. Wait for your machine to restart itself and Powerwash itself.

You’re all done!

Remember, if you have an earlier model (CR-48 or Samsung 5), you’ll have to actually toggle the switch on the laptop to enable Dev Mode.

And if you get stuck during the process, check out this full tutorial on turning on Developer Mode).

Note that after your Chromebook boots up again, you’ll see a screen that may say the same information as before and to press a key to turn OS verification ON. Don’t do this.

You’ll want to do the following:

• Keep OS verification OFF.
• Stay in Developer Mode.

You may have to do this every time you boot up your machine, depending on which version of Chrome you have.

But for as long as you want play AdVenture Capitalist on your Chromebook, you’ll want to keep your Chromebook in Developer Mode with OS verification OFF.

Or else you’ll wipe everything you’ve done (Linux, Steam, and AdVenture Capitalist.)

Okay, now that you’re up and running in your shiny new Dev Mode, we can proceed to the next step and get Linux installed!

Sound good? Take a break. You’ve earned it.

Download Crouton

The next step is to simply download Crouton.

This is probably the easiest step in the guide and will be required in order to install Linux on your machine.

All you need to do is go here and download Crouton.

Crouton is basically an “installer” that’ll let you install Ubuntu Linux, which is needed so we can get to the moon on AdVenture Capitalist.

Check if you have Developer Mode enabled

Now we’re getting to some fun stuff. Installing Linux will make you feel like you’re a professional and you’ll start to learn some things also- especially if you’ve never done this before.

Anyway, the first thing we want to do is make sure that you’re in Developer Mode correctly.

So to test that, you’ll want to open a command prompt by pressing “CTRL + ALT +T” after you’ve logged in to your Google Account.

You’ll see a “scary” popup asking you to punch in a command.

The first you want to type is:

“shell” and hit Enter.

Be sure to type it without the quotes (“).

If you get an error that says something like “ERROR: unknown command: shell” this means that you either didn’t enable Developer Mode correctly, or you did but then reverted your Chromebook back out of it.

You’ll want to keep your laptop with Dev Mode enabled- pretty much for as long as you want to play AdCap.

If you see this error, repeat the very first step and try enabling Developer Mode again.

Install Linux

Now we’re ready to actually get Linux on your machine!

Here’s how:

Note: The following assumes you’ve already typed “shell” from before. If you had to restart, type it again now and hit Enter.

Step 1: Open a command prompt (“CTRL + ALT + T”) and type “sudo install -Dt /usr/local/bin/ -m 755 ~/Downloads/crouton” and hit Enter.

Step 2: Type “sudo crouton -t xfce”

Step 3: Crouton will install Linux Ubuntu LTS using the Xfce desktop environment. Grab a drink.

Step 4: After it’s done, type “sudo startxfce4” and hit Enter.

That’s it! You’re now logged in to Linux! Use the username and password you created during the installation process to log on.

Tip: You’re not stuck in Linux! The ability to have both Linux and Chrome OS running a the same time is possible, and you can toggle between the two:

• You can use “CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + Back Arrow” to shift to Chrome OS
• You can use “CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + Forward Arrow” to shift to Ubuntu

Note that the “arrow” keys are NOT the ones on your keypad! These are the back/forward arrows at the top of your keyboard- near where the F11/F12 keys are usually at on a traditional Windows QWERTY keyboard.

Are you stuck? Want a different desktop environment? Or a different distro? Want to get KDE or something more flashy? Check out the complete tutorial to getting Linux on your Chromebook!

Download and install Steam

Next up, we’ll go over how to download Steam on your laptop!

This step is actually super easy and you’ll witness in real time the power of Linux and the command prompt. We’re going to install Steam with just a few command lines- you won’t even have to leave the shell!

If you haven’t already, launch the command prompt (“CTRL + ALT + T”).

1. Type “$ sudo apt-get install -y steam” and hit Enter.
2. You’ll see Steam starting to install. Let it do its thing!
3. When you see the license/EULA agreement, read it over (yeah, right), and press “Tab” to highlight “OK” and then hit Enter.
4. Steam will install on your Chromebook. Be patient. Squeeze some lemons.
5. After it’s done, you can launch Steam for the first time by going to Applications > Games > Steam. It’ll probably have to update itself. I strongly advise you to let Steam do this to prevent future problems.
6. Restart the Steam client after it updates. Steam will now be live on your machine. Feel free to launch Steam and chat with your fellow AdVenture Capitalists!
7. The last step proves to be the best step- finally installing AdVenture Capitalist on your Chromebook!

