Martin Petříček www.petricek.net

Scorch Blaster

User guide

• Hardware and software requirements
• Installation - windows
• Running game - windows
• Installation - linux
• Running game - linux
• Controls
• How to play
• Menu system

Hardware and software requirements

Minimal recommended configuration :

• Processor 300 Mhz
• 64 Mb Ram
• Graphics accelerator with 8 MB of memory.

Windows :
Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP or newer required, with installed OpenGL drivers with hardware acceleration support.
All necessary libraries are included with application.

Linux :
You must have these libraries:

• OpenAL
• OpenGL
• Glut >=3.7
• libjpeg6b
• zlib

Game requires XWindow system with OpenGL support to run.

Installation - windows

Extract files sb_data.zip and sb_win32.zip do one directory.

Running game - windows

From game directory run b4d.exe

Installation - linux

Extract files sb_data.zip and sb_linux.zip in one directory.

Running game - linux

From game directory run b4d
If the game won't run because of missing functions in libopenal.so, extract sb_oalib.tgz in root directory (/) and overwrite existing library. You will need root privileges for that. Or you can ask your administrator to install newer OpenAL library.

Controls

You can see frag count (score) in lower part of window and number of deaths (both left), current weapon (middle) and health (right) - 100 is full health, 0 (or less) is death.
Controls can be redefined in menu and you can have any number of keys assigned to one action.
Current controls can be examined and changed in game after pressing F8. There are multiple tabs, you can move with left or right arrow between them, up and down arrows move between fields.
In Advanced tab are common keys not dependent on player and they have following meaning:

Function	Description
Screenshot	Takes ingame screenshot and save it as Targa image
Pause	Suspends/resumes gameplay
Keybindings menu	Shows menu where you can redefine keys
Main menu	Show main menu
Exit game	Exit the game
Add player	Add new player to the game
Remove last player	Remove playwer that was added last from the game
Switch to next player	Switch focus to next player

Controls in Active Player tab applies to currently switched player, switchalble with Switch to next player key, default is TAB. Active player is the only one using mouselook, other are controlled with keyboard only.
In Player 1 to Player n tabs (where n is highest player with some controls set plus one) are contained controls of all players. Number of players is limited only by amount of people that can fit around one keyboard, which is about 4 to 7. You can have more players in game, but they can't be easily controlled.
Meaning of keys is following:

Function	Description
Turn left	Turn player left
Turn right	Turn player right
Look up	Turn player's view up
Look down	Turn player's view down
Forward	Move forward
Back	Move backward
Strafe left	Sidestep left
Strafe right	Sidestep right
Move up	Move up (jump)
Move down	Move down
Throw bomb	Thow a bomb
Next Weapon	Switch to next type of bomb
Previous Weapon	Switch to previous type of bomb

You can assign any number of keys to one action, but only first four are visible in settings. If you assign for some action a key that is already used elsewhere, you will see warning, telling you for what action was the key used before.

Console: with key ~ (tilde, left to key 1) you can bring down console. You can type commands here. The same key is used to dismiss the console. List of commans, including their description is in Console commands and variables reference, also you can use help command in console. Its single parameter is name of command or variable for which you want some brief help.
Some of those commands are variables. If you write them without parameters, current value will be shown (for example fov), if you write them with parameter, you will change the value (for example fov 90 will set variable fov to 90).
The TAB key acts as autocomplete - if you type part of command or variable, it will complete its name, eventually offering alternatives, if morecommands or variables begin with same prefix, and cannot be completed unambiguously.
up and down arrows move in history - you can move through history of already executed commands and eventually re-execute them, or modify them before re-executing.
PageUp and PageDown scroll console output - you can see any information that scrolled away.

How to play

Game takes place in an arena, where players try to kill each other. For that purpose they can use bombs, which can be thrown.
Bomb does not destroy only opponents, but can also demolish some walls. One bomb exploding near other one will cause it also to explode, more bombs near each other can cause chain explosion.

Game modes:
Deathmatch: Get most points, for each killed opponent you score point, for suiciding a point is subtractede, for dying by enemy hands are no points added or subtracted. Players are revived after death on random place (they respawn). You can set fraglimit (number of points needed to win)
Survival: The last one that survives is a winner. No respawns and it is not important who you kill.

Weapons:
Bomb: Black bomb, can be thrown, bounces off walls. Well aimed throw (if exploding close to player) will kill instantly. Detonator does not react on impact, but is timed to explode 3.5 seconds after throw.
Sticky Bomb: Green bomb, equally powerful as ordinary one, but does not bounce.

Menu description

New Game: launch submenu for choosing new game, you can choose from one of three maps, followed by another submenu for choosing player number and then a new game is launched.
Keybindings: launch menu, where you can see and change keybindings (assignment of keys to actions).
Setting: There are two submenus, in first, marked Fraglimit you can set score needed to win a game, in second, marked Game mode you can set game mode (Deathmatch or Survival)
Exit: Quit the game