INSTEAD(6)

💖 INSTEAD(6) — Simple Text Adventure Engine, The Interpreter 💖

okay bestie, sit DOWN, because this is the INSTEAD manual page from the GAMES section and it's literally about playing games all day, so obviously we're obsessed. 🌸

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✨ NAME ✨

INSTEAD — Simple Text Adventure Engine, The Interpreter</p> 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So the tea is: this is the interpreter for STEAD (Simple Text Adventures), and it lets you play games that are a whole mashup — visual novels, text adventures, AND the classic quests of the 1990-s all in one lil bundle. main character energy fr fr. 👑

The STEAD games features are, and I'm listing them because they're all iconic:

• very simple source code of the stories. (based on LUA);
• graphical game interface;
• supports music and images;
• theme support — a game may change the interface look;
• portability (originally written for Linux, depends on SDL and lua).

like. it does ALL of that. no cap. 🌈

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

sdl-instead [options] [game.zip or game.idf or path to game]

yep that's it, that's the whole vibe. 🫶

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

okay this is the long part but stay with me, every single one matters:

• -debug — Debug mode (for game developers). 🛠️
• -nosound — Run the game without sound. (silent era vibes, no soundtrack, kinda sad ngl 😭)
• -vsync — Vsync output. (SDL2 only)
• -gamespath <path> — Add path with games. 🗂️
• -themespath <path> — Add path with themes. 🎨
• -nostdgames — Do not use default games.
• -nostdthemes — Do not use default themes.
• -game <basename> — Select game in gamespath. 🎮
• -theme <basename> — Select theme in themespath.
• -owntheme — Force game to use own theme.
• -notheme — Do not use own game theme.
• -fullscreen — Run the game in fullscreen mode. (immersive era ✨)
• -nocursor — Do not use game mouse cursors (use system one)
• -hires / -nohires — Set/unset the high resolution when run in fullscreen mode.
• -window — Run the game in windowed mode.
• -resizable — Resizable window (SDL2 only)
• -scale <scale> — Scale window (SDL2 only)
• -noautosave — Disable autosave load. (living dangerously, I respect it 💀)
• -encode <lua file> [encoded file] — Encode lua file. Encoded file can be executed with doencfile("encoded file").
• -idf <path to resources directory or game> — Build idf file [INSTEAD data file] from directory.
• -mode [WxH] — Use WxH resolution.
• -modes <WxH>[,<WxH>[,<WxH>]] ... — Define available resolutions.
• -software — Force software rendering
• -renderer <opengl|direct3d|software|...> — Select default renderer (SDL2 only)
• -fontscale <percents> — Font scaling. 🔍
• -nopause — Do not pause the game on window minimize.
• -lang <lang code> — Select language. 🌍
• -hinting 0|1|2|3 — Set the font hinting mode (helpful with infinality).
• -install [game in zip] — Install game from zip archive
• -quit — Quit :) (the most relatable option honestly 🙈)
• -appdata [fullpath] — Store saves and settings in appdata path. Path must exist!
• -chunksize [size in bytes] — Size for audio buffer. Try this if sound lags. 🔊
• -version — Show version and exit.
• -lua <script.lua> [arguments] — Exec lua script (for game developers).
• -luac <script.lua> — Check lua script (for game developers).
• -standalone — Run game in standalone mode (no sandbox, no games selection ...).
• -noconfig — Do not load saved config (run with defaults).
• -profile <profile> — Using configuration profile. Profile file is the ini-styled file with parameter = value pairs. Where is parameters are arguments without -.

Configuration file name is 'insteadrc' and it's located in ~/.instead/. 📁

Games can be downloaded from http://instead-games.sf.net. Unzip them in ~/.instead/games. 🧚

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🔥 CONTROLS 🔥

Please, see tutorial. (yes that's the whole thing, go read the tutorial bestie 😌)

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💜 LICENCE 💜

This software is covered by the terms of the MIT license. 🎀

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😭 WARRANTY 😭

None.

like... none. at all. zero. the way that is so real of them 💀

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👑 COPYRIGHT AND CREDITS 👑

shoutout time, because these people ATE and left no crumbs:

• Peter Kosyh — INSTEAD author.
• Ilya Ryndin — Initial port to Windows.
• Boris Timofeev, Anton Kolosov, Aleksey Mahno — Port to Android.
• .dm — Port to Mac OS X.
• Andrey Afletdinov — Port to Windows CE.
• Vadim Balashoff — Advices.
• Vladimir Zhirov — Advices.
• Alexander Yakovlev — manual.tex support.
• Serj Kalichev — Advices and default theme correction.
• Vladimir Podobaev, Oleg Gvozdev — Testers.
• Alexander Soborov — Wiki support.
• Andrew Lobanov — Games repository, slackbuild.
• Many others for comments, bug reports, games and ideas.

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

https://instead-hub.github.io — go look, iykyk 💖

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and that's a wrap bestie!! this was Instead, Version 3.3.2, from the GAMES section of the manual (INSTEAD(6)) — mwah, slay, periodt. 💅✨🦋🌸