1BATTLESTAR(6) BSD Games Manual BATTLESTAR(6)
2
4 battlestar — a tropical adventure game
5
7 battlestar [-r] [saved-file]
8
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
16 In the days before the darkness came, when battlestars ruled the heav‐
17 ens...
18 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 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 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 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
38 take --- take an object
39 drop --- drop an object
40 wear --- wear an object you are holding
42 draw --- carry an object you are wearing
43 put on --- take an object and wear it
45 take off -- draw an object and drop it
46 throw <object> <direction>
48 ! <shell esc>
50
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 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
80 The two commands “score” and “inven” will print out your current status
81 in the game.
82
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
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
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
107 David Riggle
108
110 Chris Guthrie
111 Peter Da Silva
112 Kevin Brown
113 Edward Wang
114 Ken Arnold & Company
115
117 Countless.
118
120 Send to edward%ucbarpa@berkeley.arpa, chris%ucbcory@berkeley.arpa, rig‐
121 gle.pa@xerox.arpa.
122BSD September 7, 2000 BSD