The Game Master (3rd Edition)

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SneeSnoo Snake V3.1 Documentation, (C) 1987 Bruce L. Rosenberg INTRODUCTION Version 3.1 of SNEESNOO SNAKE TM is significantly improved over earlier versions. One of the driving forces behind this game has been to produce a challenging, tracking type game which did not involve violent, shoot-the-enemy mentality. It is a subtle game which encourages clever strategies as well as perceptual-motor speed and accuracy. Suggestions and comments from a number of enthusiastic SneeSnoo Snake Snatchers have led to this improved version. Thanks All for your valuable input. If you become a registered user, you will receive the latest version of the game along with the TurboPascal (TM Borland International) source code. You will be also informed of the $10,000.00 International SneeSnoo Snake Contest (see CONTEST later) when it is scheduled. A number of improvements to Snake are under development, such as faster key action, joy stick and mouse support, direct writing to screen memory and more. Although this game is copyrighted, permission is given for noncommercial use and distribution. It is a user-supported enterprise. STARTING THE GAME OF SNEESNOO SNAKE TM When the game is invoked by keying SNAKE at the DOS prompt, options are presented for toggling sound on or off and for resetting the score file, snake.dat. If you say you want to reset, the program confirms your decision before destroying history. If the file snake.dat does not exist, the program is smart enough to detect that fact and create a "tabla rasa" for the scores. It now automatically detects and sets itself up for use on monochrome or color graphics adapters. After you setup the options you are taken to the beginning screen. After pressing any key, you then go to the main menu. There are 7 options as shown below: MAIN MENU 1. BEGINNING SCREEN Takes you back to the intro screen. 2. GAME INSTRUCTIONS Rules of the game, what keys to use. 3. FURTHER INFORMATION Commercial info, prices, whom to contact. 4. PLAY GAME Just what it says; Snatch the SneeSnoo Snake! 5. CHANGE OPTIONS Repeat the beginning option setting. 6. DISPLAY SCORES View the top 20 scores and names. 7. EXIT TO DOS Quit the game. 1 SneeSnoo Snake V3.1 Documentation, (C) 1987 Bruce L. Rosenberg The game is a challenge on several levels of tactics and strategy. The highest official score that has been obtained on version 3.1 is 25.00 (as of 7/1/87). See if you can top that. BRIEF INSTRUCTIONS You are a herpetologist for Megalop Zoo. Your assignment is to go to the Foetid Forest of Amazonia and catch rare SneeSnoo Snakes. The SneeSnoo's body is green and its head is a happy face. Snoo's head is magenta & it's poisonous, Snee's head is red, it's not. You control movement of a bag, which is a rectangle. You can also close the bag. SneeSnoo can enter from any side. Closing bag with the RED head inside , gets 1 snake, or 4 snakes if MAGENTA. If outside bag, but within striking distance, it bites and you drop 1 snake, 2 if venomous. Five venomous bites & you DIE!! Your score is the total number of snakes bagged per minute. You have a time limit. Time in seconds remaining is shown in the lower right. Good Luck! CONTROL KEYS (Make sure NumLock is off!) Up Arrow moves bag up. Home moves bag up and left. Down Arrow moves bag down. PgUp moves bag up and right. Right Arrow moves bag right. PgDn moves bag down and right. Left Arrow moves bag left. End moves bag down and left. F1 aborts to DOS during play. Spacebar closes bag. OPERATION OF THE GAME SPEED CHANGING ALGORITHM When you select PLAY GAME, the initial speed of the game is set to moderately fast (DELAY = 100). DELAY controls the speed of the game; it uses TurboPascal's delay function, in which a value of 100 is approximately equal to 100 milliseconds or about one- tenth of a second. As you play the game, the current operating value of DELAY is displayed in the score bar at the bottom of the screen. The higher the DELAY, the slower the speed and vice versa. If you are skilled, SNAKE31 automatically speeds up (DELAY decreases). If you are a beginner, it slows down (DELAY increases) to a level where you can comfortably play it. It speeds up at a faster rate than it slows down, so it pushes each player to his or her own skill limit. There are two rates of speed change. The switch over occurs at DELAY = 100. Above 100 the rate of change is rapid, below 100 it is slower. A delay of 80 is difficult, 70 is very difficult, and 60 is nearly impossible. The program's decision to change DELAY hinges on the number of snakes you bag in a 3 second time period. If above the criterion, the speed increases, if below the criterion the speed decreases and if equal to the criterion it does not change. This adaptive action is a kind of machine intelligence which keeps the you working near your upper tracking speed limit. 