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Text File | 1995-03-07 | 33.4 KB | 740 lines

ROBOTANK BECAUSE "WAR IS HELL!" VERSION 1.0 RELEASE DATE 6/89 ROBOTANK was written by: ALEXANDER WALSH 31 Cumberland Cres. St. John's, Newfoundland CANADA, A1B-3M4 All rights reserved. System Requirements ROBOTANK 1.0 will run on all IBM PC, XT, AT and 100% compatible computers. It requires a minimum of 512K RAM and one floppy drive. ROBOTANK runs on a CGA video display, and requires DOS version 2.0 or higher. About ROBOTANK ROBOTANK is a very player involved tank battle game now available for the IBM PC and it's compatables. ROBOTANK allows the player to create, write, test, and debug the computer logic for an electronic tank with a variety of weapons and hunting options. It allows various players to battle up to ten of their creations in several different graphical "battleground" setting and watch the results of their efforts unfold before their eyes. ROBOTANK incorporates a powerful-but-simple tank battle language called TINK, which allows the player to program his tank to practice ANY variety of offensive or defensive strategies against the enemy. So, not only does the player get to enjoy the thrill of battle, but also the experience of writing working computer programs. ROBOTANK as a language for tank combat ROBOTANK is unlike its counterparts in the arcade game market in that is a complete battle computer language. As such, it necessarily lacks the intuitively obvious but limiting user interface found in such programs as HEAVY METAL and ARCTICFOX. Although ROBOTANK seems at first a bit more difficult to use than these other products this is only because the program's commands must be typed in rather than picked from a list. This language interface offers much more versatility and flexabilty and does not require odd keyboard sequences or special hardware to utilize. Here is an example of a complete ROBOTANK battle program for a tank which chases and attacks enemy vehicles. Notice how straight-forward the program is and how similiar it is to what a person playing a typical tank arcade game would actually do: ---------------------------------------------------------------- make dir :align ; Turn the tank's turrent ... aim ctdir ; toward the tanks front. jneq ctdir,cgdir,:align ; Keep turning until there. lock 1 ; Syncronize the turrent and tank. :again scope dir ; Check scope for enemy location. face dir ; Turn in that direction. jneq ctdir,dir,:again ; Are we facing it yet? No, go back. fire ; Yes, ATTACK move ; and move towards it goto :again ; And do it again!!! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Remember that in learning any language, proficiency comes with practice. With just a little practice, you will find the TINK programming language for combat capable of fulfilling your most creative battle plans with ease. Creating a tank for combat with ROBOTANK The creation of a battle tank with ROBOTANK begins in the ROBOTANK control center (ROBOTANK.EXE). Here, you give your tank a name, a particuliar chassis size, and a selection of weapons and additional hunting devices. These selections are based on the type of tank you have imagined. For example, a patrol tank would have to be fast and have a wide selection of scanning options, while having few weapons. Meanwhile, the offensive tanks would have heavy armor and weaponry, keeping tracking equipment to a minimum. You would then move on to the tank logic editor (selected from the on-screen menu bar). Here, you write your program line by line, perhaps adding previously-saved or 'stock' subroutines. Here also you tell how your tank should go about it's planned duties, how it should react when hit, what to do when it spots an enemy, etc. Then, after selecting an appropriate terrain, you test your tank in the battlefield, against either supplied enemies, or ones of your own or your friends design. If the tank does not perform the way you wished, go back to the editor, fix the errors, and try again. Finally, you call up your friends and tell them to bring over the tanks they have designed, and battle each off in a series of round-robin tournaments. May the best tank win. Starting ROBOTANK: the main menu If you are in the ROBOTANK subdirectory, typing ROBOTANK at the system level prompt (C>) will bring up the ROBOTANK main menu and a screen that looks similiar to this: To select from the menu or picklist, press the arrow keys until the option you want is highlighed, then press return. FILE/LOAD: allows