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sn#315853 filedate 1977-11-06 generic text, type C, neo UTF8
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C00001 00001
C00002 00002 HOW TO USE "SPACEWAR"
C00010 00003 CONTROL BUTTONS AND OTHER PHYSICAL LAWS
C00034 00004 RUN-TIME PARAMETERS
C00042 00005 "FORMULA" SPACEWAR
C00057 ENDMK
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HOW TO USE "SPACEWAR"
Anyone who needs to be told what SPACEWAR is, has no business playing it.
This file will concentrate on the specifics of using SWR here at SAIL.
To get started, R SWR. You'll be asked for certain parameters, as follows:
HOW MANY SHIPS?
The current limit is 5 ships. Since quite often some of the control buttons
are inoperative (or just plain missing), it is sometimes necessary to ask
for more ships than you need just to get enough working ships.
KEYBOARD BUTTONS?
There are two sets of buttons hooked directly into the system. The other
buttons (up to three sets, though often only two are connected) are plugged
in behind the terminal and are called "keyboard buttons" (because they work
by turning on bits in the keyboard input line). If you are playing with
fewer than 3 ships, you have the option of using the keyboard buttons
instead of the other sets. The usual criterion for deciding which to use is
the current condition of the various button boxes (i.e., which ones happen
to be working at the time).
TYPE Y TO GET A STANDARD GAME
The standard game is described prior to the above question. It includes
selections from most of the options below. If it's exactly what you want,
good for you. Otherwise type N and proceed. (Note: The default answer for
all Yes/No questions is "No".)
SECOND CONSOLE?
You can have the display put on two different III's, in case you have more
people than will fit around one screen. The console number is the "TTY #"
shown above the screen, and should be in the range 20 to 25.
HOW MANY SPACE-MINES?
See next page for a description of space-mines.
ANY BEGINNERS?
If you are going to have a mixture of amateurs and experienced players, you
should answer Yes to this question. If all of the players are beginners you
can answer Yes or No as you wish. The effect of this switch is discussed on
the next page, under "HANDICAPS".
PARTIAL DAMAGE?
See next page for a description of partial damage.
TWO TORPEDO TUBES?
The alternative is a single tube per ship. Each tube takes a certain length
of time to reload (the same time for both tubes), so having two tubes means
you can get off two shots before having to wait. It is somewhat surprising
how different the flavor of the game can be depending on whether you have
one or two tubes.
DISPLAY SCORES?
If requested, the scores are displayed around the edge of the screen. If
you don't ask for this, then neither of the following 2 questions is asked.
TEAM SCORES?
This is asked only if you have exactly 4 players. With team scoring, only
two scores are displayed, each of them being for a pair of ships. (In
general, the best way to determine which score is yours is by observing when
it changes.) Also, if there are two surviving ships, and they are on the
same team, it is counted as a win and a new round is begun.
KILLER SCORE?
Under normal scoring, you get one point for being the sole survivor at the
end of a round. This is also true under killer scoring, but with killer
scoring you also get a point for each ship you kill and lose a point each
time you get killed. (Note that getting hit by your own torpedo breaks
even.)
"FORMULA"?
See later page for a description of "formula" spacewar.
HYPERSPACE?
This is asked only if you don't opt for "formula" spacewar (since hyperspace
is available anyway as one of the "formula" features). See next page for a
description of hyperspace.
ANGULAR MOMENTUM?
See next page for a description of angular momentum. Note: This feature is
not recommended for amateurs!
ACTIVE DRONES?
See next page for a description of drones.
RANDOM STARTING POSITIONS?
If you don't choose random starting positions, each ship will start at the
same place each time, and these places will be equally spaced around the sun
at a fixed distance, with the ships pointing toward the sun (with three or
more ships) or at a fixed angle relative to the sun (with one or two ships).
With random starting positions, the distance from the sun is unchanged, but
each ship starts at a randomly selected position around the sun, and in a
random orientation. These positions/orientations change each round.