2 SneeSnoo Snake V3.1 Documentation, (C) 1987 Bruce L. Rosenberg HUMAN FACTORS THEORY OF THE GAME The game involves an adaptive, two-dimensional pursuit tracking task. The player tries to follow a randomly moving target with a reticle (bag) and when the target is within the reticle press a button to capture it. SNAKE31 is much more than a simple pursuit tracking task such as steering a car along a highway. And the rates of motion of the target can exceed the bandwidth of the human controller. The upper limit of human eye-hand tracking closed-loop frequency response is 0.6 Hz or 1.7 seconds per cycle. This is relatively slow. It is much slower than the maximum key tapping rate of one finger, which is about 5 times per second (5 Hz) or 0.2 seconds per cycle. For the engineers in the crowd, a typical continuous human operator mathematical transfer function is: K * (exp ( -0.17S ) / ( 0.63S + 1 )); where S is the LaPlace operator. Such an equation can be used to simulate how a human might control a dynamic system, like flying an airplane or steering a car. But humans behave much more cleverly than the above equation. They can learn the periodicities in the control task and anticipate the next motion which might occur. It is possible to anticipate SneeSnoo Snake's motion. SneeSnoo can move much faster than the human can follow it, as can be seen when the snake does its dance (DELAY = 10). Thus, its speed must be reduced for a reasonably difficult tracking task. The typical eye-hand simple reaction time of the human is 180 milliseconds or about two-tenths of a second. By knowing the humans' maximum tapping rate, visual reaction time, the size of the bag in number of snake increments, the increment rate (1/DELAY), and the random snake-motion algorithm, and the ability of the human to track the snake's periodicities, a creative SneeSnoo Snake Snatcher Programmer might be able to figure out a computer program to simulate a human playing the game! THE ZEN OF SNEESNOO SNAKE SNATCHING SneeSnoo Snake embodies the principle of duality in a way analogous to the YinYang of Eastern philosophy. Snoo and Yin are the dark side of nature, whereas Snee and Yang are the light side. The same snake manifests both Snee and Snoo just as each person manifests both Yang and Yin attributes. As you become more skilled in this game you may find that, there is no longer a separate keyboard, screen, game, and person playing it; but only oneness, a magical whole, a transcendent dance of nature and technology. Mentally healthful, this arcade type video game eschews war-minded shoot-em-up atavism. Remember, use the Force! 3 SneeSnoo Snake V3.1 Documentation, (C) 1987 Bruce L. Rosenberg SNEESNOO SNAKE SNATCHING HINTS Location on the screen - The easiest locations are the corners. The hardest location is the center of the screen. Movement of the snake - The snake moves 5 increments in one direction before it changes direction. The horizontal change in direction does not occur at the same time as the vertical change in direction. The total length of the snake is 13 characters and there are 3 possible changes in direction along this length. Note that it usually moves diagonally, rarely just vertically or horizontally. Size and shape of the bag - The bag is 6 horizontal spaces wide and 4 vertical spaces high. You have a better chance of snagging it during horizontal motion. Movement of the bag - Each actuation of the horizontal cursor keys moves the bag 6 spaces and the vertical keys move it 3 spaces. The diagonal keys move that number of spaces horizontally and vertically at the same time. So, you cover more distance using the diagonal (corner) cursor keys. Venomous vs. nonvenomous snakes - You get 1 snake credit for bagging a nonvenomous snake; but credit for 4 snakes if it's venomous. So, for high score, you should go for the venomous snakes; but you risk dying. If