NAME

robots — fight off villainous robots

SYNOPSIS

robots

[-Aajnrst] [maximum] [scorefile]

DESCRIPTION

robots pits you against evil robots, who are trying to kill you (which is why they are evil). Fortunately for you, even though they are evil, they are not very bright and have a habit of bumping into each other, thus destroying themselves. In order to survive, you must get them to kill each other off, since you have no offensive weaponry.

Since you are stuck without offensive weaponry, you are endowed with one piece of defensive weaponry: a teleportation device. When two robots run into each other or a junk pile, they die. If a robot runs into you, you die. When a robot dies, you get 10 points, and when all the robots die, you start on the next field. This keeps up until they finally get you.

Robots are represented on the screen by a ‘+’, the junk heaps from their collisions by a ‘∗’, and you (the good guy) by a ‘@’.

The commands are:

h

move one square left

l

move one square right

k

move one square up

j

move one square down

y

move one square up and left

u

move one square up and right

b

move one square down and left

n

move one square down and right

.

(also space) do nothing for one turn

HJKLBNYU

run as far as possible in the given direction

>

do nothing for as long as possible

t

teleport to a random location

w

wait until you die or they all do

q

quit

^L

redraw the screen

All commands can be preceded by a count.

If you use the ‘w’ command and survive to the next level, you will get a bonus of 10% for each robot which died after you decided to wait. If you die, however, you get nothing. For all other commands, the program will save you from typos by stopping short of being eaten. However, with ‘w’ you take the risk of dying by miscalculation.

Only five scores are allowed per user on the score file. If you make it into the score file, you will be shown the list at the end of the game. If an alternative score file is named on the command line, that file will be used instead of the standard file for scores. The score file must be created empty beforehand, e.g. with touch(1). If the argument maximum, which must be a number, is provided when a score file is first used, the value given will be used as the maximum number of scores to keep per user instead of the default five. This value is a property of the score file and cannot be changed later.

The options are

-A

Auto-bot mode. Lets the game play itself.

-a

Advance into the higher levels directly, skipping the lower, easier levels.

-j

Jump, i.e., when you run, don't show any intermediate positions; only show things at the end. This is useful on slow terminals.

-n

Increase the number of games played by one; that is, automatically choose to play again one time per usage of this option.

-r

Play in real time; that is, if you do nothing for a few seconds the game will assume you meant to do nothing and move the robots.

-s

Don't play, just show the score file.

-t

Teleport automatically when you have no other option. This is a little disconcerting until you get used to it, and then it is very nice.

FILES

/var/games/robots_roll

The score file.

AUTHORS

Ken Arnold Christos Zoulas (autobot mode)

BUGS

Bugs? You crazy, man?!?