Having answered all these fool questions, you will now see the screen clear
and the countdown begin for the first round. The details of play are given
on the next page.
CONTROL BUTTONS AND OTHER PHYSICAL LAWS
Each ship is controlled by a set of four buttons, known as "spacewar
buttons". As noted on the preceding page (under KEYBOARD BUTTONS), two sets
are hooked directly into the system. If you wish to use the other buttons
(as you must if you are playing with more than two ships), these buttons
must be hooked up to the screen you wish to use. See a wizard if you need
to move the buttons; otherwise you'll have to use the screen where the
buttons happen to be.
For each ship, the button nearest the cord leading into the box is the FIRE
button. Pressing it causes a torpedo to be fired if that ship's tube is
loaded. Each ship has either one or two tubes (see parameter description on
previous page). If you hold the fire button continuously, you'll note there
is a "latency period" between the two tubes' firing; this latency period
tends to be about right for bracketing an enemy ship. After each tube
fires, there is a "reload delay" before it can be fired again. It is
generally poor strategy to fire continuously, since you may find yourself
unable to fire at a crucial moment. There is also a limit on the total
number of torpedoes each ship may fire, but this limit is rarely reached.
When a ship has a torpedo ready to fire, there will be a bright spot at the
center of the ship to indicate the tube is loaded.
The next button after the fire button is THRUST. Pressing it causes a flame
to extrude from the base of your ship, indicating that it is accelerating
forward. It being an acceleration, it is cumulative. You cannot run out of
fuel.
The remaining two buttons are ROTATION. They cause your ship to pivot about
its center. A flame will project from the appropriate fin while either
button (but not both) is pressed. The buttons are not always wired up the
same, so the best way to determine which button is which direction for your
-w-w is by testing them. The rotation is at a fixed velocity; when you
release the button you stop rotating.
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
Rotation, as described in the previous paragraph, is somewhat unrealistic.
If the ships have angular momentum they should continue rotating until a
counter-rotational thrust is applied. This is all well and good, but it
makes the ships extremely difficult to maneuver. (It probably wouldn't be
so difficult if the controls allowed for intermediate amounts of thrust,
instead of merely "on" and "off", but that's the way it goes.) If you want
to try your hand at maneuvering with accelerative turn buttons, answer Yes
to the question about angular momentum (see previous page).
HYPERSPACE
If you have elected to play using hyperspace, then pressing both turn
buttons simultaneously will cause your ship to go into hyperspace. The ship
disappears from the screen, and reappears some time later (the time varies)
in a random position. This random position may be right next to the sun, in
which case about the only thing you can do is go back into hyperspace (if
you're quick enough!). A ship in hyperspace may not maneuver, fire
torpedoes, nor even reload its torpedo tubes. Just before the ship
reappears, a particularly bright star will appear at the spot of its
impending arrival, giving that player a chance to prepare for the
reappearance, as well as giving the other ships a chance to lob a few shots
that way. There is also a chance that a ship which attempts to enter
hyperspace will explode instead. This probability increases for any given
ship each time that ship enters hyperspace. You pays your money and you
takes your chances.
GRAVITY
The sun is located at the center of the screen, and is the only source of
gravity. Torpedoes currently use an inertialess drive and are thus
unaffected by gravity (one of these days this may become an option). Ships
and space-mines (see below) are affected by gravity and thus have a tendency
to fall into the sun. Mines usually start out in safe orbits; ships are not
so lucky. You will find that, in general, you do not have enough thrust to
escape the sun at the beginning of the game. You must therefore accelerate
toward the sun in some sort of cometary orbit, then accelerate away after
passing it. This will give you enough velocity to roam about at will (more
or less) for a while. [Note: Experts can ignore these general hints at
strategy.] If you get too close to the sun, your ship will be destroyed in
a flash of light. The more velocity you have, the closer you can pass to
the sun without getting killed.
STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE
Anything which reaches the edge of the universe (i.e. the edge of the
screen) "wraps around" to the opposite edge. This can get particularly
confusing near the corners, which in fact act as a single point. It is
possible (and nasty!) to shoot torpedoes through the edge of the screen.
It's tricky trying to aim such shots, but it can be done with a bit of
practice. Whether or not you can aim this way, you should watch out for
other people who can!
INCENDIARIES
There are two kinds of explosive which you have to watch for. The first is
torpedoes. This includes your own; usually your shots will fade out before
they can wrap around the screen and strike you, but if your course changes
due to passing by the sun it is possible to shoot yourself. You can also
shoot yourself by firing while moving backward at high speeds, because the
torpedo's initial velocity will not counteract your speed and the torpedo
will thus be moving in the same direction as you. In general, torpedoes
leave the nose of a ship with an initial velocity (note velocity, not speed;
we're talking vectors) which is that of the ship plus a fixed constant
directed forward from the nose. It is sometimes possible to fire a torpedo
while your ship has a velocity roughly negative that of the torpedo, such
that the torpedo is practically motionless. Such shots are very difficult
to detect. Remember also that torpedoes are not affected by gravity.
Torpedoes fade out after a time; they become slightly brighter just before
they do, as a warning. They do not disappear if the ship that fired them
gets killed. Thus it is possible for you to kill someone even after you
yourself are destroyed. (In the vernacular, such a shot is known as a "hand
from the grave".) One final note: It is possible to shoot down other
torpedoes.
The other kind of explosive is space-mines. These are bright blobs which
float about the screen and generally get in the way. Their motion is
controlled by nothing but gravity. If you run into one, it and you will
blow up. You can also destroy a mine by hitting it with a torpedo. Two
mines which collide will destroy each other, and a mine which falls into the
sun will also be destroyed. (It is not possible to destroy the sun.) These
last two events are somewhat rare.
In the case of both torpedoes and mines, there is a certain region of your
ship which is the "target area". While the ships are drawn differently to
enable you to tell them about, the target areas are the same for everyone.
A hit on the "body" of the ship (the cigar-shaped section running lengthwise
down the middle) is always fatal; a hit on the "fins" (actually, on a
standardised region which is, for any given ship, merely a good
approximation of the fins) is also fatal unless you are playing with partial
damage (see below) and have not been hit on that fin yet. The debris from
an explosion is not lethal. (This may change some day!)
PARTIAL DAMAGE
If you are playing with partial damage, then a torpedo or mine which strikes
the fin of a ship merely inflicts partial damage. The effect is that the
ship is no longer able to turn using that fin. (E.g., a damaged left fin
prevents you from rotating clockwise.) If you are playing with hyperspace,
the ship is no longer able to enter hyperspace, either. A second hit on the
same fin will destroy the ship. Whenever you are not maneuvering (that is,
neither thrusting nor turning, although you may be firing torpedoes), your
crew is busy repairing any damage you have sustained. After a fixed period
of non-maneuvering (which need not be continuous), a damaged fin will again
be operational. No indication is given when this happens, but you can wait
for it by holding down the "damaged" button and no others (except maybe the
fire button), and your ship will eventually (if it lives long enough) begin
to rotate. Partial damage is also repaired when the ship has been destroyed
and recreated, either in the next game or by reincarnation (see below).
REINCARNATION
If at any time there is at most one ship surviving (ships in hyperspace are
considered to be alive), then there is a slight delay (during which time the
surviving ship (if any) might get killed somehow), after which the survivor
(if any) is considered to have won the round. That ship gets one point (see
KILLER SCORE on previous page) and a new round is begun. On the other hand,
as long as there are two or more ships still alive, ships which have been
killed will be reincarnated. (Exception: If all of the remaining ships have
run out of torpedoes, then dead ships are not reincarnated, points are given
to the survivors only if someone is dead, and a new round is begun.)
