TRANZ OZ
========


The Original
------------

    Tranz Am
    --------

    Created by Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum.
    Copyright (c) 1982 Ashby Computers & Graphics Ltd.

    Set in a future time ruled by cars and trophies, a land where petrol
    replaces gold and esteem is possession of the 8 Great Cups of Ultimate.

    Driving your Super Blown Red Racer, use your skill to outwit and crash the
    Deadly Black Turbos. Use your instruments to locate and collect the
    trophies - before you overheat or run out of fuel!

    Outstanding multi-directional movement, graphics features and playing area.

    Requirements
    ------------

    Sinclair ZX Spectrum 16K/48K RAM


The Remake
----------

    Tranz Oz
    --------

    A remake by Green Eyed Monster for the Retro Remakes Competition 2004.
    Copyright (c) 2004 Ed Jones.

    Requirements
    ------------

    Due to limited hardware available for testing it is not possible to
    determine the exact requirements, listed are the development machine specs,
    if your machine is more powerful the chances are it will run better, and
    vice-versa.

    Tranz Oz is heavily dependent on your Graphics Card capabilities, you will
    require at least a late FX series nVidia card, or the ATI equivalent.

    IBM PC Compatible
    Pentium IV 3.02GHz
    1GB RAM
    nVidia GeForce FX 5600
    256Mb VRAM
    Windows compatible soundcard
    Windows compatible joystick (optional)
    Approximately 30Mb free disk space

    Installation
    ------------

    Unzip the supplied archive to a folder of your choice.
    Run the executable file 'TranzOz.exe'.

    Controls
    --------

    General - Press Shift+Escape at and time to exit the game.
              Use the Pause/Break key to pause/unpause the game. If you switch 
              to a different application then the game will automatically 
              pause.
              Press Enter to exit any additional "information" screens.

    Menu Screen - Use the cursor Up/Down keys to move between the options and
                  Enter to select the highlighted option.

    In Game - Use the cursor Left/Right keys to steer,
              Control to accelerate,
              Cursor Down to brake and reverse.
              Or set up your joystick via the main menu as show below.

    Special Keys - F1 - Toggle the FPS (frames per second) display
                   F2 - Toggle the shadowing effect
                   F3 - Toggle the dust effect

                   F12 - Self-destruct the current vehicle, if you get stuck

    Joystick Setup
    --------------

    From the main menu;

        Highlight the Joystick option (using the up/down cursor keys) and press
        enter to select it.

        Navigate to the Throttle option and move your joystick in the direction
        you want to use to accelerate. Brake will be automatically set to the
        opposite direction on the same axis.

        Or, press a joystick button. If you do this then you will also need to
        navigate to the Brake option and press the button you want to use for
        that control.

        Navigate to the Steer Left option and move the joystick in the
        direction you will use to steer left. The opposite direction on this
        same axis will make you steer right.

    Hints
    -----

    The cup will appear on your radar only when you are close to it.
    Even if you don't know where the next cup is, the Black Turbos do.
    The colour of the Black Turbo's icon on your radar indicates the state they
    are in;
        Blue - They're calm, not chasing after you or looking for you.
        Red - They can see you or hear you and will chase after you.
        Orange - They can't see you, but they're still looking for you.
    Unlike the original, if you overheat your engine the car will explode.

    Issues
    ------

    Unlike professional development studios we can't spend many months and
    hundreds of dollars checking compatibility with various different
    combinations of hardware, or tuning the code to work with older systems.
    You will need a PC with specs similar to those listed above. There are a
    couple of tuning options (shadows and dust effects) available but they
    won't change the core requirements of a reasonably up to date video card.

    Make sure you have the latest drivers for your graphics card installed,
    with the caveat that the nVidia 61.77 drivers are believed to be buggy.

    Check the generated log file (TranzOz.log) in the application directory, if
    your graphics card does not support a required feature then that will most
    likely be reported there.

    Make sure you have the latest version of DirectX installed. The OpenGL and
    Direct3D7 options are only available for legacy testing purposes and it is
    not recommended that you use them.

    If you Alt+Tab out of the game whilst in full screen mode, using the
    DirectX drivers, you will most likely suffer a "lost context" error and the
    game will exit. This is a known issue with the underlying graphics library,
    so just don't do that, 'k?

    Some joysticks (mine included; Gravis Eliminator Aftershock) return data
    that indicates that one of the axes is held down, even when it isn't. To
    get around this, when selecting the axis in the joystick setup you must
    hold down the axis (or button) you want to use whilst navigating away from 
    the menu option using the up/down cursor keys.
    
    If you have your desktop background set up with "Picture Display: Stretch" 
    then the image will get resized to the resolution that you start Tranz Oz 
    at, in full screen mode. I believe this is a Windows problem, it's not 
    recognising that the desktop resolution has been changed back when Tranz Oz 
    exits.
    
    The first game you start after starting up the application may make the 
    physics go a bit screwy. This is because the initial resource loading can 
    mess up the timing. If this happens, either wait for it to sort itself out, 
    or self-destruct the current vehicle. You can always start a new game in 
    the same session, and that shouldn't exhibit the problem since the 
    resources will be cached.

    Credits
    -------

    Coding:

    Graphics Engine - OGRE 3D - www.ogre3d.org
    Physics Simulation - ODE - www.ode.org
    Archive Handling - ZipArchive - www.artpol-software.com
    Sound System - FMOD - www.fmod.org

    Resources:

    Vehicle Models - DarkMATTER - darkmatter.thegamecreators.com
    Elevation Data - National Geophysical Data Center - www.ngdc.noaa.gov
    Terrain Texturing - Terragen - www.planetside.co.uk
    Buildings - Exploding Sheep - mattst.users.btopenworld.com/Home.htm
    Foliage - bupaje - www.cavebrain.com
    Sounds - Sourced from Find Sounds - www.findsounds.com

    Music:

    Title - Black Tranz Am by The Atomic Bitchwax - www.theatomicbitchwax.com
    End Game - Get It On Up by The Mighty Thor - www.themightythor.com

    All resources remain the property of, and are copyrighted by, their
    respective creators, please do not redistribute them.

    Have Fun.
    Cheers,

    Ed "Green Eyed Monster" Jones
    [monster@beeb.net]

