Thank you for downloading Ninja Machine! I've spent over five years working on this game and I'm so glad it's time for you all to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Right now there are over 300 competitors and 150 obstacles to play with, which you can read in the "All Courses and Obstacles" file. In this Readme, I will first go over the settings you may choose in the game, followed by how to import your own lineups and create your own courses, and finally answer some frequently asked questions. At the bottom, I give my e-mail and instructions on how to contact me with questions.

====PART 1: STARTING THE GAME====
Windows: Open the .bat file.
Mac: Open the .command file.
If the window opens and closes immediately, you will need to download the newest version of Java. You may also need to download the newest version of Java Development Kit.

====PART 2: IN-GAME SETTINGS====
==MENU==
1. New Full (4-Stage Competition): Run a four-stage competition, similar to SASUKE or the ANW National Finals in Las Vegas.
2. New ANW Regional Competition: Run a regional round of ANW, with the top 30 from the qualifiers moving onto the finals. (As of yet I have not programmed the "top 5 women" rule from season 9. Additionally, if more than 30 clear, only the top 30 move on. These will be fixed in future updates.)
3. Credits: See who I thanked for helping me make the game.

==COURSES==
See the "Course List" file to see the obstacles in each course. See "Import Course" for instructions on how to import your own course. Note that Proto SASUKE Z-3 is a course that I made for a show I used to run showcasing the features of this game. You can see the full course in the "Proto SASUKE Z-3" file.

==BROADCAST MODE==
In broadcast mode, you will see each result at the speed of your choice. When each run begins, you will see the competitor's name and number. You will then be required to enter an integer. This integer determines how fast the run will display (this is for aesthetic purposes only and does not affect the results), with higher numbers making the results display faster. Put more simply: If you input 1, your run will run at real-time speed (a 100-second run will take 100 seconds of real time). If you input 5, your run will run at 5x speed (a 100-second run will take 20 seconds), and so on. If you input 0, the competitor will be "fast forwarded" or "digested", and the competitor's result will display instantly. This doesn't quite work in the 3rd Stage, so lower numbers are recommended. Personally, I recommend using 7-10 for the 1st Stage, 3-5 for the 2nd Stage, and 1-2 for the 3rd Stage, but of course you may use any number at your discretion.

==EASTERN ORDER==
Certain competitors live in cultures where the family name is considered the "first name" and the given name is considered the "second name". For instance, SASUKE legend Makoto Nagano's name in Eastern order would be Nagano Makoto. Some fans prefer to use the Eastern order for these names to better reflect their culture. You may choose to turn this on or off.

==PRESET LINEUP==
See the "Import Lineup" section to learn more about importing competitors. If you do not use your own lineup, you can generate a random lineup with between 1 and 100 competitors.

==RESULT OUTPUT==
While not a setting, it is important to know that results are automatically exported to a text file. Each competition will generate a unique text file based on what date and time you started the competition.  Note that in ANW Regional mode, the results do not populate until the end of each round, so if you end a round prematurely, you will lose all the results for that round.

====PART 3: CREATION TOOLS====
==IMPORT LINEUP==
To import a lineup, first open the lineup.txt file. You may enter up to 100 competitors in the order in which you would like them to run, but you must use the exact spelling as the competitor list in the "All Courses and Obstacles" file. By the way, I hid dozens of "secret competitors" who you won't find in the competitor list. How many can you find?

==IMPORT SASUKE COURSE==
To import a 4-stage course, first open the importsasuke.txt file. List the timed obstacles you wish to use in the 1st Stage exactly as spelled in the "All Courses and Obstacles" file (one obstacle per line), followed by the time limit. Repeat this process for the 2nd Stage. Finally, list the untimed obstacles you wish to use in the 3rd Stage, placing "Break" or "break" any time you want a resting platform or bar. You may have up to 99 obstacles in each stage (for this count, "Break" counts as an obstacle in the 3rd Stage.)

Before importing a course, heed these words of caution:
*Do NOT use "Warped Wall". Use "Soritatsu Kabe" instead. ("Warped Wall" is only programmed to work in ANW Regional mode and will cause some wonky results.)
*Do NOT use "Salmon Ladder (ANW)". Use "Salmon Ladder Nobori" instead. (Same reason as above.) For what it's worth, you may want to use "Salmon Ladder", as this has more rungs.
*When choosing Rope Climb and Rope Ladder, Tarzan Rope is automatically programmed in, so don't also import Tarzan Rope.
*Wingnut Alley is specifically programmed for the ANW 9 Vegas course, so using Wingnut Alley in a different position may cause courses to be impossible.
*Flying Bar (5), Pipe Slider, Pipe Slider (2), and The Wedge all have dismounts as part of the obstacle, so connecting them with other obstacles may not make sense.
*On the Ultimate Cliffhanger, I count the sets of three ledges as one ledge. Thus, the first slanted section is Ledge 1, the second slanted section is Ledge 2, and the first horizontal section is Ledge 3. (The big gap up would then be Ledge 4.)
*"Break" or "break" both work.

