
TuxKart.
~~~~~~~~
                           by Steve Baker
                           <sjbaker1@airmail.net>
                           http://www.sjbaker.org

INSTALLATION:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Installation instructions are pretty basic,
and are covered in detail in the documentation directory 'doc',
and in the file INSTALL or online at http://tuxkart.sf.net 

First, make sure that you have the following packages installed:

    * OpenGL (or Mesa 3.0 or later)
    * PLIB version 1.8.0 or later . 

Unpack the files from the tarball like this:

  tar xzf tuxkart-*.tar.gz
  cd tuxkart-*


(where '*' is the version of TuxKart you downloaded - eg 0.4.0) ...and then:

  ./configure
  make

You can run the game from the directory you downloaded it into - or (as 'root') you can install it into /usr/local/share/games/tuxkart by typing;

 make install


BUT IT DIDN'T WORK!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The most common (by FAR) reason for problems is that your OpenGL/Mesa
is incorrectly installed - so before you complain to any of the PLIB
or TuxKart mailing lists, first try running one of the example programs
that comes with your OpenGL implementation - or one of the Mesa or GLUT
sample programs.

If you those examples run OK - then go to the PLIB home page and download
the PLIB examples.

If THOSE run correctly - but TuxKart doesn't then please get in touch with
the TuxKart mailing list and we'll do our best to get you up and racing.

STARTING THE GAME:

Just 'cd' into the download directory and run './src/tuxkart', or run
'/usr/local/games/tuxkart' if you did a 'make install'.

Select the number of laps and which course you'd like to race on then
click 'start game' to get going.


PLAYING THE GAME:

Ideally, you need a 'gamepad' style joystick with at leasti six buttons:

  Joystick Left/Right:  Steer.

  A button - Accellerate.
  B button - Brake.
  C button - Use an item you've collected from a Red Herring
  D button - Ask to be rescued by tinytux.
  L button - Pop a wheelie (if you are going fast enough).
  R button - Jump.


In addition, you can drive from the keyboard:

  LEFT/RIGHT ARROW: Steer.

  UP-ARROW   - Same as 'A' button - Accellerate
  DOWN-ARROW - Same as 'B' button - Brake

  A key - Same as 'L' button - pop a Wheelie
  S key - Same as 'R' button - Jump
  D key - Same as 'D' button - Rescue Me Please!
  F key - Same as 'C' button - Use an item
  ENTER - Same as 'C' button - Use an item

  SPACE - Pop up or Hide the menu bar.
  R key - Restart the race.
  P key - Pause.

  X key - Exit the game.
  ESCAPE- Exit the game.


There are also some debug functions left in for developers:

  W key - Toggle wireframe view
  Z key - Toggle statistics gathering

From the Menu bar, you can turn sound effects and music on and off,
enable or disable the 'mousetrap' (which keeps the mouse in the window
to stop you accidentally losing the mouse pointer on Voodoo-1/2 hardware)

On the tracks, you'll find Red, Silver and Gold Herring (Yum - good!),
and Green Herring (Yuk - bad!) - also arrow-shaped red and black 'zippers'
that give you a quick speedup.

Use the 'rescue' key if you crash and can't get back onto the track. It's
sometimes activated automatically if (for example) you get stuck in hot
lava. TinyTux will lift your cart up and put it back onto the track.


POWERUPS:

I currently have many 'good things' (triggered by eating a Red Herring)
and a few 'bad things' (triggered by eating a Green Herring by mistake).

Good things are collectables - you pick them up by driving through the
Red Herring and activate them by pushing the 'C' button on the joystick
(or ENTER on the keyboard).

Bad things happen immediately - and last for a few seconds before 'going
away' by themselves.

Notice that (unlike some kart games), the computer controlled players
also collect and use powerups.

Silver and Gold Herrings gradually fill up Tux's tummy (represented by
the herring bone at the top of the screen) - as you eat more herring,
you'll find that a Red Herring will subsequently give you two, three,
four or five powerups at one time!


Good Things:

    * Missiles - unguided but fast. If they hit anything, they explode
      impressively. The effect on a Kart is to stop it dead - so you have to
      accellerate again.
    * Homing missiles - slower than the regular kind - but they track
      the nearest kart and are quite hard to shake off.
    * Fuzzy blobs - even slower still - a kart can outrun them quite
      easily. They ricochet off the sides of the track and only explode
      when they hit a Kart.
    * Magnets - if you activate a magnet then it hangs around for about
      15 seconds. If anyone comes within about 20 meters, you'll be
      pulled towards them and end up glued to their tail until the magnet
      'expires'. Great for catching up with someone - hopeless for passing
      them.
    * Portable Zippers - these are just like the zippers on the track
      itself - they give you a sudden accelleration and temporarily
      increase the top speed of your kart.

Bad Things:

    * Parachute - this pops out the back of your kart and slows you down
      a little for a few seconds only. Enough to drop you back one place
      if it's a close race though.
    * Anvil - gets dragged behind your kart on a rope for an even shorter
      amount of time than the parachute...but the drag effect is much
      stronger - your kart hardly moves at all. 

KNOWN BUGS:

    * No drive-with-the-mouse support.
    * Slow performance on CPU's less than ~450MHz.
    * No way to return to title screen at end of race.
    * You always play as Tux - there is no way to change players.
    * After you cross the finish line, if someone overtakes you, your final
      position changes!
    * No "Ready, Steady, Go!" sequence.
    * The computer players get confused and 'stuck' on tracks that
      self-intersect (eg figure-8 shaped tracks). The lap counter and
      current player positions are also screwed up on those kinds of tracks.
    * If you (or one of the computer players) goes off the edge of the track,
      or calls for rescue then tiny-tux doesn't always manage to put you
      back onto the track correctly. If this happens, you may need to type
      'R' to restart the race - Sorry.
    * Sometimes you can be pushed through a solid object if you are hit by
      another player when in contact with the surface. 

I'm sure there are lots more!

LICENSE:

This software is released under the provisions of
the GNU General Public License (GPL) which can be
found in the file 'LICENSE' in the current directory.

DIRECTORY STRUCTURE:

src     -- Where the source code lives.

data    -- This contains all kinds of miscellaneous data
           files. Right now, this is limited to the level
           description files and lists of players vehicles.

doc     -- Documentation - all in HTML

images  -- Texture maps and other images needed by the
           game. These are currently all in 'SGI' image
           format.

wavs    -- Sound files - sound effects in 'wav' format.

mods    -- Music files - in 'mod' format.

models  -- 3D models - in '.ac' format.


