

                         Block Rage - README
			 ===================

Description
-----------
  Block Rage is a "falling-blocks" arcade game, inspired by a DOS
  classic. It features a two-player hotseat mode. In the future
  it should also feature nice graphics and sound.

Notes on version 0.2.3
----------------------
  This release presents some visible improvements, notably the new
  tile graphics. There are also several fixes, mainly, the sound
  mixer will now hopefully work on big-endian machines.
  (greetings to Pegassos users ;-)
  
  The graphics and sound are still heavily under construction,
  and there is no music. Windows users might experience some bugs.

What does it run on?
--------------------
  Block Rage is know to compile and run on x86 Linux, Solaris/SPARC
  and x86 Win32.

Run-time Requirements
---------------------

  UNIX, GNU/Linux -- libSDL 1.2.x (just the core library)
  Win32 -- nothing special

Build-time Requirements
-----------------------

  UNIX, GNU/Linux -- libSDL 1.2.x with headers, gcc, make
  Win32 -- Cygwin environment with gcc, make, and libSDL 1.2.x,
           which must be compiled and installed from source.
	   
  For instructions on building the game se the file INSTALL.

GLOBAL KEYS
===========
  Alt-Enter	... Toggle fullscreen mode

  Alt-Backslash	... Toggle doublesize mode

  PrintScreen	... Capture a screenshot to $HOME/blockrage-scr.pcx
  
  Alt-X		... Exit the program immediately

IN-GAME KEYS
============
  P		... Pause the game
  
  Default key bindings for player 1:
  ----------------------------------
  Left Arrow	... move block left
  Right Arrow	... move block right
  Up Arrow	... rotate block up
  Down Arrow    ... rotate block down
  Right Shift   ... drop block
  
  Default key bindings for player 2:
  ----------------------------------
  A		... move block left
  D		... move block right
  W		... rotate block up
  S		... rotate block down
  Q		... drop block

PLAYING THE GAME
================

  (Assuming you didn't change the default key settings.)
  Use left/right arrows to move the falling piece left/right,
  up/down arrows to cycle it's tiles and right shift to make it fall faster.

  Get three same pieces in a row (horizontal/vertical/diagonal) and boom!
  they dissappear and your score increases.
  You can earn even more points by inflicting chain reactions.
  A chain reaction happens when some pieces explode, the ones on top of them
  fall, and, forming a new line, explode again.

2-PLAYER HOTSEAT MODE
---------------------
  Default key settings for the other player are A,D (left,right)
  W,S (cycle), Q (drop).

  If you inflict a chain reaction in hotseat mode, your opponent
  will get an unpleasant surprise in the form of a row of tiles
  inserted to the bottom of his playing board.

MAKING A SCREENSHOT
===================

  During gameplay, you can make a screenshot by presing the PrintScreen key.
  Your screen will be saved in your $HOME directory in a file called
  "blockrage-scr.pcx". (This will not work in the menu).

COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
--------------------

You needn't really use them. Everything listed here can be set using
the ingame menu.

  +p <1|2>
  sets the number of players
  
  +d <4|5|6>
  sets the difficulty Easy/Medium/Hard
  
  +l <1..10>
  sets the starting level
  
  +b <0,1,...>
  chooses a block set (piece graphics)
  
  +k1 <left> <right> <sh_up> <sh_down> <drop>
  +k2 <left> <right> <sh_up> <sh_down> <drop>
  sets player 1/2 controls
  you must enter five decimal numbers corresponding to SDLK_* keycodes
  e.g. +k1 276 275 303 273 274
  
  +data <dataset>
  chooses a dataset. the format is identical to the format of blockrage.cfg.
  example: +data br320

THE RC FILES
------------
  Typically you don't need to know anything about the game's RC and config
  files. They are designed so it just magically works... But if you are
  interested: the RC and config files can be of great use if you want to
  install on a multiuser system (you can customize default settings for
  the users, create a shared topten table, etc).

  When you start Block Rage, it tries to find in order:
  
    1. <EXECDIR>/blockrage.rc
      here <EXECDIR> is the directory where the blockrage[.exe] executable
      is situated.
      
    2. $HOME/.blockrage/blockrage.rc
    3. /etc/games/blockrage/blockrage.rc
  
  Whichever is found first is processed. That is typically (1) if the game is
  run from the source directory, or (3) if the game is run from the UNIX FHS
  filesystem. Also any user can override the system-wide settings by creating
  the file (2).
  
  The .rc file contains 5 lines:
    <sys-config-file>		pathname of the system-wide config file
    <user-config-file>		pathname of the user's config file
    <data-dir>/			directory where the data files reside,
                                trailed with slash
    <topten-file>		pathname of the file where topscores are stored
    <dataset>			name of the dataset to use (a data/ subdir)
    
  In the source package's src/ directory the file blockrage.rc enables the game
  to be run directly from the src/ directory. The file blockrage-fhs.rc is the
  RC file for running from the live filesystem. 'make install' copies this file
  to /etc/games/blockrage/blockrage.rc. (3)
    
  After processing the .rc file, the config files are processed.

THE CONFIG FILES
----------------

  First the game tries to read the <user-config-file>. If it doesn't exist
  (meaning this user is running the game for the first time), if falls back to
  <sys-config-file>. If that cannot be found either, defaults are assumed.
  
  The config file contains the key bindings, starting level, tileset, etc.

AUTHOR
------
  Block Rage has been written in 1999-2005 by Jiri Svoboda
  <jirik.svoboda@seznam.cz>. (Please do not list this e-mail
  address on your webpage, or list it in other packages,
  before contacting me first)

NOTES
-----
  This README describes version 0.2.3 of Block Rage.

SEE ALSO
--------
  The Block Rage homepage at <http://blockrage.sourceforge.net>.
  The manpage 'man blockrage', or blockrage.6 in the Block Rage
  src/ directory.
