HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 92 19:15:39 +0300
From: Grigoris Patrinos <patrinos@iesl.forth.gr>
Organization: IESL-FORTH, P.O.Box 1527, Heraklio, Crete, Greece 711 10
	tel: +30(81)239757, fax: +30(81)239735, tlx: 262389 CCI
To: xtank@eng.umd.edu
Subject: Xtank problems on HP

Hello, 
I tried to install Xtank on an HP9000/720 and I face a lot of problems.
It runs HP-UX 8.05 and I used the HP cc compiler. I have maken a lot
of changes on the Makefiles and on the code but the program refuses
to run. I know that you hadnt tested it on an HP but I dont know what
else to do.
The syptoms of Xtank on an Hp are the following:
1) it runs only at play/players or play/customized but without robots
2) it doesnt run at play/robots or play/standard at all
   it just draws the screen and then everything freezes.the same
   happens when i use robots on the other play modes.
3) it usually produces core with various error messages
   (bus error, io trap, segmentation violation...)
4) it passes succesfully all the compilation stages and at the 
   end of linking i get an "error code 4" (????)
5) although it is compiled with -g option i never succeded to debug it
   i was always getting messages with a prefix "unknown"
   (unknown file, unknow location, ...)
6) sometimes, while i was trying to debug it i got a message 
   "virtual alarm..." or something like this

I put a print statement inside the sigalrm handler and i noticed
that when i run the program in players mode for example, the 
sigalrm handler is then  called continuously.But when i try 
to run it with robots, after some calls of the sigalrm handler 
the program crashes
i will appreciate any kind of information i will get from you.
thanks in advance 
greg patrinos
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: nabil@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Aaron Nabil)
Subject: Neato vehicle design system
Organization: Explosive Space Modulators - R - Us
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 09:37:36 GMT


Tres slick!  

On my machine the last bit of the escher border of a menu gets erased when you
toggle a selection.  Is it just me or is this a known problem?
-- 
Aaron
nabil@cse.ogi.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer,rec.games.xtank.play
From: lidl@pix.com (Kurt J. Lidl)
Subject: Xtank 1.3e has been released
Organization: Pix -- The company with no adult supervision.
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 03:20:36 GMT

Obviously, from the above subject line, you can tell that we
have finally released the latest and greatest version of
Xtank.

FTP the distribution while it is hot off the pre-processor
here at Pix.COM.

You can get it from:

	ftp.eng.umd.edu:/pub/xtank/xtank1.3e.tar.Z
and
	azathoth.sura.net:/pub/xtank/xtank1.3e.tar.Z

(The latter site is better connected and faster than
the 3/60 that is ftp.eng.umd.edu.  Azathoth is a
DECstation 5000 that has over twice as much memory,
and much faster disk drives. You probably want to
snarf your copy from there, but what the hey, *I* don't
care, really.)

WARNING -- We would only rate this a ALPHA quality
release -- there are known rough edges, and spotty
support for some new features.  Hopefully, we will
get a more stable release out in short order.  Enjoy
it for what it is worth.

As for not making the release target we had set for
last night -- would you believe me if I said it wasn't
*my fault*?

Locusts!

Flood!

Fire!

(A trip to almost the wrong airport to pick
up a friend flying back from California?)

-Kurt
-- 
/* Kurt J. Lidl (lidl@pix.com)    | Unix is the answer, but only if you */
/* UUCP: uunet!mimsy!pixcom!lidl  | phrase the question very carefully. */
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: stripes@pix.com (Josh Osborne)
Subject: Re: Status of xtank1.3e
Keywords: xtank, status, slug-snot
Organization: Pix Technologies -- The company with no adult supervision
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1992 16:25:44 GMT

In article <Bttzy4.4wG@pix.com> lidl@pix.com (Kurt J. Lidl) writes:
[...]
>1) Josh is getting close to having a first cut at the
>   new console driver.  It's a lot cleaner, and a lot
>   easier to modify.  Now, as soon as the bars move,
>   we're set...  Oh yeah, those colors are pretty
>   hideous too...

The colors were never hideous, just all white (or were they all red when 
high?).  Anyway that's fixed now.  The newconsole code is easyer to read more
powerful, and half the size of the old console code.  I havn't benchmarked it,
but except for the start-up it should be at least as fast as the old code.
Currently the newconsole looks almost 100% like ther old one to players (the
ammo, and money now change colors, and the armor bars are a little dumpy
looking - but that's life), but that may change before release.

It will also be *way* easyer to keep diffrent patches to the console in sync.

