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1 | . \" XP - exdented paragraph |
2 | .de XP | |
3 | .RT | |
4 | .if \\n(1T .sp \\n(PDu | |
5 | .ne 1.1 | |
6 | .if !\\n(IP .nr IP +1 | |
7 | .in +\\n(I\\n(IRu | |
8 | .ti -\\n(I\\n(IRu | |
9 | .. | |
10 | .\" Copyright (c) 1986 Ed James. All rights reserved. | |
11 | .\" | |
12 | .TH ATC 6 "January 1, 1986" | |
13 | .UC | |
14 | .SH NAME | |
15 | atc \- air traffic controller game | |
16 | .SH SYNOPSIS | |
17 | .B atc | |
18 | -[u?lstp] [-[gf] game_name] [-r random seed] | |
19 | .SH DESCRIPTION | |
20 | .LP | |
21 | .I Atc | |
22 | lets you try your hand at the nerve wracking duties of the air traffic | |
23 | controller without endangering the lives of millions of | |
24 | travelers each year. | |
25 | Your responsibilities require you to direct the flight of jets | |
26 | and prop planes into and out of the flight arena and airports. | |
27 | The speed (update time) and frequency of the planes depend on the | |
28 | difficulty of the chosen arena. | |
29 | .SH OPTIONS | |
30 | .LP | |
31 | .TP 8 | |
32 | .B \-u | |
33 | Print the usage line and exit. | |
34 | .TP | |
35 | .B \-? | |
36 | Same as | |
37 | .B \-u. | |
38 | .TP | |
39 | .B \-l | |
40 | Print a list of available games and exit. | |
41 | The first game name printed is the default game. | |
42 | .TP | |
43 | .B \-s | |
44 | Print the score list (formerly the Top Ten list). | |
45 | .TP | |
46 | .B \-t | |
47 | Same as | |
48 | .B \-s. | |
49 | .TP | |
50 | .B \-p | |
51 | Print the path to the special directory where | |
52 | .I atc | |
53 | expects to find its private files. This is used during the | |
54 | installation of the program. | |
55 | .TP | |
56 | .B "\-g game" | |
57 | Play the named game. If the game listed is not one of the | |
58 | ones printed from the | |
59 | .B \-l | |
60 | option, the default game is played. | |
61 | .TP | |
62 | .B "\-f game" | |
63 | Same as | |
64 | .B \-g. | |
65 | .TP | |
66 | .B "\-r seed" | |
67 | Set the random seed. The purpose of this flag is questionable. | |
68 | .SH GOALS | |
69 | .LP | |
70 | Your goal in | |
71 | .I atc | |
72 | is to keep the game going as long as possible. | |
73 | There is no winning state, except to beat the times of other players. | |
74 | You will need to: launch planes at airports (by instructing them to | |
75 | increase their altitude); land planes at airports (by instructing them to | |
76 | go to altitude zero when exactly over the airport); and maneuver planes | |
77 | out of exit points. | |
78 | .LP | |
79 | Several things will cause the end of the game. | |
80 | Each plane has a destination (see information area), and | |
81 | sending a plane to the wrong destination is an error. | |
82 | Planes can run out of fuel, or can collide. Collision is defined as | |
83 | adjacency in any of the three dimensions. A plane leaving the arena | |
84 | in any other way than through its destination exit is an error as well. | |
85 | .LP | |
86 | Scores are sorted in order of the number of planes safe. The other | |
87 | statistics are provided merely for fun. There is no penalty for | |
88 | taking longer than another player (except in the case of ties). | |
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89 | .LP |
90 | Suspending a game is not permitted. If you get a talk message, tough. | |
91 | When was the last time an Air Traffic Controller got called away to | |
92 | the phone? | |
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93 | .SH "THE DISPLAY" |
94 | .LP | |
95 | Depending on the terminal you run | |
96 | .I atc | |
97 | on, the screen will be divided into 4 areas. | |
98 | It should be stressed that the terminal driver portion of the | |
99 | game was designed to be reconfigurable, so the display format can vary | |
100 | depending the version you are playing. The descriptions here are based | |
101 | on the ascii version | |
102 | of the game. The game rules and input format, however, | |
103 | should remain consistent. | |
104 | Control-L redraws the screen, should it become muddled. | |
105 | .SS RADAR | |
106 | .IP | |
