Critical Mass

Critical Mass (aka Critter) is an SDL/OpenGL space shoot'em up game. It currently runs on Linux, which is my main development platform. Other platforms supported by SDL/OpenGL may also work with a bit of work. I've managed to cross-compile the game for Windows, but haven't tested it much.

Running:

If you haven't already done so, just run the critter executable! A config file will be created the first time you exit the game.

Linux

The config file is called .critter and will be created in your home directory.

Windows

The config file is called config.txt and will be created in the directory where critter is started.

You can edit the config.txt file to change resolution, fullscreen mode, etc. Or you can specify it on the command line. When critter exits it will write the current configuration to the config file. Some of the settings can also be changed within the game (See Config menu).

Some examples:

Run fullscreen
critter +fullscreen 1

Run in a window at 640x480
critter +fullscreen 0 +width 640

Run with a sound track (mod, mp3, ogg, what ever SDL_mixer supports)
critter +soundtrack soundtrack.mod

Run with a skill level of EXPERT
critter +skill EXPERT

The skill levels are:
ROOKIE, NORMAL, EXPERT, INSANE.

Keyboard/Mouse Controls:

The default action bindings are:

PrimaryFire
SPACE
Fire!
PrimaryFire
MOUSEBUTTON1
Fire!
SecondaryFire
MOUSEBUTTON2
Fire!
TertiaryFire
MOUSEBUTTON3
Fire or Bark!
Motion
MOTION
Move via Mouse
MotionUp
UP
Move up
MotionDown
DOWN
Move down
MotionRight
RIGHT
Move right
MotionLeft
LEFT
Move left
Confirm
RETURN
Confirm selection
EscapeAction
ESCAPE
Cancel selection
CritterBoard
TAB
Show/Hide CritterBoard
Snapshot
F12
Take snapshow (snapNN.png)
PauseGame
p
Pause game
ChangeContext
c
Toggle locked-in / Mouse-look style (for developer)

Building the game from source on Linux

You will need a somewhat recent version of gcc. I'm using 3.3.1 (and 3.2.3 for cross compile).

./configure
make


You can run critter from within the game directory without having to go through the installation process. After you install it, it can be run from anywhere.

Installing after building from the source:

make install

This will install the critter executable and the resource file. Note that it is also possible to run the game right from the game directory.

Go to http://criticalmass.sourceforge.net/ for the latest news, email info, etc.

Have fun,
Frank (crittermail at telus dot net).


Copyright (C) 2001-2004 by Frank Becker