[...]
>We're seriously looking at next weekend for a release.  [...]

In fact a Sunday release is almost defininate.  Honest.  Would I lie to
you?
-- 
           stripes@pix.com              "Security for Unix is like
      Josh_Osborne@Real_World,The          Multitasking for MS-DOS"
      "The dyslexic porgramer"                  - Kevin Lockwood
We all agree on the necessity of compromise.  We just can't agree on
when it's necessary to compromise.       - Larry Wall
From: lidl@rodan.UU.NET (Kurt J. Lidl)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Re: installing the game
Date: 9 Sep 1992 18:41:38 -0400
Organization: AlterNet -- Falls Church, Virginia, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net

In article <1992Sep9.213314.18640@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> richard@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Richard Weidner) writes:
>Hi gang. I know xtank is just an alpha (1.38e alpha?)
                                         ^^^^^
Maybe you meant 1.3e?

>But, I would like to archive the source to xtank and leave
>just the executable and any files it requires on line. 

OK.

>Is there a reason for pointing XTANK_DIR back to the root of the source tree?

Nope.  Just that in the typical place where we do the developement,
we have the source code /src/pub/xtank as the root of the tree, and
then mirror the source code into /build/xtank.

>Does xtank use the source tree to find data files? 

Well, not really.

>Why are you including old stuff in the new version? ./old/old/*

It has proven to be of interest to people who want to learn about
what used to work in Xtank, and also in the hopes that someone
might read some of the old programs, decide that they were too
cool or could be hacked in a interesting manner, and then update
them to run under the latest system.  Just think of them
as historical baggage that we like to keep around.

>What are all of the extra files, directories in the distribution for? 

Documentation, etc.  We keep stuff there so it's all together.
Be glad we don't have the E-Mail archives and USEnet archives
in there also :-)

>They do not seem to be needed for the game.

>Can you weed the distribution or include a superfluous files list?

Well, basically, you need the stuff in Help, Mazes, Vehicles and players,
plus whatever binaries you want to have.  The scripts in Bin are
also useful, if you have lots of binaries in the same directory.

-Kurt
-- 
/* Kurt J. Lidl (lidl@uunet.uu.net)   | Unix is the answer, but only if you */
/*                                    | phrase the question very carefully. */
/* Don't even think of confusing my opinions with my employer's opinions!   */
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: boyns@newshub.sdsu.edu (Mark Boyns)
Subject: Re: Xtank and Sound
Organization: San Diego State University, College of Sciences
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 15:12:37 GMT

Kevin Richards (METOFF) (kr1@csug.cs.reading.ac.uk) wrote:
: Hi,
: 	I noticed there was no inclusion of the sound facilities in the latest release.
:   Yeah, okay I know your really busy !!!
: 	
:   Could the guy responsible for them usher up some new ones for 1.3e release.
:    		

This is true, I am really busy.  The only thing that I have done with
1.3e is compiled it to see what was added/changed/fixed.  I do plan on
making 1.3e patches but I currently to not have time.  I have not looked
at the code yet so I don't know how much work it will take, I assume it
will not take much.

I realize that once you play xtank with sound it is hard to play without it.
I will make the patches as soon as I can, but don't plan on them for a few weeks.

Mark
-- 
Mark Boyns
boyns@sciences.sdsu.edu
Xref: sparky rec.games.xtank.programmer:466 rec.games.xtank.play:259
From: lidl@rodan.UU.NET (Kurt J. Lidl)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer,rec.games.xtank.play
Subject: Re: FAQ correction
Date: 13 Sep 1992 19:57:38 -0400
Organization: AlterNet -- Falls Church, Virginia, USA
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net

In article <bird.716412897@sevior> bird@sevior.physics.ubc.ca (Tony Ambardar) writes:
>A slight correction to the FAQ. Point #16 about DECstations is incorrect.

Right.  The version of hte FAQ shipped with the game in Help/xtank.FAQ
is wrong.  The latest version of the posted to the net doesn't have
16 -- mostly because I fixed the problem before we shipped it, and
then forgot to copy in the new FAQ.

>It is not necessary to have gcc to compile properly. I believe on my system
>( DECstation 3100,Ultrix 4.2a, DEC cc, X11R4 w/Motif ) I only had to modify
>Src/Imakefile slightly: I just uncommented the commented-out lines in the
>MipsArchitecture #ifdef. Of course, it's not surprising it works for me,
>since I submitted the original patches. But I'd be curious to hear about
>DEC cc compile attempts that fail.