107 | The first screen area is the radar display, showing the relative locations | |
108 | of the planes, airports, standard entry/exit points, radar | |
109 | beacons, and "lines" which simply serve to aid you in guiding | |
110 | the planes. | |
111 | .IP | |
112 | Planes are shown as a single letter with an altitude. If | |
113 | the numerical altitude is a single digit, then it represents | |
114 | thousands of feet. | |
115 | Some distinction is made between the prop | |
116 | planes and the jets. On ascii terminals, prop planes are | |
117 | represented by a upper case letter, jets by a lower case letter. | |
118 | .IP | |
119 | Airports are shown as a number and some indication of the direction | |
120 | planes must be going to land at the airport. | |
121 | On ascii terminals, this is one of '^', '>', '<', and 'v', to indicate | |
122 | north (0 degrees), east (90), west (270) and south (180), respectively. | |
123 | The planes will also | |
124 | take off in this direction. | |
125 | .IP | |
126 | Beacons are represented as circles or asterisks and a number. | |
127 | Their purpose is to offer a place of easy reference to the plane pilots. | |
128 | See 'the delay command' under the input section of this manual. | |
129 | .IP | |
130 | Entry/exit points are displayed as numbers along the border of the | |
131 | radar screen. Planes will enter the arena from these points without | |
132 | warning. These points have a direction associated with them, and | |
133 | planes will always enter the arena from this direction. On the | |
134 | ascii version of | |
135 | .I atc, | |
136 | this direction is not displayed. It will become apparent | |
137 | what this direction is as the game progresses. | |
138 | .IP | |
139 | Incoming planes will always enter at the same altitude: 7000 feet. | |
140 | For a plane to successfully depart through an entry/exit point, | |
141 | it must be flying at 9000 feet. | |
142 | It is not necessary for the planes to be flying in any particular | |
143 | direction when they leave the arena (yet). | |
144 | .SS "INFORMATION AREA" | |
145 | .IP | |
146 | The second area of the display is the information area, which lists | |
147 | the time (number of updates since start), and the number of planes you | |
148 | have directed safely out of the arena. | |
149 | Below this is a list of planes currently in the air, followed by a | |
150 | blank line, and then a list of planes on the ground (at airports). | |
151 | Each line lists the plane name and its current altitude, | |
152 | an optional asterisk indicating low fuel, the plane's destination, | |
153 | and the plane's current command. Changing altitude is not considered | |
154 | to be a command and is therefore not displayed. The following are | |
155 | some possible information lines: | |
156 | .IP | |
157 | B4*A0: Circle @ b1 | |
158 | .br | |
159 | g7 E4: 225 | |
160 | .IP | |
161 | The first example shows a prop plane named 'B' that is flying at 4000 | |
162 | feet. It is low on fuel (note the '*'). It's destination is | |
163 | Airport #0. | |
164 | The next command it expects | |
165 | to do is circle when it reaches Beacon #1. | |
166 | The second example shows a jet named 'g' at 7000 feet, destined for | |
167 | Exit #4. It is just now executing a turn to 225 degrees (South-West). | |
168 | .SS "INPUT AREA" | |
169 | .IP | |
170 | The third area of the display is the input area. It is here that | |
171 | your input is reflected. See the INPUT heading of this manual | |
172 | for more details. | |
173 | .SS "AUTHOR AREA" | |
174 | .IP | |
175 | This area is used simply to give credit where credit is due. :-) | |
176 | .SH INPUT | |
177 | .LP | |
178 | A command completion interface is built into | |
179 | the game. At any time, typing '?' will list possible input characters. | |
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180 | Typing a backspace (your erase character) backs up, erasing the last part |
181 | of the command. When a command is complete, a return enters it, and | |
182 | any semantic checking is done at that time. If no errors are detected, | |
