nonh@utzoo.UUCP (Chris Robertson) (09/29/85)
I have been working on Phantasia, Ed Estes' great fantasy game, doing lots
of improvements. If anyone is interested, I'll mail out copies; if there's
sufficient response, I'll post the whole thing (changes are too pervasive
to just post diffs, unfortunately).
The changes include:
- speeded response A LOT by keeping the peoplefile and monsterfile always open
- *lots* of cosmetics in the display: neater alignment, words not numbers
(e.g. character classes shown in full or abbreviated rather than 1, 2...),
characteristics shown in same order as the manual page so it's easier
to see if you're rolling a good character, etc.
- added a shell escape (using !, of course)
- timeout for higher-level types may be temporarily suspended with ^P (for
looking at your stats, answering phone, etc.)
- added HJKL keys for movement (== WSNE) for all us vi and rogue fans
- only SPACE BAR == melee in fighting so you aren't killed by typeahead
- M == magic and B == luckout when fighting (commonest answers now
handier to type if you use HJKL for moving)
- "more" accepts a RETURN as well as SPACE BAR
- added "is in <wherever>" for locating non-visible or non-playing characters
(rather than '? ?') so you have some vague idea where to go to kill 'em
- neatened up the source code (set up indents, etc. for 4-char tabstop using
vi -- some folks may consider this a bug, not a feature...)
- threw away RAND because it bombed on at least 2 systems, redid algorithm
- characters are purged less frequently (3 weeks)
- the monster listing now fits on an 80-column screen
- twiddled macros vs. functions so ALL features fit on a 16-bit address-space
system if you #define SMALL
- updated help file appropriately (those years of tech writing have finally
paid off...)
I also have a beautiful typeset copy of the manual pages, plus a monster listing
all on one page, AND a computer-plotted map of the Phantasia universe circles.
If you send me $2 and a self-addressed mailing label, I will send you a copy
of each of these via the postal service. (Allow 3 years for delivery...:-)
All complaints and suggestions to {decvax, linus, ihnp4}!utzoo!nonh
--Chris Robertson
P.S. To Ed Estes: Ed, I love Phantasia, think it's just great. Alas, I
lost your mailing address. Please mail me so I can send you nice copies
of the manual pages etc. and the twiddled source, so you can see if you
like the changes (very few changes to the actual GAME). --chris