The reincarnation of a ship takes place a fixed length of time following its
destruction, and consists of the ship reappearing somewhere at the usual
starting distance from the sun. The ship will have no initial velocity. If
it had been partially damaged when destroyed it will now be repaired, and if
it had run out of torpedoes it will have a fresh supply. Its probability of
exploding in hyperspace will have been set back to the initial (minimum)
value. It may also find itself in the middle of a flurry of torpedoes from
the other ships, but them's the breaks. Note that, unlike with hyperspace,
there is no advance warning when a ship is about to be reincarnated.
Partial damage, lack of torpedoes, and increased probability of exploding in
hyperspace are also done away with for all ships at the start of each new
round.
If all space-mines have been destroyed (one way or another), then after a
time all the mines (as many as you asked for) will reappear in random
locations. They may even reappear on top of your ship. Too bad.
DRONES
Any ships whose buttons are not being manned (possibly because the buttons
aren't hooked up) are called "drones". In the passive state, they tend to
do very little except fall into the sun and occasionally get shot. If you
ask for active drones (see previous page), however, then it is as though all
buttons were being held down. (If you are playing with hyperspace, then it
is as though only the fire and thrust buttons for each ship were held down.)
Thus all the ships will be blasting merrily away, creating a fine state of
confusion. For good measure, if you are playing with partial damage and no
hyperspace, then any ship which is shot in the fin will begin to turn,
usually toward its attacker.
To assume manual control of a ship, just press (or release) any button for
that ship. The ship will immediately be released to manual control, and
will remain that way until an entire round goes by without the ship's
buttons being used, whereupon it will turn back into a drone. (It will also
turn back into a drone if it gets killed and reincarnated in a single round
without its buttons being used. If your ship is killed before you have a
chance to do anything, you can still push any button while waiting to be
reincarnated, and it will keep you from becoming a drone. Of course, if you
DO become a drone, you'll regain control as soon as you push a button.)
Note that, due to the way things are hooked up, typing at the keyboard is
indistinguishable from spacewar buttons being pushed. Hence any typing at
the keyboard (once the game has begun) will tend to deactivate one or two
drones for the remainder of the round.
HANDICAPS
If the relative skills of the players are too disparate to make for a
challenging game, it is possible to give one or more players a handicap.
This is done by changing the HANDCP parameter (see next page for details on
how to do this). This parameter is in octal, and each digit controls the
handicap for a different ship. In order from right (octal 7) to left (octal
70000), the ships are: pointy fins (fins point back), round back (bottom of
ship is rounded), concave fins (fins point forward), triangle fins (fins are
triangular), and funny fins (fins curve out and back). Hence setting HANDCP
to, say, 307, would give concave fins a handicap of 3 and pointy fins a
handicap of 7.
The effect of a handicap is to reduce the lifetime of (i.e. distance covered
by) the torpedoes of the handicapped ship. Each increment in the handicap
from 0 to 7 decreases the life by 1/8 the normal life. Thus, with a maximum
handicap (7), a ship can only shoot 1/8 as far as normal. Needless to say,
this is an extreme case, but might be necessary to even out the disparity
between a veteran player and a beginner. Even with a handicap of 7, an
experienced player should be able to clean up against four drones.
In addition to the above form of handicapping, there is the "beginners"
switch. If you answer "Yes" to the question about beginners (see previous
page), then players who are doing particularly badly will be given some
defensive advantages. The criterion for "doing badly" is that the player
have a score less than 1/8 the highest score achieved so far. (Since all
scores start out at zero, any negative score is less than 1/8 the highest so
far.) A player who is thus identified as a novice will have a half-sized
ship, which is of course harder to hit. (It's also harder to distinguish
from other half-sized ships, but presumably there won't be many of them at
any one time.) The ship also has a higher rate of thrust, making it easier
for it to stay out of the sun. Note: An active drone is never considered to
be a beginner, no matter what its score may be.
