HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jduffin@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Joshua Duffin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
Subject: Re: Galaxy: A modified battle algorithm
Date: 3 Jan 93 01:29:17 GMT
Organization: People-Net [pnet51], Minneapolis, MN.

amead@s.psych.uiuc.edu (Alan Mead) writes:
>andre@duteinq.et.tudelft.nl (Andre Verwey) writes:
>
>>If the hard limit on the number of battlerounds if for example set on
>>10, a fight can end undecided. This gives the defending player the time
>>to add new products on a planet, or fly away with the remaining fleet.
>
>>How do other people think about such a change?
>
>I like it :)  Notice that you would also have to modify the rules
>(code) so that "left over" combatants wouldn't bomb.  Ie, currently,
>any hostile ships alive after combat will bomb.
>
>Also, *I* think the limit should depend on the number of ships.  If
>there are two ships, they should get, maybe 2 shots (that is, 2 shots
>get fired, not each ships gets two shots).  If is one warship and 100
>drones, there should be, maybe 50-100 shots.  But if there are 100
>armed scouts on each side then I think there should only 200 shots
>(which wouldn't suffice for the two fleets to kill each other--at tech
>1.0, [1 1 1 1 0] ships have something like a 20% chence(?) of killing
>an identical ship).
>
>I also agree that this limit seems like it would be really easy to code.
>My C is pretty shakey.  I cannot make Galaxy 3.3 compile let alone alter 
>it :(
>
>-alan

Well, given that the current length of a game-turn is one or three years (I
don't remember which) it's pretty hard to justify running out of time to shoot
at each other.  Making battles more involved, though, sounds like a good idea
to me, since (as the only way to win is throw warfare now) the game will
ultimately be resolved through combat.  Given that, I think a greater level of
detail, possible ship actions, and such would be good for the game.


inet: jduffin@pnet51.orb.mn.org            | My other account is a Porsche.
uucp: {crash, tcnet}!orbit!pnet51!jduffin  |
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
From: koziol@void.ncsa.uiuc.edu (Quincey Koziol)
Subject: Re: Diplomacy rules ?
Organization: Nat'l Center for Supercomputing Applications
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 14:57:23 GMT

In article <999@rc1.vub.ac.be> Karel Driesen <kjdriese@vnet3.vub.ac.be> writes:
>I have been having a news server installed for 2 months now, and I am a
>PBM addict. It surprises me to find this group barely alive. The only
>thread I have seen yet is about Diplomacy. 
>
>Given the number and complexity of the games you find in for instance the
>Flagship magazine, I would think there is a lot more to discuss about. 
>
	Possibly this is due to people trying to compete in the very games
that they would be able to discuss knowledgably.  They don't want to give
away any useful information to a potential enemy/competetitor, so they just 
don't say anything.
	Also, possibly the reason that people play PBM games is because they
_don't_ have access to the Internet with all of it's free PBEM games.
	Personally, I believe that the overlap between people on the Internet
and people of play PBM games is vanishingly small...although you and I appear
to be one of them.

	Quincey
	koziol@ncsa.uiuc.edu
	Clawe, in Conquest & Destiny in the Sagittarian Arm
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
From: jimgar@scorch.apana.org.au (Jim Garner)
Subject: Nostromo Games
Organization: Craggenmoore public Unix system , Newcastle , Oz
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 12:40:54 GMT
Summary: author
Keywords: cosa nostra spymaster tarn machiavelli

This is just to let everyone know I'm here. I'm the author of all the
games originating from Nostromo Games in Australia. The only one
running in UK, USA and Germany so far is Cosa Nostra. Others are
Spymaster, Tarn Coronet and Machiavelli (australia only at the
moment).

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Garner B.Math (Newcastle NSW Australia) - jimgar@scorch.apana.org.au
From: gharris@jade.tufts.edu (George W. Harris)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
Subject: DM: Help Wanted With Roll-Up
Date: 2 Jan 93 21:41:30 GMT
Organization: Tufts University - Medford, MA


	OK, I just got a roll-up, and I'm at a loss as to what to do with
it.  The possibilities seem endless.  Let me give you the numbers:

	10-13-9-13-10-5-10.

	Okay, I figure TP is out because the WL is too low, and BA because I
couldn't really get high enough ST SZ combo, although I suppose I could 
manage without that.  Low SP suggests maybe AB or WS.  I just don't know.
Any suggestions?

