The following games are available. Unless otherwise indicatedall games are stored in [2,1] - the general Games Account. Some games(e.g. ADVENT, LIFD) are stored elsewhere to avoid confusing the datafiles they use. For further information on a particular game, type HELP GAMES 'name' - you might be lucky! Note that several games insist on upper-case input and might crash without it. To log into the games account, type HELLO GAMES/GAMES. ADVENT - Original game of adventure. In [2,2]. AMAZIN - Generates Mazes ANIMAL - Guesses animal you are thinking of. BAGLES - Lets you guess a 3-digit number. BANNER - Print out banner in large letters. BIGB - Big Brother is Watching You. BIORTM - Calculate and print a Biorhythm chart. BLACK - Play Blackjack. BOMBER - Pretend to be a WW II bomber pilot. BOUNCE - Plots trajectory of Bouncing Ball. BOXING - Plays boxing match between two opponents. BUG - Builds up bug from constituent parts. BULEYE - Simple darts game. BUNNY - Draws a Playboy Bunny Head on the terminal. CALNDR - Print out the Calendar for a Given Year. CAR - Go Motor Racing at Brand's Hatch. CHESS - Chess program. CHIEF - Mathematical calculation 'game'. CHOMP - Dividing up square lattice with 'poison' element. CIVILW - Replay the American Civil War. CLOCK - Displays time of day on a VT52. CRAPS - Plays craps (dice). DEPTH - Bomb a submarine with Depth Charges. DIVIDE - Simple Division Test DRAG - Design your own Drag Racer. DUNGEON - Updates game of adventure. In [2,3]. ELIZA - Computer Psychologist. In [2,7]. ESCAPE - Escape from Devil's Island. EVILK - Play at being Evil Knievel. FOOTBL - Plays a game of football. GOTHIC - Prints Gothic Letters. GUNNER - Try and hit a target with a Field Gun. HANG - Plays hangman. HEX - Plays a game of Hexapawn. INQ - The Spanish Inquisition. JACPOT - A One-Armed Bandit with topical wheels. KING - You are King of a Country. LIFE - 'Life' with input from keyboard. LIFD - 'Life' with input from data file. In [2,4]. MAGIC - Calculate a Magic Square. MINOT - Try to avoid the Minotaur. MOOCOW - Simple version of Mastermind. MOVE - Move a pattern across a screen. In [2,6]. MULTIPLY- Simple Multiplication Test. NIM - Play Nim with the Computer. OTH - Othello - a game of skill against the computer. POKER - Plays a game of Poker with you. QUEEN - A simple Chess-Board game using only a Queen. RUSSIA - Plays Russian Roulette. SCRABB - Plays Scrabble with the operator. In [2,5]. SEAWAR - War at Sea. SHIP - Play Battleships with the computer. SPACWR - A Star Trek Games that continually updates on a MKII. SPIRAL - Draws a spiral on the VDU. STARS - Fills the screen with stars. STRTRK - A Star Trek Game. STRWAR - A Battle with Darth Vader. TALYHO - A game of Fox and Geese. TANK - War on land with Tanks (2-person). TOWER - tower of Hanoi game. TREK - The "Super Star Trek" Game. UFO - Fight to the death with a UFO. WEKDAY - Prints interesting facts about your age. 2 ADVENT ADVENT is the original game of Adventure run on the PDP. When you first run ADVENT it asks if you want instructions and if you say YES then gives you sufficient information to play. Note that you can SAVE a game at any point and restart from there by specifying the game name when you run ADVENT. While ADVENT is smaller and simpler than DUNGEON it is also less esoteric, less liable to crash and fairly logical geographically (i.e. if Room A is West of Room B then Room B is usually E of Room A). 2 AMAZIN AMAZIN generates a random maze with dimensions of up to 23 x 23 and outputs it either to a physical device (e.g. TI: or LP:) or to a file (e.g. MAZE.LST) for later spooling. It does not generate the same mazes each time it is run. 2 ANIMAL ANIMAL tries to guess the animal you are thinking of, and if it fails allows you to add the animal to its data-base. 2 BAGLES BAGLES is a simple game that thinks of a 3-digit number which you have to guess. When run it will supply instructions if you ask for them. 2 BANNER BANNER will create a banner of Large Capital Letters either on the device you specify, or in a file. 2 BIGB BIGB is a graphic portrayal of the intrusion of Big Brother into our everyday lives. Install the task, assign LUN 1 to the terminal you want to watch and run it. 2 BIORTM BIORTM calculates your Biorhythm chart given your birthdate and the number of months you want it for, and prints it out on the requesting terminal. 2 BLACK BLACK plays a fairly simple game of Blackjack with you. 2 BOMBER BOMBER is a trivial game that allows you to pretend you are flying a bomber in the 2nd World War. 2 BOUNCE BOUNCE plots the trajecty of a rubber ball thrown in the air, given the velocity of the ball, its coefficient of restitution, and the time interval for the plotting. Note that most time intervals over about .15 seem to crash the program. 