RUN-TIME PARAMETERS
Certain parameters can be changed while the game is in progress. For the
most part these parameters are "universal constants", such as gravity and
rotational velocity. The parameters, with cryptic notes as to what they
are, are listed below. To tweak a parameter while running spacewar, type
the name of the parameter followed by a slash (/). The current value will
be typed, whereupon you may type the desired new value. (To leave the value
unchanged, just type <cr>.) Two special commands are also permitted:
LIST/ lists all parameters and their current values
CLEAR/ clears the screen of garbage
Ending a new value with alt-mode (instead of <cr>) also clears the screen.
If you exit by hitting <call> and then type START, the program will restart
with the scores set to zero, but without affecting the current setting of
the parameters and without going through the initial question-and-answer
sequence.
Since the program is not doing any I/O except when you are tweaking
parameters, you will (if you play long enough) get an autologout warning.
Typing CLEAR/ is sufficient input to both clear the screen and stave off the
autologout.
In the following table, "Name" is the name used to refer to the parameter
when changing it, "Initial" is its initial value, and "Mode" is the mode in
which the parameter is displayed and in which the new value must be typed
(floating point decimal, fixed decimal, or fixed octal).
Name Parameter affected Initial/mode Limits
BTX Thrust 1.6/float None
BRX Rotational speed 2.0/float None
ANGMOM Angular momentum conserved if ≠0 0 or 1/octal None
MNEUVR Maneuverability factor (see next page) 1.4/float None
GG Gravitional constant 32.0/float None
GDT Time delta for integration 6.0/float None
MTCOLR Mine-torpedo collision radius (squared) 100.0/float None
TR2 Torp-torp collision radius (squared) 36.0/float None
ZOWRAD Self-destruction radius ↑ 2 (next page) 2304.0/float None
SCR Sun collision radius 10.0/float None
NTORPS # torps per player 40/octal ≤40
TTBMAX Maximum number of active torpedoes 132/octal ≤132
TRELOD Torpedo reload delay 60/octal ≥20
LATNCY Time between tubes 10/octal None
TLIFE Torpedo life before fading out 200/octal ≤200
ITV Initial torpedo velocity 3400000/octal None
BEGINR Beginners recognised if ≠0 0 or 1/octal None
HANDCP Handicaps (see previous page) 0/octal None
DAMHIT Partial damage possible if ≠0 0 or 1/octal None
SURBEN Survival benefit (points for winning) 1/dec None
KILLBN Wages of sin (points for killing) 0 or 1/dec None
DIEPEN Death penalty (points lost if killed) 0 or 1/dec None
DOTEAM Team scoring if non-zero 0 or 1/octal None
GSCORE Show galaxy score (sun & mines) if ≠0 0/dec None
CONS2 Number of second console for display 0 or 20-25/dec None
RSTARD Time between death and reincarnation 400/octal None
FIXTIM Time taken to fix partial damage 400/octal None
DRONES Drones active if ≠0 0 or 1/octal None
Some notes on interesting things to tweak:
Setting BTX negative leads to a strange game. Essentially you then have
funny-looking ships with torpedo tubes facing backwards.
If RSTARD is ≤20, the game almost never ends. (That is, there is almost
never a single survivor due to everybody else coming back so quickly.)
If FIXTIM is made ≤0, partial damage is never repaired.
TLIFE should be made small if ITV is made large.
The galaxy score (number of ships killed by the sun and mines), if turned
on, is displayed next to the sun.
Even though the console numbers are octal, you should enter CONS2 as 20 to
25 (instead of 16 to 21). Any other value will be taken as indicating that
no other screen should be used. Changes to CONS2 will not take effect until
the beginning of the next round.
If ITV is particularly large, the discrete time simulation occasionally
fails to detect a torpedo going through a ship (because it is on one side
and then the other without having been inbetween). This situation, known as
"delta-t winning again", happens sometimes even with the default settings,
but becomes more noticeable as things speed up. Making GDT smaller does not
affect this.
