= advent(6) =
:doctype: manpage
+// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: (C) Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
== NAME ==
advent - Colossal Cave Adventure
== SYNOPSIS ==
-*advent* [-l logfile] [-o] [-r savefile] [-s]
+*advent* [-l logfile] [-o] [-r savefile] [-a savefile] [script...]
== DESCRIPTION ==
-The original Colossal Cave Adventure from 1976-77 was the origin of all
+The original Colossal Cave Adventure from 1976-1977 was the origin of all
later text adventures, dungeon-crawl (computer) games, and computer-hosted
roleplaying games.
original, type 'news' at the command prompt.
There is an 'adventure' in the BSD games package that is a C port by
-Jim Gillogly of the 1976 ancestor of this game. To avoid a name
-collision, this game builds as 'advent', reflecting the fact that the
-PDP-10 on which the game originally ran limited filenames to 6 characters.
+Jim Gillogly of the 1977 version. To avoid a name collision, this game
+builds as 'advent', reflecting the fact that the PDP-10 on which the
+game originally ran limited filenames to 6 characters.
This version is released as open source with the permission and
encouragement of the original authors.
-Unlike the original, this version supports use of your arrow keys to edit
-your command line in place. Basic Emacs keystrokes are supported, and
-your up/down arrows access a command history.
+Unlike the original, this version has a command prompt and supports
+use of your arrow keys to edit your command line in place. Basic
+Emacs keystrokes are supported, and your up/down arrows access a
+command history.
-Otherwise, the "version" command is about the only way to tell you're not
-running Don's original.
+Some minor bugs and message typos have been fixed. Otherwise, the
+"version" command is almost the only way to tell you're not running
+Don's 1977 version until you get to the new cave sections added for
+2.5.
To exit the game, type Ctrl-D (EOF).
-l:: Log commands to specified file.
--r:: Restore game from specified file
+-r:: Restore game from specified save file
--o:: Old-style. Restores original interface, no prompt or line editing.
- Also ignores new-school one-letter commands l, x, g, z, i.
+-a:: Load from specified save file and autosave to it on exit or signal.
+
+-o:: Old-style. Reverts some minor cosmetic fixes in game
+ messages. Restores original interface, no prompt or line editing.
+ Also ignores new-school one-letter commands l, x, g, z, i. Also
+ case-smashes and truncates unrecognized text when echoed.
+
+Normally, game input is taken from standard input. If script file
+arguments are given, input is taken from them instead. A script file
+argument of '-' is taken as a directive to read from standard input.
== BUGS ==
-The binary save file format is fragile, dependent on your machine word
-size and endianness, and unlikely to survive through version bumps. There
-is a version check.
+The binary save file format is fragile, dependent on your machine's
+endianness, and unlikely to survive through version bumps. There are
+version and endianness checks when attempting to restore from a save.
+
+The input parser was the first attempt *ever* at natural-language
+parsing in a game and has some known deficiencies. While later text
+adventures distinguished between transitive and intransitive verbs,
+Adventure's grammar distinguishes only between motion and action
+verbs. Motions are always immediate in their behavior, so both ACTION
+MOTION and MOTION ACTION (and even MOTION NOUN and MOTION MOTION) are
+invariably equivalent to MOTION (thus GO NORTH means NORTH and JUMP
+DOWN means JUMP). Whereas, with actions and nouns, the parser collects
+words until it's seen one of each, and then dispatches; if it reaches
+the end of the command without seeing a noun, it'll dispatch an
+"intransitive" action. This makes ACTION1 ACTION2 equivalent to
+ACTION2 (thus TAKE INVENTORY means INVENTORY), and NOUN ACTION
+equivalent to ACTION NOUN.
+
+Thus you get anomalies like "eat building" interpreted as a command
+to move to the building. These should not be reported as bugs; instead,
+consider them historical curiosities.
== REPORTING BUGS ==
Report bugs to Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. The project page is
projects / open-adventure.git / blobdiff