taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) (05/04/90)
[the following is based on another review, written for publication...]
OMEGA -- CyberTank Engineering for Fun
(C) Copyright 1990 by Dave Taylor
"Good Morning. As a new member of the Organization for Strategic Intelligence,
your first assignment is to use the neural cybertank design and simulation
system on your computer to help us create an unbeatable cyber, or automated
tank."
"We recognize that this might be a challenging task, so we are making available
to you the 200 page CyberTank Engineer's Notebook document for your reading, as
well as many other items of information and sample cybertanks for your
education."
"Since our vetting process revealed to us that you have an Apple Macintosh
computer, we have arranged for a copy of the OMEGA Mac Cybertank simulation to
arrive with this recording. Characterized by an easy to use interface and a
complete implementation of the Cybertank "AI" programming language, it should
prove more than sufficient to get you well on the way to some tough and powerful
cybertanks."
"To further aid you in understanding, attached please find OSI Report
00234-BA-O/3, Common Questions and Answers About Omega."
"Message Ends."
Official OSI Report 00234-BA-O/3 DELTA-4 Classification
Common Questions and Answers About OMEGA
Q: What is OMEGA?
A: A sophisticated and well engineered high tech tank programming and
simulation program. Based on the original CoreWars program as created in
the late 1960's, OMEGA is for those of you that like games that are more
thinking and exploration exercises than hand-eye coordination tests.
Q: What's a CyberTank?
A: A cybertank consists of the following elements; a chassis, including armor,
weaponry, and similar, and a tank AI module, which is the 'brains' of the tank.
When designing a tank, you can choose from a great number of different weaponry,
engine, and armor options, relative to your credit level (which is a function of
how well the tanks you design perform in combat simulation or "validation") and
then are expected to spend most of your time designing the program that "runs"
the tank.
Q: Cybertank AI module?
A: Let's look at an incredibly simple example:
START
DO SEARCH
DO DESTROY
BRANCH TO START
That gives us a very simple tank that can move around until it finds something
worth shooting at (an enemy tank or the enemy headquarters), at which point it
will sit and shoot until dead or the target is destroyed. In the actual
simulation, however, you'll want more sophisticated tanks than that, like the
competition-winning AI module attached below. Note its use of scanning and
identification of obstacles to improve the sophistication of the movement
and attack sequences too.
Q: What does the simulator look like?
A: Well, we can't include graphics here, but the display is typical of
the types of graphics one sees in a PC game ported to the Macintosh.
A typical display has lots of buttons, dials, and status indicators,
including, during cyber evaluation time, the following items:
F = Fuel Remaining,
I = Internal Damage,
A = Armor Damage,
T = Tread Damage,
S = Scanner Damage,
W = Weapon Damage,
SL = Scanner Lock,
DS = Defense Shield,
LD = Listener Disengaged,
T = Total number of battles to be simulated,
B = Battles previously fought,
S = number of successful battles,
R = number of active Cybertanks remaining.
Q: Do I need a security clearance?
A: To enter the Organization for Strategic Intelligence you will have to submit
to a retina scan to verify your identity, and thereafter that, coupled with your
self-selected password, will be sufficient to allow you to enter the simulation.
Q: Is the game fun?
A: Something this serious should hardly be considered a game, per se, but
for the purposes of this document, yes, it is fun, and it's the kind of game
that a group of people could get enthused about and swap tank designs and
such, pitting them against each other in various simulated environments.
Q: What does the reviewer think of it?
A: (excerpts from a classified review)
"...of the many thinking games I have for my Macintosh, OMEGA is one of the
finest, allowing my friends and I to compete for best tank design in a such a
way that we don't have to be all in th same room (with a stack of computers) at
the same time, but can still have lots of fun anyway."
"...quite playable, with the graphics - non-Mac and clearly a direct translation
from MS-DOS P being very slick. The amount of effort that has been put into the
documentation also makes the CyberTank Engineering Notebook quite enjoyable
reading."
Q: Nothing bad?
A: (excerpts from a classified review)
"... on the down side, it's a bit confusing to take all the steps needed to go
from a tank design to being able to create a simulation and have the tank a part
of the simulation."
"...as usual, the game only uses a Plus-size screen image, so if you have a
larger display as I do, you're stuck with it all in the top left corner.
Support for larger screens would be especially nice during combat simulation."
00234-BA-O/3 ENDS
OMEGA for the Apple Macintosh, $49.95
Origin Systems
136-B Harvey Rd, Londonderry, NH 03053
(800) 999-4939
Also available for MS-DOS, Apple II, Commodore,
Amiga and Atari computers.
