mjr@welch.jhu.edu (Marcus J. Ranum) (10/25/89)
Anyone in net-land interested in exchanging Omega(tm) tanks for a little fun and games ?? If there's interest, I can make a directory available for anon. FTP, to store 'em in. The tanks that come with the distribution are OK, but the demented touch seems lacking. I think, for example, that I have found a logical loophole in the game that helps a lot - but that's my secret.. ;-) Anyone interested in sharing spoilers ? --mjr(); -- He was in his room half awake, half asleep. The walls of the room seemed to alter angles, elongating and shrinking alternately, then twisting around completely so that he was in the opposite side of the room. "A trick of the light and too much caffeine," he thought. -Bauhaus
ewiles@netxdev.DHL.COM (Edwin Wiles) (10/27/89)
In article <1989Oct25.063255.21509@welch.jhu.edu> mjr@welch.jhu.edu (Marcus J. Ranum) writes: > > Anyone in net-land interested in exchanging Omega(tm) tanks >for a little fun and games ?? Sure! I checked the game out at the store, but didn't buy it then because I didn't want to have "yet another game that I've no one else to play with". >If there's interest, I can make a >directory available for anon. FTP, to store 'em in. Please! Don't Do It This Way! Not everyone who's interested has Anon FTP capabilities (I don't). Nor does everyone who's interested have the cash to spend on long distance UUCP calls (I won't). So, how about posting them to some news group? Presumably the files aren't too huge? What size are they? If no news group seems apropriate, then how about a mailing list? I'd suggest Compu$erve, an expense that I already incur; but others don't, so the above 'cost' and 'access' arguments apply to CI$ too. Before I purchase the game though, I need to understand more about it's protection mechanism (if any). I will not tolerate a 'key disk' protected program for two reasons: a) I've a hard drive, and b) I will not be held hostage to a particular floppy. I can tolerate a 'key word' mechanism, where you must enter a 'randomly' selected word from the manual. (I've usually got the manual handy anyway, and if it gets Coke spilt on it, it's not as drastic.) There was also something strange about him not being able to demonstrate it due to it forcing you to make a copy and only running from the copy? (It seems he didn't want to have dozens of game containing floppies lying about for demo purposes......I wonder why?? :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) ) I believe he indicated that this was becoming a common practice. Force the user to make a 'backup' and only allow them to run from the 'backup'. An interesting concept! Enforced Safe Computing! [ Appologia: I would probably have mailed this, but mailing from this system is seriously busted; they just recently got posting to work again. Isn't it wonderful what a "system upgrade" can do to you? <rueful-grin> ] "Who?... Me?... WHAT opinions?!?" | Edwin Wiles Schedule: (n.) An ever changing nightmare. | NetExpress Comm., Inc. ..!uunet!netxcom!ewiles (I'm certain!) | 1953 Gallows Rd. Suite 300 OR ewiles@iad-nxe.global-mis.DHL.COM (I think!) | Vienna, VA 22182
mjr@welch.jhu.edu (Marcus J. Ranum) (10/27/89)
In article <1611@netxcom.DHL.COM> ewiles@netxdev.UUCP (Edwin Wiles) writes: > [...] >If no news group seems apropriate, then how about a mailing list? I'd suggest >Compu$erve, an expense that I already incur; but others don't, so the above >'cost' and 'access' arguments apply to CI$ too. Ok, I'll byte the bullet. I'll maintain the mailing list, for all and sundry. Send mail to Omega-Request@welch.jhu.edu to be added to the list, and if there is enough interest (I haven't gotten more than 3 replies yet) I'll set it up and send out an "intro" posting. Unfortunately, the tank descriptions are not stored in ASCII (boo!) so some protocol for transferring will be necessary. Each individual tank file is about 4K, so uuencoding them and transferring them by mail seems adequate. At that size there is no need to zoo them. The tank data appears to be stored in both a compiled and uncompiled form, I will experiment to see if we could get away with just transferring the compiled form, so the actual logic of the tanks would be secret. >Before I purchase the game though, I need to understand more about it's >protection mechanism (if any). I will not tolerate a 'key disk' protected >program for two reasons: a) I've a hard drive, and b) I will not be held Yeah, it's weird. I copied the whole thing over to Mr. Hard Drive and it came right up and ran right away. So, I don't see any sign of copy protection. The game is pretty good. There are provisions for team play, several levels of play, etc. If there is enough interest, a round-robin style tournament could be run. There is a BBS set up by the company (Origin) that has a tourney running, too. Basically, the game is C-robots like, with some frills and a few bells and whistles. Graphics are not as great as they should be, but the idea is pretty good. I haven't gotten past level 4 myself - I am starting to wonder if the computer's game is rigged :-) --mjr(); -- He was in his room half awake, half asleep. The walls of the room seemed to alter angles, elongating and shrinking alternately, then twisting around completely so that he was in the opposite side of the room. "A trick of the light and too much caffeine," he thought. -Bauhaus