2 BOXING BOXING plays a boxing match between two opponents you name, depending on their good points and their weaknesses. Can be useful for letting off steam! 2 BUG In BUG the computer rolls a die for you and it and depending on the number of the die you get a bit of a bug (e.g. Head, Tail, Leg etc.). The bits are only of use in a certain order (a Tail is no good without a Body first for instance) and the game is complete when the bug is. Note that I think the computer cheats! 2 BULEYE BULEYE is a simple competitive game of darts between a number of players where you specify the type of throw you want to use. 2 BUNNY BUNNY just draws the head of a Bunny (the Playboy symbol) on the requesting terminal. 2 CALNDR CALNDR calculates the calendar for any year since 1900 and prints it out in a pretty tabular format. It also allows you to add up to seven lines of header, which may be any ASCII characters. 2 CAR CAR is a simulated race around Brand's Hatch with Jackie Stewart, where the player has full control of the Accelerator, Brake and Gears. 2 CHESS CHESS is a chess program in which two players can play each other, one can play the computer or the computer plays itself. It is designed to run on a MK1 VDU and displays a board permanently. For detailed information commands type HELP GAMES CHESS COMMANDS or read the file CHESS.HLP in the Games Account. 3 COMMANDS INSTRUCTIONS FOR CHESS V001D ---------------------------- 1) COMMANDS ACTION ------- ------ PW COMPUTER PLAYS FOR WHITE PB COMPUTER PLAYS FOR BLACK PN COMPUTER PLAYS FOR NEITHER BD BOARD DISPLAY (WILL REFRESH ALSO IF RSX/VT100). RE RESET GAME D=N SET DEPTH TO N. DEFAULTED TO "1". 1=A VERY EASY GAME, 6= A HARD GAME (IF YOU HAVE THE TIME). W=N1,N2,N3,... SET WIDTHS TO N1,N2,N3,... DEFAULTED TO 10,10,10.... ADJUST HIGHER FOR A MORE INTERESTING GAME AT THE "D"EPTH YOU ARE PLAYING AT. SK SKIP A MOVE C=N1[,N2] SET CLOCKS TO N1 OR SET WHITE'S CLOCK N1 AND BLACK'S TO N2 (SECONDS) P=N SET MOVE NUMBER TO N AND ACCEPT A BOARD POSITION IN FORSYTHE NOTATION SA RSX OPTION. SAVE CURRENT GAME STATUS TO A FILE UN RSX OPTION. UNSAVE A "SA"VED GAME, AND START MOVES FROM WHEN GAME WAS SAVED. HC RSX/VT100 OPTION. WILL PRINT A HARD COPY OF THE BOARD ON "TT0:". EX EXIT 2) DEBUG COMMANDS ACTION -------------- ------ T=N PRINT TREE (ON LP:) TO DEPTH N PS PRINT STATISTICS INFORMATION HI PRINT EXECUTION HISTOGRAM 3) SAMPLE MOVES EXPLANATION ------------ ----------- P-K4 MOVE PAWN TO KING 4 P*P PAWN CAPTURES PAWN PXP ALTERNATE FORM OF PAWN CAPTURES PAWN P#P PAWN CAPTURES PAWN ENPASSANT OO CASTLE KING SIDE OOO CASTLE QUEEN SIDE P/K4*N/Q5 PAWN ON KING 4 CAPTURES KNIGHT ON QUEEN FIVE (SPECIFY FROM/TO SQUARES TO ELIMINATE AMBIGUITY) P-QR8=R PAWN TO QUEEN ROOK 8 PROMOTE TO ROOK 4) MESSAGES EXPLANATION -------- ----------- W. WHITE IS TO MOVE B. BLACK IS TO MOVE W. N WHITE TO MOVE HAS N SECONDS REMAINING ON HIS CLOCK B. N BLACK TO MOVE HAS N SECONDS REMAINING ON HIS CLOCK WHAT? UNRECOGNIZABLE INPUT ILLEGAL MOVE MOVE HAS LEGAL SYNTAX BUT IS NOT LEGAL FROM THE CURRENT BOARD POSITION AMBIGUOUS TWO OR MORE POSSIBLE LEGAL MOVES EXIST WHICH MATCH THE TYPED MOVE ... MUST BE MORE SPECIFIC (I.E. USE FROM/TO SQUARE DESIGNATIONS) CHECK THE SIDE TO MOVE IS IN CHECK CHECKMATE THE SIDE TO MOVE IS CHECKMATED STALEMATE THE GAME IS A STALEMATE FLAG DROPPED THE SIDE TO MOVE HAS RUN OUT OF TIME I RESIGN THE COMPUTER RESIGNS 2 CHIEF CHIEF is a mildly amusing 'game' in which you think of a number, do various things to it and give the computer the result - at which point it tells you what the number you first thought of was. 2 CHOMP CHOMP is a game for any number of players from 2 on in which a square lattice (up to 9x9) is drawn with one poison square and each player must take a bite without eating the poison. When run the program gives more instructions. 2 CIVILW CIVILW allows you to provide strategy and armament/rations allowances for several of the American Civil War battles. Naturally you are the Confederacy and generally lose. 2 CLOCK CLOCK produces a very pretty Time of Day display for a VT52 (or Systime MK 3). 2 CRAPS CRAPS plays the dice game of craps between you and the computer. Running the game gives further information. 2 DEPTH DEPTH is a simple game in which you have a three-dimensional matrix which contains, somewhere, an enemy submarine which you have to sink with depth charges before a certain time has elapsed. 2 DIVIDE DIVIDE is a very simple program which tests your ability to do simple integer division. It has two distinct tests, labelled 1 and 2. 2 DRAG DRAG races a Drag Racer of your own design against one that the computer has designed. 