183 | the command is sent to the appropriate plane. If an error is discovered | |
184 | during the check, the offending statement will be underscored and a | |
185 | (hopefully) descriptive message will be printed under it. | |
186 | .LP | |
187 | The command syntax is broken into two parts: | |
188 | .I "Immediate Only" | |
189 | and | |
190 | .I Delayable | |
191 | commands. | |
192 | .I "Immediate Only" | |
193 | commands happen on the next | |
194 | update. | |
195 | .I Delayable | |
196 | commands also happen on the next update unless they | |
197 | are followed by an optional predicate called the | |
198 | .I Delay | |
199 | command. | |
200 | .LP | |
201 | In the following tables, the syntax | |
202 | .B [0\-9] | |
203 | means any single digit, and | |
204 | .B <dir> | |
205 | refers to the keys around the 's' key, namely ``wedcxzaq''. | |
206 | In absolute references, 'q' refers to North-West or 315 degrees, and 'w' | |
207 | refers to North, or 0 degrees. | |
208 | In relative references, 'q' refers to -45 degrees or 45 degrees left, and 'w' | |
209 | refers to 0 degrees, or no change in direction. | |
210 | .LP | |
211 | All commands start with a plane letter. This indicates the recipient | |
212 | of the command. Case is ignored. | |
213 | .SS "IMMEDIATE ONLY COMMANDS" | |
214 | .RS | |
215 | .B "\- a Altitude:" | |
216 | .RS | |
217 | Affect a plane's altitude (and take off). | |
218 | .RE | |
219 | .RS | |
220 | .B "\- [0\-9] Number:" | |
221 | .RS | |
222 | Go to the given altitude (thousands of feet). | |
223 | .RE | |
224 | .B "\- c/+ Climb:" | |
225 | .RS | |
226 | Relative altitude change. | |
227 | .RE | |
228 | .RS | |
229 | .B "\- [0\-9] Number:" | |
230 | .RS | |
231 | Difference in thousands of feet. | |
232 | .RE | |
233 | .RE | |
234 | .B "\- d/\- Descend:" | |
235 | .RS | |
236 | Relative altitude change. | |
237 | .RE | |
238 | .RS | |
239 | .B "\- [0\-9] Number:" | |
240 | .RS | |
241 | Difference in thousands of feet. | |
242 | .RE | |
243 | .RE | |
244 | .RE | |
245 | .B "\- m Mark:" | |
246 | .RS | |
247 | Display in highlighted mode. Command is displayed normally. | |
248 | .RE | |
249 | .B "\- i Ignore:" | |
250 | .RS | |
251 | Do not display highlighted. Command is displayed as a | |
252 | line of dashes if there is no command. | |
253 | .RE | |
254 | .B "\- u Unmark:" | |
255 | .RS | |
256 | Same as ignore, but if a delayed command is processed, | |
257 | the plane will become marked. This is useful if you want | |
258 | to forget about a plane during part, but not all, of its | |
259 | journey. | |
260 | .RE | |
261 | .RE | |
262 | .SS "DELAYABLE COMMANDS" | |
263 | .RS | |
264 | .B "\- c Circle:" | |
265 | .RS | |
266 | Have the plane circle (clockwise by default). | |
267 | .RE | |
268 | .RS | |
269 | .B "\- l Left:" | |
270 | .RS | |
271 | Circle counterclockwise. | |
272 | .RE | |
273 | .B "\- r Right:" | |
274 | .RS | |
275 | Circle clockwise. | |
276 | .RE | |
277 | .RE | |
278 | .B "\- t Turn:" | |
279 | .RS | |
280 | Change direction. | |
281 | .RE | |
282 | .RS | |
283 | .B "\- l Left:" | |
284 | .RS | |
285 | Turn counterclockwise (45 degrees by default). | |
286 | .RE | |
287 | .RS | |
288 | .B "\- <dir> Direction:" | |
289 | .RS | |
290 | Turn ccw the given number of degrees. | |
291 | Zero degrees is no turn. A ccw turn | |
292 | of -45 degrees is 45 cw. | |
293 | .RE | |
294 | .RE | |
295 | .B "\- r Right:" | |
296 | .RS | |
297 | Turn clockwise (45 degrees by default). | |
298 | .RE | |
299 | .RS | |
300 | .B "\- <dir> Direction:" | |
301 | .RS | |
302 | Same as turn left <dir>. | |
303 | .RE | |
304 | .RE | |
305 | .B "\- L Left 90:" | |
306 | .RS | |
307 | Turn counterclockwise 90 degrees. | |
308 | .RE | |
309 | .B "\- R Right 90:" | |
310 | .RS | |
311 | Turn clockwise 90 degrees. | |
312 | .RE | |
313 | .B "\- <dir> Direction:" | |
314 | .RS | |
315 | Turn to the absolute compass heading given. | |
316 | The shortest turn will be taken. | |
317 | .RE | |
318 | .B "\- t Towards:" | |
319 | .RS | |
320 | Turn towards a beacon, airport or exit. The turn is | |
321 | just an estimate. | |
322 | .RE | |
323 | .RS | |
324 | .B "\- b/* Beacon:" | |
