<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC
"-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
"docbook/docbookxx.dtd"[
-<!ENTITY sst-site "http://sst.berlios.de/">
+<!ENTITY sst-site "http://catb.org/~esr/super-star-trek/">
<!ENTITY retro "http://catb.org/~esr/retro/">
]>
<book>
</authorgroup>
<legalnotice>
-<para>Permission is hereby granted for the copying, distribution,
-modification and use of this program and associated documentation
-for recreational purposes, provided that all references to the
-authors are retained. However, permission is not and will not be
-granted for the sale or promotional use of this program or program
-documentation, or for use in any situation in which profit may be
-considered an objective, since it is the desire of the authors to
-respect the copyrights of the originators of Star Trek.</para>
+<para>Super Star Trek 2K is issued under the BSD license. Nothing in
+this license grants or purports to grant any rights with respect to
+the trademarks, copyrights or other property of the originators of
+Star Trek or their successors in interest. We recognize and support
+their right under the Berne Convention to recover damages for any uses
+of this program which compromise their legitimate interest in
+protecting their copyrights and trademarks or unjustly enrich
+others.</para>
</legalnotice>
</bookinfo>
Curses Interface By
Stas Sergeev
- SST 2K polishing and historical research by
+ SST2K polishing and historical research by
Eric S. Raymond
</literallayout>
</dedication>
a lot more meaningful to you.</para>
<para>You have weapons: phasers and photon torpedoes. You have a defense:
-deflector shields. You can look at things: long-range scaners,
+deflector shields. You can look at things: long-range scanners,
short-range scanners, and a star chart. You can move about, under
warp drive or impulse power. You can also dock at a starbase, rest
while repairs are being made, abandon ship, self destruct, or give up
</chapter>
<chapter><title>Starting the Game</title>
+<!-- This chapter is new in SST 2K -->
<para>The program will ask you some setup questions. You can give it
command-line arguments that will be treated as answers. Any token
<para>The fourth question, new in SST2K, sets your game options. A
blank answer or 'fancy' enables all SST2K features. The option
-'plain' 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),
-approximating the original CDC 6600 FORTRAN game from UT Austin. The
-option 'almy' approximates Tom Almy's C translation from 1979,
-disabling Thingies shooting back, base shields, and time-warping
-through black holes.</para>
+'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
+shields, time-warping through black holes, and inhabited
+worlds.</para>
</chapter>
<chapter><title>How To Issue Commands</title>
or more commands begin with the same letter, and in this case that
letter refers to a particular one of the commands; to get the other,
your abbreviation must be two or more characters long. This sounds
-complicated, but you will learn the abbreviations qGuickly enough.</para>
+complicated, but you will learn the abbreviations quickly enough.</para>
<para>What this all boils down to is:</para>
</orderedlist>
<para>If you are part way through entering a command and you change your
-minde, you can cancel the command by typing -1 as one of the
+mind, you can cancel the command by typing -1 as one of the
parameters, with the exception of the manual move command.</para>
<para>If anything is not clear to you, experiment. The worst you can do is
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. A planet (P) is at sector 7 - 6. There are
+Romulan (R) is at 1 - 6. An uninhabited planet (P) is at sector 7 - 6
+(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
- 4 contains a black hole ( ).</para>
<para>If your short-range sensors are damaged, this command will only show
the contents of adjacent sectors.</para>
+
+</sect1>
+<!--
+<sect1><title>Visual Scan</title>
+
+<literallayout>
+Mnemonic: VISUAL
+Shortest abbreviation: V
+</literallayout>
+
+<para>A visual scan is made in a particular direction of three sectors
+in the general direction specified. This takes time, and Klingons can
+attack you, so it should be done only when short-range sensors are
+out.</para>
+
</sect1>
+-->
<sect1><title>Status Report</title>
<literallayout>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
-<term>LIFE SUPPOR</term>
+<term>LIFE SUPPORT</term>
<listitem>
<para>If <quote>ACTIVE</quote> then life support systems are functioning
normally. If on <quote>RESERVES</quote> the number is how many stardates your