2 DUNGEON DUNGEON is a later version of Adventure. It is far larger and, consequently, more complex than ADVENT - for example the outcome of fights is not necessarily the same each time the game is run. On the other hand some of the parts are very esoteric and the dungeon is rather illogical geographically (often if Room A is East of Room B then Room B is East of Room A as well!). In addition, we do not have the sources of DUNGEON and the current version is liable to crash even when doing something legal (one particular combination of events which must be done to get full points is impossible on this version because of this). 2 ELIZA ELIZA is a fairly simplified computer psychologist. Just run the program and answer the good lady's questions. When you get fed up type 'Shut Up'. 2 ESCAPE ESCAPE gives you a chance to row away from Devil's Island. It is full of things like current strength, angle of approach of boat and suchlike and is only really for the mathematically minded. 2 EVILK EVILK is a game where you pretend to be Evel Knievel and to try to jump over a number of buses on a motorcycle. Don't be too easily discouraged - it is possible! (If you're lucky!) 2 FOOTBL FOOTBL is a game of American Football between you and the computer. Running the game will give you further instructions (if you understand the real game). Note that if the game terminates normally you will get a '#' prompt - type EX to get back to MCR. 2 GOTHIC GOTHIC is a program that converts a given string of characters into large Gothic letters in the file GOTHIC.OUT and optionally spools the file to the printer. For more information run the program. 2 GUNNER GUNNER is a simple game in which you have control of a large gun and have to hit targets at varying distances and heights by varying the elevation of your gun. 2 HANG HANG is a game of Hangman where the Computer thinks of the word and you have to try to guess it. As the numbers are stored inside the program it unfortunately uses the same ones each time. If the program exits normally it might give you a '#' prompt - type EX to return to MCR. 2 HEX HEX is a game of Hexapawn (6 pawns on a 3x3 board). The basic game is quite trivial but interesting in that the computer learns by its mistakes. 2 INQ Install INQ, reassign LUN 1 to some interesting terminal and run it! 2 JACPOT JACPOT is a One-Armed Bandit game which has topical items like IBM and DEC instead of lemons and oranges. The game gives full instructions. 2 KING KING is a game in which you are king of a country and have to survive eight years in office by balancing crop planting with selling land to industry and so on. It's not as easy as it seems. If the program exits normally it might give you a '#' prompt - type EX to return to MCR. 2 LIFE LIFE is a game based on John Horton Conway's Mathematical game of 'Life'. If you are not familiar with this game, type HELP GAMES LIFE RULES for an idea on how it works and play with LIFD a few times until you get the hag of it. In this version the user types any pattern into the program (terminated by a ^Z on a new line, or when a full screen is typed in) which then centres the pattern and uses it for the initial display. Anything 'born' outside the screen is lost and the program terminates (only) when a static position is reached. 3 RULES 'Life' is what Conway calls a Cellular Automaton Game. By this he means that the Universe is considered as an infinite number of adjacent squares (or 'cells') which are populated or not in a generation (or 'move') depending on some fixed relational rule. In 'Life', whether a cell is populated in one generation or not depends on how many of it and its adjacent cells were populated in the previous generation. Thus if we consider a cell X, then whether or not it is populated in generation n depends on how many of the 8 adjacent cells were populated in generation n-1 as follows:- Number Populated Result ---------------- ------ 0 - 1 Death - Cell X is unpopulated in generation n 2 Stable - State of Cell X in generation n is same as it was in generation n-1 3 Birth - Cell X is populated in generation n 4 - 8 Death - Cell X is unpopulated in generation n Note that the population of cells for one generation is determined for all cells at once depending on the previous generation's state. The easiest way to get the hang of the game is to try a few examples through on graph paper and check them against the computer version. Note that ideally the game should be played with an infinite universe, but because of the limitations of computers all machine versions have to have a finite lattice (usually the display area of the screen) and anything created off the end of this lattice is ignored. 