325 | .RS | |
326 | Turn towards the beacon. | |
327 | .RE | |
328 | .RS | |
329 | .B "\- [0-9] Number:" | |
330 | .RS | |
331 | The beacon number. | |
332 | .RE | |
333 | .RE | |
334 | .B "\- e Exit:" | |
335 | .RS | |
336 | Turn towards the exit. | |
337 | .RE | |
338 | .RS | |
339 | .B "\- [0-9] Number:" | |
340 | .RS | |
341 | The exit number. | |
342 | .RE | |
343 | .RE | |
344 | .B "\- a Airport:" | |
345 | .RS | |
346 | Turn towards the airport. | |
347 | .RE | |
348 | .RS | |
349 | .B "\- [0-9] Number:" | |
350 | .RS | |
351 | The airport number. | |
352 | .RE | |
353 | .RE | |
354 | .RE | |
355 | .RE | |
356 | .RE | |
357 | .SS THE DELAY COMMAND | |
358 | .LP | |
359 | The | |
360 | .B Delay | |
361 | (a/@) | |
362 | command may be appended to any | |
363 | .B Delayable | |
364 | command. It allows the controller to instruct a plane to do an action | |
365 | when the plane reaches a particular beacon (or other objects in future | |
366 | versions). | |
367 | .sp | |
368 | .RS | |
369 | .B "\- a/@ At:" | |
370 | .RS | |
371 | Do the given delayable command when the plane reaches the given beacon. | |
372 | .RE | |
373 | .RS | |
374 | .B "\- b/* Beacon:" | |
375 | .RS | |
376 | This is redundant to allow for expansion. | |
377 | .RE | |
378 | .RS | |
379 | .B "\- [0-9] Number:" | |
380 | .RS | |
381 | The beacon number. | |
382 | .RE | |
383 | .RE | |
384 | .RE | |
385 | .RE | |
386 | .SS "MARKING, UNMARKING AND IGNORING" | |
387 | .LP | |
388 | Planes are | |
389 | .B marked | |
390 | when they enter the arena. This means they are displayed in highlighted | |
391 | mode on the radar display. A plane may also be either | |
392 | .B unmarked | |
393 | or | |
394 | .B ignored. | |
395 | An | |
396 | .B unmarked | |
397 | plane is drawn in unhighlighted mode, and a line of dashes is displayed in | |
398 | the command field of the information area. The plane will remain this | |
399 | way until a mark command has been issued. Any other command will be issued, | |
400 | but the command line will return to a line of dashes when the command | |
401 | is completed. | |
402 | .LP | |
403 | An | |
404 | .B ignored | |
405 | plane is treated the same as an unmarked plane, except that it will | |
406 | automatically switch to | |
407 | .B marked | |
408 | status when a delayed command has been processed. This is useful if | |
409 | you want to forget about a plane for a while, but its flight path has | |
410 | not yet been completely set. | |
411 | .LP | |
412 | As with all of the commands, marking, unmarking and ignoring will take effect | |
413 | at the beginning of the next update. Do not be surprised if the plane does | |
414 | not immediately switch to unhighlighted mode. | |
415 | .SS EXAMPLES | |
416 | .RS | |
417 | .TP 16 | |
418 | atlab1 | |
419 | a: turn left at beacon #1 | |
420 | .TP 16 | |
421 | cc | |
422 | C: circle | |
423 | .TP 16 | |
424 | gtte4ab2 | |
425 | g: turn towards exit #4 at beacon #2 | |
426 | .TP 16 | |
427 | ma+2 | |
428 | m: altitude: climb 2000 feet | |
429 | .TP 16 | |
430 | stq | |
431 | S: turn to 315 | |
432 | .TP 16 | |
433 | xi | |
434 | x: ignore | |
435 | .RE | |
436 | .SH "OTHER INFORMATION" | |
437 | .LP | |
438 | Jets move every update; prop planes move every other update. | |
439 | .LP | |
440 | All planes turn a most 90 degrees per movement. | |
441 | .LP | |
442 | Planes enter at 7000 feet and leave at 9000 feet. | |
443 | .LP | |
444 | Planes flying at an altitude of 0 crash if they are not over an airport. | |
445 | .LP | |
446 | Planes waiting at airports can only be told to take off (climb in altitude). | |
447 | .SH "NEW GAMES" | |
448 | .LP | |
449 | The | |
450 | .B Game_List | |
451 | file lists the currently available play fields. New field description | |
452 | file names must be placed in this file to be 'playable'. If a player | |
453 | specifies a game not in this file, his score will not be logged. | |
454 | .LP | |
455 | The game field description files are broken into two parts. The first | |
456 | part is the definition section. Here, the four tunable game parameters | |
457 | must be set. These variables are set with the syntax: | |
