 Epiar - Open Source Space Adventure/Arcade Game
 -----------------------------------------------
                 (wwww.epiar.net)

 Contents
 --------
 I. Welcome
    a) What is Epiar?
    b) When will Epiar be finished?
 II. System Requirements
    a) Linux x86
    b) Windows 32
    c) Other Platforms
 III. Planned Features
 IV. Contact

 I. Welcome
 ----------
  a) What is Epiar?
     Epiar is a space combat/adventure game written in C on Linux,
designed to be a multiplatform free, open source game. It uses the
Simple DirectMedia Layer (www.libsdl.org) to utilize the graphics
capabilities of varying systems without worrying about losing
crossplatform compatibility. It is known to run on the Linux operating
system and the Windows operating system, and should run on many more,
but that has not been tested.
     Epiar is a game in the style of those many space trading war
games. Inspired by all the similiar games, notably Ambrosia Software's
Escape Velocity (www.ambrosiasw.com), the authors and contributors of
Epiar hope to create a commercial quality free computer game with
great expandability and customizability.

  b) When will Epiar be finished?
     While the exact date of completion isn't known, we hope to finish
Epiar sometime in mid-2003. "Finish" means reach version 1.0 with all
the original features and plans implemented and working very well, but
it does not mean the game's development stops there. Ideas like
multilpayer may come after 1.0, and the universe could continue to
increase, more ships could appear, etc.

 II. System Requirements
 -----------------------
  a) Linux x86
     i386 or compatible, 200 MHz or better (recommended, never tested on lower)
     glibc v?.?? (Red Hat 6.1 version, please update this)
	 XFree86 4.x (3.x may work but is not tested)
	 OSS compatible sound card
  b) Windows 32
     Pentium 200 MHz (perferably better)
	 32MB RAM (or so)
	 Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2k/XP
  c) Other Platforms
     Due to its open source nature, you may take the code for Epiar and attempt
to compile it on any system you wish. Any platform supported by SDL should
technically work without too much trouble; this includes, but is not limited to,
the FreeBSD and Mac OS 9 and X operating systems.

 III. Planned Features
 ---------------------
  Epiar is far from complete. The "finished", as in, version 1.0, but not
necessarily the end of new features, and certainly not the end of bug fixes,
is planned to contain full landing dialogs, with dozens of ship upgrades, dozens
of new ships to buy, full trading between planets, complete alliance-based AI,
and, although maybe not before 1.0, multiplayer capability. It would also be nice
to split Epiar into two modes, simulation mode (the adventure/role-playing game)
and arcade mode, where you can select scenarios to play (like defend this ship or
whatever). An all-around-anything editor is also planned for Epiar; named Reipel,
it is planned to build this tool using the cross platform widget set GTK+2,
especially due to its compatibility with X servers and the Win32 platform.

 IV. Contact
 -----------
  Please see the contact area of the website: http://www.epiar.net/
