Deep Runner

A 6DoF 3D shooter game for the Silicon Graphics O2 workstation (and other computers retro and modern). Written for the "Retro Platform Jam #6".

• Web site: http://nuclear.mutantstargoat.com/sw/games/deeprunner
• Github project page: https://github.com/MutantStargoat/deeprunner
• Video of an earlier dev version running on the SGI O2:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-zUOuBWFZY

Credits

• Code: Nuclear (John Tsiombikas)
• Graphics & level design: dstar
• Music: Robin Agani

About the SGI O2

The Silicon Graphics O2 was a low-end graphics workstation released in 1996. It had a shared memory architecture, allowing for greater flexibility than the mid-range Indigo2 or Octane with "IMPACT graphics" of the time, which only supported 1-4MB of texture RAM, but was not particularly fast, especially with texture mapping.

The MIPS R5000 200MHz CPU, which was typically found in early O2s, was a 64bit RISC processor, similar in performance to an intel Pentium Pro.

Vertex processing (transformation & lighting) was done on the CPU, and only  pixel operations (polygon rasterization, texture mapping, zbuffering, alpha blending) were performed in the graphics hardware, similar to how early PC 3D accelerators worked. Performance wise the 3D hardware seems close to a 3dfx voodoo1, but with *much* better quality and extensive feature set, supporting high resolution and bit depth textures, 24bit z-buffer, and even stereoscopic rendering.

For more information see: http://www.sgistuff.net/hardware/systems/o2.html

How to run the game

The game is written for the SGI O2, but you don't need to have an O2 to run it, nor do you need an emulator. The game also runs on x86 PCs, running either a UNIX operating system like GNU/Linux, or Windows. Pre-compiled binaries are provided for IRIX (mips4, n32), GNU/Linux (x86-64), and MS Windows (x86 32bit). Simply extract the single archive, which includes source code and all the pre-compiled binaries, and run the executable for your platform.

Controls

You an use mouse and keyboard to play the game, but if you have a 6dof input device (spaceball, spacemouse, etc), it will give you an even better 3D navigation experience. Make sure the 6dof device driver is running and has detected your device, before starting the game. Both the free spacenav driver and the official 3Dconnexion drivers are supported, where available.

If you don't have a spacemouse, you can still run the game with just keyboard and mouse. If you're not in full-screen mode, press `~` to capture the mouse and start navigating; press it again to release the mouse.

Keybindings:

• W/A/S/D: move forward/back and strafe left/right.
• Q and E: roll left/right.
• +/-: adjust sound volume.

You can invert the vertical mouse axis by editing the "game.cfg" configuration file, which will be created automatically in the game directory after running it the first time. See "README.md" for all the possible settings you can change.