I don't need the "extra" stuff in the Imakefile on the Ultrix 4.2A
system I compiled it on.

Look for a new release tonight or tomorrow.  We have the threading
working under 386bsd!  (Other goodies too!)

-Kurt
-- 
/* Kurt J. Lidl (lidl@uunet.uu.net)   | Unix is the answer, but only if you */
/*                                    | phrase the question very carefully. */
/* Don't even think of confusing my opinions with my employer's opinions!   */
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: stripes@pix.com (Josh Osborne)
Subject: Re: Neato vehicle design system
Organization: Pix Technologies -- The company with no adult supervision
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 12:54:14 GMT

In article <cl4yj!n@rpi.edu> lewism@vccsouth16.its.rpi.edu (M.C. Lewis) writes:
[...]
>What is the current favorite (if any)?

A SimmNet (SimNet?) like protocall with lots of stuff that's not needed (like
aircraft) removed and lots of goo that's hard to do (FP numbers over a net)
also junked, with xtank-only stuff slaped on.  I'm shooting for about
1K/sec usage @10FPS assuming 2 tanks on screen both fireing 3 shots/frame
and making 2 turret adjusts + 1 corse adjust/frame.

>                                         Why not use something similar to
>Netrek's?  

I had intended to look at it, but the thought escaped me.  Is it described
somewhere?  Or can someone explain it to me :-)   Or is it UTSL time?
-- 
           stripes@pix.com              "Security for Unix is like
      Josh_Osborne@Real_World,The          Multitasking for MS-DOS"
      "The dyslexic porgramer"                  - Kevin Lockwood
We all agree on the necessity of compromise.  We just can't agree on
when it's necessary to compromise.       - Larry Wall
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: lewism@vccsouth16.its.rpi.edu (M.C. Lewis)
Subject: Re: Neato vehicle design system
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 23:07:51 GMT

> Known, but unlikely to get fixed by me (I have 15 other things to do first,
> incl moving the vdesign stuff to a diffrent program so it doesn't bloat the
> server part of xtank, which of corse I have to make first, and before I can
> do that I need a network protocall, but before that...)
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

What is the current favorite (if any)?  Why not use something similar to
Netrek's?
From: beaubien@sunlite.westford.ccur.com (Mark Beaubien)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: subscribe
Date: 11 Sep 92 19:55:06 GMT
To: xtank@eng.umd.edu

subscribe
please add me the group.
Question: I have a Sun Sparcstation 2, color display, openwin V.2, OS 4.1.1
is there a preconfigured binary I could ftp from some kind soul?  Having
troubles getting it to build ...

Thanks,
-Mark
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 08:41:02 edt
From: Sheeran_F@ndg.ceo.dg.com
To: xtank@eng.umd.edu, nabil@qiclab.scn.rain.com
Subject: Reply to: damage effects


CEO comments:
From: Sheeran F:NDG
Date: ## 09/11/92 10:33 ##
Give severe damage on one side the option of limiting turning -
ever drive a tractor? You got leftback and right back brakes on
seperate pedals so you can turn on a dime (if the dime is under a
rear tire!  Itd be cute to see this effect when armor clogs the 
treads - perhaps your tank would run like a three legged dog, bearing
to the left or right.  Since Im a race afficiando,  I would love the
challenge of my tank becoming less drivable, which would be alot more
apparent than merely being deprived of your radar, or simply dying
sooner than expected.
 
This game's combat system seems to be out of the Steve JAckson Games'
Car Wars, which had some other good ideas.  Even when you have NO
armor, you are not automatically dead, but shots procede to wipe out
various crucial subsystems, like you and the engine.
 
Perhaps take damage on individual turrets now and then? either a
weapon cant be used or a turret cant be aimed, or something.  We are
not as missle-crazed as the rest of the known world, so while the
obvious equation would be hits to top = weapon damage chance, maybe
try equating turret numbers with SIDES via pixel offsets?????????????

From: nabil@qiclab.scn.rain.com:dg-smtp
Date: ## 09/10/92 10:48 ##
See document for message.


Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: stripes@pix.com (Josh Osborne)
Subject: Re: Neato vehicle design system
Organization: Pix Technologies -- The company with no adult supervision
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 12:47:15 GMT

In article <1992Sep8.093736.24298@qiclab.scn.rain.com> nabil@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Aaron Nabil) writes:
>Tres slick!  
>
>On my machine the last bit of the escher border of a menu gets erased when you
>toggle a selection.  Is it just me or is this a known problem?