reserve food, air, etc. will last—you must get repairs made or get to
-starbase before your reserves run out.</para>
+a starbase before your reserves run out.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<para>Long-range scans are free. They use up no energy or time, and can be
done safely regardless of battle conditions.</para>
+
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Star Chart</title>
</literallayout>
<para>As you proceed in the game, you learn more and more about what things
-are where in the galaxy. When ever you first do a scan in a quadrant,
+are where in the galaxy. Whenever you first do a scan in a quadrant,
telemetry sensors are ejected which will report any changes in the
quadrant(s) back to your ship, providing the sub-space radio is
working. Spock will enter this information in the chart. If the radio
<para>and it will be done. In automatic mode, either two or four numbers
must be supplied.</para>
-<para>Automatic mode utilizes the ship's <quote>battle computer.</quote> If the
-computer is damaged, manual movement must be used.</para>
+<para>Automatic mode utilizes the ship's <quote>battle
+computer.</quote> If the computer is damaged, manual movement must be
+used.</para>
<para>If warp engines are damaged less than 10 stardates (undocked) you can
still go warp 4.</para>
<para>Phasers have no effect on starbases (which are shielded) or on
stars.</para>
+</sect1>
+<sect1><title>Cloak</title>
+
+<literallayout>
+ Mnemonic: CLOAK
+ Shortest abbreviation: CLOAK
+ Full commands: CLOAK ON
+ CLOAK OFF
+</literallayout>
+
+<para>The cloaking device prevents your ship from being seen by any enemy
+vessels. When the cloaking device is in use, your subspace radio will
+not receive transmissions, torpedoes will be less accurate, you cannot
+dock, and you cannot use your warp engines. Enemy ships will get a
+chance to attack you when you turn cloaking on.</para>
+
+<para>The Treaty of Algeron with the Romulans in Stardate 2311 prohibits the
+use of cloaking devices. If a Romulan ship observes you cloaking or
+uncloaking after this point in time you will be in violation, which
+will hurt your final score.</para>
+
+<para>The Faerie Queene does not have a cloaking device.</para>
+
+</sect1>
+<sect1><title>Capture</title>
+
+<literallayout>
+Mnemonic: CAPTURE
+Shortest abbreviation: CA
+Full commands: CAPTURE
+</literallayout>
+
+<para>Ask a Klingon To surrender.</para>
+
+<para>The capture command provides a more humane way to end a battle than
+just destroying the Klingon battleship with the crew aboard. Assuming
+the subspace radio and transporter are working, and there is room in
+the brig, this command will ask the captain of the weakest Klingon
+ship in the quadrant to surrender. If the captain agrees, some of the
+crew will transport to your ship and the Klingon ship will be
+destroyed. This command does take time and you will be attacked by any
+other enemy ships if the surrender occurs.</para>
+
+<para>When you dock, any captured Klingons will be transferred to the base
+and you will be credited with the lives you save.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Report</title>
<sect1><title>Photon Torpedoes</title>
<literallayout>
-Mnemonic: PHOTONS
-Shortest abbreviation: PHO
-Full commands: PHOTONS <NUMBER> <TARG1> <TARG2> <TARG3>
+Mnemonic: TORPEDO
+Shortest abbreviation: TO
+Full commands: TORPEDO <NUMBER> <TARG1> <TARG2> <TARG3>
</literallayout>
<para>Photon torpedoes are projectile weapons—you either hit what you aim
<literallayout>
Mnemonic: REST
Shortest abbreviation: R
-Full command: REST <NUMBER OF STARDATES>
+Full command: REST <NUMBER-OF-STARDATES>
</literallayout>
<para>This command simply allows the specified number of stardates to go
until repairs are made before you go back into battle.</para>
<para>It is not generally advisable to rest while you are under attack by
-Klingons.</para>
+Klingons or Romulans.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Call Starbase for Help</title>
</literallayout>
<para>[Originally, this command was called <quote>HELP</quote>, but
-these days that might be misconstrued as an attempt to browae built-in
+these days that might be misconstrued as an attempt to browse built-in
documentation! In some later versions it was CALL.]</para>
<para>When you get into serious trouble, you may call a starbase for
<para>You may self-destruct, thus killing yourself and ending the game. If
there are nearby Klingons, you may take a few of them with you (the
-more energy you have left, the bigger the bang).</para>
+more energy you have left, the bigger the bang). It is possible to
+win this way, if you kill off your last adversaries with the blast.</para>
