Amiga Plus Extra 1996 #3

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Solar System Wars -- Version 1.38 Copyright © 1992-1995 James Cleverdon. All Rights Reserved. The binary copy of THIS version of SSW and its other files may be freely distributed for non-commercial purposes, including and especially by Fred Fish's wonderful collection of software, as well as the great AmiNet system, world-wide. More legal garbage and disclaimers below. New Features for Version 1.38 * Fixed bug that sometimes left torpedo pixels on the screen when a Cluster Pod popped. * Fixed glitch in joystick routines that made a Cloaked ship flicker if you tried Hyperspace at the same time. * Made the Disruptor more disruptive. When hit, a ship will accelerate with quad thrust while spinning. Requirements * Runs under OS 1.3, 2.0+, and 3.0+. * Needs at least 194K of Fast RAM and 49K of Chip RAM, assuming you use the supplied SSW.snd file. (Heavily fragmented memory may prevent SSW from running, even if there is enough chip and fast RAM listed by the Avail command.) * Only needs 5K of stack space, but I'm keeping SAS/C's default of 8K in SSW.info to be safe. * Requires all of the hardware sprites, all 4 audio channels, and the potgo.resource bits for gameport unit 1. * Works with one-button digital joysticks (standard Amiga joysticks), but three-button or two-button joysticks are strongly advised. Instructions for joystick re-wire are included below. Does not support analog joysticks or Sega gamepads (mostly, see note below). Quick Start-up * Install SSW. + If SSW isn't compressed and came on a floppy, either run it from the floppy (label it SSW:), or just drag the SSW drawer to RAM or onto your hard drive. + If SSW came compressed, or was downloaded, create a drawer named SSW and decompress the archive file in the usual way: * Make a new drawer (directory) named SSW * open up a shell and CD SSW If you have SSW.lha: lha -x -a -m x SSW.lha * Have a joystick plugged into Joyport 1, and either be ready to plug in a second joystick into Joyport 0, or familiarize yourself with the keyboard control keys. If you have two-button or three-button joysticks now is the time to use them! Or, you can use ordinary one- button joysticks and some keys on the keyboard. * Start up SSW. Use either the Workbench or the Shell. Be sure that either its files are in the drawer with SSW, or else enter in the Shell: assign SSW: drawer_containing_files If SSW lives on its own floppy disk, label it SSW. relabel df0: SSW * Select any desired options from the menu with the mouse or keyboard. (See below for a list of menu command keys. Also, a file named Menu.keys has been provided for easy reference and printing.) An especially fun option is the Random Game (RightAmiga-R), which will randomly select solar systems for each round, along with a random extra weapon for each player. There are also menus for photon torpedo velocity, torpedo life, ship thrust, etc. * If you will be playing with two joysticks, then replace the mouse with the second one now. Then press RightAmiga-1 to switch to joystick control. * Enjoy! The first player to reach 20 points wins! * After the end of a game, press 'O' to start a new game, or start one earlier using RightAmiga-N. Joystick and Keyboard Control Joystick control: Button1 : Fire photon torpedo Left/Rght: Turn Left/Right Forward : Thrust Back : Hyperspace Button2 : Extra weapon Button3 : Full Shields (If you do not have two-button joysticks, for the Extra Weapon use: port 0: RightShift, ENTER, port 1: LeftShift If you lack three-button joysticks, for keyboard Full Shields use: port 0: RightAlt, Pad . port 1: LeftAlt ) Keyboard control: (the numbers and period are on the keypad, not on the keyboard) DOWN, 5: Fire photon torpedo RETURN, 0: Hyperspace LEFT, 4: Turn Left RIGHT, 6: Turn Right UP, 8: Thrust RSHIFT, 2: Extra weapon RAlt, .: Full Shields 7 : Left & Thrust 9 : Right & Thrust Program control: ESC, Q: Quit P : Pause HELP : Displays Help requester Common Gotchas * Make sure the files named SSW.grv and SSW.snd are in the current directory, or located at the SSW: assignment. Otherwise, SSW will complain and die. * You may need to adjust the screen position Preferences in order to see the seventh sprite. In other words, if the purple ship's plasma bolt or seeker don't show up on the screen, do the following: + quit SSW -- type 'Q', followed by 'Y' + open the Preferences program for OS 1.3, or for OS 2.X and beyond, run the Overscan program in the Prefs drawer then select Edit Standard Overscan. + shift the default screen position a little bit to the right + leave via the Use gadget + run SSW again Keep trying this until you find a screen position that allows the 7th