T UXEDO T. P ENGUIN STARS IN T UX K ART! by Steve and Oliver Baker |

## STARTING THE GAME:

Just 'cd' into the download directory and run 'src/tuxkart', or run '/usr/local/games/tuxkart' if you did a 'make install'.

If you have a Voodoo-1/2 graphics card, don't forget the usual:

csh/tcsh:

        setenv MESA_GLX_FX fullscreen

or for sh/bash:

        MESA_GLX_FX=fullscreen
        export MESA_GLX_FX

Select the number of laps and which course you'd like to race on then click 'start game' to get going.

Tux's Tollway. | Gown's Bow.

## PLAYING THE GAME:

Ideally, you need a joystick with at least six buttons (I use a 'MakoPad-PC' gamepad).

      Joystick Left/Right:  Steer.

      A button - Accellerate.
      B button - Brake.
      C button - Use an item you've collected from a Red Herring
      D button - Ask to be rescued by tinytux.
      L button - Pop a wheelie (if you are going fast enough).
      R button - Jump.

In addition, from the keyboard:

      LEFT/RIGHT ARROW: Steer.

      UP-ARROW   - Same as 'A' button - Accellerate
      DOWN-ARROW - Same as 'B' button - Brake

      A key - Same as 'L' button - pop a Wheelie
      S key - Same as 'R' button - Jump
      D key - Same as 'D' button - Rescue Me Please!
      F key - Same as 'C' button - Use an item
      ENTER - Same as 'C' button - Use an item

      SPACE - Pop up or Hide the menu bar.
      R key - Restart the race.
      P key - Pause.

      X key - Exit the game.
      ESCAPE- Exit the game.

There are also some debug functions left in for developers:

      W key - Toggle wireframe view
      Z key - Toggle statistics gathering

From the Menu bar, you can turn sound effects and music on and off, enable or disable the 'mousetrap' (which keeps the mouse in the window to stop you accidentally losing the mouse pointer on Voodoo-1/2 hardware)

On the tracks, you'll find Red, Silver and Gold Herring (Yum - good!), and Green Herring (Yuk - bad!) - also arrow-shaped red and black 'zippers' that give you a quick speedup.

Use the 'rescue' key if you crash and can't get back onto the track. It's sometimes activated automatically if (for example) you get stuck in hot lava. TinyTux will lift your cart up and put it back onto the track.

## POWERUPS:

I currently have many 'good things' (triggered by eating a Red Herring) and a few 'bad things' (triggered by eating a Green Herring by mistake).

Good things are collectables - you pick them up by driving through the Red Herring and activate them by pushing the 'C' button on the joystick (or ENTER on the keyboard).

Bad things happen immediately - and last for a few seconds before 'going away' by themselves.

Notice that (unlike some kart games), the computer controlled players also collect and use powerups.

Silver and Gold Herrings gradually fill up Tux's tummy (represented by the herring bone at the top of the screen) - as you eat more herring, you'll find that a Red Herring will subsequently give you two, three, four or five powerups at one time!

Good Things:

- Missiles - unguided but fast. If they hit anything, they explode impressively. The effect on a Kart is to stop it dead - so you have to accellerate again.
- Homing missiles - slower than the regular kind - but they track the nearest kart and are quite hard to shake off.
- Fuzzy blobs - even slower still - a kart can outrun them quite easily. They ricochet off the sides of the track and only explode when they hit a Kart.
- Magnets - if you activate a magnet then it hangs around for about 15 seconds. If anyone comes within about 20 meters, you'll be pulled towards them and end up glued to their tail until the magnet 'expires'. Great for catching up with someone - hopeless for passing them.
- Portable Zippers - these are just like the zippers on the track itself - they give you a sudden accelleration and temporarily increase the top speed of your kart.

Bad Things:

- Parachute - this pops out the back of your kart and slows you down a little for a few seconds only. Enough to drop you back one place if it's a close race though.
- Anvil - gets dragged behind your kart on a rope for an even shorter amount of time than the parachute...but the drag effect is much stronger - your kart hardly moves at all.

## KNOWN BUGS:

- No drive-with-the-mouse support.
- Slow performance on CPU's less than ~450MHz.
- No way to return to title screen at end of race.
- You always play as Tux - there is no way to change players.
- After you cross the finish line, if someone overtakes you, your final position changes!
- No "Ready, Steady, Go!" sequence.
- The computer players get confused and 'stuck' on tracks that self-intersect (eg figure-8 shaped tracks). The lap counter and current player positions are also screwed up on those kinds of tracks.
- If you (or one of the computer players) goes off the edge of the track, or calls for rescue then tiny-tux doesn't always manage to put you back onto the track correctly. If this happens, you may need to type 'R' to restart the race - Sorry.
- Several Mesa lighting bugs are shown up particularly badly in this game. Mesa 3.3 on CVS has these fixed - and the nVidia OpenGL for Linux doesn't exhibit them - so it's not my fault!
- Sometimes you can be pushed through a solid object if you are hit by another player when in contact with the surface.

I'm sure there are lots more!

Steve Baker
<sjbaker1@airmail.net>
http://www.sjbaker.org