Download and Installation Instructions

Python Kye is written and maintained by me, Colin Phipps. News of new Python Kye releases will be posted here.

There are different sets of instructions depending on your computer and how technical you are - don't worry about the choice, just go to the most appropriate option. I have just broken things out into different sets of instructions so each set of instructions can be kept simple:

If you are using a recent version of Fedora (or a similar RPM-based Linux distribution), go to the RPM install.
For all other Linux systems, or if you use Linux and prefer to install from the source code, go to the Linux install.
If you are a Windows user, and you're quite technical and want to run a modern version of Kye, go to the Windows install.
All other Windows users, go to the shareware install.

RPM Package

This will be most suitable for people running Fedora or another RPM-based distribution with little or no experience of running programs from the command line. You will have to run a couple of commands, but after that it is installed, and depending on how your version of Linux is set up, you should get an icon for Kye appear automatically in your desktop menus.

First, at a command prompt run python --version to see what version of Python your distribution uses. You'll get an answer like:
```
Python 2.6.2
```
which in this case means you have Python 2.6 (ignore stuff after the second .). Currently I only provide a package here for Python 2.6, as that is the right version for most current Linux distributions.
Open a root terminal session (some systems have a root prompt/root terminal icon; otherwise, open a normal terminal and use su to get a root prompt).
Install the RPM using the command rpm -ivh http://games.moria.org.uk/kye/download/kye-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
You will also need to install librsvg2 and pygtk2 (might be called pygtk or python-gtk depending on your system): the versions of these with your Linux distribution should be fine, and most systems will already have these, but if not use your distribution's package installation tool to get them.

For example, on Fedora, use:
```
yum install pygtk2 librsvg2
```
You should then be able to run Kye from the Games submenu of the main menu on your desktop; or you can run Kye in a terminal window.
Note that when you go to the menu to open a new set of levels, it will not automatically navigate to where the levels are installed to; look for the /usr/share/kye directory to find the included levels (or of course you can download more from the 'net).

Source Package

This is suitable for the users happy with running stuff from the command line, and people with non-RPM distributions (like Ubuntu). You can also use this method if you would prefer to run Kye without properly installing it (you can run Kye just by extracting it to your home directory and running it from there).

Download kye-1.0.tar.gz .
You also need a working installation of pygtk, version 2.4.0 or later, and (to use the supplied SVG tiles) the rsvg graphics library. I will add instructions here for various systems:
- Debian (3.1 or better), or Ubuntu: apt-get install python-gtk2 librsvg2-common
- FreeBSD: portinstall py24-gtk, and portinstall librsvg2
Extract the tarball and enter the directory by running
tar xzf kye-1.0.tar.gz cd kye-1.0
Run ./Kye. (The level editor is ./Kye-edit.)
If you want to 'properly' install Python Kye (so it lives in your path and /usr/local, rather than running it out of your home directory), run ./setup.py install as root. (Note that this seems only to work if you have the python development libs installed.) You should then be able to run Kye.

Windows Install

Python Kye works on Windows too. However there are a few things to install and commands to run, so currently I only recommend this for the technical-minded.

Install Python 2.6 to C:\Program Files\Python26.
Download GTK 2.16 and extract it to C:\Program Files\gtk+_win32.
Install pygtk 2.16 for python 2.6.
Install pygobject for python 2.6.
Install pycairo for python 2.6.
Having run the installers for all of those (except gtk+ which as noted have to extract yourself), you can then download and extract Python Kye for Windows. Extract it to your "My Documents" is fine if you like.
Run a command prompt, go to the kye-1.0-win directory that you just extracted.

In the command prompt run

PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\Python26;C:\Program Files\gtk+_win32\bin
python Kye.py

And you should see Kye running now. If anyone who knows more about Python on Windows has any ideas for improving that installation process, contact me.

Install the Shareware Version

For Windows users, the easy way to play Kye is to install the good old shareware version. It's a Windows 3.1 app, but still works on Windows XP and may continue to work for some time; and it is fully compatible with Python Kye levels.

Go to "My Kye Page", select Downloads, and download Kye.zip. Extract it and simply run the Kye.exe that it contains. The only limitation of the shareware version is the registration/donation screen that you see when you start the game.

Image sets

Python Kye supports alternative image sets, which can be dropped in in place of the supplied images.tar.gz. The Windows distribution of Python Kye includes the original Kye theme by default, whereas the Linux version uses a theme of my creation.

Original Kye theme — use these if you want things to be exactly like the original Windows game. Note that these are from the original shareware Kye game, so you should consider making a donation if you use these.
Improved Kye theme — this is the original Kye theme, with a few of the images replaced with new ones, by Robert Phipps. It makes the turning blocks and one way doors clearer. Most of the images are from the original shareware game, so again are not open-source and you should consider making a donation.

Questions etc

Please direct questions and comments, and discussion about the game, to the Kye mailing list.

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