--
The Hero Warriors       "The moment had come, I swallowed my gum,         
Veastian Arena          We knew there'd be blood on the sands pretty soon!
Fighting and Dying      The crowd held its breath, hoping that death      
Since Turn #117         Would brighten an otherwise dull afternoon."
From: tmyers@unlinfo.unl.edu (tim myers)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
Subject: Re: How to start galaxy.
Date: 1 Jan 1993 00:50:33 GMT
Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln	
Distribution: global
NNTP-Posting-Host: unlinfo.unl.edu

rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie (russell wallace) writes:
>Compiling on Unix needs a bit of modification(somewhat more for v3.x than 2.x)
>perhaps one of the people who've successfully ported it to a version of Unix
>could help you out here?

I've got Galaxy 3.31 modified to work on a Sun, compiled under gcc. Everything 
works except a couple problems recognizing oddly capitalized words. Email me
for the modified source.
I've also got a couple of the other utilities, ship, dist, map(plot is a Unix
utility so I changed the name), which also compile on a Sun under gcc.

>Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
>rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie

--
Toli the Curious, Shire of Mag Mor, Kingdom of Calontir
Tim Myers, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska
tmyers@unlinfo.unl.edu
From: picasso@acs.nntp-read.bu.edu (David Ondzes)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
Subject: Re: DM: Some rollups to try...
Date: 24 Dec 92 18:47:29 GMT
Organization: Boston University Information Technology Boston, MA USA
In-reply-to: itlm013@hamlet.ucdavis.edu's message of 23 Dec 92 23:37:41 GMT


> >#3 13-6-18-12-4-12-5
> 
> 	    SL
> ST 13 + 0 = 13
> CN  6 + 0 =  6
> SZ 18 + 0 = 18
> WT 12 + 5 = 17
> WL  4 + 2 =  6
> SP 12 + 5 = 17
> DF  5 + 2 =  7
> 
> They're a dying breed, but big, smart, quick slashers can still be run
> to a winning record, and AD.  Go out full bore, 10-6-6-RA-AM-None,
> in no body armor, and training skills.  Use a SH vs light (0,7), and
> BS vs. everything else (8,+).  I like this guy a lot!
> 
> Have fun.  You've got some interesting roll-ups there!
> 
> Trump
> dfcleary@ucdavis.edu

Dennis - way to call em ! I think my views are beginning to effect you;
except that you forgot to tell him to use the Hatchet.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
|       ***      ***       | My Pride and Joy:                         |
|      ***      ***        | 	Max 5-148 of Skull Smasher in Kaltos   |
|     ***      ***         |    record: 114-52-2  (1 of my original 5) |
|    ***  **  ***          |                                           |
|   ***  **  ***           | Motto:          Perfect Warrior:          |
|  ***  **  ***            |   Slash 'Em Up    9-3-4-17-17-17-17 SL    |
| ************             |                                           | 
|************ izard of Oz  | picasso@acs.bu.edu                        |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Active Arenas: 33,43,100,102                                         |
| coming soon to arena near you !                                      | 
------------------------------------------------------------------------




Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
From: elliott@halley.est.3m.com (Scott J. Elliott)
Subject: Looking for Gauge of Interest on Dungeon
Organization: 3M Company, 3M Center, Minnesota, USA
Distribution: rec
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 92 00:38:35 GMT

Remember the Pyramid, Jeremy, and all those hours you slaved away on
characters. 

Well, I was in the midst of writing a similar senario and would like
to get a feel for the interest out there. If there is enough, I may
finish it over the holidays and fire it up over the new year.

I would be a dungeon for around 7th level players with the same "last
man alive" theme, although I am also toying with 2 stages, first a
team makes it out, then they go against each other in a second
senario. 

Send me a short note if you would be interested in such a thing, and
if the interest is high, I'll ask for character generation over the
holidays. 

email me at:
elliott@halley.serc.3m.com

Scott Elliott
From: markhof@ls12r.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Ingolf Markhof)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
Subject: Galaxy Results Format
Keywords: galaxy
Date: 22 Dec 92 14:17:20 GMT
Organization: CS Department, Dortmund University, Germany
NNTP-Posting-Host: ls12r.informatik.uni-dortmund.de

I remember, there has been a proposal to change the results format of Galaxy,
to support parsing of the results by tools. Something like "Record Numbers"
was proposed...

