X-Git-Url: https://jxself.org/git/?p=super-star-trek.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=sst-doc.xml;h=8510e6db783968e80a07aba275a2dc6d2d05866f;hp=79ae60732db04fb6f23d313631ba7e63eb028dfa;hb=1268b882a9dc50ce93658979aaf1147b1cfbe11a;hpb=9f2406f134c8e82a6ef14943c5eaf6ee2bee3af7 diff --git a/sst-doc.xml b/sst-doc.xml index 79ae607..8510e6d 100644 --- a/sst-doc.xml +++ b/sst-doc.xml @@ -1,8 +1,10 @@ - + "docbook/docbookxx.dtd"[ + + +]> Super Star Trek @@ -93,7 +95,7 @@ respect the copyrights of the originators of Star Trek. Curses Interface By Stas Sergeev - SST 2K polishing by + SST 2K polishing and historical research by Eric S. Raymond @@ -227,6 +229,37 @@ and start a new game. The Klingons are waiting. + +Starting the Game + +The program will ask you some setup questions. You can give it +command-line arguments that will be treated as answers. Any token +may be abbreviated to a unique prefix. + +The first question concerns whether you want a regullar, +tournament, or saved game. For discussion, see the description of the freeze command. + +The second question will concern the length of the game. +Longer games include more enemies. + +The third question will set the game's difficulty level. +You should probably start out at the novice level, even if you are +already familiar with one of the other versions of the Star Trek +game—but, of course, the level of game you play is up to you. If +you want to start at the Expert level, go ahead. It's your funeral. +The Emeritus game is strictly for masochists. + +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. + How To Issue Commands @@ -301,7 +334,7 @@ complicated, but you will learn the abbreviations qGuickly enough. You can abbreviate practically anything -If you forget, the computer will proompt you +If you forget, the computer will prompt you If you remember, you can type it all on one line @@ -1218,7 +1251,7 @@ in the galaxy. Since planets do not show up on long-range scans, the only way to obtain this information is with the SENSORS command. -Freeze +Freeze Mnemonic: FREEZE @@ -1495,12 +1528,6 @@ print the certificate to a file, import it into your word processor, selecting Courier 8pt font, and then print in landscape orientation. -You should probably start out at the novice level, even if you are -already familiar with one of the other versions of the Star Trek -game—but, of course, the level of game you play is up to you. If -you want to start at the Expert level, go ahead. It's your funeral. -The emeritus game is strictly for masochists. - Handy Reference Page @@ -1576,8 +1603,12 @@ Impulse engines require 20 units to warm up, plus 100 units per 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. +BASIC for a Sigma 7 in 1971; in 1972 he rewrote it in Hewlett Packard +BASIC. The source is available on the +SST2K website. In January 1975 it became part of the DECUS library +under the name SPACWR. While some people claim to have recollections of playing Trek games in the late 1960s, the earlier ones seem actually to have been @@ -1587,39 +1618,50 @@ SPACEWAR, the earlier space-combat game on the PDP-1. Mayfield wrote in 2000 that he invented the Trek-style galactic grid, and the -evidence seems to back that up. +evidence seems to back that up. Some of the confusion probably stems +from the fact that Mayfield's original and several early descendants +were distributed under the name SPACWR. Many different versions radiated from Mayfield's original; most -are descended from a version misleadingly called SPACEWR that David +of the ones in BASIC are descended from a SPACWR version that David Ahl published in 101 BASIC Computer Games, -1973. This was a port of Mayfield's version obtained from the HP -Contributed Programs library. +July 1973. This was a port of Mayfield's version obtained from the HP +Contributed Programs library. Our SST2K is descended from a Taurus BASIC program by Grady Hicks dated 5 April 1973. This does not appear to have been derived -from Ahl's SPACEWR, at least not directly. 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. +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 available on the +SST2K website. 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 -version of the Hicks port he played had a habit of throwing long +Hicks version he played had a habit of throwing long quotes from Marcus Aurelius at the users, a feature he found -intolerable at 110 baud.) The Austinites 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. - -The name "Super Star Trek" and many design features may have -been picked up from a descendant of SPACEWR, reworked by Robert Leedom -and friends and published by David Ahl in his 1978 sequel -BASIC Computer Games. On the other hand, there -is internal evidence to suggest that at least some features of Leedom's +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. + +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 +(and may have influenced) the best-known BASIC version, the "Super +Star Trek" published by David Ahl in his November 1978 sequel +BASIC Computer Games. + +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, and this was apparently before 1978. +numeric command codes, a feature Leedom's SST also had but the +1973 and 1975 SPACWRs did not. 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 @@ -1632,15 +1674,15 @@ descendants. Eric Allman's BSD Trek game is one of these, also descended from -FORTRAN Star Trek via translation to C. However, the mainline S (now -SST2K) has had a lot more stuff folded into it over the years — -deep space probes, dilithium mining, the Tholian Web, and so +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 +— deep space probes, dilithium mining, the Tholian Web, and so forth. Tom Almy's story -Back in (about) 1977 I got a copy of this Super Star Trek game for +Back in (about) 1977 I got a copy of the Super Star Trek game for the CDC 6600 mainframe computer. Someone had converted it to PDP-11 Fortran but couldn't get it to run because of its size. I modified the program to use overlays and managed to shoehorn it in on the 56k @@ -1707,7 +1749,7 @@ so I implemented it based on its description. Stas Sergeev's story I started from an older Tom Almy version and added features I had -seen in mainframe variants of the game, I wrote a screen-oriented +seen in other mainframe variants of the game, I wrote a screen-oriented interface for it based on the curses library. @@ -1730,7 +1772,7 @@ fired upon. Probe target you enter is now the destination quadrant. Before I don't - remember what it was, but it was something I had difficulty using) + remember what it was, but it was something I had difficulty using. Secret password is now autogenerated. @@ -1764,18 +1806,18 @@ better anyway. -My changes got merged into SST2K in 2005, and I wortk on it now. +My changes got merged into SST2K in 2005, and I work on it now. Eric Raymond's story -I played the FORTRAN version of this game in the mid-1970s on a +I played the FORTRAN version of this game in the late 1970s on a DEC minicomputer. In the late 1980s Dave Matuszek and I became friends; I was vaguely aware that he had had something to do with the original Star Trek game. In October 2004, sitting in Dave's living room, we got to talking about the game and I realized it would make a great exhibit for the Retrocomputing Museum. +url='&retro;'>Retrocomputing Museum. A few quick web searches later we found Tom Almy's page. We downloaded his code and Dave verified that that it was a direct @@ -1783,7 +1825,7 @@ descendent of UT Super Star Trek — even though it had been translated to C, he was able to recognize names and techniques from the FORTRAN version he co-wrote. -This game is now an open-source project; see the This game became an open-source project; see the project site.