you get bitten by a nonvenomous Snee Snake, you drop one snake. If it's a venomous Snoo, you drop two snakes and after 5 bites from the Snoo Snake you die and the game is over. When you die, your score is not recorded. The distance the SneeSnoo Snake can strike is 5 horizontal spaces left or right of bag center or 4 vertical spaces above or below it. Delay adjustments - You might get a better score if you pace yourself and become selective, rather than taking every snatching opportunity that comes along. Remember the one who gets the highest score without dying is the winner. Competition - SNAKE31 is fun to play by yourself; but the real challenge is to play against others. The data file automatically saves the highest 20 scores. Play against your buddies; organize a local contest. CONTEST: INTERNATIONAL The $10,000.00 International SneeSnoo Snake Snagging Contest rules are follows: 1. Contestants must be registered users, 2. Details of the contest will be sent to all registered users after the number of registrants exceeds 5,000 people. 4 SneeSnoo Snake V3.1 Documentation, (C) 1987 Bruce L. Rosenberg 3. Following notification, all registrants who wish to apply for the contest must complete the official application form and enclose a notarized printout of their snake.dat file containing their attestedly authentic highest scores with Snake Version 3.1. 4. The data from these returns will be summarized and returned to all applicants. This enables the applicants to see how their scores compare to others. 5. All those deciding to compete must send an entry fee (amount to be determined) to cover cost of conducting the contest. 6. The total prize will be $10,000.00, which is one quarter of the gross income from the 5000 $8.00 registration fees. This will be split three ways as follows: 1ST PRIZE $5,000.00; 2ND PRIZE $3,000.00; and 3RD PRIZE $2,000.00. 7. The contest will be conducted in Atlantic City, NJ. Contestants must pay for their own transportation and local accommodations. 8. Further details and registrant counts will be included in future releases of SNEESNOO SNAKE TM. CONTEST: LOCAL The Computer Society of Stockton State College and the South Jersey IBM PC Users Group are planning a Stockton Computer Fest in October 1987. There are tentative plans to conduct a SneeSnoo Snake TM Contest during this Computer Fest. Prizes will be awarded to the highest scorers. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND COMMERCIAL INFORMATION This game was written in TurboPascal (TM Borland International). It consists of about 1200 lines of code. Although copyrighted by and intellectual property of the author, Bruce L. Rosenberg, approval is given for noncommercial use and distribution by users' groups (at a nominal fee) and for placing on private computer bulletin boards. Consideration will be given to offers from commercial firms regarding licensing on a royalty basis. Send a check for $8.00 to register and receive the latest version plus an on-disk copy of the SNEESNOO SNAKE TM pascal source code. Registrants will be entered into a computer data base. The above offer is for personal use and does not constitute a license for commercial use. Send inquiries and checks to : Bruce L. Rosenberg 23 N. Chelsea Avenue Atlantic City, NJ 08401 5 SneeSnoo Snake V3.1 Documentation, (C) 1987 Bruce L. Rosenberg Any suggestions for improvements or ideas for games can be mailed to the above address, via voice phone evenings at (609) 345- 4712, or leave message on Compuserve, 73547,402. TROUBLE SHOOTING Q&A Q1. Sometimes the bag movement keys don't work; why? A1. You inadvertently hit NumLock, Hit NumLock again. Q2. When the head was in the bag, I hit the F10 key to close it, but the snake still bit me, how come? A2. The head was outside when the bag closed. There can be a slight delay between hitting the key and the bag closing. You must anticipate this when you hit F10 to close it. Q3. My score is high early in the game and then goes down. Why? A3. Your score is computed as the number of snakes bagged (1 for nonpoisonous, 4 for poisonous) less the number of snakes lost due to getting bitten. This result is then divided by the elapsed time. So if you have a score of 25 snakes per minute at the end of the first minute and neither get bitten nor snag a snake during the remainder of the second minute, your final score will be 12.5 snakes per minute. You