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1995-06-04
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┌─────────────────────┐
│ M E Y N A U P E D E │
│ ───+─── │
│ (c) Raphaël Vanney │
└─────────────────────┘
A multithreaded OS/2 game door
───+───
InterNet : rvanney@ibm.net -or- zlika@chaos2.frmug.fr.net
FidoNet : 2:320/215.9
Before going on reading this document, I suggest that you give the
program a try to get an idea what it is about ; to run Meynau :
Meynau 0
or, to view the (short) demo :
Meynau 0 demo
Okay, so, what's this Meynau thing ?
In its current state, Meynau is a project of on-line game. A few years
ago, I spent hours playing this game on my Amstrad CPC 464, and recently
thought that it could be quite fun to play it again, and to let others
play it remotely on the BBS, so here we are.
Before going further in the game development, though, I thought I should
request comments from other people, which is why I release this
alpha-version.
More on the game itself
-----------------------
Scenario
--------
Let's say Meynau is some kind of a virtual animal in a hungry mood,
evolving in some labyrinthic place. Your task is to help him feed. The
problem is that Meynau's tail grows longer when he eats, and eventually
Meynau, being quite a dumb folk, will eat his own tail if it comes in
sight. When this happens, Meynau dies from recursive strangulation.
To play the game, you tell Meynau where to go using the numeric keypad.
Once all the food on one level has been eaten, you proceed to the next
level. Once fed, Meynau goes faster : each level will show a speed
increase (well, up to a certain point).
The SysOp point of view
-----------------------
Meynau has been designed for as much configurability as possible ; in
this respect, the following elements may be customized by the SysOp :
* Levels : Meynau uses plain-ASCII files as levels layouts. When playing
the game, the program looks for files named Meynau.1, Meynau.2, etc...
When no more levels are available, Meynau wraps back to Meynau.1.
Creating a new level is a simple matter of creating a text file, in
which the following rules must be respected :
. a space (' ') is a free area,
. a dot ('.') is a piece of food,
. any other character is a "wall".
Meynau will always start at coordinates (2, 2) : you must make sure
that this place is a free area. You must also make sure that the
playing area is fully enclosed within walls.
Levels must not be more than 39 columns wide and 24 lines high.
* Screens : the following files are ANSI screens which may be replaced
by anything you wish :
. Meynau.Ope : opening screen,
. Meynau.GOv : game over screen,
. Meynau.Wow : user made a high-score,
. Meynau.Fam : Meynau's hall-of-fame background,
* Meynau requires the remote terminal to be ANSI-capable.
Installing Meynau in your BBS
-----------------------------
Meynau accepts a single parameter : the handle of the serial port on
which the user is logged. 0 may be used for a local connection.
Here's the way I set it up in Lora :
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Menu ═╗
║ 0....5...10...15...20...25...30...35...40...45...50...55. ║
║ Display <^M^>eynaupede; ║
║ Type 10 - Run external program ║
║ Data meynau.exe %p *K ║
║ Hot-key M ║
║ Automatic No ║
║ First time No ║
║ Hide display No ║
║ Color Sample color text ║
║ Hilight Sample color text ║
║ Security Twit ║
║ Flags-A -------- ║
║ Flags-B -------- ║
║ Flags-C -------- ║
║ Flags-D -------- ║
║ ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
What next ?
-----------
The reason I send this out is because I expect some feedback regarding
Meynau, in the following areas :
* Does it present an interest at all ? Even if you think this stuff is
the dumbest thing ever, I want your opinion !
* What features would you like to see ? What's wrong with Meynau's
current design ?
* Bug reports : I don't expect Meynau to have any bug, but who knows.
* Screens : If you have designed nice screens for use with Meynau,
please send them so that I may include them in the distribution
archive.
* Levels : Same as above, send me your favourite levels for inclusion in
the distribution.
* Distribution : I plan to release Meynau as a freeware program. From
this point of view, it wouldn't bother me to make Meynau the result of
a group effort (say, for the sake of the OS/2 SysOps' community :-)).
I do the program, but any help is welcome (levels design, screens,
documentations are areas where I'm not the best).
Alternatively, I could consider a shareware distribution, in which
case profit would be shared among an eventual group.
History
-------
04/06/95 v0.1 first alpha release
Planned
-------
* support for Avatar terminals. Avatar being a much more compact
protocol than ANSI, it should provide enhanced speed. Actually, Meynau
already is able to send Avatar codes, but I should also implement a
way to select ANSI or Avatar screens.
* use drop files to interface with the host BBS.
* change the input sheme (monitor the CD signal, etc...)
(Currently, Meynau exits if no input is given for 120 seconds.)
* multiple language support.