aleph one readme

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Aleph One/SDL An Open Source 3D action game

Copyright (C) 1995 Bungie Software Corporation Portions Copyright (C) 2000-2005 Christian Bauer, Loren Petrich, Chris Pruett, Rhys Hill, Ben Thompson, Woody Zenfell, Mihai Pararita, Bo Lindbergh et al. Expat XML Library Copyright (C) 1998, 1999 James Clark

License-------

Aleph One is available under the terms of the GNU General Public License.See the file "COPYING" that is included in the distribution for details.

The BeOS version of Aleph One is statically linked against SDL which isprovided to you under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License.See the file "COPYING.SDL" that is included in the distribution for details.The source code for the version of SDL used is available on

http://alephone.cebix.net

What is Aleph One?------------------

Aleph One is an Open Source 3D first-person shooter game, based on the gameMarathon 2 by Bungie Software. It is set in a Sci-Fi universe dominated bydeviant computer AIs and features a well thought-out plot.

System Requirements-------------------

Aleph One/SDL runs on all Unix systems supported by SDL (which includes

Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and IRIX), on BeOS R4.5 or later versions, and onWindows 9x/NT/2000. It does not currently run on MacOS.

Successfully tested systems include:- Linux/i386- Linux/alpha- Linux/x86_64- FreeBSD/i386- Solaris/sparc- BeOS/x86 R5- BeOS/ppc R4.5- Windows 95- Windows 98/SE

- Windows NT 4- Windows 2000

To compile Aleph One/SDL, you need an up-to-date C++ compiler. Using GCC 3.xshould give the best results. Users of pre-ISO C++ compilers need not apply.

Aleph One/SDL supports, but doesn't require, OpenGL for rendering.

Installing Aleph One


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--------------------

See the files "INSTALL.Unix", "INSTALL.BeOS" and "INSTALL.Windows".

Aleph One/SDL needs Marathon data files which are not included in thedistribution, so you should read the installation instructions even ifyou have downloaded an executable version of Aleph One/SDL.

Playing Aleph One-----------------

Unix: To start Aleph One, type

$ alephone

If you have installed the Marathon Demo data RPM packages, start Aleph One like this

$ /usr/share/AlephOne_m2_demo/start or $ /usr/share/AlephOne_minf_demo/start

BeOS: To start Aleph One, double click the "AlephOne" application icon. If you want to specify arguments or see error messages, you will have to start it from the shell, however.

Windows: To start Aleph One, double click the "AlephOne" application icon. If you want to specify arguments or see error messages, you will have to start it from an MS-DOS window, however.

The program can take a number of command line arguments. Here is a completelist:

[-h | --help] Display the help message [-v | --version] Display the game version [-d | --debug] Allow saving of core files (disable SDL parachute) [-f | --fullscreen] Run the game fullscreen [-w | --windowed] Run the game in a window [-g | --nogl] Do not use OpenGL [-s | --nosound] Do not access the sound card [-m | --nogamma] Disable gamma table effects (menu fades)

If Aleph One complains about missing data files, and you are sure that youhave installed them, try setting the ALEPHONE_DATA environment variable tothe path of the data file directory. This variable can also specify a colon-separated (Windows: semicolon-separated) list of directories which are

searched for data files in the given order.

The background story of the game and the keyboard controls are explained inthe manual or README file on your Marathon CD or in the Demo archive.Here is a rundown of the default keyboard configuration (assuming a USkeyboard; all keys are mapped by position):

On the menu screen: N - Begin new game O - Continue saved game


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P - Preferences R - Replay saved film C - Show game credits Q - Quit

In-game: KP8 - Walk forward KP5 - Walk backward KP4 - Turn left KP6 - Turn right

Z - Sidestep left X - Sidestep right

D - Look up C - Look down V - Look ahead

A - Glance left S - Glance right

Space - Fire weapon, primary trigger Alt - Fire weapon, secondary trigger (e.g. grenades) KP7 - Select previous weapon

KP9 - Select next weapon

Tab - Action (open doors, flip switches, log in to computer terminals)

Shift - Sidestep Ctrl - Walk slowly/swim Meta - Keyboard look

M - Overhead map

Other keys (not configurable): - - Zoom overhead map out = - Zoom overhead map in

\ - Toggle FPS display

Esc - Quit game/leave terminal Alt-Q - Quit game Alt-C - Quit game (use this under BeOS because Alt-Q will quit the whole Aleph One application without warning) Alt-P - Pause game (press Alt-P again to resume)

F1 - Decrease screen size F2 - Increase screen size F3 - Toggle high/low resolution F4 - Reset OpenGL textures

F5 - Make the chase cam switch sides F6 - Toggle chase cam F7 - Toggle tunnel vision F8 - Toggle crosshairs F9 - Screen dump (saved in ~/.alephone/Screenshot_*.bmp files) F10 - Toggle position display F11 - Decrease gamma level F12 - Increase gamma level

, - Decrease sound volume


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. - Increase sound volume [ and ] - Scroll player inventory view

Backspace - Switch player view in replays [ and ] - Adjust film replay speed

If you click on "Defaults" in the keyboard configuration menu when mousecontrol has been turned on you will get a different keyboard layout, moresuited to mouse play.

