ST LARN v12.0
ST LARN version 12.0 for Atari ST(tm) computers
-----------------------------------------------
by Howard Chu
350 Thompson, #327
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
October 28, 1987
Table of contents
-----------------
Introduction....................................................2
Files Supplied..................................................2
Configuration...................................................3
Command line options............................................5
TERMCAP.........................................................6
WIZARD mode.....................................................7
ST LARN v12.0
Introduction
------------
LARN is a dungeon type adventure game similar in concept to ROGUE or
HACK but with a much different feel. LARN is copyrighted 1986 by Noah
Morgan (USENET: panda!condor!noah) at GenRad Inc. Bolton MA. This version
is a port of his game to the Atari STs by Howard Chu.
Files supplied
--------------
The following files should be include in this LARN12.ARC file:
LARN.DOC
This documentation
LARN.TTP
The executable file.
LARN.FTN
Fortune cookie messages.
LARN.HLP
A help file which can be read with the "?" command in LARN.
LARN.MAZ
Some maze levels are precalculated and stored here.
TERMCAP
A file describing the escape sequences to send to the terminal to
change video modes. The supplied TERMCAP file describes both
standard and 50 line screens. See the TERMCAP section for details
on changing TERMCAP.
ST LARN v12.0
Configuration
-------------
ST LARN is configured to your system by options placed in the file
LARN.OPT. When ST LARN starts up, it looks in the current directory for
this file, then in directories along your PATH. For a hard disk system I
suggest creating a \GAMES directory and putting LARN.TTP, LARN.OPT and
TERMCAP in there, then put \GAMES on your PATH. For a system that only
has single sided floppy drives, put these 3 files on a single disk.
Now create a LARN directory and put the included files LARN.FTN,
LARN.MAZ, and LARN.HLP in there. LARN will create other files in this
directory, including the score file (LARN.SCR), a file to identify the
person playing (LARN.PID) and a file listing all the people who have played
to date (LARN.LOG). Also, save games (LARN.SAV) and checkpoint games
(LARN.CKP) will go in here.
For systems with hard disks, create the subdirectory "LARN" in the
\GAMES directory. Your "larndir" is now "\GAMES\LARN". For 360K floppy
systems you can have "larndir" as "A:\", but you will have to save games on
another drive (see "savefile" option below).
Here are the options that can be put in LARN.OPT. Options that are
followed with a colon, ":", take at least one argument. Options without a
colon are boolean, meaning you select that option merely by mentioning it.
These options are only in ST LARN:
larndir: directory
Sets "directory" to be the place LARN looks for files. For hard
disks set this to be \GAMES\LARN. For 360K floppy drives, use A:\
If "larndir" is not specified, the current directory is assumed.
cmdshell: filename
This is the full path name of the command shell you wish to invoke
with the LARN command `!'. The default is "\bin\msh.prg". The
program will be invoked with no arguments, and with an empty
environment list.
ramlevels: number
This number is the maximum number of levels ST LARN will keep in
memory. The number can be between 1 and 14. Normally, ST LARN
will use as much memory as available, but you may want to use
less so there will be enough memory to start up a subshell with
the LARN command `!', or to run a multi-tasking kernel, or a print
spooler, or some other memory intensive application. If there
isn't enough memory for the command shell, LARN will clear the
screen and prompt with "$" until return is struck, then go back
to the game.
If "ramlevels" is not specified, a value of 14 is used. If
"number" is less than 14, LARN will use a swapfile to store the
oldest levels. Note that a level takes about 8K of memory.
swapfile: filename
This is the name of the swap file that will be used if ramlevels
is less than 14. If all the levels fit in memory, no swap file
will be used. You may want to put the swapfile on a RAMdisk.
ST LARN v12.0
If "swapfile" is not specified, LARN.SWP in directory larndir
will be used.
graphics: wallc floorc
In UNIX LARN, the wall character is a # and the floor character
is a blank (which makes it almost impossible to tell where you've
been). In PC LARN, the default wall character is also a # but
the default floor character is a period.
This option allows you to change these characters to something
you like. I use 240 (a graphic block) and 250 (a central dot).
Since almost all normal ASCII characters are used for something
already, you should only choose numbers that are in the graphics
character set (ie those with decimal values greater than 128).
ST LARN v12.0
The following are options found in UNIX LARN as well:
enable-checkpointing
With this option, the game is saved every 400 moves. If your
system crashes it is possible to recover from the last checkpoint
file (LARN.CPK in the LARN directory) with the command "larn ++".
monster: name
Sets the name of a monster. If the name has a space in it,
enclose it in double quotes (eg "tooth fairy").
name: yourname
Sets the name of the player. If you want a space in your name,
enclose it in double quotes (eg "Mad Max").
no-introduction
Skip displaying the opening messages.
no-beep
Disable sound from the speaker.
savefile: filename
The filename to use for saving the game. The default is LARN.SAV
in the LARN directory. For a 2-floppy system you might try
B:\LARN.SAV if the LARN directory is on the A disk drive.