sprite to appear, and best fits your monitor. Once you have this, either save this setting in Preferences, or use one of the public domain Preferences savers to save this setting in a file for easy recall later. (Prefs savers are available on Fred Fish disks, AmiNet, and many BBSs.) * If you've forgotten to press RightAmiga-1, then a joystick plugged into the mouse joyport won't do anything useful. * If a four star or four asteroid system is on the screen, then the mouse will be turned off -- even if one player is using the keyboard. * If you have an AGA Amiga, run SSW in EGA emulation mode. Menus Explained A = Right Amiga Key, C = Control Key, other keys such as ESC are named. (i.e. AC-A means hold down RightAmiga and Control, then press 'A'.) Project Pause? A-P Pause the game New A-N Start a New game About... HELP, AC-A Screen To Front A-[ Move the SSW screen to front Screen To Back A-] Push the SSW screen to back Quit... A-Q Leave SSW System No Primaries A-Z No stars at all One Primary Your ship orbits one star Red Dwarf A-E Yellow Star A-Y Blue Giant AC-S Small Black Hole A-T Medium Black Hole A-U Large Black Hole A-I Two Primaries Your ship orbits two stars Red Dwarves A-O Red / Yellow A-{ Red / Blue A-} Red / Sml BH A-D Red / Med BH A-F Red / Lrg BH A-G Yellow Stars A-H Yellow / Blue A-J Yellow / Sml BH A-K Yellow / Med BH A-; Yellow / Lrg BH A-: Blue Giants A-' Blue / Sml BH A-" Blue / Med BH AC-L Blue / Lrg BH A-X Small Black Holes A-C Sml BH / Med BH A-V Sml BH / Lrg BH A-, Medium Black Holes A-< Med BH / Lrg BH A-. Large Black Holes A-> Three Primaries Your ship orbits three stars Red / Yel / Yel A-/ Yel / Blue / Blue A-? Yel / SBH / SBH A-DEL Blue / MBH / MBH A-ESC BH: S / M / M AC-B BH: M / L / L AC-G Four Primaries Your ship "orbits" four stars Red Dwarves AC-O Yellow Stars AC-P Blue Giants AC-Q Small Black Holes AC-R Misc. Systems Other solar systems Black Ellipse A-BACKSPACE Wide Red Binary AC-J Wide Yellow Binary AC-N Wide Blue Binary A-` Wide Sml BH Binary A-~ Wide Med BH Binary A-SPACE Wide Lrg BH Binary A-TAB Asteroid Swarm AC-K Asteroid? A-A Add asteroid to 0/1 star games Options Beginner Mode? A-B No random high-gravity systems Random Game? A-R Randomize every round Screen Wrap? A-W Choose screen wrap vs. bounce Ship Thrust Pick ship thrust Low A-_ Medium A-+ High A-| Torp Velocity Pick photon torpedo velocity Low A-- Medium A-= High A-\ Torp Lifetime Pick photon torpedo lifetime Short A-S Medium A-M Long A-L Green Ship Opts Joyport 0 A-1 Control from mouse port Keyboard A-2 Control from keyboard Cloaking A-3 Your ship turns invisible Disruptor A-4 Shoot a disruptive energy blast Anomalizer A-5 Fire an anomaly blast Plasma Bolt A-6 Hurl a ball of electric death Quad Thrust A-7 Accelerate at quadruple thrust Seeker A-8 Launch a seeker missile Guided Torp A-9 Shoot a remote-controlled torp Cluster Pod A-0 Fire pod that bursts into torps Purple Ship Opts Joyport 1 A-! --Ditto-- Keyboard A-@ Cloaking A-# Disruptor A-$ Anomalizer A-% Plasma Bolt A-^ Quad Thrust A-& Seeker A-* Guided Torp A-( Cluster Pod A-) Weapons, etc. * Photon Torpedo -- shoot a simple missile in the direction your ship is currently pointing. A torpedo's initial velocity and lifetime are controlled by Options sub-menus. You may only have twelve torpedoes in flight at one time, but torpedoes are otherwise unlimited. * Regular Shields -- a gray ring around your ship that absorbs Photon Torpedos, Plasma Bolts, and Seekers, as well as providing limited protection from collisions with asteroids and stars. Torpedos erode holes in your shields, exposing your ship to sudden destruction. Contact with a star, opponent, asteroid, Plasma Bolt, Guided Torp, Cluster Pod, Anomalizer, or Seeker will overload and destroy your shield generator. It also makes a "ping" sound. * Regular thrust -- accelerates your ship in the direction it points. The thrust level is controlled by an Options sub-menu. Fuel is unlimited. * Hyperspace -- activated by pulling directly back on a joystick (no diagonals!) or by pressing the RETURN key or 0 on the keypad. Hyperspace will teleport your ship to a random location on the screen. It takes time for Hyperspace to warp you out and back. Your controls will be frozen during this time. Also, the hyperspace warp generator takes about two seconds to recharge and be available for use again. * Full Shields -- when activated, your ship becomes a gray octagon, totally immune to photon torpedoes. Full shields are lost under any circumstances that would overload your regular shields. Your regular shields are lost whenever the Full Shields are lost. Your other controls are frozen while Full Shields are up. Full Shields only stay up for a maximum of about two seconds before