blank answer or 'fancy' enables all SST2K features. The option
'plain' approximated the original CDC 6600 FORTRAN game from UT Austin
and disables a number of features: Tholians, planets & dilithium,
-Thingies shooting back, deep-space-probes, Klingon ramming and
-movement, time-warping through black holes, death-ray
-upgrade. inhabited worlds. The option 'almy' approximates Tom Almy's
-C translation from 1979, disabling Thingies shooting back, base
+deep-space-probes, Klingon ramming and movement, time-warping through
+black holes, death-ray upgrade, inhabited worlds. The option 'almy'
+approximates Tom Almy's C translation from 1979, disabling base
shields, time-warping through black holes, and inhabited
worlds.</para>
10 . . . . . . . . . . Time Left 3.72
</screen>
+In fancy mode, the display will use letters for Y coordinates.
+
+<screen>
+ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
+ a * . . . . R . . . . Stardate 2516.3
+ b . . . E . . . . . . Condition RED
+ c . . . . . * . B . . Position e1, b4
+ d . . . S . . . . . . Life Support DAMAGED, Reserves=2.30
+ e . . . . . . . K . . Warp Factor 5.0
+ f . K . . . . . * . Energy 2176.24
+ g . . . . . P . . . . Torpedoes 3
+ h . . . . * . . . . . Shields UP, 42% 1050.0 units
+ i . * . . * . . . C . Klingons Left 12
+ j . . . . . . . . . . Time Left 3.72
+</screen>
+
+
<para>The left part is a picture of the quadrant. The E at sector 2 -
-4 represents the Enterprise; the B at sector 3 - 8 is a starbase.
-There are ordinary Klingons (K) at sectors 5 - 8 and 6 - 2, and a
-Klingon Commander (C) at 9 - 9. The (GULP)
-<quote>Super-commander</quote> (S) is occupies sector 4 - 4, and a
-Romulan (R) is at 1 - 6. An uninhabited planet (P) is at sector 7 - 6
+4 (or b4) represents the Enterprise; the B at sector 3 - 8 (or c8) is a starbase.
+There are ordinary Klingons (K) at sectors 5 - 8 (e8) and 6 - 2 (f2), and a
+Klingon Commander (C) at 9 - 9 (i9). The (GULP)
+<quote>Super-commander</quote> (S) is occupies sector 4 - 4 (d4), and a
+Romulan (R) is at 1 - 6 (a6). An uninhabited planet (P) is at sector 7 - 6 (g6)
(if it were inhabited, it would display as a '@'). There are
also a large number of stars (*). The periods (.) are just empty
space—they are printed to help you get your bearings. Sector 6
<para>and it will be done. In automatic mode, either two or four numbers
must be supplied.</para>
+<para> If your game is in "fancy" mode, there ia a way to input
+coordinates that avoids any need to remember thet the Y coordinate
+comes first. Y values may be given as lowercase letters starting with
+a = 1. So for example:
+
+<screen>
+ a1 = 1 - 1
+ c5 = 3 - 5
+ f2 = 6 - 2
+</screen>
+
+The previous move xommand could be expressed as
+
+<screen>
+ m a c7 e8
+</screen>
+
<para>Automatic mode utilizes the ship's <quote>battle
computer.</quote> If the computer is damaged, manual movement must be
used.</para>
<literallayout>
Mnemonic: CAPTURE
-Shortest abbreviation: CA
+Shortest abbreviation: CAPTURE
Full commands: CAPTURE
</literallayout>
<para>to aim between two sectors. However, sector numbers must be 1 to 10
inclusive.</para>
+<para>In fancy mode, you can write "PHO 3 2 6 1 10 4 7" as
+
+<screen>
+ pho 3 b6 a10 d7
+</screen>
+
+Fractional Y coordinates are not supported.
+
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Dock at Starbase</title>
<para>This command reads the appropriate section from the SST.DOC file,
providing the file is in the current directory.</para>
+</sect1>
+<sect1><title>Curses switch</title>
+
+<literallayout>
+Mnemonic: CURSES
+Full command: CURSES
+</literallayout>
+
+<para>Switch from tty to curses interface. Mainly useful for
+debugging, when continuing a replayed game.</para>
+
+</sect1>
+<sect1><title>Option setting</title>
+
+<literallayout>
+Mnemonic: OP
+Full command: OPTIONS
+ OPTIONS SET
+ OPTIONS CLEAR
+</literallayout>
+
+<para>Set or clear feature flags. With no argument, list feature flags. The verbs SET and CLEAR
+are available to set or clear a list of feature flags following on the line. Mainly useful
+for development and improving test coverage.</para>
+
</sect1>
</chapter>
<chapter><title>Miscellaneous Notes</title>
ST STATUS (none)
T TRANSPORT transporter
W WARP <FACTOR> (none)
-
+ CU CURSES (none)
+ OP OPTIONS (none)
+
L. R. Scan: thousands digit: supernova
hundreds digit: Klingons
tens digit: starbases
things, notably a job change and the birth of his first
child.</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>c.1977 — Tom Almy translates the UT FORTAN
-version to PDP-11 FORTRAN.</para></listitem>
-
<listitem><para>21 September 1978 — This was the date on the
-first version Tom Almy saw, on which he based his later C
+first FORTRAN version Tom Almy saw, on which he based his later C
translation.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>1979 — Marc Newman adds Tholians, black holes,
<listitem><para>9 October 2006 — Translation to
Python.</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>22 February 2017 — Color added.</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>1 March 2017 — Color added.
+Cloaking device and capture command added from BSD (via Almy's
+2013 version)</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>25 March 2019 — At long last, chart entries are
+uniformly dot-filled. (Suppressed in the plain and almy
+interface styles.)</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>25 August 2023 — Coordinates optionally in
+alphameric mode, e.g "b3" rather than "2 - 3". (Suppressed in the
+plain and almy interface styles.)</para></listitem>
+
</itemizedlist>