2 LIFD LIFD is a game based on John Horton Conway's Mathematical game of 'Life' (See LIFE for more details). In this version the starting position is input from a named data file (several of which are stored in [2,4] with the task). The program terminates when the picture becomes static and anything outside the screen is always lost. 2 LUNAR LUNAR is a simple Lunar Landing Simulation (regrettably without pictorial support) that allows you to control the burn rate of a descending Lunar module in an attempt to land safely on the Moon. 2 MAGIC MAGIC will construct a 4x4 Magic Square for you where all the numbers add up to a number of your choice. 2 MINOT MINOT is a game where you have to capture a Minotaur (who is invisible in the difficult version) in an nxn matrix before he eats all your men. 2 MOOCOW MOOCOW is a simple version of Mastermind where you have to guess a four digit number. 2 MOVE MOVE is not really a game, but allows you to run a pattern across somebody else's screen. The command file MOV1.CMD does the moving. If you want to insert a new type, copy the format from one of the .CUR files and use MOVE.CMD to build the task. Current patterns are ARROW, BUBBLE, CAR, CLEAR, LORRY & TANK. 2 MULTIPLY MULTIPLY is a simple program that tests your 'times table' for any number from 2 to 12. 2 NIM NIM allows you to play the computer at Nim. As it both allows you to select who starts and to select Ordinary Nim or Misere Nim, the player has every chance of winning. 2 POKER POKER is a game of 5-card poker between you and the computer. A good game to play when dispirited as it is quite easy to beat the machine. Note that if the game terminates normally you will get a '#' prompt - type EX to get back to MCR. 2 QUEEN QUEEN is a very simple game played on a Chess-Board where you attempt to get a Queen to the bottom-left hand corner. Logically it is the same game as CHOMP. 2 RUSSIA RUSSIA is a trivial game of Russian Roulette - be warned, there are no winners. 2 SCRABB SCRABB is a form of Scrabble where the computer plays the operator. It is a fairly slow game and the computer is not too clever. To find out exactly how to play type HELP GAMES SCRABBLE COMMANDS. 3 COMMANDS SCRABBle prompts for an initial command with *?. There are seven valid responses at this level:- B - Print the Board L - Print the Player's Letters S - Print the Current Score A - Print all the Above Three E - End Player's Go C - Next Letter W - Try a Word In response to W the computer responds with -- and the player must enter the Y-Coordinate of the first letter of his new word. It then responds -- again and the player must enter the X-Coordinate of his word. It again responds -- and the player must enter H or V to indicate whether the word should be aligned horizontally or vertically. It again responds -- and the player must enter his word. If the word fits as requested the computer will indicate how much the word would score and prompt with *? again. If the player wishes to place that word, then he types E to end his go at which point the computer tells him his new score, his new letters, and takes ages to make its go. 2 SEAWAR SEAWAR is a game in which you have a fleet of ships which the computer tries to sink with various offensive weapons which you in turn try to destroy. When run the game will give further instructions. 2 SHIP SHIP is a simplified version of Battleships in which you try to sink the Computer's Fleet. 2 SPACWR SPACWR is a version of Star Trek written to maintain a continually updated screen on a Systime MKI, MKII or MKIII. It does not have as many features as STRTRK or TREK, but is 'prettier' to use. The program itself will supply more information if required. 2 SPIRAL SPIRAL is a simple program which eternally draws and undraws a spiral on the VDU (Systime MK I,II or III). Type ^C to kill it. 2 STARS STARS is a simple program which randomly fills the screen with asterisks (Systime MK I,II or III). Type ^C to kill it. 2 STRTRK STRTRK is one of many versions of Star Trek around. This version does not maintain a dynamic display on the screen as some do but does have various added features such as Romulan Cloaking Devices for some Klingons, Distress Calls from colonies and Long Range Probes. The file STRTRK.HLP in the Games Account contains full operational details. 2 STRWAR STRWAR puts you in the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon with a desperate mission to fulfill which requires you reach the planet Yavin-4 within a particular time. Between you and the planet lies Darth Vader as equipped as you and ready to destroy you. 2 TALYHO TALYHO is the classic game of Fox and Geese, played on a Chess-Board, where one side has one piece which can move Forwards or Backwards and which has to break through the other side's four pieces which can only move Forwards. 