dropping. There is an about one-half second recharge delay. * Anomalizer -- shoot a blast of anomalistic probability. When hit, your opponent may have his velocity, direction, or extra weapon randomized. Or, your enemy may be forced into hyperspace, or simply hit as if by a Plasma Bolt. Or, maybe something else..... * Cloaking -- your ship becomes invisible, except for a slight wavering in the background stars. You may turn and accelerate while cloaked, at the cost of becoming partly visible, but may not fire any weapons. Cloaked ships are not tracked by Seekers. There is an about one-half second cloaking device recharge delay. * Disruptor -- fire a burst of disruptive EMF energy that travels at the speed of light. It causes no damage, but confuses your foe for a moment. Also, it will detonate other extra weapons. * Plasma Bolt -- shoots a large, writhing ball of energy. Has a limited range, and will be detonated by "just one" photon torpedo. * Quad Thrust -- accelerates your ship with four times its normal acceleration. Note that SSW does have a maximum allowed speed for all objects (the "speed of light"), which is easy to reach using Quad Thrust. * Seeker -- fires a missile which will seek out and hit your opponent. In fairness to the other player, Seekers are very simple-minded. Seekers can not track Cloaked ships (despite S.T. 6), but will keep their last acceleration vector. * Guided Torp -- shoots a missile that you may control. When your extra weapon button is pressed, turn or accelerate commands will be sent to the guided missile. When released, turn or accelerate commands are done by your ship, as usual. You may re-press your extra weapon button to control the guided missile as often as you like. * Cluster Pod -- fires a pod that will burst in a spray of short-lived shrapnel. Direct hits are usually devastating. You may not shoot a second Plasma Bolt, Seeker, Anomalizer, Guided Torp, Disruptor, or Cluster Pod until the first is gone, or until a one-quarter second recharge delay has passed. Other notes: + Beginner Mode -- when playing the Random Game, the selected solar system will not have too many high-gravity stars in it. + Random Game -- when turned on, SSW will randomly select a system and extra weapon for each player. You never get the same extra weapon twice in a row. Ask Capt'n Quirk And now that grizzled and grouchy veteran of Solar System Wars, Captain Quirk -- one who deals out insults, death, and run-on sentences in all directions, will answer some of your questions about game strategy! Thank you, worthless pandering announcer. There's a big backlog today, so let's go right to the first member of the audience: Q: How can I keep from getting blown out of the sky whenever my enemy gets Seeker and I get something wimpy like Cloaking? A: What! You've got Cloaking against Seeker and you come whining to me? Get yer pathetic rear-end back out in the arena and USE Cloaking! Once you are cloaked, Seekers can't track your ship! However, they will keep their last heading, so if you uncloak to fire off a burst of torpedoes, then recloak after a Seeker is coming your way, be sure to accelerate away from your last course. That will fool 'em every time. Q: Suppose I don't have Cloaking, but have Guided Torp instead? A: Do I have to do all your thinking for you? Haven't you noticed how totally stupid Seekers are? Just get something massive, like a star or an asteroid between you and it and the Seeker will mindlessly ram into it. What's more, Seekers never consider gravity in their attack programs and are easily confused by a Black Hole's gravity. Q: I try all that and still get fried. Now what? A: Get out of here! <draws and waves blaster menacingly> I haven't even mentioned shooting Seekers with torps, warping out of danger with Hyperspace, outrunning them with Quad Thrust, or blasting them with Plasma Bolts, Anomalizers, Guided Torps, or Cluster Pods! Next questioner. Q: If my ship can Cloak, why can't it fire Plasma Bolts when uncloaked? I saw that very move on an old episode of Star T<<ZZAAPP!!