Known, but unlikely to get fixed by me (I have 15 other things to do first,
incl moving the vdesign stuff to a diffrent program so it doesn't bloat the
server part of xtank, which of corse I have to make first, and before I can
do that I need a network protocall, but before that...)

So what about the newconsole?  Did'ja look inside it?   :-)
-- 
           stripes@pix.com              "Security for Unix is like
      Josh_Osborne@Real_World,The          Multitasking for MS-DOS"
      "The dyslexic porgramer"                  - Kevin Lockwood
We all agree on the necessity of compromise.  We just can't agree on
when it's necessary to compromise.       - Larry Wall
From: michaell@cogs.susx.ac.uk (Michael Lazarou)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Problem with New Armour types
Date: 14 Sep 92 16:23:28 GMT
Organization: University of Sussex

I have Xtank 1.3f and I was testing the new armour types and have found that
using porcelain, crumple and new tungsten armours make you invincible. I first
found the problem when compiling with NO_GAME_BALANCE set so I figured that it
was my own fault, but after recompiling the whole lot with the normal settings
the armour still won't work. The only thing that I found that will affect it
is NUKES.

Has anyone else found any probs with the armour or have I goofed?

Machine: SUN 690MP
Compiler: system cc
COPTS -O4

Compiled with the following options:
-DX11 -DUNIX -DS1024x864 -DKEYPAD_DETECT  -DSTINGY_REDRAW -DBATCH_LINES
-DBATCH_POINTS  -DBATCH_COLOR_LINES  -DFAST_EXPLOS  -DCODE_SIZE=0x20000
-DSTACK_SIZE=0x8000 -DSUNOS4_0 -DTHREAD_SUNLWP -DMULTI_SYNC -DDYNALOAD
-DHAS_SINCOS

--
INSSOMNIAK
From: nabil@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Aaron Nabil)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: damage effects
Date: 10 Sep 92 12:49:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: qiclab.1992Sep10.124958.17004
Organization: Explosive Space Modulators - R - Us

I have a couple weeks before school starts, seems like a good enough time
to do some major hacking.  

In a fit of productivity I scratched out the beginnings of my damage
effect system.  Was going to make it rule based but it's so simple
I'm sticking with plain old code.

Any ideas on damage?  For compatibility, I'm making the armor red
zone the area in which damage occurs (execpt for the radar), you still
blow up if it gets punched down to 0.

This is what I have implemented already...

Any hits on the top of the vehicle disables the radar.

Hits to the read when the armor is in the red zone has a 25% chance of
knocking the cooling system down to 50% capacity.

A small start, but it works.  I added a message class called "R2D2" that
gives you (only) comentator-like warnings as you pick up damage.

-- 
Aaron
nabil@cse.ogi.edu
From: mccaslan@duncan.cs.utk.edu (a dancing marSUPial)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Tac Nukes
Date: 16 Sep 92 02:56:21 GMT
Distribution: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Organization: /blue/homes/mccaslan/.organization
NNTP-Posting-Host: duncan.cs.utk.edu

If anyone is interested, I've hacked the Tac Nuke code to make it
playable and game balanced as a Grenade Launcher.  I've shortened the
radius of the area effect, dropped the amount of damage significantly,
made it viable to carry two of them, but difficult to carry much more,
adjusted the fast explosion #ifdef so that the explosion is smaller and
cleaner, and fixed the damage algorithm to affect the side most exposed
with 100% of the calculated area effect damage, the closest two
sides with 25% of the calculated damage, and the top with 50% of
the damage.  All of this makes it fairly playable, rather than having
an ULTIMATE weapon, you have, basically, a grenade launcher that shoots
kinda slow moving bullets which are dodgeable but that go off on
the walls around you.  They are also slow loading and don't kill you
first off..takes two or three direct hits to torch a big tank, medusa
chasiss.  Anyhow, these patches are to  1.3e  and boy was i just
surprised to find out about 1.3f.  Further, they are currently just
hacks to the Nuke code.  What I want to do is replicate the nuke code
for grenade launchers complete with my hacks and then I'll make
the patches available if anyone is interested that is..
thanks,
later on,
don mccasland
From: bcolbert@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu (Brad Colbert)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Hey! 1.3e won't make!
Date: 13 Sep 92 16:38:32 GMT
Organization: Radford University
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

Well I just got version 1.3e and am trying to make it on a Sun Sparq.