<para>In order to self-destruct you must remember the password you typed in
at the beginning of the game.</para>
Shortest abbreviation: PL
</literallayout>
-<para>Mr. Spock presents you a list of the available information on planets
-in the galaxy. Since planets do not show up on long-range scans, the
-only way to obtain this information is with the <quote>SENSORS</quote> command.</para>
+<para>Mr. Spock presents you a list of the available information on
+planets in the galaxy which are potential dilithium sources. Since
+planets do not show up on long-range scans, the only way to obtain
+this information is with the <quote>SENSORS</quote> command.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="freeze"><title>Freeze</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>
</chapter>
<chapter><title>Miscellaneous Notes</title>
<quote>Super-Commander</quote> is more powerful than an ordinary
commander, he can destroy a base more quickly.</para>
+<para>Inhabited worlds can be attacked, enslaved, and forced to
+build more Klingon starships. They will send out a distress call
+by subspace radio when they are attacked, and you will lose contact
+with them when they are enslaved.</para>
+
<para>The <quote>Super-Commander</quote> travels around the galaxy at
a speed of about warp 6 or 7. His movement is strictly time based;
the more time passes, the further he can go.</para>
<para>You lose—</para>
<orderedlist>
+<listitem><para>300 points for each inhabited world you destroy,</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>200 points if you get yourself killed,</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>100 points for each starbase you destroy,</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>100 points for each starship you lose,</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>45 points for each time you had to call for help,</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>10 points for each planet you destroyed,</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>10 points for each uninhabited planet you destroyed,</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>5 points for each star you destroyed, and</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>1 point for each casualty you incurred.</para></listitem>
</orderedlist>
promotion available if you go beyond the <quote>Expert</quote> range.
You can also have a certificate of merit printed with your name, date,
and Klingon kill rate, provided you are promoted from either the
-<quote>Expert</quote> or <quote>Emeritus</quote> levels. This
-<quote>plaque</quote> requires a 132 column printer. You may need
+<quote>Expert</quote> or <quote>Emeritus</quote> levels. You may need
print the certificate to a file, import it into your word processor,
selecting Courier 8pt font, and then print in <quote>landscape
orientation</quote>.</para>
+<!-- The plaque used to require an 132 column printer. Stas changed that. -->
</chapter>
<chapter><title>Handy Reference Page</title>
ABBREV FULL COMMAND DEVICE USED
------ ------------ -----------
ABANDON ABANDON shuttle craft
+ CA CAPTURE subspace radio and transporter
C CHART (none)
CO COMPUTER computer
CR CRYSTALS (none)
P PHASERS <TOTAL AMOUNT> phasers and computer
PHASERS AUTOMATIC <TOTAL AMOUNT> phasers, computer, sr sensors
PHASERS MANUAL <AMT1> <AMT2> ... phasers
- PHO PHOTONS <NUMBER> <TARGETS> torpedo tubes
+ TOR TORPEDO <NUMBER> <TARGETS> torpedo tubes
PL PLANETS (none)
PR PROBE <ARMED> <MANUAL> <DISPLACEMENT> probe launcher, radio
PROBE <ARMED> AUTOMATIC <DESTINATION> launcher, radio, computer
ST STATUS (none)
T TRANSPORT transporter
W WARP <FACTOR> (none)
-
+ CU CURSES (none)
+
L. R. Scan: thousands digit: supernova
hundreds digit: Klingons
tens digit: starbases
<para>The original Star Trek seems to have been written by Mike
Mayfield at the beginning of the 1970s. His first version was in
BASIC for a Sigma 7 in 1971; in 1972 he rewrote it in Hewlett Packard
-BASIC. The source is <ulink
-url="&sst-site;www/historic/mayfield.basic">available</ulink> on the
-SST2K website. In January 1975 it became part of the DECUS library
-under the name <ulink
+BASIC. The source is included in the SST2K repository. In January
+1975 it became part of the DECUS library under the name <ulink
url='http://www.trailing-edge.com/~shoppa/decus/110174.html'>SPACWR</ulink>.</para>
<para>While some people claim to have recollections of playing Trek
from Ahl's SPACWR. The header says "GENERAL IDEA STOLEN FROM
PENN. U.", and the game has several features not present in SPACEWR:
notably, the Death Ray, ramming, and the Klingon summons to surrender.