Command line options
--------------------
There are several command line options that can modify the behavior of
LARN. These are:
-o optionfile Use this as the option file rather than LARN.OPT. As
with LARN.OPT, the current directory then directories
along your path are searched for this file which
supplies configuration information.
-s Show scores.
-l Show log file.
-i Show all scores including inventories.
-c Create a new score file. You have to know the Wizard's
password to do this. Erasing LARN.SCR has the same
effect.
-n No welcoming message. Prevents printing of the short
introduction to LARN. Putting the "no-introduction"
configuration option in LARN.OPT has the same effect.
-# Where # is a number from 0 to 9. This sets the
difficulty of LARN to this level. Normally, LARN
starts out with difficulty 0 and increases in
difficulty by 1 when you win at the current level.
Thus the game automatically gets more difficult.
-h A help screen that shows the command line arguments.
ST LARN v12.0
++ Restore a game from a checkpoint file. If you have
checkpointing enabled (with the "enable-checkpointing"
configuration option in LARN.OPT) then LARN writes a
checkpoint file every 400 moves. Should your system
crash you can recover the game from the checkpoint file
with this command line option
For example: "larn -n -o bobslarn.opt" starts up LARN with no
introductory message and uses bobslarn.opt file for configuration options.
"larn ++" tries to restore LARN from a checkpoint file.
KEYBOARD
--------
LARN redefines the keypad to issue movement commands. The cursor pad
is also redefined, in a similar fashion. The correspondance between keypad
and game command is:
Cursor Pad Command
Help Undo help(?) nothing
Ins Up Clr inventory(i) up(k) nothing
Left Down Right left(h) down(j) right(l)
Keypad Command
7 8 9 u+l(y) up(k) u+r(u)
\ | / \ | /
4 -5- 6 left(h) nothing right(l)
/ | \ / | \
1 2 3 d+l(b) down(j) d+r(n)
0 inventory(i)
The letter in () is the game command letter. "u+l" means up and
left. The keypad "7" is translated to the command for moving one
space up and left. With shift the commands are the same as the
uppercase letters.
TERMCAP
-------
LARN uses the UNIX "termcap" to select escape sequences to be sent to
the terminal driver to change video modes. Since LARN uses standard I/O
calls, it is possible to redirect all I/O to an auxiliary device and play
the game from a remote terminal, which is why the Atari screen control
commands weren't hardwired into the code. When LARN starts up, it checks
in the environment for the variable called "TERM". The shell command:
set TERM st52l
will give the environment variable "TERM" the value "st52l". By default,
LARN assumes the value of TERM is "st52". (The st52l entry just allows
use of the hi-res 50 line screen hack for monochrome systems. LARN only
needs a 24 line by 80 column screen, so its use isn't necessary.)
Then LARN looks in the file called "TERMCAP" for a terminal definition
with the same name as the value of TERM. LARN first looks for TERMCAP in
the current directory, then in directory "\ETC" (the normal UNIX place),
then in directories along your PATH.
The TERMCAP file uses 2 letter codes to describe each escape sequence
and \E to mean ESC (the escape character is decimal 27). Each entry is
enclosed in colons. For example, to use inverse video on a monochrome
display, we want to send the sequence "ESCp". This looks like
":so=\Ep:" as a termcap entry.
The following sequences are used by LARN:
ti terminal initialization. You could have something like:
:ti=\Eb0\Ec1
which would mean to select white background and black foreground.
te terminal end. To reset your terminal to white on black:
:te=\Eb1\Ec0:
so stand out. Select inverse video:
:so=\Ep:
se standout end. Back to normal:
:se=\Eq:
al insert line.
:al=\EL:
dl delete line.
:dl=\EM:
If you want to make your own TERMCAP entry, copy the "st52" entry,
replace the name (eg use "vt100" or "ansi" or whatever), then replace
the sequences with whatever you please. Your best source would be the
/etc/termcap file on your closest Unix system. The Atari ST screen
control sequences are listed on page 406 of the Mark Williams C manual.
(release 2.0) I don't know where else they'd be listed, but I've put
all the useful ones into the included TERMCAP file already.
ST LARN v12.0
Remember to change the environment variable "TERM" to reflect which
TERMCAP entry you want! You should probably put a "setenv TERM=..." line
in your PROFILE file. (Assuming Mark Williams MicroShell. Use PROFILE.G
for Gulam.)
WIZARD mode
-----------
There is a WIZARD mode for testing features of the game. To get into
WIZARD mode, type in an underscore "_" and answer the prompt for the
password with "pvnert(x)". Wizards are non-scoring characters that get
enlightenment, everlasting expanded awareness and one of every object in
the game.
I hope you enjoy this version of LARN. Please refer any inquires on
this Atari ST implementation to:
H. Y. Chu
350 Thompson, #327
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
UUCP: ...{uunet, rutgers}!umix!hyc
ARPA: hyc@umix.cc.umich.edu