Make TRELOD =20 for a steady spray.
The initial value of ZOWRAD corresponds to exactly one ship-length. There
is no limit on this value, but this is mainly because the data structure has
no way of representing one; if you make ZOWRAD ≥32768. you risk running into
an obscure bug. (At 32768, the radius of destruction is roughly three and
one-half ship-lengths.)
A fairly standard set of tweaks to speed the game slightly is to set BTX to
2, BRX to 2.5, GG to 40, RSTARD to 200, TLIFE to 140 (to account for the
fact that the torpedoes will be going faster), and TRELOD to 50.
"FORMULA" SPACEWAR
By answering "Yes" to the appropriate start-up question, you can get what
has come to be known as "formula" spacewar. This variation on the basic
game is sufficiently complicated to warrant being described on this separate
page. This added complexity also makes formula spacewar an inadvisable
choice for novices, who probably have enough trouble keeping track of things
as is.
The basic idea behind formula spacewar is that, at the beginning of each new
round of play, each player is able to select one and only one additional
feature for his/her ship. Multiple players can choose the same feature.
Only the `owner' of a ship knows what feature the ship has been given
(although other players might be able to guess by observation). The various
features, which will be described at length shortly, include both offensive
capabilities, such as increased firepower, and defensive ones, such as
hyperspace.
SELECTING OPTIONS
Just prior to the countdown for each round, the word "OPT!" will be
displayed on the screen for a short period. During this time, each player
should select a formula option by holding down an appropriate combination of
buttons. (The button combinations used to select the various options are
described below.) It is generally a good idea to hold the combination down
until the countdown has actually begun, since otherwise there may be a
transient selection as the buttons are released. If no valid combination is
selected for a ship, that ship will have the same option it had the previous
round. The initial default is the heat shield, unless the drones are active
(they always select firepower).
An attempt has been made to have the button combinations used for selection
bear some relationship to the options they select. For instance, the fire
button selects increased firepower. In the case of non-passive options
(i.e. options which require special actions to invoke, such as hyperspace),
there is usually a close relationship between the button combination used to
select the option and that used to invoke it during the round. The various
options are:
Firepower Selected by the fire button. Gives you a slightly faster
reload (not latency) time and twice as many torpedoes.
Maneuvera- Selected by the thrust button. Gives you slightly higher
bility thrust and rotational velocity (or, if playing with angular
momentum, rotational acceleration). The increase is by a
factor stored in the run-time parameter MNEUVR, which is
initially a 40% advantage.
Invulnerable Selected by either turn button. Makes both fins
Fins invulnerable to both torpedoes and mines. A mine or torpedo
which strikes a fin simply disappears. (The ship can thus
never be partially damaged.) A shot which strikes the rear
of the ship between the fins will still destroy the ship.
This is a powerful option, but requires quite a bit of
maneuvering skill if it is to be used to full advantage.
Heat Shield Selected by the fire and thrust buttons (together). Lets
you fall into the sun without being destroyed. There is no
gravity inside the sun, so a shielded ship which falls into
it tends to oscillate for a while until the discrete time
simulation happens to give it a large gravitational yank
from one side of the sun and fails to counter it quickly
enough on the other, whereupon the ship starts whipping
around the screen. Hence this essentially defensive feature
can also provide an offensive advantage. On the other hand,
you have little control over how long it takes to get flung
from the sun, and you're a sitting duck while you're there.
Hyperspace Selected by both turn buttons. Provides your ship with the
ability to enter hyperspace. Hyperspace operates exactly as
described on the page discussing physical laws; i.e., it is
invoked by pushing both turn buttons, makes you disappear
for a while, shows a bright star just before you return, and
has an increasing chance of blowing you up each time you use
it. Unlike the other formula options which use the dual
turn for activation, hyperspace cannot be invoked by a
partially damaged ship. (Pushing both turn buttons when
your ship is damaged in one fin simply makes you rotate.)