In contrast, I'd not like to see such a change in the results. I'm currently
writing a parser for Galaxy results in a yacc/lex environment. I'm almost
finished and would not like to change all the stuff again. I guess, the same
ius true for many other people, too.

Anyway, I'd like to have a small change in the galaxy rules to support
parsing. This change of rules is related to the rules of names in Galaxy.
It would be _very_ nice to restrict the allowed names in Galaxy: All names
should be identifiers in the sense of programing languages, i.e. they should
be forced to start with a letter. Moreover, any Galaxy keywords form the
section headings should be reserved, i.e. "Status of Players" yields three
keywords: Status, of, Players.
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
From: jas@rdii.com (Jim Smith)
Subject: DM: Icky Roll-up
Keywords: DM, Duelmasters
Organization: Racal-Dana Instruments, Inc.
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 23:12:46 GMT


Well, due mostly to all the great help I got from everyone on the net, 
I did pretty good with my first DM fight.  My slasher beat a TP, the 
striker KILLED (!) a PS, the Lunger lost (barely) to an AB and my 
basher also barely lost to another basher. The guy I killed was only
(7-2-0,13) but I was still surprised that I killed him.  Thanks to all
for the help and suggestions, especially to John White and David Ondzes.
If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to post a summary of the fights
after the New Year when I have a little more time.

Anyways, I DA'd my fifth guy, and the roll-up I got to replace him looks 
kinda sad:

13-3-15-5-13-12-9

I like having the 3 CN, but I sure wish I could swap the WT and the SP.
I was thinking of a 17-3-15-9-17-12-11 basher. (The 9 WT and 11 DF would
allow him to use a GS or a GA.)  Another possible option would be to go
19-3-15-5-19-12-11 basher, give him a maul and train ST and WL to 21.
(Great for bloodfueding.)  If any one else has a better idea, I'd love
to hear it.

Jim Smith aka Mundamugu, witchdoctor, headshrinker and team manager of 
Zulus from Hell, Duelmasters arena 58
-- 
jas@rdii.com                 | "The speed of the leader determines the rate
James A. Smith, Sr. Engineer |  of the pack." - Wayne Lukas
Racal-Dana Instruments Inc.  | "If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never
4 Goodyear St. Irvine, CA    |  changes." - E. Wilson
From: arkoff@sun.lclark.edu (Gary Arkoff)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm
Subject: Address for Feudal Lords?
Date: 29 Dec 92 06:42:03 GMT
Article-I.D.: lclark.1992Dec29.064203.11509
Organization: Lewis & Clark College, Portland OR

A number of years ago, I was involved in a PBM game called Feudal Lords.  Is
it still around, and if so, does anyone have the address?  As I recall, it
was run both by the guy who wrote the program and by Flying Buffalo.  I
used to play through the guy who wrote it, and would prefer his address.  
Never-the-less, any information would be appreciated.  Please respond by email.

-Gary
	
-- 
"The question is not, can animals reason? Nor, can they talk?  But, can
they suffer?"    -Jeremy Bentham, philosopher, 1748-1832.

                   Gary Arkoff --   arkoff@lclark.edu
From: nider@mavenry.UUCP
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: reply to "Why are PC graphics so horrible?"
Date: 2 Jan 93 13:45:25 GMT
X-CitNet-ID: 82592


 The reason why PC graphics are so horrible is the sloppinest of the 
programers.  You'll find that some games for the PC are starting to set the 
standard of how games can be programmed (take a look at Maximum Overkill, 
SNES can't even try to make something that looks that good, but then, that 
needs memory, at least 4 megs to run).  Also, SNES has a good graphics chip 
inside, while PC's have to basicly rely on emulators to do most of the 
graphics movements.  Though with a good computer, there doesn't exist that 
much of  a problem.  As 386 is now the standard for good software, expect 
better games to be programmed.
From: cbusch@ub.d.umn.edu (Chris)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: how to do modem games
Date: 27 Dec 1992 14:59:23 -0600
Organization: University of Minnesota, Duluth
NNTP-Posting-Host: ub.d.umn.edu

   I am interested in making a two player game that uses a modem.  I
would need to do the following: initiate a call, recieve a call,
send/receive data, hangup a call.  It is not terribly speed intensive
since it is a take turns kind of game.  Do I need to handle interrupts
and that sort of thing? (I would prefer not to unless it is necessary.)


