
Gliding just above the clouds faster than the speed of sound.
What are The Supernatural Olympics?
Last updated: Jun 17, 2006
Some of these special features are very rarely seen in games. Features like the resolutions, interactive tutorial, and menu system, however, are fairly common.
- Game modes - The Supernatural Olympics has 3 games mode, two of which you have direct control over. Normal mode is where the game plays at a constant 60 fps giving a smooth motion. Frame advance mode pauses the game but has the added advantage of being able to advance one game frame (1/60th of a second of real time, not game time) at a time for the trickiest of timing or otherwise perfect timing. These two modes you have direct control over. The third mode, paused, is the only one where you have indirect control on. It is otherwise like that of frame advance mode only without the ability to advance game frames and to directly change modes. Both editions support all three modes.
- Time control - One of the special abilities available is to control time. Time can be set from 1/16x to 64x normal time. At 1/16x time, even fast speeds seem slow and at 64x time, slow speeds seem fast. The free edition only supports half, normal, and double time. The full edition supports the full range. Future releases will likely support more time control settings.
- Game demo - The game demo is where you watch the computer play the game. The game demo is like a screensaver with a few exceptions. Unlike a normal screensaver, the game demo must be manually initiated. There isn't any password input to return after words (thus, not for office use, but okay for home use). The game demo, however, doesn't play challenges but plays as if in free mode. Do note that this feature doesn't exist in the 2.4 release version, but will in the 2.5 release version.
- Supported resolutions - There are three set common 4:3 resolutions: 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768. A higher resolution just gives a wider field of view. The free edition only supports the 640x480 resolution. The full edition supports all resolutions. All resolutions use 32-bit color, the highest color setting. If using 16-bit color, things will look very weird and distorted so I do not provide this option. Even some old video cards like Radeon 7000 (likely even older) support 32-bit color at 1024x768 resolution.
- Horizon indicator - Want to know where you are relative to the background scenery to help compare your height as if you were on the scenery? Using the horizon indicator will help. The horizon indicator is nothing more than a transparent black line whose center marks where the horizon is. In the free edition, only an alpha (transparency) setting of 0 and 32 are supported. In the full edition, the degree of transparency is much more customizable. Alpha is based on the 0 to 255 scale rather than a percentage, however.

The faint line centered vertically is the horizon indicator.
- Interactive tutorial - The interactive tutorial is one of the best ways to learn all the special abilities, features, and other important things like the on-screen data and challenges. There are 13 lessons in all and at the end of lessons 2 through 11, you can try out what you just learned. Both editions support this feature, but lesson 8 is completely different in both editions.

This is what the interactive tutorial looks like when in use.
- Easy-to-use menu system - The menus are vast with over 250 configuration options. To make use of this without any trouble, I've added many features to the menu system to help. Even the controls are easy. Along with knowing where you are in the menus, a menu help feature helps explain what an option or feature does and what it's for. The controls are as simple as using the up and down arrow keys to highlight an option and the enter key to select it. The left arrow key is used to go up a level, but the back option can also be used. Some options cannot be changed in the free edition or are limited. The full edition has no restrictions.

This is just one area of the vast menus showing each option.
9.1.3 The Supernatural Olympics - a high-speed action game
9.1.3-1 What is the game? - an introduction to the game
9.1.3-2 Feature comparison chart - a quick overview of the features
9.1.3-3 Scenery features - features related to the game's scenery
9.1.3-4 Special features - features rarely seen in games
9.1.3-5 On-screen information - features related to the data shown around the display
9.1.3-6 Special abilities - explains the various special abilities
9.1.3-7 Special effects - explains what the various special effects are
9.1.3-8 Challenges - details about the challenges
9.1.3-9 General features - other features
9.1.3-10 System requirements - what system requirements there are
9.1.3-11 Support, returns, updates, and upgrades - how to obtain support
9.1.3-12 Ten reasons to upgrade - the top ten reasons to upgrade to the full edition
9.1.3-13 Future plans and features - features planned for the future and the game's general future
9.1.3-14 Update checklist - an in-depth checklist for things I need to do before the next release becomes available
9.1.3-15 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - some common questions that may be asked
9.1.3-16 How to purchase - how to buy the game and complete the upgrade.
9.1.3-17 End-user license agreement - Read this first before using the software or it's components.
9.1.3-18 Download - Download the game and game manual (and any updates).
9.1.3-19 Version 3.0 overview - An overview of the upcoming version, 3.0.
Footnotes:
None.