HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: estephen@netcom.com (E. Stephen Mack)
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
Subject: Re: Recommend these game, from Game Top 100?
Date: 2 Jan 93 12:12:55 GMT
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services

In a recent article, ninja@halcyon.com (Jonathan Roy) writes:

|    Anyone looked over the Games top 100 games of the year yet? [...]
| Connections - This is just Twixt, right?

My brother got CONNECTIONS for Christmas.  I haven't played Twixt, so
  I can't compare them.

The game consists of two players taking alternating turns of placing on
  a grid a tile with their color (red or white) and a line.

There are no ties -- one player will always win.  Games take two to
  five minutes or so.  Each player has 27 pieces.

There are two ways to win.  One is to make some kind of line connecting
  one side of the board to the opposite.  The other is to form an unbroken
  line surrounding one or more of your opponent's pieces.

The small problem with this game is that there are few strategies.  The
  rules mention that there are 51,000 variations, which means that many
  games are too similar.

The big problem with this game is that the player who moves first has a
  huge advantage.  My father and my two brothers and I were fascinated
  with trying to prove this advantage.  After learning the rules and
  playing a couple of games, it was rare for the first player to lose;
  we called these "upsets."  Since the games are so short, we played a
  lot.  In the course of 100 games or so, the first player to move won
  about 90% of the time in my estimation.

If you are interested in a game of this nature, by all means buy it.  I
  must say we did spend a lot of time with it at first.  But I doubt
  if any of us would play it again.  If you want a game with longevity,
  look elsewhere.  If you find it on sale very cheap, it would make
  an interesting case study of why a game doesn't work.


[estephen]		E. Stephen Mack		estephen@netcom.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
From: ninja@halcyon.com (Jonathan Roy)
Subject: Recommend these game, from Game Top 100?
Organization: The 23:00 News and Mail Service
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 06:00:53 GMT

   Anyone looked over the Games top 100 games of the year yet? A
number
of the games in the Abstract section look very cool, but I'd like some
recommendations before buying any of them... Here's some I'm
interested
in:
 
Terrace - looks and sounds cool. I really like Abalone, and this
  seems very similar. Anyone play it? :D
 
Quadrature - Looks interesting... Anyone?
 
Omnigon - The description sounds very cool, with no picture shown. I
   hope someone can tell me more about this one... 
 
Kinesis - Looks a little silly, but could surprise me... 
 
Batalo - This one looks neat and sounds neat, but something about it
  makes me think it's not too cool. I just don't know why I feel that 
  way... I hope someone can talk some about this one too. :)
 
Slide 5 - Looks like a funner Connect 4. :)
 
Octiles - Looks neat, but far to expensive... No matter how good it 
  is, I'd have to play it first.
 
Quintillions - In the list for 7 years. Based on Pentominoes from 
  Clarke's book. Isn't there an actuly "Pentominoes" game? If so, is
  this better? Either way, how fun IS this game??
 
Connections - This is just Twixt, right?
 
Shuttles - Looks silly, but lowcost at $15. Fun?
 
Traverse - Sounds neat, but no picture. Anyone? Anyone?
 
 
 Thanks for any recommendations. I play Chess, Go, Abalone, Pente,
Connet Four, and a few other abstract games, but I'd like
to get into some newer games that are more unique. :)
-- 
  F F  Jonathan Roy, of the Free Access Foundation    Email: ninja@halcyon.com
   A   Mail faf@halcyon.com for information, or FTP to halcyon.com:  /pub/faf/
  F F  Valheru, of the Galactic Bloodshed Development Team      GEnie: J.ROY18
 "Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design." - _RotJ_
From: kleber@husc11.harvard.edu (Gwydden)
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
Subject: Re: defects in abstract games
Date: 24 Dec 92 01:51:08 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc.kleber.725161868
 <kleber.725061503@husc.harvard.edu> <1992Dec23.145916.4269@ll.mit.edu>

nates@ll.mit.edu (Nate Smith) writes:

> "immune from capture" and "only need to surround him on 3 sides" ????
> which is correct?  is it that if it werent for this rule the king
> would have been immune, so this rule takes that away?  boy, that is a
> defect.

Sorry, I was unclear-- but yes, that is what I meant to say.  Since no one
can occupy the center square except the king, we institute a new special-
case rule to keep him from being invulnerable.