Stuck? Getting an error? Post it here or check out this tutorial on getting Steam on your device!

Get AdVenture Capitalist!

Pretty sure this is self-explanatory =].

Just install the game from the Steam store and add it to your library. Remember, AdCap is free-to-play, so no purchase necessary for those who’ve never played the game before.

Feel free to save the game directly to your SSD, as it’s a relatively small file and you should have plenty of space for it.

You can also install AC or other games in the future to an external drive, like an SD card or USB 3.0 flash drive. We’ll cover that later.

Play AdVenture Capitalist!

Also self explanatory ;].

Go ahead and launch AdVenture Capitalist from your Steam library after it’s done installing on your Chromebook. It should boot right up without any problems and you can start running your shrimp boats ASAP.

Screwed up? Powerwash it!

Did you dun goofed? It’s OK. Just Powerwash your Chromebook and you can start all over.

All your changes will revert back to factory settings, so your laptop will be pretty much how it was when it was brand-new. Remember ealeir when you enabled Developer Mode? It’ll be like that- everything will be wiped and you’ll start off with a clean slate again.

So don’t worry if you screw up or break something- you can always revert the changes on Chrome OS. Just do a Powerwash and you’ll be all set.

Powerwashing is super easy and just requires you to press a keyboard combination. Some older models have a physical switch that you have to toggle in order to Powerwash the machine/enter Dev Mode. So if you have an older laptop, be sure to read the manual.

For most Chromebooks, this is how you Powerwash it:

1. Press “CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + R”
2. You’ll see a dialog box show up- choose “Restart,” followed by “Powerwash.”
3. Hit “Continue.”
4. Your laptop will reboot itself.
5. After it’s done, go ahead and sign in with your Google Account.

You’ll now be starting over from a clean slate!

If you get stuck, check out this complete tutorial on how to do a full recovery.

Low on space?

Steam will install directly on your Chromebook, but if you want to download additional Steam games, you may want to save them to an SD card.

This will let you launch them from a Chromebook-compatible external storage, and you can spare the space on your Chromebook’s 16GB SSD (if you’re like me).

You can read this tutorial on how to install Steam games on external storage.

It’s written for DotA 2, but the process remains the same.

You may be able to use Linux (Beta) also

Newer Chromebooks come with Linux (Beta) so you don’t have to go through the process of getting Crouton, installing Linux, and so on.

You can actually just enable Linux and you’ll have a copy of it directly on your machine. This is a new feature and not all Chromebooks support it. If yours does, you may be able to get Steam on it directly through this method.

Here’s a tutorial on enabling Linux (Beta) on your Chromebook.

Other games you can now also play with Ubuntu Linux

So now that you’ve installed Linux on your machine, guess what? There’s a ton of other games you can now also play on your Chromebook.

Some are supported through Linux on Steam, while others are supported natively on Linux.

Here are a few that you may want to check out:

• Terraria
• Warframe
• Unturned
• CS: GO
• Rules of Survival
• Robocraft

Or you can just search for it using the search bar. I seriously have a ton of tutorials to fuel my addiction.

Did you get AdVenture Capitalist on your Chromebook?

Well, that’s all I’ve got for you, fellow capitalist!

Now that you’ve learned how to play AdVenture Capitalist on your Chromebook, go forth and buy out the Earth, followed by the Moon!

And when you get bored of playing AdCap, you can try playing those other Linux games, or even any other Steam-supported Linux games also!

Or maybe, keep AdVenture Capitalist running in the background while playing the other game at the same time? Awesome.

If you have any questions or your’e stuck, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try to help you out ASAP.

Or if you’ve found this guide to helpful, leave a comment also! Consider telling a friend!

Thanks for reading!

• About the Author

About Andy Z.

Andy is a casual-hardcore Chrome OS fan and contributes to the site regularly. He likes computers, tech, sports cars, videogames, and of course, Chromebooks. Thinker. Introvert. Geek. You can find him on Twitter (@platytech), or send him an email (check the "Contact Us" page).