--------- Attachment 1:
* CyberTank AI Module Listing by Steve Cantrell, Origin Systems
Start
scanface = 1
Scan
if scanface = 8 then Circle
scan for tank
if tank found then Attack
rotate right 1
scanface = scanface + 1
goto Scan
Circle
scan for tank
if tank found then Attack
rotate right 2
do Movetank
goto Start
Attack
align tank
Looper
scan for tank
if tank not found then Start
if tank within range then Boom
if enemydist > 5 then do Movetank
goto Looper
Boom
fire at tank
fire at tank
fire at tank
goto Looper
Movetank
detect at tank direction
if not obstructed then Go
if obstacletype = 2 then Go
if obstacletype > 6 then Attack
if obstacletype = 6 then Turn
fire at obstruction
goto Movetank
Turn
turn right 3
goto Movetank
Go
move forward 1
resume
----------------
-- Dave Taylor
Intuitive Systems
Mountain View, California
taylor@limbo.intuitive.com or {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylor
Newsgroups: rec.sys.mac.games
Subject: Review: "Omega" from Origin Systems
Reply-To: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor)
Distribution: world
Organization: Intuitive Systems, Mountain View, CA: +1 (415) 966-1151
[the following is based on another review written for publication...]
OMEGA -- CyberTank Engineering for Fun
(C) Copyright 1990 by Dave Taylor
"Good Morning. As a new member of the Organization for Strategic Intelligence,
your first assignment is to use the neural cybertank design and simulation
system on your computer to help us create an unbeatable cyber, or automated
tank."
"We recognize that this might be a challenging task, so we are making available
to you the 200 page CyberTank Engineer's Notebook document for your reading, as
well as many other items of information and sample cybertanks for your
education."
"Since our vetting process revealed to us that you have an Apple Macintosh
computer, we have arranged for a copy of the OMEGA Mac Cybertank simulation to
arrive with this recording. Characterized by an easy to use interface and a
complete implementation of the Cybertank "AI" programming language, it should
prove more than sufficient to get you well on the way to some tough and powerful
cybertanks."
"To further aid you in understanding, attached please find OSI Report
00234-BA-O/3, Common Questions and Answers About Omega."
"Message Ends."
Official OSI Report 00234-BA-O/3 DELTA-4 Classification
Common Questions and Answers About OMEGA
Q: What is OMEGA?
A: A sophisticated and well engineered high tech tank programming and
simulation program. Based on the original CoreWars program as created in
the late 1960's, OMEGA is for those of you that like games that are more
thinking and exploration exercises than hand-eye coordination tests.
Q: What's a CyberTank?
A: A cybertank consists of the following elements; a chassis, including armor,
weaponry, and similar, and a tank AI module, which is the 'brains' of the tank.
When designing a tank, you can choose from a great number of different weaponry,
engine, and armor options, relative to your credit level (which is a function of
how well the tanks you design perform in combat simulation or "validation") and
then are expected to spend most of your time designing the program that "runs"
the tank.
Q: Cybertank AI module?
A: Let's look at an incredibly simple example:
START
DO SEARCH
DO DESTROY
BRANCH TO START
That gives us a very simple tank that can move around until it finds something
worth shooting at (an enemy tank or the enemy headquarters), at which point it
will sit and shoot until dead or the target is destroyed. In the actual
simulation, however, you'll want more sophisticated tanks than that, like the
competition-winning AI module attached below. Note its use of scanning and
identification of obstacles to improve the sophistication of the movement
and attack sequences too.
Q: What does the simulator look like?
A: Well, we can't include graphics here, but the display is typical of
the types of graphics one sees in a PC game ported to the Macintosh.
A typical display has lots of buttons, dials, and status indicators,
including, during cyber evaluation time, the following items:
F = Fuel Remaining,
I = Internal Damage,
A = Armor Damage,
T = Tread Damage,
S = Scanner Damage,
W = Weapon Damage,
SL = Scanner Lock,
DS = Defense Shield,
LD = Listener Disengaged,
T = Total number of battles to be simulated,
B = Battles previously fought,
S = number of successful battles,
R = number of active Cybertanks remaining.
Q: Do I need a security clearance?
A: To enter the Organization for Strategic Intelligence you will have to submit
to a retina scan to verify your identity, and thereafter that, coupled with your
self-selected password, will be sufficient to allow you to enter the simulation.
Q: Is the game fun?
A: Something this serious should hardly be considered a game, per se, but
for the purposes of this document, yes, it is fun, and it's the kind of game
that a group of people could get enthused about and swap tank designs and
such, pitting them against each other in various simulated environments.
Q: What does the reviewer think of it?
A: (excerpts from a classified review)
"...of the many thinking games I have for my Macintosh, OMEGA is one of the
finest, allowing my friends and I to compete for best tank design in a such a
way that we don't have to be all in th same room (with a stack of computers) at
the same time, but can still have lots of fun anyway."
"...quite playable, with the graphics - non-Mac and clearly a direct translation
from MS-DOS P being very slick. The amount of effort that has been put into the
documentation also makes the CyberTank Engineering Notebook quite enjoyable
reading."
Q: Nothing bad?
A: (excerpts from a classified review)
"... on the down side, it's a bit confusing to take all the steps needed to go
from a tank design to being able to create a simulation and have the tank a part
of the simulation."
