CP/M/CPM_CDROM.iso/simtel/sigm/vols000/vol015/catalog.022

Text File | 1984-04-29 | 5.0 KB | 106 lines

VOLUME 22

MONSTROUS STARTREK GAMES

WELL DOCUMENTED GAMES FOR MEMBERS WITH LOTS OF
MEMORY AND LOTS OF TIME

NUMBER    SIZE    NAME        COMMENTS

        CATALOG.22    CONTENTS OF CP/M GROUP VOL 22
        ZOSO.22        DESCRIPTION AND APPLICATION NOTES
                ON THE PROGRAMS BY ZOSO AND EDISON DOGGE
22.1    48K    BIGTREK.ASC    22.3 TRIMMED TO LOAD UNDER TDL DISK BASIC
                WITH 64K MEMORY
22.2    39K    BIGTREK.BAS    COMPACTED VERSION OF 22.1 FOR MUCH FASTER LOAD
22.3    54K    STARTREK.TXT    STARTING POINT OF BIGTREK. PURPORTED TO WORK
                WITH 8K BASIC. UNFORTUNATELY LARGE INTERPRETERS
                LEAVE INSUFFICIENT MEMORY FOR PROGRAM. CONTAINS
                THE AUTHOR CREDITS.
22.4    21K    STRTRK/2.ASC    A SECOND APPEARENCE OF PROGRAM 21.21 WHICH ZOSO
                INCLUDED FOR IMPROVEMENT HINTS FOR SERIOUS
                TREKKIES WHO DON'T HAVE VOLUME 21
22.5    5K    TREKINFO.DOC    DETAILED RULES AND FEATURES OF STARTREK.TXT AND
                BIGTREK
22.6    42K    TREKMOD.ASC    BIGTREK TRIMMED SOME MORE AND ABLE TO LOAD WITH



                MICROSOFT DISK BASIC
        THIS DISK CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING FILES:


STARTREK.TXT    THIS IS THE ORIGINAL SOURCE FILE FROM WHICH THIS PACKAGE WAS
        DEVELOPED. IT IS PURPORTED TO RUN AS IS WITH MITS 8K BASIC. IT
        CONTAINS ALL THE REMARKS, AUTHOR CREDITS ETC. IF YOU HAVE THIS
        BASIC WITH ASCII-LOAD CAPABILITY, TRY IT !!

BIGTREK.ASC    THIS IS THE RESULT OF HAVING TRIED TO TRIM THE ABOVE SOURCE SO
        AS TO GET IT TO RUN (IN A 64K SYSTEM) WITH MICROSOFT'S MBASIC.
        IT PRESENTLY IS ALMOST SHORT ENOUGH, BUT NOT QUITE. BECAUSE OF
        THIS, THE OBJECTIVE BECAME TO MAKE IT SUITABLE FOR TDL'S DISK
        BASIC RUNNING IN 64K. IT RUNS QUITE NICELY THAT WAY. ALL OF THE
        FEATURES OF THE ABOVE PROGRAM ARE RETAINED, AND A COUPLE OF NEW
        ONES HAVE BEEN IMPLEMENTED.

BIGTREK.BAS    THIS IS THE COMPACTED MACHINE CODE OF THE ABOVE FILE WHICH
        LOADS ABOUT 50 TIMES FASTER THAN THE ASCII VERSION (TDL DISK
        BASIC ONLY). THE PROPER STEPS TO LOAD THIS ARE AS FOLLOWS :
        (ASSUME YOU HAVE LOADED TDL BASIC INTO A 64K SYSTEM)...
            1 - OPEN#1,"I","BIGTREK.BAS"   <CR>
            2 - LOAD "B"               <CR>
            3 - CLOSE#1,"I"               <CR>
            4 - RUN                   <CR>

TREKINFO.DOC    A BRIEF TUTORIAL ON THE RULES FOR PLAYING THIS, CROSS-REFER-
        ENCED WHERE POSSIBLE WITH THE FAMILIAR COMMANDS OF THE MORE
        COMMONLY AVAILABLE 'STARTREKS'.

TREKMOD.ASC    SEE EXPLANATION (IN POST-SCRIPT).

STRTRK/2.ASC    THIS IS INCLUDED BECAUSE I LIKE THE 'COMMUNICATIONS' AND 'MIS-
        SION-PROGRESS-REPORTS' THAT HAVE BEEN IMPLEMENTED IN THIS MUCH
        SMALLER (STILL > 20K) VERSION.