>> A: <blowing on blaster barrel> Sorry, sonny! You tried to say the "S.T." phrase, which is a registered trademark of Paramount Corporation. Don't even THINK of saying it on my show. Speaking of things we don't mention, <points blaster at camera> I don't want six hundred of you weekend-SSW geeks out there writing in and telling me that on S.T. 6 they had a modified torpedo track a cloaked ship. <blasts nearby table> I know that, and thought it was a stupid plot gimmick when I saw the movie. Any sensor they could mount on a torpedo should be available for phaser lock on the Enterprise. Lazy screenwriters! <burns a microphone cable in two> <takes a sheath of papers from a trembling stagehand> Our next question is from a fax: Q: I have a hard time reaching the keyboard to use my Extra weapon or Full Shields. How do you manage? A: Now that's a fair question. Either get into the habit of reaching for a shift key on the keyboard, or buy or build yourself some three button digital joysticks. If you can locate a nine wire joystick cable and find some joysticks that have enough room inside to install two normally-open push-buttons, then its easy to rewire an existing joystick. One more thing: take the usual precautions when dealing with hot solder, connecting anything homemade up to your Amiga, etc. If some pitiful excuse for a lawyer shows up on my doorstep, trying to serve me a lawsuit because I didn't warn you not to do something truly stupid, then I'll burn the lawyer down where he stands and spit on the ashes. <waves blaster, picture bounces as cameraman dives for cover> But, I've already been warned twice that I'm over my Lawyer limit for this season -- so don't screw up, OK? Now a question from the audience. Q: Why are the orbits around Blue / Medium, Small / Medium, Yellow / Large, Red / Medium, and Medium / Large Binaries so unstable, especially in a Bounce game? A: Good question -- I won't kill you. <vaporizes an innocent bystander instead> Those orbits have resonances with those of their primaries. That, along with the crude approximation that passes for gravity in SSW does the rest. Anyway, what do you care about orbits? Are you a pilot, or what? What is the younger generation coming to? For Zelkor's sake, use some imagination, will you? This will be our last question today. From the audience: Q: I had just about peeled all the shields from my opponent while only taking one or two hits myself, and was coming back in from the Twilight Zone to finish him off, when I blew up for no reason at all. What happened? A: At last, a question worth answering! Remember that while you are in the Twilight Zone the Amiga hardware collision detection circuitry isn't checking for collisions. In the Twilight Zone, everyone and every torpedo is safe. However, that also means that a torpedo that ordinarily would be absorbed by your shields has a chance of drifting inside your shields, and may still be there when you emerge from the Twilight Zone. If that happens to you -- BOOM! <Blasts an off-camera object> To avoid this you can use Full Shields on every entrance or exit from the Twilight Zone. Otherwise, just be very careful out there. That's all for today, but be sure to listen to the next exciting episode of "Ask Capt'n Quirk!" <fade to black as the SWAT team tackles Captain Quirk> Known Offences Against the OS 2.0 Style Guide * Turns off the mouse when a player is using Joyport 0, or a four or four asteroid solar system is on the screen. * Topaz 8 is hard-coded into the menus, requesters, and opening screen. * Not Internationalized. * Uses raw key events without proper mapping. * SSW's screen does not have drag or depth gadgets. (See the Screen To Back and Screen To Front menu entries for a replacement.) * The Quit and About requesters are not draggable or depth arrangable, and do not set a "Wait" pointer in the main window when activated. * Game settings cannot be saved or loaded. * Doesn't read Tool Types from icon files. * Pays no attention to Shell command line arguments. Known Deficiencies * On my A1000 running v1.3, the menu command keys for RightAmiga-3 and RightAmiga-Control-Q seemed to have swapped functions. It works just fine under v2.04+, or using the mouse, so I assumed it was a v1.3 bug in menu command processing and rearranged the menu linked lists to put the joyport select entries in front of the system select entries. Summary: Beware! Under v1.3 you may get wierd results when selecting solar systems using the RightAmiga and Control keys. If that happens, switch control of joyport 0 back to the mouse and try again. * On an A3000 running an old version of 2.0, one of the beta testers reported that occasionally when an Anomalizer sprite crosses the upper or lower screen boundaries, its ship will flash white, or worse, the Copper list for the Anomalizer sprite gets corrupted and you see a long stripe of chip RAM. Solution: upgrade! * The use of keyboard screen dragging will misalign the sprites with SSW's screen. * Uses hardware collision detection for all collisions except between photon torpedoes -- the Twilight Zone on Wrap games is a safety zone from all collisions. Also, because there are no detection bits for collisions between members of a sprite pair, your own Plasma Bolts, Seekers, Guided Torps, etc won't kill you. (Twilight Zone: the off-screen part of the game playfield.) * I can find no easy