It just isn't working out.  Looks like it can't find a defined type.  I
dont know what the deal is?  Here is what the message looks like...

grimm% make
making all in ./Src...
making all in ./Src/Programs...
rm -f tagman.o
cc -c -O4 /usr/lib/libm.il   -I/usr/include  -I. -I../Include     tagman.c
"tagman.c", line 171: warning: undeclared initializer name ANIM_WIN_WIDTH
"tagman.c", line 171: illegal initialization
"tagman.c", line 172: illegal initialization
"tagman.c", line 172: warning: undeclared initializer name ANIM_WIN_HEIGHT
"tagman.c", line 173: illegal initialization
"tagman.c", line 174: illegal initialization
"tagman.c", line 175: illegal initialization
*** Error code 1
make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `tagman.o'
Current working directory /sunlab/accounts/NotPub/xtank/Src/Programs
*** Error code 1
make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `all'
Current working directory /sunlab/accounts/NotPub/xtank/Src
*** Error code 1
make: Fatal error: Command failed for target `all'


All help would be appreciated.

Brad C.
-| bcolbert@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu |---------------------------------------
|                         Where you come from is gone,                       |
|             Where you thought you where going to never was there,          |
|         And where you are is no good unless you can get away from it.      |
|                     Where is there a place for you to be?                  |
|                                 No place.                                  |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mas4@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (MICHAEL ANTHONY STRAUSS)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: HELP!!! How do you get the .tar off the file
Date: 12 Sep 92 17:38:08 GMT
Organization: Lehigh University

I got the .Z off, now no matter how many different tar commands i use, i can't
get rid of the .tar end.  ANy help would be appriciasted.

                -Strauss
                -mas4@Lehigh.Edu
From: nabil@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Aaron Nabil)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: newconsole.c
Date: 9 Sep 92 11:03:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: qiclab.1992Sep9.110302.10997
Organization: Explosive Space Modulators - R - Us

Yes Josh, it's very nice.  Armor scales seem a little smaller though.

I think I'll take a stab at the message window, I don't like all of my
message types being scrolled off the bottom...

-- 
Aaron
nabil@cse.ogi.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer,rec.games.xtank.play
From: bird@sevior.physics.ubc.ca (Tony Ambardar)
Subject: FAQ correction
Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Distribution: na
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 19:34:57 GMT

A slight correction to the FAQ. Point #16 about DECstations is incorrect.
It is not necessary to have gcc to compile properly. I believe on my system
( DECstation 3100,Ultrix 4.2a, DEC cc, X11R4 w/Motif ) I only had to modify
Src/Imakefile slightly: I just uncommented the commented-out lines in the
MipsArchitecture #ifdef. Of course, it's not surprising it works for me,
since I submitted the original patches. But I'd be curious to hear about
DEC cc compile attempts that fail.

Tony Ambardar

Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: richard@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Richard Weidner)
Subject: installing the game
Organization: Image Analysis Systems Group, JPL
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 21:33:14 GMT

Hi gang. I know xtank is just an alpha (1.38e alpha?)
But, I would like to archive the source to xtank and leave
just the executable and any files it requires on line. 
Is there a reason for pointing XTANK_DIR back to the root of the source tree?
Does xtank use the source tree to find data files? 

Why are you including old stuff in the new version? ./old/old/*

What are all of the extra files, directories in the distribution for? 
They do not seem to be needed for the game. Can you weed the
distribution or include a superfluous files list?

Thanks
Xref: sparky rec.games.xtank.programmer:468 rec.games.xtank.play:261 comp.unix.bsd:5671 comp.windows.x:16636
From: stripes@pix.com (Josh Osborne)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer,rec.games.xtank.play,comp.unix.bsd,comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Xtank 1.3f is released
Date: 14 Sep 92 12:49:33 GMT
Organization: Pix Technologies -- The company with no adult supervision

In article <BuJxGr.GvK@pix.com> lidl@pix.com (Kurt J. Lidl) writes:
[...]
>New features:
It's not like Kurt to forget things, but he did.

  * Force Specials, you can now force all tanks in a game to have, or
  not to have any specials you want.

  * New game: madman, sort of combat with a disc.  You get points for
  killing only if you have the disc, or kill the tank with the disc.
  Not very fun for two players :-)

  * Something else, that I forget.
-- 
           stripes@pix.com              "Security for Unix is like
      Josh_Osborne@Real_World,The          Multitasking for MS-DOS"
      "The dyslexic porgramer"                  - Kevin Lockwood
We all agree on the necessity of compromise.  We just can't agree on
when it's necessary to compromise.       - Larry Wall
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.play