README


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36

Thrust3D
========

Post-apocalyptic Jet Set Willy, set in a 3D nuclear power station.

In the mid 90s, I played a game from a magazine cover disk (Archimedes World I think, but I really can't remember) called
"Lander".  No, not the demo version of Zarch.  This was a completely different game where you piloted a small 2D spaceship
round a vast world collecting glowing radioactive debris from over a hundred separate rooms.  The spaceship part was just
like the many Lunar Lander variants you have probably played, but the exploration of a vast world appealed to me for the
same reasons that I enjoyed Jet Set Willy many years before.  In Lander, just like in Jet Set Willy. the game would
theoretically end when all the debris had been collected.  In practice, this was virtually impossible due to the shear
size and complexity of the game.  The attraction of the game was not in winning it, but in being able to explore a
seemingly never-ending abstract world of pure imagination.

In creating Thrust3D I wanted to recreate that feeling of exploration and imagination, but using the capabilities of
modern graphics hardware to heighten the feeling.  I learnt a lot of OpenGL graphics programming and rendering techniques
in the course of my doctoral studies for visualising my research results, but none of this allowed me to use any of the
advanced capabilities available.  Thrust3D was an outlet for this, and here is the result.

For installation details, see the 'INSTALL' file.  Basically it's just ./configure / make / sudo make install.

Controls:

	Space       - thrust (upwards)
	Left arrow  - turn left
	Right arrow - turn right
	Up arrow    - thrust forwards
	Down arrow  - thrust backwards

Aim:

	Fly around the highly radioactive remains of the Mars nuclear power station and collect the coloured flashing
	radiactive debris.  Don't crash into any walls or other objects or your craft will explode.  Land only on the
	glowing red landing panels.