Playing third-party maps with Aleph One---------------------------------------

(If the following instructions are too technical for you, see the "Mapinstallation for dummies" section, below)

Aleph One can be extended with custom map, physics, shape and sound fileswhich can be selected in the "Environment" section of the preferences menu.Aleph One/SDL looks for these files in two places:

Unix: /usr/local/share/AlephOneand

~/.alephone

BeOS: The Aleph One application directoryand /boot/home/config/settings/Aleph One

Windows: The Aleph One application directoryand The directory "Prefs\" in the Aleph One application directory

Aleph One looks in both of these directories (and in all subdirectories) for

map, shape and sound files it recognizes and shows a list of them in the"Environment" preferences menu when clicking on one of the "Map", "Physics","Shapes" or "Sounds" items. So, for example, under Unix you could create adirectory ~/.alephone/maps and place all map files you downloaded in there.

Most 3rd-party maps for Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity you can find on theinternet, for example in the Marathon HyperArchive

http://www.marathon.org/hyperarchive/

do in principle work out-of-the box with Aleph One/SDL. I said "in principle",because these maps are usually stored in BinHex (.hqx) and/or StuffIt (.sit)format, which is difficult to unpack on non-Mac systems.

Fortunately, for Linux there is a beta version of "StuffIt Expander" whichcan handle such files:

http://www.aladdinsys.com/expander/expander_linux.html

(when unpacking a ".sit.hqx" archive, you will need to run "unstuff" twice,first for de-BinHexing and a second time for unstuffing).

The other problem with Marathon map files is that terminal pictures,


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chapter screens and chapter screen sounds are stored in the resource forkon the Mac. If a map doesn't have a resource fork with these things (mostNet maps don't), it is sufficient to just copy the entire map file overto a place where Aleph One can find it (see above).

If the map does have a resource fork (most single-player maps do), youhave three options:a) Extract the data and resource forks into separate files, as I did with the map file in the installation instructions above. If the file containing the data fork has the name "foo", the resource file must be called "foo.rsrc" or "foo.resource" and kept in the same directory as the data file. Splitting files into data and resource forks is easy to do when copying unpacked files from Mac CD-ROMs (see above) or when unpacking downloaded map files under MacOS with my Basilisk II Mac emulator (copy the unpacked map to the external file system where the resource fork will be stored in a ".rsrc" directory).b) Convert the dual-forked Mac map file into a single "AppleSingle" encoded file. This is the preferred option because it will combine the data and resource forks into a single file which is easier to move around than two separate files. The "tools" directory of the Aleph One/SDL source archive contains two utilities for handling AppleSingle files.c) Convert the dual-forked Mac map file into a single "MacBinary II" encoded file. This will also leave you with a single map file. The Linux "unstuff" program will produce MacBinary files when giving it the "-m=auto" option.

The shape and sound files don't require special treatment to work underAleph One/SDL. Some shape files, however, come in the form of a "patcher"application that only runs under MacOS. Such files cannot be used withAleph One/SDL.

Map installation for dummies under Linux----------------------------------------

First, download and install the "StuffIt Expander" beta for Linux:

http://www.aladdinsys.com/expander/expander_linux.html

Now, suppose that you downloaded a file "CoolMap.sit.hqx" which containsa Marathon 2 or Infinity map.

1. De-BinHex the file:

$ ls CoolMap.sit.hqx $ unstuff CoolMap.sit.hqx Scanning CoolMap.sit.hqx Expanding CoolMap.sit.hqx /home/cbauer/downloads/CoolMap.sit ............ done

$ ls CoolMap.sit CoolMap.sit.hqx

2. Unstuff the file:

$ unstuff -m=auto CoolMap.sit Scanning CoolMap.sit Expanding CoolMap.sit /home/cbauer/downloads/Cool Map Folder/Cool Map ............ /home/cbauer/downloads/Cool Map Folder/Read Me


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done $ ls 'Cool Map Folder/' CoolMap.sit CoolMap.sit.hqx $ cd "Cool Map Folder" $ ls 'Cool Map' 'Read Me'

The "Read Me" file may be unreadable but you can ignore it.

3. Copy the map file to the right place:

$ cp "Cool Map" ~/.alephone

4. The map should now show up in the list when clicking on the "Map" item of the Environment preferences section of Aleph One.

