XROBOTS(6) UNIX System V(30 Sep 1989) XROBOTS(6)
NAME
xrobots - fight off villainous robots (X Windows)
SYNOPSIS
/usr/games/xrobots
DESCRIPTION
As in robots(6), xrobots puts you into a world of evil robots (but in an
X window, of course). It's your intellect against the robots, who have
numbers on their side. Fortunately for you, these robots have a bad
habit of crashing into each other, destroying themselves and temporarily
improving your chances of survival.
You have a the following abilities:
You can move one square at a time (but so can the robots). The
direction of possible moves are indicated by the dots near your man
and by the shape of the cursor. Clicking the left mouse button
selects the direction.
You can wait for robots to reach you. Do this by clicking on the
button labeled "Wait" below the main playfield or by pressing 'w'
while the mouse pointer is within the playfield.
You can use your teleportation device. This defensive weapon is
not without risk. This can be invoked by clicking on "Teleport" or
by pressing 't'.
You have a "sonic screwdriver" which wipes out any robots within
close proximity. This offensive weapon recharges once for each
level. This can be invoked by the "Sonic Screwdiver" button or by
pressing 's'.
The default keyboard setup is similar to the original robots:
h move one square left
l move one square right
k move one square up
j move one square down
y move one square up and left
u move one square up and right
b move one square down and left
n move one square down and right
10/89 Page 1
XROBOTS(6) UNIX System V(30 Sep 1989) XROBOTS(6)
. (also space) do nothing for one turn
run as far as possible in the given direction
t teleport to a random location
w wait until they reach you
s use your sonic screwdriver
control-C is quit
RESOURCES
If you don't like 's' for the sonic screwdriver and 't' for teleport you
can change this. xrobots is programmed using the X Toolkit and takes
advantage of the toolkit's resources and translation schemes. The
following are resources that are used by xrobots and should probably be
set in your .Xdefaults file.
xrobots.autoteleport
If set to true, you teleport automatically when there is no
other option. This does not autoteleport if the sonic
screwdriver has not been used. The default is false.
xrobots.autoteleportalways
This is similar to autoteleport, but teleports automatically
even if you have a sonic screwdriver available. The default
is false.
xrobots.diewaiting
Setting this to true adds a little risk to your life and
makes the game play a little more like BSD robots. The
default is false.
xrobots.scorefile
Set this to the path of your personal score file. The file
will be created if it does not exist. The default:
/usr/games/lib/xrobots_scores
xrobots.showmovement
If set to false, intermediate movements will not be shown.
This may be useable for very slow servers or very fast
players. The default is true.
xrobots.spiffy
If set to false, some of the graphics will not be shown.
This is helpful for slow servers. The default is true.
Additionally, all the key bindings can be changed. Here's a sample set
of translation bindings that you can modify to your preferences:
Page 2 10/89
XROBOTS(6) UNIX System V(30 Sep 1989) XROBOTS(6)
xrobots*Translations: #augment \n\
<Btn1Up>: move() \n\
:<Key>u: move(right, up) \n\
:<Key>l: move(right) \n\
:<Key>n: move(right, down) \n\
:<Key>y: move(left, up) \n\
:<Key>h: move(left) \n\
:<Key>b: move(left, down) \n\
:<Key>k: move(up) \n\
:<Key>j: move(down) \n\
:<Key>U: jump(right, up) \n\
:<Key>L: jump(right) \n\
:<Key>N: jump(right, down) \n\
:<Key>Y: jump(left, up) \n\
:<Key>H: jump(left) \n\
:<Key>B: jump(left, down) \n\
:<Key>K: jump(up) \n\
:<Key>J: jump(down) \n\
<Key>.: move(nowhere) \n\
<Key>\\ : move(nowhere) \n\
<Btn2Up>: go_here() \n\
<Btn3Up>: wait() \n\
<Key>s: sonic() \n\
<Key>t: teleport() \n\
<Key>w: wait() \n\
<Key>z: new_game() \n\
Ctrl<Key>c: quit()
ACTIONS
Here's what each action that can be referenced via translations is and
what it does:
The move() action with no parameters uses the relative position of
the mouse pointer to determine the direction in which to go.
Otherwise, a combination of "left", "right", "up", "down", and
"nowhere" will direct the direction. If "nowhere" is used, the
player's icon will remain still while the robots take their turn.
The jump() action does the same thing as move(), except it causes
the player to move in a direction until it can't go any farther.
This is used in the default translations when a key is shifted.
The go_here() action directs the player's icon to the location
where the mouse button was released. Of course, the robots will
chase you, and if doom is impending, go_here() will stop.
The wait() action causes the robots to move until they are
breathing right down your neck.
The sonic() action invokes the sonic screwdriver.
10/89 Page 3
XROBOTS(6) UNIX System V(30 Sep 1989) XROBOTS(6)
The teleport() action invokes the teleportation device.
The new_game() and quit() actions do what you would expect them to.
OPTIONS
In addition to the normal XToolkit options, xrobots accepts command line
options for the following resources: spiffy, autoteleport,
autoteleportalways, showmovement, diewaiting, and scorefile. These
correspond to the resources as described above.
For example: xrobots -scorefile myscorefile
SCORING
Each robot that is wasted is worth ten points. Additionally, bonuses are
awarded for each teleportation, and for not using the sonic screwdriver.
The name for the high score list comes from the USER environment
variable.
FILES
/usr/games/lib/xrobots_scores -- the score file
AUTHOR
There are many versions of robots floating around. So many that it would
be difficult to say who the original author is. This version was written
from scratch by Brian Warkentine (brianw@Sun.COM).
Page 4 10/89