1BATTLESTAR(6)                  BSD Games Manual                  BATTLESTAR(6)
2

NAME

4     battlestar — a tropical adventure game
5

SYNOPSIS

7     battlestar [-r] [saved-file]
8

DESCRIPTION

10     battlestar is an adventure game in the classic style.  However, it's
11     slightly less of a puzzle and more a game of exploration.  There are a
12     few magical words in the game, but on the whole, simple English should
13     suffice to make one's desires understandable to the parser.
14

THE SETTING

16     In the days before the darkness came, when battlestars ruled the heav‐
17     ens...
18
19           Three He made and gave them to His daughters,
20           Beautiful nymphs, the goddesses of the waters.
21           One to bring good luck and simple feats of wonder,
22           Two to wash the lands and churn the waves asunder,
23           Three to rule the world and purge the skies with thunder.
24
25     In those times great wizards were known and their powers were beyond
26     belief.  They could take any object from thin air, and, uttering the word
27     ‘su’ could disappear.
28
29     In those times men were known for their lust for gold and desire to wear
30     fine weapons.  Swords and coats of mail were fashioned that could with‐
31     stand a laser blast.
32
33     But when the darkness fell, the rightful reigns were toppled.  Swords and
34     helms and heads of state went rolling across the grass.  The entire fleet
35     of battlestars was reduced to a single ship.
36

SAMPLE COMMANDS

38           take    ---     take an object
39           drop    ---     drop an object
40
41           wear    ---     wear an object you are holding
42           draw    ---     carry an object you are wearing
43
44           put on  ---     take an object and wear it
45           take off --     draw an object and drop it
46
47           throw  <object> <direction>
48
49           !       <shell esc>
50

IMPLIED OBJECTS

52           >-: take watermelon
53           watermelon:
54           Taken.
55           >-: eat
56           watermelon:
57           Eaten.
58           >-: take knife and sword and apple, drop all
59           knife:
60           Taken.
61           broadsword:
62           Taken.
63           apple:
64           Taken.
65           knife:
66           Dropped.
67           broadsword:
68           Dropped.
69           apple:
70           Dropped.
71           >-: get
72           knife:
73           Taken.
74
75     Notice that the "shadow" of the next word stays around if you want to
76     take advantage of it.  That is, saying "take knife" and then "drop" will
77     drop the knife you just took.
78

SCORE & INVEN

80     The two commands “score” and “inven” will print out your current status
81     in the game.
82

SAVING A GAME

84     The command “save” will save your game in a file called .Bstar in your
85     home directory by default.  You can recover a saved game by using the -r
86     option when you start up the game, or by giving the name of the saved
87     file as an argument.  Save files will be saved to and restored from your
88     home directory unless a path is specified - i.e., “battlestar -r
89     savedgame” will look for savedgame in your home directory, but
90     “battlestar -r ./savedgame” will look in the current directory.
91     “battlestar -r” will look for the default file, .Bstar in your home
92     directory.
93

DIRECTIONS

95     The compass directions N, S, E, and W can be used if you have a compass.
96     If you don't have a compass, you'll have to say R, L, A, or B, which
97     stand for Right, Left, Ahead, and Back.  Directions printed in room
98     descriptions are always printed in R, L, A, and B relative directions.
99

HISTORY

101     I wrote Battlestar in 1979 in order to experiment with the niceties of
102     the C Language.  Most interesting things that happen in the game are
103     hardwired into the code, so don't send me any hate mail about it!
104     Instead, enjoy art for art's sake!
105

AUTHOR

107     David Riggle
108

INSPIRATION & ASSISTANCE

110     Chris Guthrie
111     Peter Da Silva
112     Kevin Brown
113     Edward Wang
114     Ken Arnold & Company
115

BUGS

117     Countless.
118

FAN MAIL

120     Send to edward%ucbarpa@berkeley.arpa, chris%ucbcory@berkeley.arpa, rig‐
121     gle.pa@xerox.arpa.
122
123BSD                            September 7, 2000                           BSD
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