Films and saved games---------------------

Saved games and films are stored in

Unix: ~/.alephone/Saved Games

and ~/.alephone/Recordings

BeOS: /boot/home/config/settings/Aleph One/Saved Gamesand /boot/home/config/settings/Aleph One/Recordings

Windows: Directories "Prefs\\Saved Games" and "Prefs\\Recordings" in the Aleph One application directory

If you want to restore games or replay films you have downloaded (or copied

from another computer), you have to copy them into these directories orthey won't show up when clicking on "Continue Saved Game" or "Replay SavedFilm" on the main menu.

Themes------

Aleph One/SDL supports selectable user interface themes which determine thelook of the game's dialog boxes (but not the title menu which is a fixedpicture). The themes are stored in

Unix:

/usr/local/share/AlephOne/Themesand ~/.alephone/Themes

BeOS: The "Themes" directory in the Aleph One application directoryand /boot/home/config/settings/Aleph One/Themes

Windows:


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The "Themes" directory in the Aleph One application directoryand The directory "Prefs\\Themes" in the Aleph One application directory

There is one subdirectory for each theme and you can install new themes byunpacking them into the "Themes" directory. Additional themes can be foundon the Aleph One/SDL home page (see below).

File compatibility------------------

This section gives a summary of the cross-platform compatibility of thevarious data files used by Aleph One and the original Marathon games:

"Images" - on Aleph One/SDL this is a data file and not a resource file as on the MacOS versions of Aleph One and Marathon, but the file format is exactly the same, and compatible across all platforms supported by Aleph One/SDL "Shapes" - fully compatible across all versions of Aleph One/Marathon 2/ Marathon Infinity "Sounds" - fully compatible across all versions of Aleph One/Marathon 2/ Marathon Infinity

Map files - maps without resource forks are fully compatible across all versions of Aleph One/Marathon 2/Marathon Infinity; maps with resource forks need to be in one of three formats: a) data and resource forks in separate files, and .rsrc/ .resources b) an AppleSingle encoded file containing data and resource fork c) a MacBinary II encoded file containing data and resource fork All of these formats are fully compatible across all platforms supported by Aleph One/SDL. Saved games - fully compatible across all versions of Aleph One/ Marathon 2/Marathon Infinity (but the MacOS versions save a small picture of the map at the current player's position in the resource fork of saved games, which is not preserved or used by Aleph One/SDL)

Films - fully compatible across all versions of Aleph One/Marathon 2/ Marathon Infinity "Aleph One Preferences" - platform-specific, not compatible with the MacOS versions of Aleph One/Marathon nor across the platforms supported by Aleph One/SDL Themes - fully compatible across all versions of Aleph One/SDL; the MacOS versions of Aleph One and Marathon don't support themes

Marathon Markup Language (MML)------------------------------

The Marathon Markup Language (MML) is a subset of the Extensible Markup

Language (XML). MML scripts can be used to configure some aspects ofAleph One. These scripts are stored in

Unix: /usr/local/share/AlephOne/MML /usr/local/share/AlephOne/Scriptsand ~/.alephone/MML

BeOS:


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The "MML" and "Scripts" directories in the Aleph One application directoryand /boot/home/config/settings/Aleph One/MML

Windows: The "MML" and "Scripts" directories in the Aleph One application directoryand The directory "Prefs\\MML" in the Aleph One application directory

Upon startup, Aleph One reads and parses all scripts found in thesedirectories, in alphabetical order. For a description of their contents andwhat you can do by writing your own MML scripts, please consult the file"docs/MML.html" that comes in the Aleph One/SDL distribution archive.

Bug Reports-----------

If you find a bug that's not already in the list above, please submit itusing the bug database on SourceForge:

http://sourceforge.net/bugs/?group_id=1997

Tips----

You can start the game at any level by holding the Shift and Control keyswhile clicking on the "Begin New Game" button on the main menu.

To activate the cheat codes, see the file "docs/Cheat_Codes" that is includedin the Aleph One archive. But remember: Winners don't cheat and cheatersdon't usually win! :-)

If you're stuck in the game, there's an excellent walkthrough at

http://pinky.wtower.com/marathon/

Troubleshooting---------------

If the game runs very slowly, try running it in 8 bit mode. Under Linux,using XFree86 4.0 instead of 3.x may also greatly increase the speed. If youdon't have hardware accelerated OpenGL, you should specify the "-g" argumentto enable software rendering (unless you configured Aleph One with the"--disable-opengl" option). If Aleph One crashes or performs poorly whenusing OpenGL, disable the "Static Effect" option in the Graphics/OpenGLpreferences menu.

Support-------

Aleph One is not officially supported by Bungie Software, so don't bothercontacting them about it.

The official Aleph One home page is at


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