Lob Shots Selected by both turns together with the fire button. Gives
you the ability to fire motionless torpedoes. To fire such
a torpedo, hold down both turn buttons as you fire. The
torpedo comes out your tail instead of your nose, and has
zero velocity, such that it looks exactly like a star.
Unless someone is watching very closely, there is no way to
detect such a torpedo until it flares and dies. On the
other hand, you can't very well aim it; you have to lay the
shot and hope that someone will run into it. This
essentially offensive feature can also provide a defensive
advantage, in that if you are being pursued by a torpedo you
can leave a shot behind you to knock out the pursuing
torpedo. Like any other shot, lob shots count toward your
quota of torpedoes, and are subject to the usual latency and
reload time. If you are partially damaged, you can still
fire lob shots. Furthermore, holding down both turn buttons
when damaged will not, as it normally would, cause you to
rotate. One last note: Firing a lob shot when you're not
facing roughly forward is a quick way to commit suicide.
Null Gravity Selected by both turns together with the thrust button.
Provides your ship with a null-gravity screen, which is
activated by pushing both turn buttons (like for
hyperspace). The screen makes gravity equal to zero for
your ship. This is so only for as long as you hold the turn
buttons, so you can't maneuver easily while using it.
Besides providing a last-ditch defense against falling into
the sun, the screen gives you a way to avoid shots which
have been aimed by people who have figured out your
trajectory around the sun and are planning to catch you on
the other side. You can also build up a hefty bit of speed
by diving in a tight orbit and then turning on the screen as
you hit perihelion. If you are partially damaged, you can
still operate the screen. Holding down both turn buttons
will not cause you to rotate.
Self-Destruct Selected by all four buttons together. Gives you the
ability to destroy your own ship, along with anything else
(other than the sun and stars) within a fixed radius. This
is done by pushing all four buttons at once. With killer
scoring, destroying yourself breaks even (you lose a point
for getting killed but gain a point for being the killer),
so this gives you a way of never going negative. This is,
of course, not terribly useful in itself, since most people
prefer to have a positive score. But assuming you don't
just sit there holding down all your buttons, the ability to
"steal" the point away from someone who was about to kill
you can be very useful indeed. If you're playing with
random starting positions, you will occasionally start out
on top of someone else, in which case you can make a quick
point by destroying the enemy ship along with yours. (The
radius of destruction is SQRT(ZOWRAD), and is normally one
ship length, measured from center to center; i.e., ships
which are close enough to touch noses are close enough to
take one another with them.) If two ships self-destruct at
the same time, the killer point for any ship destroyed goes
to the nearest self-destructing ship. (This guarantees that
each ship gets credit for killing itself.) A ship which
goes into hyperspace at the instant a neighboring ship
self-destructs will be safe from the explosion. If you are
partially damaged, you can still self-destruct. Holding
down both turn buttons will not cause you to rotate. Note:
Since this is an extremely powerful feature, and since it
can be frustrating to have someone keep self-destructing out
from under your torpedoes, there is a small chance (about
5%) that a ship which attempts to self-destruct will instead
merely disable itself. When this happens, the ship's
controls go dead, but the ship itself survives until
something manages to kill it in one of the usual ways. Upon
being reincarnated, of course, the ship is once again fully
operational.
A summary, for quick reference:
Fire Firepower [more torps, faster reload]
Thrust Maneuverability [higher thrust, faster turns]
Either turn Invulnerable fins
Both turns Hyperspace (activated by dual turn)
Fire & thrust Heat shield [can fall into sun without dying]
Both turns & fire Lob shots (fired by dual turn w/ fire)
Both turns & thrust Null gravity (activated by dual turn)
All four Self-destruct (activated by all 4 buttons at once)
A listing of the options, with the button combinations shown schematically,
may be obtained by POXing SWRFRM.DON[UP,DOC].