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1995-05-03
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XMRIS(6) XMRIS(6)
NNAAMMEE
xmris - video arcade game for _X
SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS
xxmmrriiss [-option ...]
xxmmssiitt [-option ...]
DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
_x_m_r_i_s is a version of the Mr Do video arcade game for the
X Window System.
You control a gnome, who can walk around a garden, along
paths already marked, or create new paths wherever you
wish. You also have a ball, which can be thrown in the
direction you're facing, towards the gnome's feet. Points
are scored for collecting cherries (if you collect 8 cher-
ries without stopping, you get a bonus), killing monsters
(by squashing them, or throwing the ball at them), and
collecting the prize left when all the monsters have come
out of their den.
Extra lives are obtained by filling in the 'EXTRA' mon-
sters at the top of the screen. One of these comes out
every 5000 points, and also when you get the prize, along
with 3 drones. Killing the EXTRA will kill the drones too.
When you collect the prize, the normal monsters freeze,
until the three drones are dead. Beware things go faster
after that! When all the normal monsters are killed or
all the cherries collected, or you have got the final
EXTRA monster, you advance to the next screen.
You can kill the monsters by throwing the ball at them, or
dropping the apples on them. You get more points for
squashing them. The EXTRA monsters and its drones, can eat
the apples if they're walking towards it when they meet.
You die by colliding with a monster (unless its eating an
apple, in which case no harm done), or by being squashed
be a falling apple.
The game works best with all other processes asleep. If
another process gets too much processor the animation will
be jerky, and the load line along the bottom will start to
grow. Because an interrupt is used to control the frame
rate, the animation is smoother than with xchomp.
You probably want to position the pointer at the bottom of
the window, so that it doesn't interfere with the board.
You'll notice it flicker if one of the sprites moves under
it.
GGAAMMEE CCOONNTTRROOLLSS
The gnome can be controlled by the mouse or keyboard, this
is selected when you start a new game. The gnome walks
X Version 11 15 July 1992 1
XMRIS(6) XMRIS(6)
towards the mouse, and throws the ball when you press a
button. You can move the mouse at right angles to the
gnome's direction while its walking, the gnome continues
towards the previous destination, before turning towards
the new one. Mouse control is not that accurate for fine
control of the gnome (I don't use it). Keyboard control is
by 'z' and 'x' for left and right, and ''' and '/' for up
and down. The ball is thrown with the space bar. Pressing
more than one key, will turn the gnome appropriately at
the next intersection, so you can go round corners by
pressing the new direction key before releasing the old
one. If you try to go in a direction not possible, the
gnome will move towards the nearest intersection or in the
direction it was going, depending on how near to an inter-
section it was.
The game can be paused by iconifying it (when your boss
walks in), or by pressing 'p'. When de-iconified, the game
remains paused. To continue press space. When paused, you
can abort the game by pressing entirely.
OOPPTTIIOONNSS
--hheellpp
Lists the command options and some other info, and
does not start the game.
--ddiissppllaayy _d_i_s_p_l_a_y
Specifies which X server to connect to.
--ffoonntt _f_o_n_t
Specifies which font to use.
--rrvv Swap black and white colours.
--bbww Use black and white, even on colour displays.
--iiccoonniicc
Start up iconized.
--mmrriiss
--mmssiitt
So not to be accused of gender bias, xmris can also be
run as xmsit. The gender of the game is taken from
the program name (mris or msit) but may be over ridden
by these two switches. The game is known as Mr Is
because the arcade game was masculine.
The argument list is also fed to XSetStandardProperties, I
don't know what this does.
SSEEEE AALLSSOO
xchomp(6)
X Version 11 15 July 1992 2
XMRIS(6) XMRIS(6)
BBUUGGSS
The game is always in black and white, I haven't got round
to doing colour sprites yet, so the -bw argument is super-
fluous.
The -iconic argument has no effect. (I don't know how to
get it to work.)
Fatal XIO errors are not handled gracefully. Quiting the
game by using your window manager results in big error
message. I don't know how to trap this.
The program was written with a folding editor, it might be
hard to find your way around without one.
In order to get it to compile correctly with both K&R C
and ANSI C, I've used several macros to deal with the dif-
ferences in function prototyping and argument lists. These
produce either proper K&R declarations or proper ANSI
ones. I did have mixed declarations, with the correct pro-
motions taken care of, but that doesn't work well for the
one varargs function. It might make it hard for things
like ctags to work. Maybe I'll revert to the mixed decla-
rations or maybe I won't support K&R.
CCOOMMMMEENNTTSS
I welcome any comments, suggestions, code, bug reports and
fixes, etc. Don't forget to include which version of
_x_m_r_i_s you are using (with xmris -help), machine, OS, X
release & patch number, window manager etc.
CCOOPPYYRRIIGGHHTT
Copyright (C) 1992 Nathan Sidwell.
AAUUTTHHOORR
Nathan Sidwell (nathan@inmos.co.uk)
X Version 11 15 July 1992 3