you to load an existing TANK SPECIFICATIONS SHEET from the disk. FILE/SAVE: allows you to save a new TANK SPECIFICATIONS SHEET to the disk. FILE/SHELL: allows you to exit to a DOS shell. Typing EXIT at the DOS prompt returns you to ROBOTANK. FILE/EXIT: exits the ROBOTANK program, returning you to DOS. CONFIG/NAME: allows you to modify the name of your tank. CONFIG/CHASSIS: allows you to select the chassis size of your tank. CONFIG/WEAPONS: allows you to select which weapons your tank should carry, each one has different ranges and damage ratings. CONFIG/EXTRAS: allows you to select which hunting/tracking equipment your tank should carry. EDIT: Enter the ROBOTANK program editor TEAMS/PLAYERS: allows you to enter the names of the tanks that will compete on the battleground. TEAMS/NOTEAM: allows you to define which tanks will not belong to any particular team. TEAMS/TEAM A: allows you to define which tanks will belong to TEAM "A" TEAMS/TEAM B: allows you to define which tanks will belong to TEAM "B" TERRAIN/GRASS: selects a grassy terrain for battle TERRAIN/SWAMP: selects a swamp terrain for battle TERRAIN/FOREST: selects a forest terrain for battle TERRAIN/VILLAGE: selects a village terrain for battle BATTLE: Take the currently selected contestants into battle Tank chassis type descriptions: Your tank may have one of three different chassis types; LIGHTWEIGHT, REGULATION, and HEAVYWEIGHT. The lightweight chassis has a move rate of 1:1 (which means it will move once for every MOVE command issued), while the regulation and heavyweight tanks have move rates of 2:1 and 3:1 respectively. However, the lightweight tank has a maximum payload of 1000 lbs, as compared to 2000 and 3000 of the regulation and heavyweight chassis's. Damage capacity is another concern when choosing a chassis-type. The lightweight type may sustain up to 10 points of damage, in relation to the 20 points of the regulation, and 30 points of the heavyweight chassis-types. Choosing the correct type of tank frame is one of the most critical decisions in making a succesful tank. It must be based on the purpose you have intended for you vehical. A small and fast patrol tank, will be much more efficient than a slow clunky one, while a lightweight tank will never survive intense battle! The choice is yours. Choosing a tanks weaponry Weapons are rated on a variety of points, which are: Range how far a shot will travel Damage what sort of injuries it can cause to an enemy tank Reload Time how quickly can you shoot multiple shots Rounds how many shots can the tank carry for that weapon Weight how much the gun and ammo weight in pounds Other special features that make that weapon unique If your tank requires weaponry, you may use the table below to help you choose the ones that will serve your purpose best: RANGE DAMAGE RELOAD ROUNDS WEIGHT OTHER MACHINE 8mm 50 1 0 50 100 MACHINE 16mm 45 2 0 30 200 LASER 10 8 9 40 750 *1 CANNON 15 15 5 5 800 ROCKET 40 10 4 10 650 MINE 1 10 0 1 25 *2 RADIO MINE 1 10 0 1 50 *3 NOTES: *1 The range of laser fire is covered in ONE move, not one unit per move as with other weapons. *2 A mine will stay in location until a tank hits it. It is then destroyed. *3 A radio mine has the same characteristics as a normal mine (see note *2). However, a radio mine will transmit the message "99, x, y" (where x and y are the co-ordinates of the mine when it exploded) on the channel the tank was set to when the mine was released. The ROBOTANK Editor If you have selected the EDIT option from the main menu, you will be in the ROBOTANK editor. The screen should have a few lines at the top that look as follows: FILE: C:\ROBOTANK\PATROL.TXT IN Line: 1 Col: 1 Block Search Go to Text format Window File F10 for pulldown This information relates to the current file and the tools available to manipulate it. At the left is the editor menu bar, this is similiar to the main control panel menu in operation. Press F10 to access the menu bar, and use the arrow keys to move the highlight bar to the desired option and press enter to select it. At the right is the current cursor column and line number. This information is for reference, especially when locating errors (which are reported by line number). Also indicated is the status of the INS key on your keyboard. If INSERT mode in ON, then characters you type will be inserted before the character just to the right of the cursor. If INSERT mode is OFF, then characters to the right of the cursor will be overwritten. Basic program editing features at as follows: ARROW KEYS Move cursor around document PGUP, PGDN Move cursor around document HOME Move cursor to start of line END Move cursor to end of line DEL Erase character at right of cursor BACKSPACE Erase character at left of cursor F10 Move up into menu bar CTRL-Y Delete line CTRL-K B Block start CTRL-K K Block end CTRL-K H Hide/Show block CTRL-K C Copy block CTRL-K V Move block CTRL-K Y Erase block CTRL-K W Write block to disk CTRL-K R Read block from disk ROBOTANK program compiler error codes After selecting the BATTLE option from the main menu, ROBOTANK will attempt to load each tank into memory and process each as they would be in battle. If the situation should arise that there is a mistake in the program, or some other difficulty arises, ROBOTANK will display an error message. The message is in the form: Syntax error L23 - GOGO newline Which tells the error and the line number in which the error occured. Below the error message, ROBOTANK will display the problem causing line. After all the programs have been loaded, and errors have occured, control will return to the main menu and the battle will be aborted until the tank in error is repaired. Otherwise, battle will commence! Some error message you may receive are: COMPILER ERROR An internal error out of your control, this should be reported to the author. SYMBOL EXISTS A symbol defined in the tanks program (with the MAKE command) has already been defined earlier. SYMBOL UNDEFINED A symbol is used in the program, which was not defined with the MAKE command. SYNTAX ERROR The most common error! A syntax or spelling mistake may occur due to a stray character in the file or a misplaced command name, etc. SYMBOL REQUIRED AS FIRST ARGUMENT This error states that the first argument following the actual command must be a symbol (defined with the MAKE command) and not a constant or line label. LABEL ALREADY USED A label was defined (by preceeding the label name with a colon), that was used previously in the program. LINE REFERENCE NOT ALLOWED AS ARGA line reference was supplied as an argument to a command when a symbol or constant was expected. LINE REFERENCE REQUIRED A symbol or contant was supplied as an argument to a command when a line reference was required. TOO FEW/MANY ARGUMENTS SUPPLIED The incorrect number of arguments were supplied for the operation of a command. Check the commands context again in the manual. OUT OF RAM Your computer has insufficient RAM to load the desired tank programs. Using the ROBOTANK battle simulator Once battle has begun, the screen will show an above view of the battlefield. It will also be tracking the action of a particular tank. The name and vital information of that tank is displayed on the bottom four lines of the display. This information looks something like this: 1. PATROL DAMAGE: 10 VAR[00] = 34 Press SPACE for next, or ESC to end battle The simulator is now in AUTOMATIC mode, which means that it will adjust it's display in order to keep the displayed tank on-screen. To view the next tank on the list, press the SPACE BAR. The information on the bottom of the screen will update and this new tank will be tracked. If you wish to move the screen in a manner different to that of the simulator, press the ARROW KEYS in the direction you wish to move. This will place you in MANUAL mode (Press the space bar to resume to AUTOMATIC mode). If you know the number of the tank you wish to monitor, simply press the number of the tank (from 1 to 9, or 0 for tank number 10). If that tank is not available, tracking will be moved to the next active tank. On the bottom of the display is the line VAR[xx] = yy where xx and yy are integer numbers. They represent the contents of the variables that tank is using internally. The first eleven variables are reserved for the predefined constants, these are defined as follows: 0 - WHEREX 1 - WHEREY 2 - CGDIR 3 - CTDIR 4 - LOADED 5 - HIT 6 - NOMOVE 7 - TEAM 8 - MYTEAM 9 - BLOCKAGE 10- MESSAGE 11- CHANNEL After these variables, the variable defined in the tanks program are listed (in order of the occurance of the MAKE command in the program). Other keys which may be used while in the simulator are: ESC End battle and display results . View next variable contents , View previous variable contents ENTER Update screen information display ROBOTANK COMMANDS ---------------------------------------------------------------- var Is a symbol/variable of up to 15 characters. The first character must be A-Z (lower-case converted to upper-case) These are created with