Welcome to UPA Frisbee 2004!

Check out "HOW_TO_INSTALL.txt" to find out how to install the game (it's pretty easy) and how to change the video resolution to best fit your screen.
Check out "HOW_TO_PLAY.txt" to learn the game's controls.

UPA 2004 is a three dimensional Ultimate Frisbee (technically just called "Ultimate") video game... the first ever (that we know of).  There are two teams: the blue team, controlled by you, and the red team, controlled by advanced computer intelligence.  Your goal is to throw and catch the Frisbee up the field to the endzone for a score, all the while preventing your opponent from doing the same.  As in real ultimate, you must throw before the 10-second "stall count" is up.  

UPA 2004 features...
- A three dimensional world
- Fully animated players (including spectacular layout catches)
- Accurate Frisbee physics
- Challenging artificial intelligence
- Intuitive throwing meter
- Full field overhead view
- Exciting camera angles
- Throwing practice mode
- Computer vs. computer mode
- Several lighting modes
- Ice mode
- Three dimensional sound effects and player voices
- An original music score

UPA 2004 was created in one month as a final project for Stanford's CS248 graphics class, and as such we couldn't add everything we would have liked.  There are plans to continue the game's development.  Some possible improvements include...
- Detailed player models and skins
- A better surrounding world
- Networked multiplayer ability
- More accurate ultimate rules
- More players (perhaps even 7-on-7)
There's more, but we figure this is ambitious enough.


So who are we?

We are Mark Slee, Ari Steinberg, and Josh Wiseman, all currently juniors majoring in computer science at Stanford.

Mark:
Though I've never played Ultimate on an official or organized team, I've been known to toss the disc once in a while, and apparently am decent at it. My main interest outside of computers is music. If you like what you hear in the game, visit http://www.palivacinni.com to see what else I'm up to.

Ari:
I started playing Ultimate at Columbia High School (in NJ), the place where Ultimate was created about 35 years ago.  Here at Stanford, I play on the B-team in my spare time.  I'm proud to say this game was my dumb idea, but there's no way I would have gone through with it if not for Mark and Josh.  My other current project is an automatic email classification tool for Mozilla Thunderbird (see http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=181866).

Josh:
I'm a member of the Stanford Bloodthirsty ultimate team, so whenever I'm not programming (which, unfortunately, wasn't very often over the past month), you can usually find me playing some disc and smoking some fools out on Roble field.  I transferred from Penn State, so I have strong ties to the Spank ultimate team and, of course, to JoePa's Nittany Lions.

Feel free to email us with any comments or biting criticism about the game.  We'd love to here from you.  And yes, we know we need to add hammers to the game, but if you can figure out those physics, please let us know.

UPA Frisbee 2004 is in no way associated with the Ultimate Players Association, but it's a school project so who really cares?  We do fully support the UPA, though, and encourage you to check out their website (http://www.upa.org) to see what real ultimate is about.  We also apologize to those ultimate players who are offended by the term "Frisbee," which is a trademark of the Wham-O Corporation.  We're trying to reach a broad audience who may not know what a "disc" is.

The official UPA Frisbee 2004 website is...
http://www.stanford.edu/~mcslee/ultimate/

So that's about it.  Enjoy the game, and tell your friends!

-Mark (mcslee@stanford.edu)
-Ari (ari.steinberg@stanford.edu)
-Josh (joshwise@stanford.edu)