-And, of course, it predates Ahl's book. The source is <ulink
-url="&sst-site;www/historic/UT-Trek.basic">available</ulink> on the
-SST2K website.</para>
+And, of course, it predates Ahl's book. The source is included in the
+SST2K repository.</para>
<para>Dave Matuszek, Paul Reynolds et. al. at UT Austin played the
Hicks version on a CDC6600, but disliked the long load time and
extreme slowness of the BASIC program. (David Matuszek notes that the
-Hicks version he played had a habit of throwing long
-quotes from Marcus Aurelius at the users, a feature he found
-intolerable on a TTY at 110 baud. It must, therefore, have been
-rather longer than the one we have.) The Austin crew proceeded to
-write their own Trek game, loosely based on the Hicks version, in
-CDC6600 FORTRAN. At that time, it was just called "Star Trek"; the
-"Super" was added by later developers. In the rest of this history
-we'll call it the "UT FORTRAN" version.</para>
+Hicks version he played had a habit of throwing long quotes from
+Marcus Aurelius at the users, a feature he found intolerable on a TTY
+at 110 baud. It must, therefore, have been rather longer than the one
+we have.)</para>
+
+<para>The Austin crew proceeded to write their own Trek game, loosely
+based on the Hicks version, in CDC6600 FORTRAN. Most of the code was
+written in 1973-1974. At that time, the game was just called "Star
+Trek"; the "Super" was added by later developers. In the rest of this
+history we'll call it the "UT FORTRAN" version.</para>
+
+<para>Dave Matuszek reports that the UT FORTRAN codebase he worked on
+in 1973-1974 was like Mayfield's original and most later versions in
+BASIC, in that it used used polar coordinates (a clockface angle
+and a distance) for manual navigation.</para>
+
+<para>Tom Almy writes: "I've received further information that the
+black holes, Tholian web, Super Commander, and Emeritus mode were
+added by Marc Newman."</para>
<para>At the time the UT FORTRAN source was last translated to C it emitted
the message "Latest update-21 Sept 78". Thus, it actually predated
Star Trek" published by David Ahl in his November 1978 sequel
<citetitle>BASIC Computer Games</citetitle>.</para>
-<para>This 1978 "Super Star Trek" had been reworked by Robert Leedom and
-friends from (according to Leedom) Mayfield's HP port. There is
+<para>This 1978 "Super Star Trek" had been reworked by Robert Leedom
+and friends from (according to Leedom) Mayfield's HP port. There is
internal evidence to suggest that at least some features of Leedom's
SST may have derived from the UT FORTRAN version. In particular, Dave
Matuszek recalls implementing command words to replace the original
-numeric command codes, a feature Leedom's SST also had but the
-1973 and 1975 SPACWRs did not.</para>
+numeric command codes during 1973-1974, a feature Leedom's SST also
+had but the 1973 and 1975 SPACWRs did not.</para>
<para>One signature trait of the UT FORTRAN game and its descendants
is that the sectors are 10x10 (rather than the 8x8 in Mike Mayfield's
astronomically-named quadrants introduced in Ahl's SST and its
descendants.</para>
-<!-- Dave thinks his Fortran Star Trek used the clockface for quadrant -->
-<!-- navigation. -->
-
<para>Eric Allman's BSD Trek game is one of these, also descended from
the UT FORTRAN version via translation to C. However, the mainline version
(now SST2K) has had a lot more stuff folded into it over the years
<para>The DECUS version had a Deep Space Probe. Looked like a good idea
so I implemented it based on its description.</para>
+<para>I imported CAPTURE from BSD Trek.</para>
+
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Stas Sergeev's story</title>
<para>Planets are auto-scanned when you enter the quadrant.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
-<para>Mining or using crystals in presense of enemy now yields an attack.
