roy@nlm-vax.ARPA (Roy Standing) (05/25/85)
Recently I posted a message asking for info on MazeWars in connection with
Neil Groundwater's posting of April 21st. While I have not received any
responses, I have continued to try to get MazeWars up and running. I have
been successful and thought I should share the info.
MazeWars is a multiplayer game in which each player moves around a maze
searching for 'enemies' and destroying them, after which they are
reincarnated in a randonmly chosen new location. An 'enemy' appears as
a huge eye which may be looking at you, to either side, or away. If it
is looking at you, its owner is seeing you and will undoubtably fire on
you if he/she recovers from the sight of you before you fire. Points
are awarded for destroying an 'enemy', 1 or 2, depending on the conditions.
Two views of the maze are provided, a bird's eye view and a rat's eye view.
You see your position in the bird's eye view as an arrow, complete with
direction. Enemies are diamond shapes. As you get close to an enemy,
the display of maze-tenants disappears so you HAVE TO BE CAREFUL. Kindly,
you are provided with two keys ('E' and 'T') which let you peek around
corners one poistion in front of you, 'E' peeks left, 'T' peeks right.
I specifically mention this because it seemed to take an inordinately
long time for me to figure out what the peek commands were doing.
The initial screen tells you the active keyboard keys and their function.
There doesn't appear to be a quit so you'll have to reboot your Mac when
you want to leave the game.
----
To obtain and play MazeWars, Neil's message was correct but incomplete.
He neglected to mention that to connect to the AppleTalk network you
must invoke the 'CHOOSE PRINTER' desk accessory and choose 'connect
to AppleTalk'. This seems obvious now but I wasted a lot of time
thinking that my system file, cable, or copy of MazeWars must be bad.
For those who kept Neil's message, read no further. I will post the
MazeWars files to net.sources.mac for those (like me) who don't have
easy access to CompuServe.
For those who are interested in MazeWars but missed Neil's original
message, a summary follows:
The game and accompanying graphics are in "DL 3" on CompuServe/MAUG.
There are four files (Mw, Eyeballs, Title, Screen Data).
You can connect two Macs to play without AppleTalk. The cable which
comes with the development system is sufficient, a functional equivalent
may be made by connecting two ImageWriter cables back-to-back: pin 7
straight across and pins 2 and 3 swapped.
The necessary drivers were scattered around with some Trivial File
Transfer Demo progams, but you can also get them from the LaserWriter
software distribution (ED NOTE: I got the drivers from a LaserWriter
disk at a local Apple Dealer). I leave it as an exercise for the
reader to install DRVR resources ".mpp" and ".atp" along with INIT
resource ID=#6 into a system file (ED NOTE: I used ResEdit, when I
went to a local dealer I found his system file already had them
installed so I just copied his system file). Make a scratch system for
this exercise! Once this stuff is installed, INIT ID=#6 will keep you
from using the Workshop's version of RamDisk and once this stuff is
run you will need to power-reboot your Mac to get the printer port back
from the AppleTalk setup state!
Disclaimer: I have no relevent knowledge about MazeWars beyond that provided
in this message. I have tried it successfully and intend to use it as a
'fun' diagnostic when I bring up an AppleTalk network. I do not have
AppleTalk yet and used two Macs connected via ImageWriter cables as
instructed. Have fun!jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) (05/29/85)
Is this a public domain program? If so, could someone post it to
net.sources.mac?
--
Full-Name: J. Eric Roskos
UUCP: ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jer
US Mail: MS 795; Perkin-Elmer SDC;
2486 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809-7642
"V'z bss gb gur Orezbbgurf, gb jngpu gur bavbaf
na' gur rryf!" [Jryy, jbhyq lbh oryvrir Arj Wrefrl?]darrelj@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Darrel VanBuer) (05/31/85)
Mazewar considerably predates the Mac; I have played a version or the Xerox
Alto (which communicated by experimental Ethernet). The main difference
seems to be that the Alto version never shows other players in the full-maze
map. Whether there are still earlier versions???
--
Darrel J. Van Buer, PhD
System Development Corp.
2500 Colorado Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90406
(213)820-4111 x5449
...{allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,orstcs,sdcsvax,ucla-cs,akgua}
!sdcrdcf!darrelj
VANBUER@USC-ECL.ARPAdave@rocksvax.UUCP (06/04/85)
I goes back to about late 1979. We used to play it with people in another
building, cause it was more fun with about 8 people. Having a top map that
shows where everyone is would take all the fun out of the game!!
I remember trying to play it with people on the west coast but the packets
tended to get lost though the gateway and you would end up with phantom
'eyes'.....Ahh the good old days and my ex-Alto, although my Dlion is
much nicer!!
Dave
arpa: Sewhuk.HENR@Xerox.ARPA
uucp: {allegra,rochester,amd,sunybcs}!rocksvax!dave