[...]

> a game without defects isnt necessarily good.  tic-tac-toe has no defects,
> but is hardly a "great abstract game".

Hmm-- I would disagree, actually; tic-tac-toe does have defects.  The
most obvious is that the minimax strategy is trivial, all perfect
games end in a draw, and the 3x3 and 3-in-a-row board size is arbitrary.
(of course, making the board size, #dimensions, and win-conditions 
variable is also a flaw, as the game then has too many variables... :-)
In Go, incidentally, people who understand the game far better than I do
assure me that the board size is not arbitrary, but that in truly 
understanding the game, one learns why the standard size is the perfect one.

--Michael Kleber                 I don't have an overactive imagination...
  kleber@husc.harvard.edu        I have an underactive reality...   --EG
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: Robert Schwartz <bobs@Think.COM>
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 13:56:39 EST
To: xtank@eng.umd.edu
Subject: How to subscribe to xtank mailing list?


Could somebody either add me to the xtank mailing list
or e-mail me on how to subscribe?  TIA

Bob Schwartz
bobs@think.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: andrew@award.demon.co.uk (Andrew Ward)
Subject: Re: How to subscribe to xtank mailing list? 
Distribution: world
Organization: Award Software Ltd
Reply-To: andrew@award.demon.co.uk
X-Mailer: Simple NEWS 1.90 (ka9q DIS 1.19)
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 09:24:20 +0000

In article <9212211856.AA23641@grendle.think.com> bobs@Think.COM writes:

>
>Could somebody either add me to the xtank mailing list
>or e-mail me on how to subscribe?  TIA
>

 ditto 

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew Ward                              andrew@award.demon.co.uk
2 Salisbury Road  Harpenden               Voice +44 (0)582 461743
Herts  AL5 5AY  UK                         Fax  +44 (0)582 462743
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 92 13:36:14 EST
From: rps@arbortext.com
To: xtank@eng.umd.edu
Subject: new version of Xtank?  bugs...

Hi.  I'm using Xtank 1.3d on SPARC machines (generally running on
a SPARCstation 2 or 10, displaying on SPARC 2s, 10s, HP snakes).
In Ultimate mode, the frisbee doesn't appear.  I looked through the source
and was unable to find any resource to describe it.  The frisbee is
definitely there, but invisible.

Also, I was displeased with the performance of the Panzy tank body, so
I modified it by quite a bit.  It now can carry considerably more, but
costs $2000000, so anybody that manages to kill it will get an
incredible amount of points (20000 points for an average tank).  I
also created another weapon called the Super Autocannon which does
more damage (15 points), but generates 15 heat and also costs $110000.
It seems to balance out pretty well.

Is there a later version of Xtank than 1.3f?  Where?  What new
features?

			Thanks, Ralph
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Re: How to subscribe to xtank mailing list? 
From: crreadle@miavx2.ham.muohio.edu
Date: 24 Dec 92 03:31:05 EDT
Distribution: world
Organization: Miami University, Hamilton campus

In article <725016260snz@award.demon.co.uk>, andrew@award.demon.co.uk (Andrew Ward) writes:
> In article <9212211856.AA23641@grendle.think.com> bobs@Think.COM writes:
> 
>>
>>Could somebody either add me to the xtank mailing list
>>or e-mail me on how to subscribe?  TIA
>>
> 
>  ditto 
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Andrew Ward                              andrew@award.demon.co.uk
> 2 Salisbury Road  Harpenden               Voice +44 (0)582 461743
> Herts  AL5 5AY  UK                         Fax  +44 (0)582 462743


ditto

-jugglre
From: kbj@po.CWRU.Edu (Kevin B. Jacobs)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Any luck with linux?
Date: 23 Dec 1992 16:12:17 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: kbj@po.CWRU.Edu (Kevin B. Jacobs)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


Anyone have any luck compiling x-tank under linux?  Or 386BSD?  and if
so, what kind of results have you gotten?