2 TANK TANK is a 2-person game in which each side has a battlefield displayed on his VDU on which he must move a number of tanks and try to destroy the enemy's tanks. For further information type HELP GAMES TANK ADVANCED or read file TANK.HLP in the Games Account. 3 ADVANCED THE GAME "TANK" The game "TANK" is a game for 2 players, each on a VT52 terminal. The object of the game is for each player to use their tank(s) to destroy all the tanks of the other player, using the commands listed below. The game is initiated by: MCR>RUN TANK The person who initiated the game is "Player 1". The first prompt on Player 1's screen is to enter the device specification of Player 2. Each player is then asked to select the command characters to be used during the game.The player can select the "Standard Command" set (being the characters shown below), or can specify their own command set by entering the characters when prompted. Player 1 is then prompted to enter game parameters such as number of obstacles, tanks, and various speeds for the game. Then a game is initiated. Obstacles and tanks will be randomly displayed on the screen. Player 1's tanks will be represented by the characters: [x] and player 2 by the characters: where "x" is the tank number in the range "1-9". Also dislayed with each tank will be the gun, represented by the characters: I or -. The direction of the gun will also be the direction that the tank will move. Having initialized the screen, each player can then move/turn/shoot from their tank(s) by typing in one or more of the following characters. Note, these characters are the "Standard Command" set, and may be replaced by the player before playing the first game. 1-9 Typing one of these numeric keys selects the "Current Tank" that is used in the following commands. Until one of these keys is depressed, none of the following commands will be executed. Once a key is depressed, it remains the "Current Tank" until another of these keys is depressed. L This command will cause the "Current Tank" to be rotated to the "left" one direction. R This command will cause the "Current Tank" to be rotated to the "right" one direction. M This command will cause the "Current Tank" to start moving in the direction that the tank/gun is facing. The tank will keep moving until it hits something (obstacle, shell, another tank), or is stopped by the "S" command. It is quite possible to have more than one tank moving, as the selection of a new "Current Tank" will not affect a moving tank. S This command will cause the "Current Tank" to stop moving. The typing of the "Space Bar" will cause the "Current Tank" to move 1 space in the direction it is facing. It only moves the 1 space, and does not require the "S" command to stop it. The will cause the "Current Tank" to fire a shell, if it is NOT moving. A moving tank cannot fire a shell. Be warned that if a tank is moved immediately a shell is fired, the tank could hit its own shell. Once the shell has moved at least one space, the tank cannot hit it as shells travel faster than tanks. When overriding the above characters with their own commands, a player may select ANY character on the keyboard (including special characters on the Numeric pad, or even control characters). When a game has been completed, the current score for each player is shown, and Player 1 is asked if another game is to be played. For each game, the initial position of obstacles and tanks is randomly selected. During the game, the Player whose tank or shell is to move first is also randomly selected. Well, having read this, you are ready for a game, so happy shooting.... 2 TOWER TOWER is the Tower of Hanoi game where you must transfer a number of disks of different sizes from one peg to another without ever putting a large disk on a smaller one. Running the game will give you further instructions. 2 TREK TREK is a really complex Star Trek game - as well as the features of STRTRK it includes Romulans (nasty, but not as nasty as Klingons), Klingon Commmanders, Klingon Super-Commanders, Planets where Dilithium Crystals can be mined, varying levels of game, and a 'Save Game for Later' feature. Full details are given in STARTREK.DOC in the Games Account (although the last 6 pages are unfortunately missing) and a brief summary of instructions is given in REF.DOC in the Games Account. 2 UFO UFO is a Battle Simulation game between you and an enemy UFO. It is similar in concept to STRWAR. 2 WEKDAY WEKDAY lists out odd facts (number of hours slept, etc.) about you in response to your Date of Birth.