458 | .IP | |
459 | variable = number; | |
460 | .LP | |
461 | Variable may be one of: | |
462 | .B update, | |
463 | indicating the number of seconds between forced updates; | |
464 | .B newplane, | |
465 | indicating (about) the number of updates between new plane entries; | |
466 | .B width, | |
467 | indicating the width of the play field; and | |
468 | .B height, | |
469 | indicating the height of the play field. | |
470 | .LP | |
471 | The second part of the field description files describes the locations | |
472 | of the exits, the beacons, the airports and the lines. | |
473 | The syntax is as follows: | |
474 | .IP | |
475 | beacon: (x y) ... ; | |
476 | .br | |
477 | airport: (x y direction) ... ; | |
478 | .br | |
479 | exit: (x y direction) ... ; | |
480 | .br | |
481 | line: [ (x1 y1) (x2 y2) ] ... ; | |
482 | .LP | |
483 | For beacons, a simple x, y coordinate pair is used (enclosed in parenthesis). | |
484 | Airports and exits require a third value, a direction, which is one | |
485 | of | |
486 | .B wedcxzaq. | |
487 | For airports, this is the direction that planes must be going to take | |
488 | off and land, and for exits, this is the direction that planes will going | |
489 | when they | |
490 | .B enter | |
491 | the arena. This may not seem intuitive, but as there is no restriction on | |
492 | direction of exit, this is appropriate. | |
493 | Lines are slightly different, since they need two coordinate pairs to | |
494 | specify the line endpoints. These endpoints must be enclosed in | |
495 | square brackets. | |
496 | .LP | |
497 | All statements are semi-colon (;) terminated. Multiple item statements | |
498 | accumulate. Each definition must occur exactly once, before any | |
499 | item statements. Comments begin with a hash (#) symbol | |
500 | and terminate with a newline. | |
501 | The coordinates are between zero and width-1 and height-1 | |
502 | inclusive. All of the exit coordinates must lie on the borders, and | |
503 | all of the beacons and airports must lie inside of the borders. | |
504 | Line endpoints may be anywhere within the field, so long as | |
505 | the lines are horizontal, vertical or | |
506 | .B "exactly diagonal." | |
507 | .SS "FIELD FILE EXAMPLE" | |
508 | .RS | |
509 | .sp | |
510 | .nf | |
511 | .TA 1i 1i | |
512 | .ta 1i 1i | |
513 | # This is the default game. | |
514 | ||
515 | update = 5; | |
516 | newplane = 5; | |
517 | width = 30; | |
518 | height = 21; | |
519 | ||
520 | exit: ( 12 0 x ) ( 29 0 z ) ( 29 7 a ) ( 29 17 a ) | |
521 | ( 9 20 e ) ( 0 13 d ) ( 0 7 d ) ( 0 0 c ) ; | |
522 | ||
523 | beacon: ( 12 7 ) ( 12 17 ) ; | |
524 | ||
525 | airport: ( 20 15 w ) ( 20 18 d ) ; | |
526 | ||
527 | line: [ ( 1 1 ) ( 6 6 ) ] | |
528 | [ ( 12 1 ) ( 12 6 ) ] | |
529 | [ ( 13 7 ) ( 28 7 ) ] | |
530 | [ ( 28 1 ) ( 13 16 ) ] | |
531 | [ ( 1 13 ) ( 11 13 ) ] | |
532 | [ ( 12 8 ) ( 12 16 ) ] | |
533 | [ ( 11 18 ) ( 10 19 ) ] | |
534 | [ ( 13 17 ) ( 28 17 ) ] | |
535 | [ ( 1 7 ) ( 11 7 ) ] ; | |
536 | .fi | |
537 | .RE | |
538 | .SH FILES | |
539 | .LP | |
540 | Files are kept in a special directory. See the OPTIONS for a way to | |
541 | print this path out. | |
542 | .TP 16 | |
543 | .B ATC_score | |
544 | Where the scores are kept. | |
545 | .TP 16 | |
546 | .B Game_List | |
547 | The list of playable games. | |
548 | .SH AUTHOR | |
549 | .LP | |
550 | Ed James, UC Berkeley: edjames@ucbvax.berkeley.edu, ucbvax!edjames | |
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551 | .LP |
552 | This game is based on someone's description of the overall flavor | |
553 | of a game written for some unknown PC many years ago, maybe. | |
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554 | .SH BUGS |
555 | .LP | |
556 | The screen sometimes refreshes after you have quit. | |
557 | .LP | |
558 | Yet Another Curses Bug was discovered during the development of this game. | |
559 | If your curses library clrtobot.o is version 5.1 or earlier, | |
560 | you will have erase problems with the backspace operator in the input | |
561 | window. | |
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