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37 .\" @(#)atc.6 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93
39 . \" XP - exdented paragraph
42 .if \\n(1T .sp \\n(PDu
48 .\" Copyright (c) 1986 Ed James. All rights reserved.
50 .TH ATC 6 "May 31, 1993"
53 atc \- air traffic controller game
56 -[u?lstp] [-[gf] game_name] [-r random seed]
60 lets you try your hand at the nerve wracking duties of the air traffic
61 controller without endangering the lives of millions of
63 Your responsibilities require you to direct the flight of jets
64 and prop planes into and out of the flight arena and airports.
65 The speed (update time) and frequency of the planes depend on the
66 difficulty of the chosen arena.
71 Print the usage line and exit.
78 Print a list of available games and exit.
79 The first game name printed is the default game.
82 Print the score list (formerly the Top Ten list).
89 Print the path to the special directory where
91 expects to find its private files. This is used during the
92 installation of the program.
95 Play the named game. If the game listed is not one of the
98 option, the default game is played.
105 Set the random seed. The purpose of this flag is questionable.
110 is to keep the game going as long as possible.
111 There is no winning state, except to beat the times of other players.
112 You will need to: launch planes at airports (by instructing them to
113 increase their altitude); land planes at airports (by instructing them to
114 go to altitude zero when exactly over the airport); and maneuver planes
117 Several things will cause the end of the game.
118 Each plane has a destination (see information area), and
119 sending a plane to the wrong destination is an error.
120 Planes can run out of fuel, or can collide. Collision is defined as
121 adjacency in any of the three dimensions. A plane leaving the arena
122 in any other way than through its destination exit is an error as well.
124 Scores are sorted in order of the number of planes safe. The other
125 statistics are provided merely for fun. There is no penalty for
126 taking longer than another player (except in the case of ties).
128 Suspending a game is not permitted. If you get a talk message, tough.
129 When was the last time an Air Traffic Controller got called away to
133 Depending on the terminal you run
135 on, the screen will be divided into 4 areas.
136 It should be stressed that the terminal driver portion of the
137 game was designed to be reconfigurable, so the display format can vary
138 depending the version you are playing. The descriptions here are based
140 of the game. The game rules and input format, however,
141 should remain consistent.
142 Control-L redraws the screen, should it become muddled.
145 The first screen area is the radar display, showing the relative locations
146 of the planes, airports, standard entry/exit points, radar
147 beacons, and "lines" which simply serve to aid you in guiding
150 Planes are shown as a single letter with an altitude. If
151 the numerical altitude is a single digit, then it represents
153 Some distinction is made between the prop
154 planes and the jets. On ascii terminals, prop planes are
155 represented by a upper case letter, jets by a lower case letter.
157 Airports are shown as a number and some indication of the direction
158 planes must be going to land at the airport.
159 On ascii terminals, this is one of '^', '>', '<', and 'v', to indicate
160 north (0 degrees), east (90), west (270) and south (180), respectively.
162 take off in this direction.
164 Beacons are represented as circles or asterisks and a number.
165 Their purpose is to offer a place of easy reference to the plane pilots.
166 See 'the delay command' under the input section of this manual.
168 Entry/exit points are displayed as numbers along the border of the
169 radar screen. Planes will enter the arena from these points without
170 warning. These points have a direction associated with them, and
171 planes will always enter the arena from this direction. On the
174 this direction is not displayed. It will become apparent
175 what this direction is as the game progresses.
177 Incoming planes will always enter at the same altitude: 7000 feet.
178 For a plane to successfully depart through an entry/exit point,
179 it must be flying at 9000 feet.
180 It is not necessary for the planes to be flying in any particular
181 direction when they leave the arena (yet).
182 .SS "INFORMATION AREA"
184 The second area of the display is the information area, which lists
185 the time (number of updates since start), and the number of planes you
186 have directed safely out of the arena.
187 Below this is a list of planes currently in the air, followed by a
188 blank line, and then a list of planes on the ground (at airports).
