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SDLROIDS(6)			     Games			   SDLROIDS(6)

NAME
       SDLRoids	- an enhanced shoot-the-asteroids game for X

SYNOPSIS
       sdlroids	[options]

DESCRIPTION
       SDLRoids	 is  essentially an Asteroids clone, but with a	few extra fea-
       tures, and some nice game physics.

       You can run in either windowed mode (default) or	 in  fullscreen	 mode.
       You  can	 (usually) switch between them during play by pressing Alt-En-
       ter.

       The play	area (apart from the score/lives/etc. display)	is  a  square,
       centred	playing	area, as the original Hyperoid did. This is a feature,
       not a bug. :-)

OPTIONS
       -f, --fullscreen
	      Start in fullscreen mode.

       -g, --geometry WxH
	      Open a window W pixels wide and H	pixels high instead of the de-
	      fault 480x480.

       -b, --benchmark FRAMES
	      Run in benchmark mode. Display FRAMES frames without  delay  and
	      quit, printing the resulting FPS.

       -s, --nosound
	      Don't initialize the sound.

       -l, --list-joysticks
	      List all available joysticks and exit.

       -n, --joynr NR
	      The  index of the	joystick to use. All found joysticks should be
	      listed when SDLRoids starts.

       -j, --joystick PATH
	      Use the specified	device as the primary joystick.	If the path is
	      correct, this joystick will become number	zero.

       -0, --fire NUM
	      The number of the	joystick button	to use	for  firing  the  main
	      guns. Default = 0.

       -1, --shields NUM
	      The number of the	joystick button	to use to turn on the shields.
	      Default =	1.

       -2, --bomb NUM
	      The  number  of the joystick button to use for detonating	smart-
	      bombs. Default = 2.

       -h, --help
	      Print usage information and exit.

       -v, --version
	      Print version number and exit.

ENVIRONMENT
       These are the environment variables you can set to change the  behavior
       of SDLRoids.

       SRDATADIR
	      SDLRoids	looks  for  datafiles in the same directory as the bi-
	      nary, the	current	directory and the compiled in  path.  You  can
	      override the location using this environment variable.

       SDL_JOYSTICK_DEVICE
	      The  joystick device to use as your main joystick. This environ-
	      ment variable is overridden by the --joystick argument.

GAMEPLAY
       The object of the game is intuitive - shoot everything that movies, ex-
       cept the	stars (which are powerups or other good	stuff).

       You have	3 lives, unlimited fuel	and firepower, 150 shield energy and 3
       smartbombs. Your	ship gets darker when you lose a life, but you keep on
       playing (unless you hit an asteroid).  You  get	an  extra  life	 every
       100,000	points.	 When you lose the game, you start over	immediately at
       level 1 (there is no waiting around between games).  Alternatively, you
       can press F1 to get a new game starting on level	1.

       In addition to the asteroids and	yourself, there	are four other	things
       you'll encounter	in the game:

       Hunters
	      The  `UFO'  equivalent.  Can  take  one or more hits, the	colour
	      gives you	a hint how many	- they start off light	cyan,  but  if
	      they  initially  needed two or more hits,	they'll	turn dark cyan
	      when they	only need one more hit.

       Spinners
	      These spinning kamikaze baddies chase you	and try	to crash  into
	      you.  The	colour indicates how many hits are left	before you de-
	      stroy  it	- 1=dark purple, 2=cyan, 3=dark	cyan, 4=yellow,	5=dark
	      yellow, 6=blue, 7=dark blue, 8=green, 9=dark green. And  if  you
	      get  far enough into the game, they can take more	hits than even
	      that.  :-) When they crash into you, the number of hits left  is
	      how  many	 hits  they take out on	your ship - if a dark cyan one
	      hits you,	that's three lives gone. So for	yellow or worse, which
	      can be hard to hit enough, using a bomb to get them is often the
	      best/safest bet. (Shields	are worth a try	 in  emergencies,  but
	      it's hard	to time	it right.)

       Swarmers
	      These  green  squares are	basically inert, but recursively split
	      up several times unless you catch	 them  early  (before  they've
	      `swarmed'	much).

       Bonuses
	      Spinning	stars which chase you like Spinners (be	careful	not to
	      confuse the two) and give	you a bonus when they  hit  you.  They
	      are always in `light' colours, and the colour indicates the type
	      -	 red=score  (the  amount  depends  on  which level you're on),
	      green=extra shield,  blue=extra  bomb,  yellow=extra  life.  The
	      bonus  type works	its way	backwards through that list over time,
	      so (most notably)	extra  life  bonuses  have  to	be  caught  as
	      quickly as possible to avoid merely getting a bomb.

KEYS
       The following keys control your ship:

       Cursor Left/Right
	      Spin  your  ship to the left or right. Self explanatory, really.
	      :)

       Cursor Up/Down
	      Forward or reverse thrust. Since this is a game that takes place
	      in space,	you only use the thrust	to change speed	 /  direction.
	      If you don't use the thrust, you'll continue gliding in the same
	      direction	even if	you steer.

       Space  Fire  your  main guns (you can, and should, hold this one	down -
	      the wonder of autofire). You can get double or  triple  powerups
	      as well as a powerup that	increase the range of your guns.

       Tab    Turn  on	your shields while pressed down. When your shields are
	      on, you can't be hurt but	enemy craft will be. You have  limited
	      shield power, so make sure to keep a look	on the shield counter.

       s      Detonate	a  smartbomb.  This  will  kill	all enemies ships (i.e
	      everything xcluding asteroids and	bonuses).

       Other keys:

       Esc    Exit the game.

       Pause Key
	      Pause / unpause the game.

       F1     Quit your	current	game and start new game	from level 1.

       Alt-Enter
	      Toggle between fullscreen	and windowed mode (if supported).

       Ctrl-z Iconfify and pause the game.

       Ctrl-g When running in windowed mode, this grabs/releases the mouse and
	      keyboard focus and hides/shows the mouse pointer.	It has no  ef-
	      fect in fullscreen mode.

       JOYSTICK	CONTROL
	      Since version 1.3.3 you can also play with a joystick or gamepad
	      (if  supported  by  your	computer). You can use both analog and
	      digital joysticks	/ gamepads. When using	an  analog  controller
	      there  is	a small	deadzone. These	are the	default	bindings (but-
	      tons can be remapped with	command	line options):

       X-Axis Turn your	ship left or right.

       Y-Axis Forward or reverse thrust.

       Button 1
	      Fire main	guns.

       Button 2
	      Activate shields.

       Button 3
	      Detonate a smartbomb.

BUGS
       Bonuses currently only come in one color. This is a bug and it will  be
       fixed eventually.

       The sound is only 8-bit 8kHz mono.

AUTHORS
       Edward Hutchins wrote the original Hyperoid, for	Windows	3.x.

       Russell	Marks (russell.marks@ntlworld.com) ported it to	Unix/Linux and
       added sound, and	wrote this man page (partly based on the original ver-
       sion's help dialog, but mostly based on game experience and RTFS	:-)).

       David Hedbor (david@hedbor.org) ported the game to SDL (both for	graph-
       ics and sound) and has since added lots of features. See	the  ChangeLog
       for details.

Version	1.3.4		       March 27th, 2001			   SDLROIDS(6)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=sdlroids&sektion=6&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.0>

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