The information on this page was current on May 2005.
The Tartarus game client is writen in Java version 1.5 and later versions.
The best way to run Faraway Java programs is to download them to run locally. You will need a java runtime to make this work. You can also run them from within the browser.
The Java RunTime environment |
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The JRE from www.java.com, is needed to run the game. We are commited to keeping up with the latest releases of the runtime. The first time you run up the game client your browser will automatically take you to the java home page which will explain how you can download and install it, or you can go to the www.java.com site and download it from there.
You can download the version without International Support which is about 9M. If you want international support it will still work, but the Tartarus game client doesn't make use of it.
We are currently building for JDK1.5, also called java 5, or jre 5 (mad version numbering from Sun).
You can ignore this bit!
Java has many different versions and brands. The JRE is a run time, which is all you need to execute programs developed with J2SE (Java 2 Standard Edition). The Standard edition has the runtime for users and the Software Developers Kit (SDK) for developers. Then there is J2EE which is the Enterprise Edition, which Faraway Games uses for the Blood Mother web site, but which you can ignore!
When the java runtime installs it registers with your browsers, which means it can run from within the browser, but it is best to install it. We currently recommend the Firefox browser - not for this game, but for life in general.
After downloading and unzipping the game client you will see the README.TXT. This contains information about how to run the game client stand-alone - i.e. much like you run any other piece of software you have installed on your computer. There is a runit.bat file which should work straight away provided that the Java Runtime has been installed in the default location. If it has not been then you will have to edit the batch file to point it to the plug-in. This is possibly the best way to run the game client for home users, the initialisation time is almost non-existant (no download from the web) and it will allow you to use the on-line retrieval of results and posting of orders (rather than fiddling about with cut/paste and mail clients).
Yes, there is another way.
For the very technical, use your existing JDK1.5 and simply run as normal - the main class is simply Tartarus.