way of knowing whether the SSW screen is in the foreground, at least not without digging deep into private Intuition data. This makes it hard for the Copper interrupt routine to know whether to consume the Copper interrupt, or not. So I play around with the ScreenToFront and ScreenToBack functions and window activation events to try to insure that either SSW's screen is in front of all others, or that it is in back and the game is paused. * Because of the fact that SSW jams its own values into the posctldata fields of sprites, and uses several low-level hardware registers, SSW may fail with future custom chips. Amazingly, it works with the AGA chip set in compatability mode! * Since SSW uses a quick-and-dirty approximation for faster gravity calculations, some star systems are unstable. Trinary systems will hit the screen edge after about 10 to 13 minutes. This is almost never a problem, since most rounds last under two minutes. * Uses ADCMD_LOCKs on the audio device, so it will release a requested channel, then attempt to reallocate it. All this is according to the rules in the RKM, which allow sharing of audio channels. However, some programs don't wait long enough for SSW to release its audio locks, and fail. Potential Portability Problems * The ScreenToBack menu selection uses a probably non-portable kludge to activate the foremost window in the Workbench screen. * Uses hardware registers for sprite/playfield collision detection, and changes the POTGO register to use two or three button joysticks. * Directly modifies the posctldata fields of sprites, so anything that shifts SSW's view origin will confuse the sprite positioning. * Reads hardware for both joysticks. * Uses RAWKEY events for the keyboard, so no keymap translations, or localization. * Installs its own Copper interrupt, and may not work well with other Copper interrupts. * Assumes that Intuition screens use standard BitMaps. * Bypasses the graphics library to read and write photon torpedoes, but uses MENUVERIFY and REQVERIFY to synchronize with Intuition. * The structure used by the Copper interrupt handler isn't in PUBLIC memory, as per the manuals. This won't matter until virtual memory is attempted by Commodore. * Sets and clears the CHECKED flag directly in MenuItems, although protected by Disable/Enable. Implementation Details * Changes the joyport 0 input device from Mouse to Custom, when told to use a joystick in port 0, or when four sprite systems are on the screen. This change may be confusing to folks, especially for the 4 sprite case. * Sets up a Low-Res Dual Playfield screen with two bit-planes in either PAL or NTSC mode, based on presence of the PAL bit in GfxBase. This means that a NTSC A3000 will display a NTSC screen, even if it is displaying a PAL Workbench. Sorry, I couldn't find a legal way to override this, since any attempt to use NTSC/PAL Display IDs is set back to DEFAULT_MONITOR when doing the MakeScreen/RethinkDisplay after attaching the Dual Playfield. * Installs a Copper Interrupt Server and adds a Copper interrupt to the screen. * Sorry, can't use AutoRequest or any other window-based requesters for the few requesters SSW uses. I need the WINDOWACTIVATE and deactivate events to tell me when SSW has been pushed into the background. This means using layer-based requesters that don't seem to be draggable. Yet another offense against the Style Guide. * Allocates audio channels at priority -50, the highest standard level for sound effects. Legal Garbage and Disclaimers, In Plain English Solar System Wars (SSW) will not cure world hunger. It will not bring global peace. I do not even guarantee that it is fun to play, or does anything more useful than waste CPU cycles. If you run this software and your disk drive bursts into flames, or your 1000 page dissertation on "Why Entropy Is Politically Incorrect" gets corrupted, or something else goes drastically wrong, you will get my sympathy but nothing else. I will not provide any money or other kind of compensation, no matter how valuable the hardware, software, or data that you believe SSW, or SSW's interaction with some other piece of software, has destroyed. If you, or whoever you got SSW from, has hacked, patched, or otherwise modified this package, then there is no telling what it will do, and I will not be responsible for any part of any problems such changes cause. If you don't like these limitations on my liability, then do not run Solar System Wars. If you do run SSW, then you have agreed to these limitations. Moreover, while I retain the copyright to Solar System Wars, this version of SSW may be freely copied for non-commercial purposes, as thanks for all the fine public domain and freely distributable software