OK thanks, I'll have a go. Not used github yet but I'll document here what I've done. 
Editing build.sh to allow mint - to edit: 
sudo nano build.sh
add "|LinuxMint" so it looks like this -   Ubuntu|Debian|LinuxMint    - in a couple of places in the file
(look in /etc/lsb-release and copy whatever comes after DISTRIB_ID=)
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install zlib1g:i386 libncurses5:i386 libbz2-1.0:i386
this gives the "latest version already" output as above. 
looks like you have to remove references to those files in both lines of build.sh - so edit build.sh again, just stick a comment # in front of the file names after curl 
This starts to compile but breaks:
-do-compile:
    [mkdir] Created dir: /home/doris/Software/axoloti/build/empty
    [mkdir] Created dir: /home/doris/Software/axoloti/build/generated-sources/ap-source-output
    [javac] Compiling 396 source files to /home/doris/Software/axoloti/build/classes
    [javac] warning: [options] bootstrap class path not set in conjunction with -source 1.6
    [javac] /home/doris/Software/axoloti/src/main/java/axoloti/Version.java:3: error: unclosed string literal
    [javac] public final static String AXOLOTI_VERSION = "fatal: Not a git repository (or any parent up to mount point /home/doris)
    [javac]                                              ^
    [javac] /home/doris/Software/axoloti/src/main/java/axoloti/Version.java:4: error: ';' expected
    [javac] Stopping at filesystem boundary (GIT_DISCOVERY_ACROSS_FILESYSTEM not set).";
    [javac]            ^
    [javac] /home/doris/Software/axoloti/src/main/java/axoloti/Version.java:4: error: ')' expected
    [javac] Stopping at filesystem boundary (GIT_DISCOVERY_ACROSS_FILESYSTEM not set).";
    [javac]                                                                     ^
    [javac] /home/doris/Software/axoloti/src/main/java/axoloti/Version.java:4: error: illegal start of type
    [javac] Stopping at filesystem boundary (GIT_DISCOVERY_ACROSS_FILESYSTEM not set).";
    [javac]                                                                         ^
    [javac] /home/doris/Software/axoloti/src/main/java/axoloti/Version.java:4: error:  expected
    [javac] Stopping at filesystem boundary (GIT_DISCOVERY_ACROSS_FILESYSTEM not set).";
    [javac]                                                                          ^
    [javac] /home/doris/Software/axoloti/src/main/java/axoloti/Version.java:4: error: unclosed string literal
    [javac] Stopping at filesystem boundary (GIT_DISCOVERY_ACROSS_FILESYSTEM not set).";
    [javac]                                                                           ^
    [javac] 6 errors
    [javac] 1 warning
BUILD FAILED
/home/doris/Software/axoloti/nbproject/build-impl.xml:911: The following error occurred while executing this line:
/home/doris/Software/axoloti/nbproject/build-impl.xml:261: Compile failed; see the compiler error output for details.