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• freeVikings =

  release 0.5 12/19/2005 (19th December)

  http://freevikings.wz.cz

== About freeVikings ==

Do you know "Lost Vikings" (Sillicon & Synapse, 1993)? FreeVikings is a free clone of that great game. It's in an early stage of development (although it's nearly a year old now), but playable.

== Installation ==

Exactly, you can't install freeVikings. But you can play them from your home directory (or wherever you unpack them).

All the source code is written in a programming language called Ruby. It's an interpreted language, so you won't compile anything. But you have to get the interpreter and some libraries (so you may have to get over some compilation).

=== Requirements ===

# Ruby interpreter:
ruby >= 1.8.0 www.ruby-lang.org

# SDL libraries (needed by the RUDL module mentioned below):

SDL                     www.libsdl.org
SDL_image               www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/
SDL_gfx                 www.ferzkopp.net
SDL_ttf
SDL_mixer               www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer

# Additional Ruby libraries:
# You can find them all in Ruby Application Archive, http://raa.ruby-lang.org

gameui          - distributed with freeVikings (maybe you have got it 
                  in the same package)
RUDL >= 0.7     - Ruby SDL port
REXML           - excelent XML API, since Ruby 1.8 it's a part of the 
                  standard library
log4r           - powerful logging library
script          - simple scripting for Ruby applications

=== freeVikings compiled extensions ===

Because I have an old machine (Celeron 300 Mhz these days), I have problems with freeVikings' performance. I have been trying to solve them by rewriting the critical classes in C++. If you want freeVikings to run a bit quicker, read README.extensions in directory 'ext', where you will find everything to build and use the compiled extensions. On my development machine the performance grows from 0-4 fps to 5-8 fps when I use them.

== News ==

See RELEASE .

== Run & Play ==

To play, simply run the freevikings.rb script. You can do it in several ways, most common is from the commandline: % ruby freevikings.rb
There are a few interesting commandline options, to learn about them, run
% ruby freevikings.rb --help or read HELP.

Before you learn how to contol the vikings, you should learn their names. The red one is Erik Eriksson. He can jump high. The green one is Baleog Baleogsson. He has a sharp sword and a precise bow with quick arrows to bash any monster.
The yellow one is Olaf Olafsson. He likes eating very much and is very strong. He has a shield to stop shots and similar terrible things. Because of so many new features, there are also more keyboard controls.

ARROW KEYS      - move left and right
CTRL, PGUP      - switch to another viking
SPACE           - use viking's first special ability (Erik jumps, Baleog cuts 
                  with his sword, Olaf changes his shield's position)
D               - use viking's second ability (Baleog shoots an arrow)
E, U            - from the viking's inventory use the item which is marked by 
                  a yellow frame (when you use an apple, it adds you one energy
                  point unless you have a full health)
P, TAB          - pause the game; while the game is paused, you can use 
                  the arrow keys to move the yellow frame around the viking's 
                  inventory and select the item you want to use next.
S               - activate an active object (e.g. switch a switcher) 
                  the viking stands next to
F2              - give up the game, run the level once more
F3              - switch between the windowed and fullscreen mode
F4              - view/hide the fps info
Q, ESC          - exit the game, return to the menu

Anything more you should know? Maybe some tips: * try to switch the switcher by hitting it by an arrow (it's quicker then go to it and press the S key)
* don't forget Erik can jump onto Olaf's shield * when you see a question mark, go to it and press S, you'll get help.

== Saving the game ==

You can't really save the game in freeVikings, but you can always return to the last level you have started. How to do it? Before you start playing a level, a black box appears and shows you four characters. Write them down or remember them. When you want to return to the level with password CODE, run freeVikings in this way:
% ruby freevikings.rb -s CODE
You will start in that level.

== Thanks ==

Thanks to all the people who reported their problems with the previous version and helped to find and fix some terrible bugs.

I would also like to thank
* all the GNU/Linux developers for such a well-running operating system * the GNU hackers for great command-line tools and GNU/Emacs * Ruby hackers for a language in which it is a real fun to program * Tiled authors for a powerful map-creating tool * GIMP hackers for GIMP

== Comments, Bug reports, Patches, Code improvements ==

I would like to know about your problems with freeVikings, about your impressions, etc.
You can also send me some code or graphics to improve the young game. Your help won't be forgotten.

Jakub "igneus" Pavlik <severus AT post DOT cz>