--
Chris Busch   CBUSCH@ub.d.umn.edu
"C++ is the language of choice."
"The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore,
    be reguarded as a criminal offense." - E. W. Dijkista 
"Don't ask 'why would you do that?' instead ask 'why wouldn't you do that?'"
From: shebs@apple.com (Stan Shebs)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Empire History (was: Strategy algorithms)
Date: 3 Jan 93 21:23:34 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.programmer
Distribution: inet
Organization: Apple Computer Inc.

In article <BzzpHn.9oE@cs.uiuc.edu>, wang@cs.uiuc.edu (Eric Wang) wrote:
> Still dreaming about an open-architecture Empire that allows us to write
> our own plug-and-play computer opponents ...

<shameless plug>

No need to dream, why not help out with Xconq 7.0?  Not only does it
provide you with a game design language so that you can experiment with
different kinds of games, but there is also a mechanism for attaching
specific kinds of computer opponents to specific games and or even to
designated sides within a game!

Older versions of Xconq have had rather poor computer play, but
version 7 is a major rewrite/redesign, and it now includes a hierarchy
of strategy/goal/plan/task/action objects that, even in its current
incomplete state, results in much more persistent and aggressive players.
Another advantage of the explicit goal-directed behavior code is that
it is much easier to extend and less mystifying than previously.

Xconq 7.0 is not officially released yet, but I have been making
pre-releases available regularly, on ftp.uu.net, and am always happy
to get contributions and assistance from talented hackers!  Mail me
if you want to know more!

Stan Shebs
shebs@apple.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: mstowski@seas.gwu.edu (Mike Mstowski)
Subject: COMANCHE GAME DEMO WHERE?
Keywords: COMANCHE DEMO PROGRAM
Organization: George Washington University
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 19:56:06 GMT

  Does anyone know where a demo program of COMANCHE is on the net?
  COMANCHE by NOVALOGIC I believe?  A pretty awesome VGA/386 game(FYI). 

  Thanks
From: mike.mcaulay@spacebbs.com (Mike Mcaulay) 
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Why are PC graphics so horrible?
Date: 2 Jan 93 17:58:00 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: SPACE BBS - Menlo Park, CA - 10 Lines + 4gB - 415-323-4193
Reply-To: mike.mcaulay@spacebbs.com (Mike Mcaulay) 


VKS>        I rented a Super Nintendo for a couple of days and was totaly amaze
VKS>by its graphics capabilities.  The question I have is why can the PC not do
VKS>the same things that the SNES can.  The SNES double and triple scrolls with
VKS>slow down, and it easily moves large sprites around the screen(street fight
VKS>and tmtm 4).  The SNES is based on an 8 bit proccessor, while most pcs this
VKS>are based on 32 bit processors.  Why don't we see such high quality games o
VKS>PCs?  The CPU is definetely powerfull enough, and the resolution is higher
VKS>the SNES.

The SNES has hardware dedicated to sprite management, scrolling,
rotation, etc.  The PC does not.

M.
---
 . SLMR 2.1 . Giant meteor, KILL ME NOW!!!!!
                                                                                                                                
----
SPACE BBS - Menlo Park, CA - 10 Lines - BoardWatch Top Ten BBS
415-323-4193 (v.32bis) - 4gB (50,000 files) + Wx, UPI News, etc.
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: vanderby@mprgate.mpr.ca (David Vanderbyl)
Subject: Triple Buffering: NOT!
Reply-To: vanderby@mprgate.mpr.ca (David Vanderbyl)
Organization: MPR Teltech Ltd.
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 92 18:55:05 GMT

eker@loria.fr (Steven Eker) writes:
>If your frame redraw code takes longer than one video frame, one way of speeding
>things up is to use triple buffering rather than double buffering.
[explanation deleted]

Triple buffering is completely useless. (Almost) Here's why.

Let's say your screen redraw takes 0.9 of the frame rate time.
No problem, right?  You simply draw each frame and wait for
the vertical retrace.

Now let's say your screen redraw takes 1.1 of the frame rate time.
If the frame rate is 1/30 second per frame then your redraw takes
1.1/30 of a second.  So in 1 second you need to draw 30 frames for
a total of 1.1/30 * 30 = 1.1 seconds.  It doesn't matter how many
buffers you use, you can't do 1.1 seconds worth of drawing in 1
second.