that I have used over the years. No one may charge more for your copy of SSW than Fred Fish charges for one Fish disk. SSW may eventually go Shareware, in which case there may be registration fees. (Aaarrrggghhhh! I hate the paranoid attitude such legalisms require.) Source Code Availability and Bug Fixes I'm not making the source code available until I decide if I want to make SSW shareware or not. Enjoy this copy entirely guilt-free, without any nagging requests to register, to send money anywhere, or to make Molotov Cocktails in your basement for the Revolution (any Revolution). The only thing I ask is that you mail to me any bug reports, great ideas, and general impressions you have about SSW. If I do decide to release the source code, I'd like all the obvious bugs fixed first. My address is: James Cleverdon 16465 S.W. Estuary Dr., Apt. 101 Beaverton, OR 97006 USA or jamesc@sequent.com Bug fixes will be released via Fred Fish, AmiNet, and the other usual methods. Ports for other machines, especially IBM PC clones? Get real! SSW relies too heavily on the Amiga custom chips. Acknowlegements Thanks to my play testers: Clark MacDonald who had the 9-wire cables and let me crash his A3000, David Roemer for lots of good ideas (especially the random game option), Stewart Boutcher for deadly fire and French Vanilla ice cream, and all the others including the Bush Harbor Day gang. File Manifest Here are the files you should have received: Name Size What Menu.keys 2260 (menu keys text) Menu.keys.info 734 (its icon) Product-Info 2038 (database description file) SSW 55736 (the program) SSW.info 463 (the OS 2.0+ icon) SSW.doc 40604 (this document) SSW.doc.info 735 (its icon) SSW.grv 123904 (the gravity table) SSW.snd 33284 (the sounds file) SSW.snd File Info Here is how you can add your own 8SVX sounds to SSW. If you're not familiar with the internals of IFF files, see Appendix A in the Devices Manual. Lacking that, the IFFparse Library chapter in the 2.0 or higher Libraries Manual will help. SSW.snd must be an IFF CAT or LIST file containing at least six correctly NAMEd FORM 8SVX chunks: bounce1, explode1, fire1, hyper_in1, hyper_out1, and thrust1. (Actually, if the '1' suffix is missing, SSW assigns the sound to player 1 anyway.) Here's the complete list of sounds: bounce1, bounce2 - the "ping" sound made when your shields blow explode1, explode2 - Bang! You're dead! fire1, fire2 - weapons firing sound hyper_in1, hyper_in2 - "warping in" sound hyper_out1, hyper_out2 - "warping out" sound quad1, quad2 - the Quad Thrust sound shield1, shield2 - photon torp erodes shields sound thrust1, thrust2 - ordinary thrust sound (repeatable) torp_die1, torp_die2 - the sound made when a torpedo expires The supplied SSW.snd contains: bounce1, bounce2, explode1, explode2, fire1, fire2, hyper_in1, hyper_out1, thrust1, and thrust2. Where do the other sounds come from? If a player1 sound exists, but the corresponding player2 sound doesn't, SSW will copy 1 to 2. The quad, shield, and torp_die sounds are derived from the thrust, fire, and explode sounds, respectively, if needed. The 8SVX FORMs can appear in any order; all SSW cares about is the NAME chunk in each one. To avoid dependence on iffparse.library, I don't use it. (iffparse didn't come with OS 1.3.) I did my own IFF parser. So, don't get too cute with weird IFF files. To avoid the need for a large stack, only some chunk types are allowed, namely CATs can contain LISTs and FORMs, but nested CATs will be skipped. LISTs may contain PROPs and FORMs, but nested CATs and LISTs are skipped. All FORMs but 8SVX are skipped. Only the NAME, VHDR, and BODY chunks in an 8SVX are read. Whoops! In SSW v1.37, I recommended using IFFar, on Fish disk # 162, to modify CAT files. Unfortunately, I forgot that it *requires* the silly, unregistered, FNAM chunks that it inserts into each FORM as it. adds them to the CAT file. Instead, use IFFMaster, by Kay Drangmeister, to extract each FORM into a seperate file. Then, you can use IFFar, or some other tool, to reassemble your selection of original and new 8SVX FORM files into a new SSW.snd CAT file. Please note that SSW has some fixed ideas about the volume and repeat count of the various sounds. In particular, the thrust and quad sounds are set to repeat forever, so avoid any harsh transitions between the end and the start of the sample. Also, the hyper_out sound should last about the same time as it takes a ship to go through the "warp out" part of a hyperspace jump, or the sound will be chopped by the hyper_in sound. Instructions for Three-Button Joysticks First, a crude ASCII picture of the end of a joystick cable. This is the DB-9 that plugs into your Amiga, taken from the Hardware Guide: _____________________ / \ The numbers are pin numbers. | 5 4 3 2 1 | \ / Viewed as you would look into \ 9 8 7 6 / its end. Note: female pins. \_______________/ Pin Joystick Mouse * = optional button 1 forward V-pulse 2 back H-pulse 3 left VQ-pulse 4 right HQ-pulse 5 button3* middle button* 6 button1 left button 7 +5V +5V 8 GND GND 9 button2* right button All you have to do is add a normally-open push-button with one of the button's terminals connected to pin 8 (ground), and the other connected to pin 9 (button2), then add another button between pin 5 (button3) and pin 8 (ground). Push the first button, which will ground pin 9, and fire a plasma bolt. Easy? Maybe. Standard joystick cables don't include pins 5, 7, or 9. I was lucky enough to have a friend who had a bundle of premade DB-9 cables with all 9 wires left over from a previous job. You may not be so fortunate. Check electronic surplus stores. Look carefully to make sure that there are pins in all nine holes. Get a continuity tester and verify that every wire you need is really there. Another problem is finding a joystick that has enough room to allow extra buttons. Also, it is hard to find a small push-button that is both reliable and durable, plus has a button big enough not to leave an imprint in your thumb at the end of a difficult game. I'm assuming that you have at least some skill at electronics. If not, check with someone who is skilled, or read the basic-technique articles in an electronics hobby magazine. If you've done all that, then I won't need to tell you: * Don't burn yourself. * Be sure to insulate all your solder joints with electrician's tape or heat-shrink tubing. * Test the finished product with a continuity tester. (A multi-meter set to 'Ohms' or 'Continuity', or even a battery and a light bulb.) Connect it between pin 9 and pin 8 on the joystick DB-9 connector. The tester should indicate a low-resistance circuit when the new button2 is pushed. When you release the button, the tester should indicate very high (or infinite) resistance. Then test button3 by hooking the tester between pin 5 and pin 8, and doing the test again. * Now test for short circuits. When no buttons are pressed and the stick is not being pushed, then pin 8 should not be connected to any other pin on the connector. * If you are installing pull-up resistors, or SPDT switches (described below), check that pin 7 is connected *only* to pins 5 and 9 when no buttons are pressed. If you aren't installing pull-ups, then pin 7 should not be connected to *any* other pin regardless of whether any button is pressed or not. About the only way you can damage your Amiga is by somehow connecting the +5V line (pin 7) to ground (pin 8). Test for this mistake even if you aren't adding pull-up resistors as described below. Be happy by being paranoid about Murphy's Laws. Important Note: Some older Amigas, which include my 1000 and a 2000 owned by a SSW player in Germany, have problems with the second and third buttons. Basically, the pull-ups for those pins on the joystick ports are weak or entirely defective. While mice use these pins without trouble, mice contain their own pull-ups and don't rely those of the Amiga. How do you know if your Amiga has this problem? You've got it if you push the second or third button, release it, and SSW acts as if you are still pushing the button. Or, if after about 15 minutes of not pushing the button, SSW suddenly believes that it *is* pushed. For further evidence, send the SSW screen to the back with the A-] key. When you bring the SSW screen back to the front, SSW will now realize that you've released the button. What to do? Add pull-up resistors to your joystick. Connect a 470 ohm or 1K ohm resistor between pin 7 (+5V) and pin 9 (button2). Add another one between pin 7 and pin 5 (button3). Or, if you are using single-throw double-pole buttons, you can connect the common terminal to the button pin, hook the normally-closed terminal to pin 7, and hook the normally-open terminal to pin 8. That way, when the button is released, the pin will be connected to +5. When you push the button, it connects the pin to ground. That is what we want. As long as I'm writing about joysticks, let me pause for a short curse at Sega. Why did they swap the +5V and Select pins from the de-facto standard that had been long established by Atari, Commodore, etc? Were they afraid that they might have a slightly larger market and make too much money? &$!*?