1 2# OpenJazz - http://www.alister.eu/jazz/oj/ 3 4## About 5 6### OpenJazz 7 8is a free, open-source version of the classic Jazz Jackrabbit™ games. 9 10OpenJazz can be compiled on a wide range of operating systems, including 11Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux and *BSD. Also ports are available for some 12homebrew platforms, for example Wii and PSP. 13 14To play, you will need the files from one of the original games. 15 16With the demise of DOS-based operating systems, it has become necessary to use 17emulators to play old DOS games. Jazz Jackrabbit™ deserves more - and would 18benefit greatly from new features. 19 20### Jazz Jackrabbit™ 21 22is a PC platform game. Produced by Epic Games (then Epic MegaGames), it was 23first released in 1994. The fast-paced, colourful gameplay proved popular, 24and the game won PC Format's Arcade Game of the Year award. 25Many people still fondly recall the shareware versions. 26 27## History 28 29OpenJazz was started on the 23rd of August, 2005, by Alister Thomson. 30Academic pressures put the project on hold until late December 2005. 31The source code was released on the 25th, and the first version with a degree 32of playability was released on the 15th of January. 33Since then, a variety of ports have been released by other people. 34 35More academic pressures meant there were few updates over the following few 36years, but in 2009 a multiplayer version was released. 37 38## License 39 40OpenJazz is available under the GNU General Public License version 2 or later, 41see `licenses.txt` for additional information. 42 43## Controls 44 45`Enter` to choose a menu option, `Escape` to go back to the previous menu. 46`F9` to view in-game statistics, `P` to pause. 47`Alt` + `Enter` switches between full-screen and windowed mode. 48 49The other controls are configurable via the "setup options" menu. 50By default, the controls are as follows: 51 52- Left and right arrow keys to move left and right. 53- Under Windows, `Alt Gr (right Alt)` to jump and the `Space bar` to shoot. 54- Under Linux, the `Space bar` to jump and `left Alt` to shoot. 55- `Right Ctrl` to change weapon. 56 57Additionally, most game controllers and joysticks that SDL recognizes can be 58used. However, not all axes or buttons may be available. 59 60## Building 61 62Needed: 63- SDL 1.2.x library (https://libsdl.org/). 64 65Optional: 66- SDL_net 1.2.x library (https://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_net/) 67- xmp 4.x.x library (http://xmp.sourceforge.net/) 68- ModPlug library (http://modplug-xmms.sourceforge.net/) 69 70OpenJazz ships a basic Makefile that may be used and adapted to the specific 71needs of the user or platform where it shall run. For network play, you need a 72platform which natively provides sockets or use SDL_net, then either define 73`USE_SOCKETS` or `USE_SDL_NET` in the Makefile. On the Windows platform, the 74socket library (`-lws2_32`) is needed while linking. For music support, you 75either need ModPlug or xmp. Then define `USE_MODPLUG` or `USE_XMP` in the 76Makefile. ModPlug needs to be patched to properly support looping tracks, 77otherwise there will be a small gap in the playback, xmp does not have this 78problem (no patching needed). 79 80For UNIX systems also an autoconf script is provided, used like this: 81 82 ./configure # `--help` lists options 83 make [install] 84 85Further (partly outdated) instructions are available at: 86http://www.alister.eu/jazz/oj/build.php 87 88### other options 89 90- `DATAPATH` - use a fixed path for data files 91- `HOMEDIR` - use the user's home directory for data files 92- `SCALE` - enable scaling of the video output (i.e. Scale2X...) 93- `FULLSCREEN_ONLY` - disable window mode, useful for console ports 94 95## Running 96 97Execute `OpenJazz`, depending on the platform and compile time options, the 98data files are expected to be under different paths (see above). You can 99also specifiy a game folder as command line argument. 100 101## Author 102 103Alister Thomson (alister_j_t at yahoo dot com) 104