NAME

INSTEAD - Simple Text Adventure Engine, The Interpreter

DESCRIPTION

The interpreter of STEAD (Simple Text Adventures) allows one to play games that combine visual novels, text adventures and classic quests of 1990-s. The STEAD games features are:

* very simple source code of the stories. (based on LUA);
* graphical game interface;
* supports music and images;
* theme support - a game may change the interface look;
* portability (originally written for Linux, depends on SDL and lua).

SYNOPSIS

sdl-instead [options] [game.zip or game.idf or path to game]

OPTIONS

-debug: Debug mode (for game developers).
-nosound: Run the game without sound.
-vsync: Vsync output. (SDL2 only)
-gamespath <path>: Add path with games.
-themespath <path>: Add path with themes.
-nostdgames: Do not use default games.
-nostdthemes: Do not use default themes.
-game <basename>: Select game in gamespath.
-theme <basename>: Select theme in themespath.
-owntheme: Force game to use own theme.
-notheme: Do not use own game theme.
-fullscreen: Run the game in fullscreen mode.
-nocursor: Do not use game mouse cursors (use system one)
-hires / -nohires: Set/unset the high resolution when run in fullscreen mode.
-window: Run the game in windowed mode.
-resizable: Resizable window (SDL2 only)
-scale <scale>: Scale window (SDL2 only)
-noautosave: Disable autosave load.
-encode <lua file> [encoded file]: Encode lua file. Encoded file can be executed with doencfile("encoded file").
-idf <path to resources directory or game>: Build idf file [INSTEAD data file] from directory.
-mode [WxH]: Use WxH resolution.
-modes <WxH>[,<WxH>[,<WxH>]] ...: Define available resolutions.
-software: Force software rendering
-renderer <opengl|direct3d|software|...>: Select default renderer (SDL2 only)
-fontscale <percents>: Font scaling.
-nopause: Do not pause the game on window minimize.
-lang <lang code>: Select language.
-hinting 0|1|2|3: Set the font hinting mode (helpful with infinality).
-install [game in zip]: Install game from zip archive
-quit: Quit :)
-appdata [fullpath]: Store saves and settings in appdata path. Path must exist!
-chunksize [size in bytes]: Size for audio buffer. Try this if sound lags.
-version: Show version and exit.
-lua <script.lua> [arguments]: Exec lua script (for game developers).
-luac <script.lua>: Check lua script (for game developers).
-standalone: Run game in standalone mode (no sandbox, no games selection ...).
-noconfig: Do not load saved config (run with defaults).
-profile <profile>: Using configuration profile. Profile file is the ini-styled file with parameter = value pairs. Where is parameters are arguments without -.

Configuration file name is 'insteadrc' and it's located in ~/.instead/.

Games can be downloaded from http://instead-games.sf.net. Unzip them in ~/.instead/games.

CONTROLS

Please, see tutorial.

LICENCE

This software is covered by the terms of the MIT license.

WARRANTY

None.

COPYRIGHT AND CREDITS

Peter Kosyh: INSTEAD author.
Ilya Ryndin: Initial port to Windows.
Mahno Aleksey, Anton Kolosov: Port to Android.
.dm: Port to Mac OS X.
Andrey Afletdinov: Port to Windows CE.
Vadim Balashoff: Advices.
Vladimir Zhirov: Advices.
Alexander Yakovlev: manual.tex support.
Serj Kalichev: Advices and default theme correction.
Vladimir Podobaev, Oleg Gvozdev: Testers.
Alexander Soborov: Wiki support.
Andrew Lobanov: Games repository, slackbuild.
Many others for comments, bug reports, games and ideas.