189 Each line lists the plane name and its current altitude,
190 an optional asterisk indicating low fuel, the plane's destination,
191 and the plane's current command. Changing altitude is not considered
192 to be a command and is therefore not displayed. The following are
193 some possible information lines:
199 The first example shows a prop plane named 'B' that is flying at 4000
200 feet. It is low on fuel (note the '*'). It's destination is
202 The next command it expects
203 to do is circle when it reaches Beacon #1.
204 The second example shows a jet named 'g' at 7000 feet, destined for
205 Exit #4. It is just now executing a turn to 225 degrees (South-West).
208 The third area of the display is the input area. It is here that
209 your input is reflected. See the INPUT heading of this manual
213 This area is used simply to give credit where credit is due. :-)
216 A command completion interface is built into
217 the game. At any time, typing '?' will list possible input characters.
218 Typing a backspace (your erase character) backs up, erasing the last part
219 of the command. When a command is complete, a return enters it, and
220 any semantic checking is done at that time. If no errors are detected,
221 the command is sent to the appropriate plane. If an error is discovered
222 during the check, the offending statement will be underscored and a
223 (hopefully) descriptive message will be printed under it.
225 The command syntax is broken into two parts:
231 commands happen on the next
234 commands also happen on the next update unless they
235 are followed by an optional predicate called the
239 In the following tables, the syntax
241 means any single digit, and
243 refers to the keys around the 's' key, namely ``wedcxzaq''.
244 In absolute references, 'q' refers to North-West or 315 degrees, and 'w'
245 refers to North, or 0 degrees.
246 In relative references, 'q' refers to -45 degrees or 45 degrees left, and 'w'
247 refers to 0 degrees, or no change in direction.
249 All commands start with a plane letter. This indicates the recipient
250 of the command. Case is ignored.
251 .SS "IMMEDIATE ONLY COMMANDS"
255 Affect a plane's altitude (and take off).
258 .B "\- [0\-9] Number:"
260 Go to the given altitude (thousands of feet).
264 Relative altitude change.
267 .B "\- [0\-9] Number:"
269 Difference in thousands of feet.
272 .B "\- d/\- Descend:"
274 Relative altitude change.
277 .B "\- [0\-9] Number:"
279 Difference in thousands of feet.
285 Display in highlighted mode. Command is displayed normally.
289 Do not display highlighted. Command is displayed as a
290 line of dashes if there is no command.
294 Same as ignore, but if a delayed command is processed,
295 the plane will become marked. This is useful if you want
296 to forget about a plane during part, but not all, of its
300 .SS "DELAYABLE COMMANDS"
304 Have the plane circle (clockwise by default).
309 Circle counterclockwise.
323 Turn counterclockwise (45 degrees by default).
326 .B "\- <dir> Direction:"
328 Turn ccw the given number of degrees.
329 Zero degrees is no turn. A ccw turn
330 of -45 degrees is 45 cw.
335 Turn clockwise (45 degrees by default).
338 .B "\- <dir> Direction:"
340 Same as turn left <dir>.
345 Turn counterclockwise 90 degrees.
349 Turn clockwise 90 degrees.
351 .B "\- <dir> Direction:"
353 Turn to the absolute compass heading given.
354 The shortest turn will be taken.
358 Turn towards a beacon, airport or exit. The turn is
364 Turn towards the beacon.
367 .B "\- [0-9] Number:"
374 Turn towards the exit.
377 .B "\- [0-9] Number:"
384 Turn towards the airport.
387 .B "\- [0-9] Number:"
395 .SS THE DELAY COMMAND
400 command may be appended to any
402 command. It allows the controller to instruct a plane to do an action
403 when the plane reaches a particular beacon (or other objects in future
409 Do the given delayable command when the plane reaches the given beacon.
414 This is redundant to allow for expansion.
417 .B "\- [0-9] Number:"
424 .SS "MARKING, UNMARKING AND IGNORING"
428 when they enter the arena. This means they are displayed in highlighted
429 mode on the radar display. A plane may also be either
435 plane is drawn in unhighlighted mode, and a line of dashes is displayed in
436 the command field of the information area. The plane will remain this
437 way until a mark command has been issued. Any other command will be issued,
438 but the command line will return to a line of dashes when the command
443 plane is treated the same as an unmarked plane, except that it will
444 automatically switch to
446 status when a delayed command has been processed. This is useful if
447 you want to forget about a plane for a while, but its flight path has
448 not yet been completely set.