Many thanks, 
Kevin

-- 
---  Camber - Kevin  ---             | If the red slayer think he slays,
E-Mail:  kbj@po.CWRU.edu             |   Or if the slain think he is slain,
                                     | They know not what the subtle ways
quote by:  Ralf Waldo Emerson        |   I keep, and pass, and turn again.
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: stripes@pix.com (Josh Osborne)
Subject: Re: Any luck with linux?
Organization: Pix Technologies -- The company with no adult supervision
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 08:54:13 GMT

In article <1ha351INNhg@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> kbj@po.CWRU.Edu (Kevin B. Jacobs) writes:
>Anyone have any luck compiling x-tank under linux?  Or 386BSD?  and if
>so, what kind of results have you gotten?

The current release version should be just fine under 386BSD (in fact the
last release's only major change is 386BSD support...)
-- 
           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,alt.sys.intergraph
From: ken@cs.UAlberta.CA (Huisman Kenneth M)
Subject: compiling xtank under CLIX
Followup-To: poster
Keywords: xwindows SVR3 CLIX intergraph
Organization: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 04:24:51 GMT

I'm trying to port xtank to CLIX - intergraph's SVR3(?) unix, running on an
intergraph 2400 series machine.  Anyways, I've got it to compile, but it
will not run properly.

It doesn't seem to be handling the signals properly.  If I understand the
code correctly, it is using the signal() function to trap a timer signal
that it has set up for itself.  The program always terminates because it doesn't
trap the signal.  This occurs when you go to the play menu and start playing
( it usually draws the screen once then dies on the signal ).

Questions:

1. Has anyone ever in the past tried to port xtank to a CLIX machine?
if so, is the code available for ftp somewhere?

2. Is there some odd thing I have to do to get signals to work under CLIX?
is there a library I have to link in or something?  ( I'm linking c_s,
X11_s, and bsd i think -im not near the machine at the moment)


any help would be greatly appreciated.  thanks.

Ken

ken@cs.ualberta.ca

Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: stripes@pix.com (Josh Osborne)
Subject: Re: Xtank 1.3f fixes, NeXT port
Organization: Pix Technologies -- The company with no adult supervision
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 18:23:46 GMT

In article <1i5798INN68g@rodan.UU.NET> lidl@rodan.UU.NET (Kurt J. Lidl) writes:
>In article <1993Jan1.033526.16718@news.uiowa.edu> hakehoe@icaen.uiowa.edu (Heath A. Kehoe) writes:
>>Hello... I've been working on porting Xtank Release 1.3f to the NeXT
>>platform, and have a few minor bug fixes, if they havn't already been
>>found.  The first two fixes below would apply to any platform, and the
>>rest are NeXT-specific...
>
>I think the generic bugs were already found and fixed.  The second
>of these (the hits-off not getting done properly) has been fixed such
>that we won't have *that* problem again.      [...]

Wellll, we never noticed the Mine Layer bug, so I fixed that one.  Oops.
-- 
           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: andrew@award.demon.co.uk (Andrew Ward)
Subject: xtank source
Distribution: world
Organization: Award Software Ltd
Reply-To: andrew@award.demon.co.uk
X-Mailer: Simple NEWS 1.90 (ka9q DIS 1.19)
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 14:43:34 +0000

Please, where can I get the source of 'xtank' from?

Has anyone (else) ported it to DESQview/X yet?


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew Ward                              andrew@award.demon.co.uk
2 Salisbury Road  Harpenden               Voice +44 (0)582 461743
Herts  AL5 5AY  UK                         Fax  +44 (0)582 462743
From: shengj@acf3.nyu.edu (Jonathan J. Sheng)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: xtank1.3f under AIX3.2
Keywords: AIX
Date: 23 Dec 92 17:51:25 GMT
Organization: New York University

Has anybody sucessfully compiled xtank1.3f under AIX3.2? If somebody
does, please tell me what modifications have to be made.
--
Jonathan J. Sheng
Theoretical Chemistry, NYU
(212)998-8439
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 17:01:17 -0500
From: Rob Goeke <robg@space.mit.edu>
To: xtank@eng.umd.edu
Subject: Xtank

	I just got the lastest version of xtank after getting an older version. The old version is majorly messed up and has tons of bugs. (it had alot of bugs in the makefile too)
	This new version had almost no problems in the makefile. However after t asks you for the players name, and asks you for the vehicle name, it doesn't matter what you type in, after you hit return it freezes.
	If that problem it totally baffaling, the other major problem is that the screen doesn't refresh itself.
	HELP!!!!