NO MATTER HOW YOU GO WITH THIS, IT IS LIKELY THAT YOU WILL NEED 64K (PERHAPS
60K IF YOU USE 8K BASIC) TO RUN IT AT ALL. ONLY GUARANTEE IS THAT IT WILL RUN
WITH TDL DISK BASIC/64K AS IS.

SINCE I CAN RUN THIS, I LEAVE IT TO SOMEONE ELSE TO GET IT WORKING WITH EITHER
MICROSOFT DISK BASIC (OR BASIC-E). ONE SUGGESTION FOR THE FORMER PROJECT MIGHT
BE TO PARTITION THIS PROGRAM INTO TWO MODULES. THE FIRST WOULD CONTAIN ALL OF
THE LINES RELATING TO GALAXY INITIALIZATION, DIMENSIONING STATEMENTS, DATA-
TABLES AND ALL BEGINNING OF GAME DIALOGUE - IN OTHER WORDS, LINES NOT REFER-
ENCED AFTER GAME IS IN PROGRESS. THIS FILE MIGHT BE CALLED 'STARMOD1.ASC'. THE
OTHER MODULE, 'STARMOD2.ASC' WOULD CONTAIN EVERYTHING ELSE. THE LAST COMMAND
(TO BASIC) IN 'STARMOD1.ASC' WOULD BE: MERGE"STARMOD2.ASC". BOTH MODULES WOULD
HAVE TO BE RENUMBERED IN SUCH A WAY THAT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 'MERGE', EACH
NEW LINE OF 'STARMOD2' WOULD WIPE OUT A LINE OF 'STARMOD1' WHICH HAD THE SAME
LINE NUMBER (UNTIL EVERY LINE OF FIRST MODULE WAS OVERWRITTEN BY A NEW LINE
FROM SECOND MODULE). ONE CHANGE WOULD BE NECESSITATED IN THE SECOND MODULE: IF
A PLAYER REPLIED 'Y' TO THE QUESTION, 'ANOTHER GAME ?' A BRANCH WOULD NEED TO
BE MADE TO A LINE WITH THE FOLLOWING COMMAND, - RUN "STARMOD1.ASC". THIS SOL-
UTION IS A BIT 'KLUGEY', BUT PERHAPS PREFERABLE TO FURTHER TRIMMING. SEE THE
'P.S.' BELOW; THE MICROSOFT MANUAL IMPLYS (BY NO PROHIBITION) THE LIKELIHOOD
OF SUCH (ABOVE-MENTIONED) ARTIFICES BEING EFFECTIVE. THE DISAPPOINTMENT THAT
MR. DOGGE ENCOUNTERED SHOULD BE ATTRIBUTED TO HONEST EXPERIMENTATION COMBINED
WITH (THE TYPICALLY) INADEQUATE DOCUMENTATION.



                    HAVE FUN !!! - ZOSO


LATE NOTE:  THE EXPERIMENT WITH MERGING TWO OR MORE MODULES HAS BEEN TRIED. I
AM SAD TO REPORT THAT THIS APPROACH APPARENTLY DOES NOT WORK. IT SEEMS THAT
THE EFFECT OF THE 'MERGE' FUNCTION IS TO DESTROY DATA (IN ADDITION TO CERTAIN
LINE NUMBERS). MY THANKS TO MR. E. DOGGE FOR THIS INFO. E.D. ALSO SENT A 'TRIM-
JOB' OF 'BIGTREK' CALLED 'TREKMOD'; IT PLAYS THE SAME GAME, BUT LACKS THE 'SCO-
RING' AND 'VISUAL' FUNCTIONS. NOT TO DEMEAN MR. DOGGE'S EFFORT, I CAN'T PER-
SONALLY SEE HOW THIS PARTICULAR 'STARTREK' CAN BE MEANINGFUL WITHOUT THE SCO-
RING ROUTINE. IF THIS WERE MY 'BABY', I WOULD (IF NECESSARY) REDUCE EVERY BIT
OF (TEXTUAL) CONSOLE OUTPUT TO A 2 DIGIT CODE SO AS TO RETAIN 'SCORING'; THE
'VISUALS' ARE CUTE BUT NON-ESSENTIAL. SEE WHAT YOU THINK. ALSO !!! THERE ARE
(IN THE 'BIGTREK' FILES ONLY) SOME CRUCIAL ERROR TRAPS WHICH I INSERTED.