450 As with all of the commands, marking, unmarking and ignoring will take effect
451 at the beginning of the next update. Do not be surprised if the plane does
452 not immediately switch to unhighlighted mode.
457 a: turn left at beacon #1
463 g: turn towards exit #4 at beacon #2
466 m: altitude: climb 2000 feet
474 .SH "OTHER INFORMATION"
476 Jets move every update; prop planes move every other update.
478 All planes turn a most 90 degrees per movement.
480 Planes enter at 7000 feet and leave at 9000 feet.
482 Planes flying at an altitude of 0 crash if they are not over an airport.
484 Planes waiting at airports can only be told to take off (climb in altitude).
489 file lists the currently available play fields. New field description
490 file names must be placed in this file to be 'playable'. If a player
491 specifies a game not in this file, his score will not be logged.
493 The game field description files are broken into two parts. The first
494 part is the definition section. Here, the four tunable game parameters
495 must be set. These variables are set with the syntax:
499 Variable may be one of:
501 indicating the number of seconds between forced updates;
503 indicating (about) the number of updates between new plane entries;
505 indicating the width of the play field; and
507 indicating the height of the play field.
509 The second part of the field description files describes the locations
510 of the exits, the beacons, the airports and the lines.
511 The syntax is as follows:
515 airport: (x y direction) ... ;
517 exit: (x y direction) ... ;
519 line: [ (x1 y1) (x2 y2) ] ... ;
521 For beacons, a simple x, y coordinate pair is used (enclosed in parenthesis).
522 Airports and exits require a third value, a direction, which is one
525 For airports, this is the direction that planes must be going to take
526 off and land, and for exits, this is the direction that planes will going
529 the arena. This may not seem intuitive, but as there is no restriction on
530 direction of exit, this is appropriate.
531 Lines are slightly different, since they need two coordinate pairs to
532 specify the line endpoints. These endpoints must be enclosed in
535 All statements are semi-colon (;) terminated. Multiple item statements
536 accumulate. Each definition must occur exactly once, before any
537 item statements. Comments begin with a hash (#) symbol
538 and terminate with a newline.
539 The coordinates are between zero and width-1 and height-1
540 inclusive. All of the exit coordinates must lie on the borders, and
541 all of the beacons and airports must lie inside of the borders.
542 Line endpoints may be anywhere within the field, so long as
543 the lines are horizontal, vertical or
544 .B "exactly diagonal."
545 .SS "FIELD FILE EXAMPLE"
551 # This is the default game.
558 exit: ( 12 0 x ) ( 29 0 z ) ( 29 7 a ) ( 29 17 a )
559 ( 9 20 e ) ( 0 13 d ) ( 0 7 d ) ( 0 0 c ) ;
561 beacon: ( 12 7 ) ( 12 17 ) ;
563 airport: ( 20 15 w ) ( 20 18 d ) ;
565 line: [ ( 1 1 ) ( 6 6 ) ]
566 [ ( 12 1 ) ( 12 6 ) ]
567 [ ( 13 7 ) ( 28 7 ) ]
568 [ ( 28 1 ) ( 13 16 ) ]
569 [ ( 1 13 ) ( 11 13 ) ]
570 [ ( 12 8 ) ( 12 16 ) ]
571 [ ( 11 18 ) ( 10 19 ) ]
572 [ ( 13 17 ) ( 28 17 ) ]
573 [ ( 1 7 ) ( 11 7 ) ] ;
578 Files are kept in a special directory. See the OPTIONS for a way to
582 Where the scores are kept.
585 The list of playable games.
588 Ed James, UC Berkeley: edjames@ucbvax.berkeley.edu, ucbvax!edjames
590 This game is based on someone's description of the overall flavor
591 of a game written for some unknown PC many years ago, maybe.
594 The screen sometimes refreshes after you have quit.
596 Yet Another Curses Bug was discovered during the development of this game.
597 If your curses library clrtobot.o is version 5.1 or earlier,
598 you will have erase problems with the backspace operator in the input
git.ckatri.com / bsdgames-darwin.git / blob