==IMPORT ANW REGIONAL COURSE==
To import a course with qualifying and city finals, first open the importanw.txt file. List exactly 10 timed obstacles. The first 6 will be used in qualifying, and all 10 will be used in the city finals. Do NOT use Soritatsu Kabe in this mode, as it may loop endlessly. Use Warped Wall instead, as competitors will only get three attempts, preventing an infinite loop.

====PART 4: FAQ====
Q: This obstacle is too easy/hard/short/long!
A: Obviously I couldn't perfectly replicate each obstacle's true difficulty, but I did my best. I also had several of my friends test each obstacle for difficulty, so I think we came pretty close. Most likely you don't have a big enough sample size. However if there's something flagrantly long, please reach out to me with your comment.

Q: What happens if I get an error?
A: Most likely you did one of the following things:
*You entered more than 100 competitors
*You incorrectly formatted your course
*You entered an incorrect option in the menu
There's a chance you encountered a unique error, so if you encounter one, please send a screenshot and a detailed description of what happened before you encountered the error.

Q: Who are the secret competitors?
A: If I told you, they wouldn't be secrets, would they?

Q: Can you tell me a few, or at least one?
A: No.

Q: Are there secret obstacles?
A: No. (I promise.)

Q: How many lines of code are in this game?
A: 4,518, although that includes blank lines and comments.

Q: Will there be new versions of this game?
A: YES! In addition to any bug fixes, I'll also release a new version in the fall with SASUKE 36 and all of the new obstacles in ANW 10. I'll try to make 2-3 new releases per year with new obstacles and competitors as well as any new features I can think of.

Q: How long did it take you to make the game?
A: I started in December 2012 with an extremely simple Excel file. In early 2014 I transfered the code over to Java, where it underwent two complete overhauls. Production on an actual release candidate began in mid-2017, and a lot of the features were integrated within the past month as I gained a lot of motivation to work on this project.

Q: Why Java?
A: It's the only language I know well enough to program a game like this. I'm learning Python right now, so maybe I'll transfer the game over to Python some day.

Q: Can you program Kunoichi?
A: I'm heavily considering including Kunoichi 11 (coming this summer) in the next update. A lot of Kunoichi obstacles are rehashed Sasuke obstacles, so there aren't very many interesting obstacles to code.

Q: Can you program Viking?
A: I can program some of the obstacles, but I have no way of programming any of the mental obstacles (such as the Parley or Brain Ship Stage). I may release the obstacles I can actually program some day.

Q: Can you program Ultimate Beastmaster?
A: Maybe some day!

Q: Can you program Kinniku Banzuke/Unbeatable Banzuke/Pro Sportsman No. 1?
A: lol no

Q: Will there ever be custom competitors?
A: I may consider it for a future release, but I'm not sure how I feel about it as this would require me to give away a significant aspect of my code.

Q: Will there ever be custom obstacles?
A: Sadly, no. Each obstacle is its own function which requires more complicated coding than can be simply imported.

Q: Can you add [specific competitor] to the game?
A: Probably not. I have people helping me populate competitor lists, but I'm not shutting down competitor suggestions altogether. Please only suggest serious competitors from versions of SASUKE/Ninja Warrior. I'm not going to import you and your friends or people from outside of the sport (I'm not adding John Cena, for instance).

Q: Who is [specific competitor]?
A: Most likely somebody from that country's version of SASUKE/Ninja Warrior. Some American competitors might be from the National Ninja League.

Q: Can you make a visual interface?
A: Not in Java. I know JavaFX can make a visual interface from Java code, but I know nothing about it and spent an entire day trying to understand it and got nowhere. I don't think this game necessarily needs a visual interface so I'm not counting on it, but I suppose it's not impossible.

Q: Can you make stickman animations?
A: No. (Believe it or not, people ask me this pretty frequently.)

Q: Aren't you going to get sued?
A: I doubt it.

====ANYTHING I DIDN'T COVER?====
If you have any questions that I didn't cover in this file, I've set up an e-mail to field questions about the game. Please send me an e-mail to ninjamachinegame@gmail.com, preferably with screenshots. I'll try to check this e-mail daily, at least for the first month of development.