can't let up for a single second! Q4. How come the snake keeps biting me? A4. Work on your accuracy and ability to anticipate where the snake will move. Pace yourself and don't get trigger-happy. Q5. My score never gets on the top 20 list. Why? A5. You need to improve your skill or reset the score file using option 5 from the main menu. Q6. My boss caught me playing this game at work. How can I stay out of trouble? A6. Function key, F1 immediately exits the game and returns to the DOS prompt. Next time select the no-sound option, Dummy! REVISION INFORMATION Version 3.1 08/02/87 - Changed key for closing bag to Spacebar instead of F10. F10 is awkward to use on the PC Jr. and keyboards with function keys across the top. Limited maximum delay to 240, since, for novices, the game was slowing down too much. Version 3.0 06/27/87 - Made snake a linked list instead of a 2D array. Made game speed increase as skill increases. It now adapts to both machine speed and the persons' skill. This is a major improvement in the game. Restructured code. Version 2.9 06/03/87 - Improved bag movement procedure by incrementing movement by 1, nbj times. This permits the bag to move to the screen extremes. Changed bag symbol. 6 SneeSnoo Snake V3.1 Documentation, (C) 1987 Bruce L. Rosenberg Version 2.8 02/01/87 - Changed back to the standard keypressed and read(kbd,ch) actions, which along with cbreak are working well. Position of cbreak is critical, see comments in source code for proc menu. Version 2.7 01/31/87 - Finally got good keyboard action. Must use "Cbreak := false;" before the chkkbd; keydo; routine and then "Cbreak := true;" after it. This has the effect of deactivating break checking, $C-, during keyboard sensing. In $C+ the keyboard buffer gets emptied in order to look for a ^C. Improved the death display and shortened it. Changed so after dying go back to the menu instead of to DOS. This required using "if dying then EXIT;" several times to retrace the original path through the calling procedures back to the menu. Version 2.6 01/25/87 - Instead of "if keypressed then read(kbd, improvement in keyboard action, however. Various improvements suggested by Wayne Wolfe. Bag brightens when bagshut and takes on color of snake head when snake bagged. Added cursor suppression for both mono or c/g. Version 2.5 01/19/87 - Made snakebiz and bagbiz independent of each other. Both are now called from proc playgame. Snakebiz does not call bagbiz; but bagbiz calls snakebiz for the snake dance after biting. Version 2.4 01/17/87 - Added fanfare for bagging venomous snake. Version 2.30 01/16/87 - Bag symbol changes to appropriate snake head & color when bitten. Plotbag changed so only pass 2 instead of 4 parameters. Use of Quickeys.com speeds up cursor. Fastout added for function 7 normal exit and F1 key. Version 2.20 01/15/87 - Changed bag back to V2.0 way while eliminating 1 or 2 additions/subtractions in each bag move and halving the number in each bag plot. Changed as many integer variables to byte as possible to increase speed. Made snake trail array 10 chars long. Shortened sound durations. Initialized trail array & deltx etc.in playgame to eliminate stray bits of snake on initial startup. Version 2.10 01/14/87 - Changed Trail from 2 - 1D arrays to 1 - 2D array. This sped-up game. Changed bag to 3D array; but this reduced game speed. Version 2.00 01/13/87 - Make snake deadly at times, if bitten twice then die; but get 4 points if bag it. Speed-up menu. Improve introductory screen. Version 1.09 01/09/87 - Hide cursor during playgame. Colored border added. Should change so don't use recursion, i.e., snakebiz calls bagbiz which calls snakebiz. Version 1.08 01/08/87 - Improved score bar update. Changed vertical bag increment "bagjmpy". 7 SneeSnoo Snake V3.1 Documentation, (C) 1987 Bruce L. Rosenberg Version 1.07 01/08/87 - Scores updated every 2 seconds. Score bar given background. Version 1.06 01/04/86 - Minor screen changes, added DOC file. Added score file reset to options area. Score file now declared only once. Fixed problems when aborting a game. Version 1.05 01/02/87 - Added F1 to abort game if boss comes in during play. Version 1.04 12/24/86 - Made improvements suggested by Dave Schubert. Version 1.03 12/22/86 - Made improvements suggested by Tom Zurinskas. Thanks are due to my Pascal instructor, Mary Wall, who suggested writing a game for a term project. 8