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PLATOON.DOC.txt
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TANK PLATOON
TANK PLATOON is a wargame of tactical-level combat between
small groups consisting of tanks, infantry, personnel carriers,
self-propelled artillery, and leaders. It will run on any Apple II
series computer with at least 64K and a disk (or Ramdisk) capable of
holding 350 ProDOS blocks. A color monitor and 128K are recommended.
This documentation file contains the following information:
a. Brief description of the game.
b. Downloading procedure.
c. Technical notes on program design.
d. Other comments.
A. DESCRIPTION OF GAME
TANK PLATOON may be played as a two-player game, or played
against the computer. Each player chooses ten units, which may be any
combination of tanks, infantry, artillery, personnel carriers, and
leaders. Players alternate, with the first player using one of his
units until its time is expended, then the second player using one of
his units, etc., until all units have been used, at which time the game
turn ends. Each unit can perform various actions, such as observing the
surrounding area, reloading its weapon, reading the map, preparing a
minefield, moving into an adjacent area, or calling for fire support
against adjacent targets. Each action takes a certain amount of time,
and each unit can be used until its six-minute turn has been exhausted.
The object of the game is to locate and destroy enemy units.
When the game begins, players know only the general direction from
which the enemy units will be approaching. The battle area is a 20 by
30 grid, with each square representing an area approximately one
hundred meters square. Only one unit can occupy a square, except when
infantry or leader units are inside a personnel carrier. Combat occurs
when a unit attempts to enter a square occupied by an enemy unit.
Players can establish ambush zones and wait for the enemy to arrive, or
they can send tanks and personnel carriers to raid the enemy positions.
The most powerful force is usually a combination of the various unit
types, since each type has different capabilities.
Infantry units are equiped with a rifle, an anti-tank missile,
and a supply of mines. They can be resupplied from personnel carriers.
They can prepare defensive positions and call for artillery fire
against adjacent areas.
Tanks have machine guns and cannons. They can fire at targets
located by other units, but they cannot designate targets for other
units. They cannot be damaged by machine gun fire, but if their
hatches are open, their crew can be injured by machine gun fire or
artillery near-misses. They must open hatches (unbutton) to observe the
surrounding areas.
Personnel carriers are equiped with heavy (25mm) machine guns,
and can carry up to four infantry or leader units. They can designate
artillery targets, and can resupply any units inside them. They are not
as heavily armored as tanks.
Leaders are similar to infantry units, but do not carry
anti-tank missiles or mines. Only leaders can read the map, which shows
the location of friendly units, friendly minefields, and destroyed
vehicles. Leaders can call for "off-map" artillery fire, which arrives
immediately.
Self-propelled artillery units possess enormous firepower, but
are best used to attack distant targets designated by other units.
When a unit observes the surrounding area, it sees into the
adjacent areas shown below:
North
A B C D E
F G H I J
West K L M N O East
P Q R S T
U V W X Y
South
A unit in area M will first look toward the North, and will
see whatever is in areas G, H, and I. If any of theses areas is clear
or prepared, he will also see into the area beyond it: for example,
if area I, to the northeast of area M, is clear, he will see into areas
D and E. Next, he will face East, and will see into areas I, N, and S.
Note that area I is seen twice, and if area I is clear, area E will be
seen twice. The unit next faces South, looking into areas S, R, and Q
(S is on the left of the screen), and finally faces West, looking into areas
Q, L, and G. It sounds complicated, but you will find it easy in practice.
B. DOWNLOADING PROCEDURE
TANK PLATOON is provided on one 3.5" disk or two 5.25" disks,
formatted under ProDOS. If you do not have a large capacity disk drive
(ie. 800k 3.5" or a hard disk), then you will need a large RAM disk which
has at least 350 blocks under ProDOS, or about 175k free. You can simple copy
the files to your RAM disk with any file copy utility program.
The sixteen files which make up the game must all be kept
within the same ProDOS directory (or subdirectory). The fastest
way to play is to load all the files into a ramdisk, since the
game involves lots of disk access. However, it is easier simply to keep
the files on a 3.5 disk; most of the time involved in playing the game
is spent wondering what to do next to stop the relentless advance of
enemy tanks. When using a RAM disk, it is best to use one named "/RAM".
The programs use the default prefix (or Volume name);
they will not look outside the current directory to find each other.
If you want the game to be on a bootable disk, you will need to store
PRODOS 1.1.1 and BASIC.SYSTEM on the disk with them. (Do not use newer
versions of ProDOS. The game does several pokes to correct bugs in
version 1.1.1, and these pokes may cause undocumented features in other
versions.) To start the game, boot the disk or load and run STARTUP.
You will need to reboot when you are done, since several internal pointers
are left with non-standard settings.
C. TECHNICAL NOTES
TANK PLATOON is written almost entirely in Applesoft. The code
is commented, and users are encouraged to make modifications. The main
program, "PLATOON.", presents the players with options and keeps track
of wounding, morale, supplies, location, and other unit
characteristics. When some options are selected, such as observing the
area or reading the map, other programs are CHAIN'ed into memory.
Programs which use high-res graphics are loaded above HGR1. An area
starting at $800 is used for shape tables and a few machine language
routines.
The programs will use 64K of auxiliary memory, if available,
as a /RAM volume to store the longer programs, so that disk reading
time is reduced. The game can be saved at the end of each game turn as
a VAR file (hurray for ProDOS!) Only one game can be saved at a time,
unless you make several copies of the game.
Initial unit characteristics (ammo supply, morale, mobility,
etc.) are set in the program SEL, and the terrain is set in the program
INIT. Terrain types are: 1 = clear, 2 = light forest, 3 = medium
forest, 4 = dense forest, 5 = prepared (foxhole). In addition, terrain
can include destroyed vehicles of the three types, and minefields.
The programs have the following names, lengths, and functions:
PLATOON. 19135 Main program, movement, options
HEXNO 13530 Shows adjacent areas, checks map edge
CT 5468 Controls computer's movements
RET 6629 Controls retreat, victory points
OP.VIEW 6223 Shows view of attacker
RMAP 3280 Displays map
TPS.2 1952 Shape table
STARTUP 10455 Logo, sets up memory pointers
V.ARM 7198 Resolves attacks on armour
V.INF 8060 " " infantry, leaders
V.APC 8308 " " personnel carriers
V.SP 5376 " " artillery
SGAME 471 Saves game for future play
INIT 6503 Sets up terrain, scenarios
SEL 6451 Allows selection of unit types
STAT 7368 Displays game status
After combat, the program RET runs to check whether the
defending unit retreats. It the defender was destroyed, points are
awarded to the attacking player, and the program STAT checks the points
at the end of each turn to see if the game has been won. Modifications
may be made in these programs, if the user feels the game has treated
him unfairly.
D. OTHER COMMENTS
TANK PLATOON is copyrighted, but I don't mind if you give
copies away. Commercial rights are reserved. I want people to play the
game. Tank Platoon was previously available here as several individual
files, but the difficulty of downloading and combining the files was
too extreme. The present Binary II version, however, can only be
used by players with large-capacity disk drives.
If anyone wants a set of tested programs on floppy disks and a
manual, he can send $25.00 to me at P.O. Box 236, Deep River, CT
06417. I welcome suggestions and complaints.
Gareth Tucker, 74375,464