-There are other minor adjustments to what yields an attack
+<para>Mining or using crystals in the presence of the enemy now yields
+an attack. There are other minor adjustments to what yields an attack
and what does not.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
-<para>My changes got merged into SST2K in 2005, and I work on it now.</para>
+<para>My changes got merged into SST2K in 2005.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1><title>Eric Raymond's story</title>
command descriptions, and changed some logic in sst.c to match.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
-I've cleaned up a lot of grubby FORTRANisms in the code internals --
+I've cleaned up a lot of grubby FORTRANisms in the code internals —
used sizeof(), replaced magic numeric constants with #defines,
-that sort of thing.
+that sort of thing. Later I translated the code from C to Python.
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
I fixed a surprising number of typos in the code and documentation.
</sect1>
<sect1><title>References</title>
+<para>These are the original references by Dave Matuszek and Paul
+Reynolds:</para>
+
<orderedlist>
<listitem><para><citetitle>Star Trek</citetitle> (the original television
series), produced and directed by Gene Rodenberry.</para></listitem>
David Gerrold. Similiar in scope to the above book.
(Bantam)</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para><citetitle>The Star Trek Guide</citetitle>, third revision 4/17/67, by Gene
-Roddenberry. The original writer's guide for the television
-series, but less comprehensive than (3) above.
+<listitem><para><citetitle>The Star Trek Guide</citetitle>, third
+revision 4/17/67, by Gene Roddenberry. The original writer's guide
+for the television series, but less comprehensive than (3) above.
(Norway Productions)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para><citetitle>The Trouble With Tribbles</citetitle>, by
</sect1>
</chapter>
+
+<appendix><title>Setting the Wayback Machine</title>
+
+<para>SST2K and its ancestors have a long history. One of the
+objectives of this project is to make that history available.
+Accordingly, here is a timeline of the development of SST2K and
+its ancestors, as closely as we can reconstruct it. Someday this
+may become the basis for a "wayback machine" switch that enables
+feature sets by year.</para>
+
+<itemizedlist>
+<listitem><para>1971 — Mike Mayfield's original BASIC Star
+Trek.</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>5 April 1973 — Grady Hicks's BASIC version fot
+the Taurus.</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>Summer 1973 — Dave Matuszek, Paul Reynolds, and
+the Austin crew begin work on the UT FORTRAN version.</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>1974 — Dave Matuszek gets distracted by other
+things, notably a job change and the birth of his first
+child.</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>21 September 1978 — This was the date on the
+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,
+super-commanders, and Emeritus mode.</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>1995-1996 — Tom Almy translates his FORTRAN
+port to ANSI C.</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>1997 — Tom Almy finds the sources for UT
+FORTRAN on the Web and merges in features new since the 1978 version:
+EMEXIT, Tholian Web, improved death ray. He adds deep-space probes
+from the DECUS version.</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>10 October 2004 — ESR starts hacking on Almy's C
+translation, de-FORTRANIZING the code. HELP/CALL/SOS becomes MAYDAY.
+</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>30 October 2004 — SST2K project started on
+Berlios.</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>18 January 2005 — First changes merged in from Stas
+Sergeev. The curses interface is added.</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>September 2006 — BSD features merged
+in. Inhabited-worlds features and weighted critical hits date from
+this time.</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>9 October 2006 — Translation to
+Python.</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>
+
+
+</itemizedlist>
+
+<para>One as-yet unanswered question is when the code changed from
+distance/direction navigation to coordinate offsets. Dave Matuszek
+believes it must have been after he stopped working on the game in
+1974.</para>
+</appendix>
</book>
projects / super-star-trek.git / blobdiff