.AUTOPARAGRAPH .NHY .PERIOD .C ^^[ 3 0 0 , 3 0 1 ] M U L T I - T R E K\\ .C --------------------------------------- .S ^^MULTI-TREK\\ IS A GAME SIMILAR TO TRADITIONAL ^STAR-TREK GAMES EXCEPT THAT IT INVOLVES SEVERAL PLAYERS (CURRENTLY UP TO 8), WHO PLAY AGAINST EACH OTHER RATHER THAN AGAINST IMAGINARY ^KLINGONS, ^ROMULANS OR WHATEVER. ^THE ^^MULTI-TREK\\ UNIVERSE CONSISTS OF A 100 BY 100 MATRIX, OF WHICH AN APPROXIMATE 20 BY 20 MATRIX OF EACH PLAYER'S IMMEDIATE AREA IS DISPLAYED AND CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED AT THEIR TERMINAL. ^^MULTI-TREK\\ WAS ORIGINALLY SUBMITTED TO THE ^NEW ^ORLEANS COLLECTION, HOWEVER THIS LATER VERSION CONTAINS SEVERAL ENHANCEMENTS, THE MOST SIGNIFICANT BEING THE ADDITION OF "ROBOT" SHIPS. ^SHIPS DESIGNATED AS "ROBOT" SHIPS ARE CONTROLLED BY THE COMPUTER AND CAN ACT SINGLY OR AS A TEAM, THE "ABILITY" OF THE ROBOT SHIP SKIPPER(S) BEING SPECIFIED WHEN THEY ARE STARTED. ^COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS FOR STARTING AND PLAYING ^^MULTI-TREK\\ ARE IN THE FILE ^^MTREK.TXT\\. ^THE GAME CONSISTS OF A REAL-TIME DRIVER TASK, A TIME-SHARED PLAYER TASK FOR EACH TERMINAL AND A SHARED GLOBAL COMMON FOR INTER-TASK COMMUNICATION. ^^MULTI-TREK\\ WAS WRITTEN FOR ^^IAS 3.0\\, HOWEVER, IT SHOULD RUN UNDER ANY SYSTEM WITH SHARED GLOBAL AREAS AND THE CAPABILITY OF MIXING REAL-TIME AND TIME-SHARED PROGRAMS. ^REAL-TIME SYSTEMS WITHOUT TIME-SHARING MAY HAVE TO PLAY WITH PRIORITIES TO INSURE THAT THE DRIVER TASK GETS SUFFICIENT ^^CPU\\ TIME AND THAT ALL PLAYERS GET AN EQUAL AMOUNT OF TIME. ^^MULTI-TREK\\ WAS WRITTEN WITH A STRUCTURED ^FORTRAN CALLED ^^TRANSFOR\\. ^THIS ^^UIC\\ CONTAINS ALL OF THE ^FORTRAN PRODUCED BY ^^TRANSFOR\\, AS WELL AS THE ^^TRANSFOR\\ SOURCE (FILE TYPE ^^.X4S\\) AND LISTINGS (FILE TYPE ^^.X4L\\). ^DUE TO THE SIMILARITIES OF THE VARIOUS STRUCTURED ^FORTRAN LANGUAGES IT MAY BE POSSIBLE TO SUCCESSFULLY COMPILE THE ^^.X4S\\ FILES WITH OTHER STRUCTURED COMPLIERS WITH ONLY MINOR MODIFICATIONS. ^THE PROGRAMMABLE CURSOR AND SCREEN CLEARING ESCAPE SEQUENCES IN THE SOURCE CODE ARE FOR A ^BEEHIVE TERMINAL, HOWEVER, COMMENTS IN THE CODE IDENTIFY THESE ESCAPE SEQUENCES. ^THEY MAY HAVE TO BE MODIFIED FOR DIFFERENT TERMINALS.