           __                          __                                       
           \ \                        / /                                       
  &----@-----@\                      /@-----@----&                              
      /      \_\                    /_/       \                                 
    /@            robg@space.mit.edu          @\                                
   / |      ___     ___      ___     ___      | \                               
  /  |     |###|=@=|###|    |###|=@=|###|     |  \                              
 &   |     {___}_|_{___}____{___}_|_{___}     |   &                             
     |     {      }   }{####}{   {      }     |                                 
    / \   { Pearl  }   } |  {   {  Pearl }   / \                                
   /---\  {        }   } |  {   {        }  /---\                               
  /     \  {______}_\_} / \  {_/_{______}  /     \
From: lidl@rodan.UU.NET (Kurt J. Lidl)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Re: Xtank 1.3f fixes, NeXT port
Date: 2 Jan 1993 18:08:24 -0500
Organization: AlterNet -- Falls Church, Virginia, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net

In article <1993Jan1.033526.16718@news.uiowa.edu> hakehoe@icaen.uiowa.edu (Heath A. Kehoe) writes:
>Hello... I've been working on porting Xtank Release 1.3f to the NeXT
>platform, and have a few minor bug fixes, if they havn't already been
>found.  The first two fixes below would apply to any platform, and the
>rest are NeXT-specific...

I think the generic bugs were already found and fixed.  The second
of these (the hits-off not getting done properly) has been fixed such
that we won't have *that* problem again.

I'll try and make sure that the NeXT specific parts/changes make it
into the next release of the game.

-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!   */
From: stripes@pix.com (Josh Osborne)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Subject: Re: xtank source
Date: 21 Dec 92 18:09:47 GMT
Organization: Pix Technologies -- The company with no adult supervision

In article <724949014snz@award.demon.co.uk> andrew@award.demon.co.uk writes:
>Please, where can I get the source of 'xtank' from?

azathoth.sura.net, or ftp.eng.umd.edu.

>Has anyone (else) ported it to DESQview/X yet?

Nope, but if DESQview/X is worth it's name you should be able to run it
on a Unix box, and display it on DESQview/X.
-- 
           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: mjr@ursa.calvin.edu (Matt Ranney)
Subject: Re: Any luck with linux?
Organization: Calvin College
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 21:37:48 GMT

kbj@po.CWRU.Edu (Kevin B. Jacobs) writes:


>Anyone have any luck compiling x-tank under linux?  Or 386BSD?  and if
>so, what kind of results have you gotten?

There is a distribution of xtank on tsx-11.mit.edu that I've used with
fairly good results.  The game crashes alot on me with alot with more
than a few robots, but its works fine for just one or two other
combatants.  My machine is a 386/40 w/387, and the speed wasn't
blinding, but it was playable.
--
Matt Ranney -  mjr@calvin.edu
  "You know, I don't think theres a man, woman, or child alive today
   who doesn't enjoy a lovely beverage."  -DL
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: jaws@jaws1.Berkeley.EDU (Jason A. Woods)
Subject: Re: xtank1.3f under AIX3.2
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 17:58:27 GMT
Reply-To: YOURLOGIN@YOURCOMPUTER.austin.ibm.com
Organization: IBM Austin
Keywords: AIX

Could you please post ftp info, or possibly the source to the net?
Thanks in advance,

Jason Woods - Go Ahead, Take A RISC . . .


Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: ramage@ece.scarolina.edu (Dan Ramage)
Subject: 3d Xtank?
Organization: USC  Department of Computer Science
Distribution: rec.games.xtank.programmer
Date: 23 Dec 92 13:33:00 GMT

Has the 3d option been completed yet.  I have a copy that
has the option to go to 3d mode, but if I remember correctly
I couldn't compile it to use the 3d mode.  Just curious.

Dan
ramage@charlie.ece.scarolina.edu

Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer
From: hakehoe@icaen.uiowa.edu (Heath A. Kehoe)
Subject: Xtank 1.3f fixes, NeXT port
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 03:35:26 GMT
Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.4.19

Hello... I've been working on porting Xtank Release 1.3f to the NeXT
platform, and have a few minor bug fixes, if they havn't already been
found.  The first two fixes below would apply to any platform, and the
rest are NeXT-specific...
 