@ Sega bozos! The upshot of the previous paragraph is that an Amiga can't read two of the buttons on Sega gamepads because they put the +5V supply on pin 5, and put their Select input on pin 7. With Select high, you can read the B and C buttons. With Select low, you can read A and Start. But, that is exactly opposite of what we want! I can't lower pin 7 because it is the Amiga's +5 supply. (Yes, I pulled my gamepad apart to make sure that the pinout is really wrong.) I have two different brands of gamepads: one by Sega, and another generic pad. Amazingly, they both work using power provided by the pull-up on pin 5. Of course, they both use CMOS muxes internally, which take very little power. So, although not guaranteed, many -- maybe even most -- Sega gamepads will work as two-button joysticks. To use them as three-button joysticks requires an adapter or some internal rewiring. Maybe I'll buy or build an adapter, and add the interface code when I get over being angry at %!$?* Sega. Maybe not. References "How to Implement Space Wars (or Using Your Oscilloscope as a Telescope)" by Dave Kruglinski, Byte, 1977?? Thoughts for the Future * Many analog joysticks have two or three buttons. Since I already have to go directly to the hardware for digital joysticks, maybe I can support analog as well..... * Can the Planet Cruncher be worked in somehow? How about a Tholian web? * What about a "Death Blossom" kind of weapon that shoots torpedos in eight different directions? * Would a Tractor Beam be useful? Or, a Pressor Beam? * Maybe some way to repair your shields, like don't push a button for 30 seconds per pixel repaired. (Of course, right now you can take a one-in-sixteen gamble and let your opponent hit you with an Anomalizer.) * Get real images of asteroids for the asteroid sprites. * Would it be worthwhile to allow customized space ships? Can I afford the CPU cycles on slow Amigas? * Maybe go from a shield erosion model, to a shield heating model, like in "The Mote In God's Eye" or E. E. Smith's Lensman series. Of course, to do that right I would have to include heating from stars. This should be roughly proportional to the sum of the magnitudes of the gravitational force vectors, except for black holes. And what happens when you finally do blow the shields? BOOM? Or just lose them? Version Log == v1.37 == * Now support for three-button joysticks! * Everyone now gets Full Shields all the time, controlled by the third button, or the left/right Alt key. * New extra weapons! Get ready for the Anomalizer, Disruptor, Guided Torp, and the Cluster Pod! Sadly, Flip Ship has gone to that bit bucket in the sky. * Four star solar systems! * New Beginner Mode, which keeps the Random System mode from picking high-gravity solar systems. * Tested on A1000 (OS 1.3), A500 (OS 1.3), and A3000 (OS 2.1). Reports indicate that SSW runs AGA machines. Wow! Hats off to Commodore for such great hardware compatibility! SSW is free of Enforcer hits on an A3000. * Each player now gets twelve active torpedos instead of nine. * Enough already! I've changed the random game code so that you'll never have the same extra weapon twice in a row. Satisfied? 8-) * The Seeker and Cluster Pod sprites are larger and easier to see. * Improved Seeker code. They no longer are useless in high gravity systems. * SSW's sound effects now come in an IFF file! Add your own sounds! Amaze your friends! Confound your enemies! * Fixed the sprite glitching problem on slower machines. * SSW no longer adds an input event handler to eat mouse events. No more compatability problems with Commodities or other handlers. * Added a New Game requester that shows up after someone wins. * Added potgo.resource code to play by the rules. * Compiled with cback.o, so SSW will automatically put itself in the background. == v1.14 == * First public release! * All new support for two-button joysticks! * Everyone now gets Hyperspace all the time, as well as an extra weapon from the Options menus! * Double-thick shields for EXTRA protection! * Improved color register handling for superior performance without the earlier glitching problems! * Much smoother motion, because now SSW does one game cycle (complete with all gravity calculations) for every screen frame, even on standard A1000 and A500 machines! Yes, that's 50Hz for PAL and 60Hz for NTSC. The only exception is for cycles involving sprite collisions, which take two screen frames per game cycle. * All of the gravity and update subroutines have been redone in hand-optimized assembly code for extra speed, plus the added bonus of now fitting entirely in the instruction caches of 68020 and 68030 CPUs! * Tested on A1000 (OS 1.3), A500 (OS 1.3), and A3000 (OS 2.04). Should run under OS 2.1. Will almost certainly break on an AGA chip machine. Is free of Enforcer hits on A3000. * Multi-tasks. (SSW should be the highest priority CPU-intensive task for smoothest game play.) == Earlier == * Before the beginning of time. Delete any SSWs before 1.14.