To the person who posted their triple buffering idea:
Please state that you idea is just that, an idea. (and in this
case not a very good one.)  It will save a lot of people from
being misled.
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: jmunkki@vipunen.hut.fi (Juri Munkki)
Subject: Re: Triple Buffering: Maybe..
Summary: Not entirely serious. ;-)
Reply-To: jmunkki@vipunen.hut.fi (Juri Munkki)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1992 23:43:22 GMT

In article <1992Dec26.163436.11402@blkbox> collins@blkbox (Chad R. Collins) writes:
>	Now, of course you are going to loose a bit of time copying the
>screens, but 32-bit copying is pretty darn quick. The question is, would
>this elimate the strobing effect? Or, as a more memory efficient way,
>just use one visible screen and do the copying during the vertical retrace,
>elimating the page flipping all together.

Up until now, this thread was pretty much hardware independent... Copying
frame buffers can be a very time-consuming business, depending on what kind
of hardware you are running on. It takes ages to copy a 640x480x8bit frame
buffer on most personal computers. (Ages > time for one frame.)

I guess you are talking about PCs and 320 x something resolution... IMHO,
most computers are now so fast that game designers should move on to higher
resolutions. Resolution independent code is the ultimate solution, but it
does cause some problems to those who are used to thinking about raster
graphics and sprites.

-- 
  Juri Munkki					       Windsurf: fast sailing
 jmunkki@hut.fi					      Macintosh: fast software
From: ewebber@access.digex.com (Eric Sean Webber)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Great Game Design libs and tools for TC++
Date: 28 Dec 1992 04:01:20 GMT
Organization: DIVERSIFIED ETC. P.O. BOX 952 Greenbelt, MD 20770 USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: access.digex.com

Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Great Game Design libs and tools for TC++
Summary: 
Expires: 
Followup-To: 
Distribution: 
Organization: DIVERSIFIED ETC. P.O. BOX 952 Greenbelt, MD 20770 USA
Keywords: 


To everyone who designs games with Turbo C++, I just wanted to say that
the folks at WGT make an excellent set of libs and tools.  Barry and Chris
Egerter of London, Ontario have just released the following tools and
libs that are absolutely utilitarian.  All are 320x200x256
   
     A Sprite Creator that facilitates designing and animating up to 200
     different frames per sprite file.


     A sprite animation library with animation functions for up to 40
     different independantly animated characters on the screen at a time.  

     A Mapmaker and Map library with 4 way scrolling that supports an
     incredible 500 characters on a screen at a time.

     Custom font creation capabilites

     There are even more features that
     I would be happy to explain as I am a user of it.  Better yet
     you could talk to those who put this great set of tools together, 
     Barry and Chris Egerter who are on the Internet at:
     
                 egerter@obelix.gaul.csd.uwo.ca
  
     I should make perfectly clear that Barry and Chris have not asked me
     to do this, and that I hope that they do not mind.  These guys are  
     very supportive and will answer any of your questions and this is one
     of the reasons I posted this.
From: jmunkki@vipunen.hut.fi (Juri Munkki)
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
Subject: Re: Jerky animation (Was: The Correct Way to Control Game Speed)
Date: 21 Dec 92 10:44:45 GMT
Reply-To: jmunkki@vipunen.hut.fi (Juri Munkki)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology

In article <1992Dec19.231621.22521@cs.uoregon.edu> mkelly@mystix.cs.uoregon.edu (Michael A. Kelly) writes:
>But is the Apple 13" High-Res RGB monitor interlaced or non-interlaced?
>I can't find the answer in any of my books....

The 13" display is not interlaced. I don't know if Apple has any interlaced
displays, but if they have, it's probably just the very low end displays.

-- 
  Juri Munkki					       Windsurf: fast sailing
 jmunkki@hut.fi					      Macintosh: fast software
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer
From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold)
Subject: Re: Timed SCREEN CAPTURE vs. HOTKEY activated
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 07:26:29 GMT


>    I am looking for a timed SCREEN CAPTURE facility so as to circumvent
>those targeted applications whose exclusion of other keystrokes prevents
>HOTKEY activated screen capture programs from getting a chance to kick in.

Look no further than PCXDUMP, latest version is 7.1 I think.  It'll
trigger after a certain amount of time, it'll install its keyboard
handler after a certain amount of time (this works with almost every
program), it'll even count disk accesses.  Dumps weird stuff like
Wolf-3D, and lots of other good features.  Do an archie search on
"pcxd" and you should find it (I think the file is PCXDMP71.ZIP but
I'm not sure).
-- 
It is better to remain childless than to father an orphan.  -- Tom Weller
Newsgroups: rec.games.programmer