--Heath
 
 
*========*
The docs say mines are supposed to damage to bottom armor, but they
weren't...
 
line 38 of file "Src/Include/weapon-defs.h"
change:
... 8000, 4, NORM)
to:
... 8000, 4, LOW)
 
 
*========*
In the damage_vehicle function in the file "Src/hit.c", there was an
array hits_off[] (or something like that) that was initialized with
{ 0, 0, 1, 1, ... }, or whatever, to indicate the hits off value for
the different kinds of armor.  The problem was, when the new kinds of
armor were added, the new numbers weren't added to this list.  It
*should* be taking the hits off values from the armor_stat array:
 
damage_vehicle(v, damager, damage, angle, height)
 
...etc...
 
    int *side;
    Side s;
    Armor_stat stat;  /* new */
 
...etc...
 
    /* Subtract the hits off of the armor, and apply the damage */
    stat = armor_stat[v->armor.type];        /* new */
    damage = MAX(0, damage - stat.defense);  /* changed */
...
 
 
*== NeXT port ==*
These are all (I think) the changes I needed to make to get xtank to
compile on the NeXT (We have NextStep rel. 2.1)
 
In Imakefile.Config, add the following in the System Dependant Things
section:
 
#ifdef NeXTArchitecture
   XTANK_TARGET = xtank.next
   ARCH_DEFINES = -DMULTI_SYNC -DTHREAD_MP
    CDEBUGFLAGS = -g -O  /* or whatever */
#endif
 
 
Line 2045 in file "interface.c"
change:
#if !defined(hpux) && !defined(i860)
to:
#if !defined(hpux) && !defined(i860) && !defined(NeXT)
 
 
Line 30 in file "sysdep.c"
change:
#if defined(ultrix) || defined(sequent) || defined(hp300)
to:
#if defined(ultrix) || defined(sequent) || defined(hp300) || defined(NeXT)
 
 
Line 96 in file "unix.c"
change:
#if !defined(SYSV) && !defined(SVR4)
to:
#if !defined(SYSV) && !defined(SVR4) && !defined(NeXT)

Xref: sparky rec.games.xtank.programmer:664 alt.sys.intergraph:336
From: lidl@rodan.UU.NET (Kurt J. Lidl)
Newsgroups: rec.games.xtank.programmer,alt.sys.intergraph
Subject: Re: compiling xtank under CLIX
Date: 2 Jan 1993 18:06:03 -0500
Organization: AlterNet -- Falls Church, Virginia, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net
Keywords: xwindows SVR3 CLIX intergraph

In article <1992Dec31.042451.5442@cs.UAlberta.CA> ken@cs.UAlberta.CA (Huisman Kenneth M) writes:
>I'm trying to port xtank to CLIX - intergraph's SVR3(?) unix, running on an
>intergraph 2400 series machine.  Anyways, I've got it to compile, but it
>will not run properly.
>
>It doesn't seem to be handling the signals properly.  If I understand the
>code correctly, it is using the signal() function to trap a timer signal
>that it has set up for itself.  The program always terminates because it
>doesn't trap the signal.  This occurs when you go to the play menu and
>start playing (it usually draws the screen once then dies on the signal).

OK -- since it actually gets to the point where you see stuff on the
screen, it seems that you are most the way to getting things running.
Since you have gotten this to more or less work on a SVR[0-3] based
unix machine, you might do well to look for the linux specific code
in the modules -- linux uses a more or less vanilla SVR3 signal
handling thing.

>Questions:
>
>1. Has anyone ever in the past tried to port xtank to a CLIX machine?
>if so, is the code available for ftp somewhere?

As far as I know, the answer is "no, nobody has done a port".
Thus, it's not available for FTP. :-)

>2. Is there some odd thing I have to do to get signals to work under CLIX?
>is there a library I have to link in or something?  ( I'm linking c_s,
>X11_s, and bsd i think -im not near the machine at the moment)

I would guess that the problem you are running into is that the
signal handles do not restart under SYSV after the handler is finished.
This is the default action under BSD-style systems. Under SVR4, you can
get this behaviour.  Under SVR[0-3], you must explicitly reinstall
the handler.  The linux specifc code does this, hence my suggestion
to get it working by mimicking that code's functionality.

Good luck.  Please let us know if you get it working...

-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!   */