"...as usual, the game only uses a Plus-size screen image, so if you have a
larger display as I do, you're stuck with it all in the top left corner.
Support for larger screens would be especially nice during combat simulation."
00234-BA-O/3 ENDS
OMEGA for the Apple Macintosh, $49.95
Origin Systems
136-B Harvey Rd, Londonderry, NH 03053
(800) 999-4939
Also available for MS-DOS, Apple II, Commodore,
Amiga and Atari computers.
--------- Attachment 1:
* CyberTank AI Module Listing by Steve Cantrell, Origin Systems
Start
scanface = 1
Scan
if scanface = 8 then Circle
scan for tank
if tank found then Attack
rotate right 1
scanface = scanface + 1
goto Scan
Circle
scan for tank
if tank found then Attack
rotate right 2
do Movetank
goto Start
Attack
align tank
Looper
scan for tank
if tank not found then Start
if tank within range then Boom
if enemydist > 5 then do Movetank
goto Looper
Boom
fire at tank
fire at tank
fire at tank
goto Looper
Movetank
detect at tank direction
if not obstructed then Go
if obstacletype = 2 then Go
if obstacletype > 6 then Attack
if obstacletype = 6 then Turn
fire at obstruction
goto Movetank
Turn
turn right 3
goto Movetank
Go
move forward 1
resume
----------------
-- Dave Taylor
Intuitive Systems
Mountain View, California
taylor@limbo.intuitive.com or {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylorleipold@eplrx7.uucp (Walt Leipold) (05/04/90)
Taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) writes: >[Most of a glowing review of the Mac version of Omega omitted...] > >Q: Is the game fun? >A: Something this serious should hardly be considered a game, per se, but >for the purposes of this document, yes, it is fun, and it's the kind of game >that a group of people could get enthused about and swap tank designs and >such, pitting them against each other in various simulated environments. > >Q: What does the reviewer think of it? >A: (excerpts from a classified review) > >"...of the many thinking games I have for my Macintosh, OMEGA is one of >the finest, allowing my friends and I to compete for best tank design in a >such a way that we don't have to be all in the same room (with a stack of >computers) at the same time, but can still have lots of fun anyway." > >"...quite playable, with the graphics -- non-Mac and clearly a direct >translation from MS-DOS -- being very slick. The amount of effort that >has been put into the documentation also makes the CyberTank Engineering >Notebook quite enjoyable reading." Ahem... Quite playable? *Slick* graphics? This is some kind of sick joke, right? This game was completely unplayable, with absolutely the worst graphics and user interface I have ever seen. The cutesy little routine you've got to go through to start each game (push a button, enter your name, enter your password, sit through a fake retinal scan, hit Enter to verify the retinal scan, hit Enter to enter the OSI development building...) is tiresome even the first time through. A simple "Open..." dialog to open a cybertank document would have been sufficient. The font used throughout Omega is completely unreadable, which I find inexcusable in a text-based game. It's about sixteen points high (but unreadable anyway), so you can't see more than about fourteen lines of your program at one time, and there's no Font menu for you to pick a better font. (In fact, I don't think Origin uses the TextEdit routines to draw their text, which might explain, but not excuse, the garbage.) The graphics in the satellite view (basically a bird's-eye view of the battlefield) are lousy, and zooming in or out is painfully slow. Also, the sound effects are embarassingly bad. The windows are _busy_, with extra-wide 'shaded' borders and gratuitous screw heads holding the pieces together (really!), so (a) they waste a lot of precious screen space that would have been better used for information and (b) the clutter makes it difficult to separate the informational wheat from the chaff. Where there are any scroll bars at all, they don't look like Mac scroll bars -- this would be okay, except that they don't perform as well as Macintosh scroll bars, either. They're so unresponsive, it's clear that the programmers didn't use the Mac's Control Manager. Worst of all, the game doesn't use Mac menus. Instead, the Mac version uses the same home-grown, slow menu code that Origin Systems uses to impress the yokels in the IBM, Atari, and Commodore versions, which means it's ugly and laughably clumsy to a Macintosh user. Not only is there a heavy horizontal line between each pair of menu items (which makes the disabled horizontal line separating groups of menu items look _really_ silly), but each and every menu item has two little *rivets* on it, for crissake! I could go on and on, but you probably get the idea. I personally felt cheated when I saw how bad Omega was. For the high price ($49 or so) they could have had someone competent do the port to the Macintosh. Omega may have some excellent simulation capabilities buried in it somewhere, but I found the interface to be so _insulting_, I tossed my copy in the back of the closet the day after I received it. DISCLAIMER: I have no connection to Origin Systems, and it's very likely that I will _never_ have anything to do with them. >---------------- > -- Dave Taylor >Intuitive Systems >Mountain View, California -- "As long as you've lit one candle, Walt Leipold you're allowed to curse the darkness." (leipolw%esvax@dupont.com) -- -- The UUCP Mailer