the MAKE command (see below) :line Is a line-reference with the same spec's as a symbol num Can be either a symbol or a numeric constant (-32000 to 32000) ---------------------------------------------------------------- MAKE var Make space for symbol named "var" (should appear at the start of source file) SELECT num Select weapon "num" as follows: 1 = MACHINE GUN 8mm 2 = MACHINE GUN 16mm 3 = LASER 4 = CANNON 5 = ROCKET 6 = MINE 7 = RADIO MINE JEQ num1,num2,:line if num1 = num2 go to ":line" JLT num1,num2,:line if num1 < num2 go to ":line" JGT num1,num2,:line if num1 > num2 go to ":line" JNEQ num1,num2,:line if num1 <> num2 go to ":line" LEFT Turn tank counter-clockwise RIGHT Turn tank clockwise GLEFT Turn GUN counter-clockwise GRIGHT Turn GUN clockwise SET var,num Sets symbol "var" to "num" ADD var,num Adds "num" to the current value of "var" RAND var,num Places a random value from 1-"num" into "var" MOVE Move tank in current direction and sets the NOMOVE register (see below) GOTO :line Move program execution to ":line" FIRE Fire currently selected weapon in current gun direction CALL :line Call sub-routine beginning at ":line" SCOPE var Places a number from 1 to 8 in "var" corresponding to the general direction of the closest enemy tank. Returns a 0 if no other enemy tank is present. RETURN Return from sub-routine which was accessed via the CALL command. RADAR var Places a 0 in "var" if no other enemy tank within 40 units of players tank otherwise contains a number from 1 to 40 corresponding to the distance the other tank is away. NOTE: if more than one tank is within 40 units, RADAR will return the distance to the closest enemy tank. SCAN var, num Places a 1 in "var" if an enemy tank is present in the direction indicated by "num", otherwise SCAN places a 0 in var. AUTO num Set automatic tank movement ON when NUM is greater than zero, or OFF when NUM =0. When AUTO is ON, the tank will attempt to move after the execution of EVERY command without having to issue a MOVE command. LOCK num Set automatic GUN and TANK syncronization ON when NUM is greater than zero, or OFF when NUM = 0. When automatic gun and tank sync is ON, whenever a LEFT or RIGHT command is called, the tanks gun will move in that same direction. IE: if tank is in position 3 and gun is in position 5, after a LEFT command the tank will be at 2 and the gun will be at 4. However, GLEFT and GRIGHT do NOT effect the position of the tank, they may be used freely. CHANNEL num Sets the tanks current radio channel to NUM. All following TX and RX commands will affect that channel. TX num1, num2, num3 Transmit message NUM1, NUM2, and NUM3 out on the radio channel currently set by the CHANNEL command. RX sym1, sym2, sym3 Read in a received message into symbols SYM1, SYM2, and SYM3. If there was no message available then SYM1-3 will contain zeros, otherwise they will contain the values sent by the TX command. NOTE: The radio must be monitoring the channel with the CHANNEL command in order to capture the information. FACE num Turns the TANK the best way (LEFT or RIGHT) in order to face direction NUM. If it is equal to move LEFT or RIGHT in order to reach the destination, FACE will randomly pick either LEFT or RIGHT. AIM num Turns the tanks GUN the best way (LEFT or RIGHT) in order to face direction NUM. If it is equal to move LEFT or RIGHT in order to reach the destination, FACE will randomly pick either LEFT or RIGHT. CONV numX,numY,var Calculates the direction needed to reach coordinates (numX,numY) from the tanks current location (whereX, whereY). The required direction is placed in VAR. TANK and GUN Directions: 1 8 | 2 \ | / 7 --- + --- 3 / | \ 6 | 4 5 PREDEFINED SYMBOL CONSTANTS: WHEREX Holds the tanks current X co-ordinate from 1 to 119 WHEREY Holds the tanks current Y co-ordinate from 1 to 74 CGDIR Holds the tank gun's current direction from 1 to 8 CTDIR Holds the tanks current direction from 1 to 8 LOADED Contains a 1 when ready to fire, or 0 when loading HIT Contains a 1 when your tank has been hit and 0 otherwise. This register is reset to 0 everytime it is used. NOMOVE Holds a 1 when your tank is prevented from moving by a wall or other tank. It is set everytime the MOVE command is executed. TEAM Contains the team of the tank detected by the last RADAR, SCAN, or SCOPE command. 0 = NONE 1 = TEAM A 2 = TEAM B MYTEAM Contains your team identification. 0 = NONE 1 = TEAM A 2 = TEAM B MESSAGE Contains 1 if there is a message waiting to be read on the current radio channel or else it will contain 0 BLOCKAGE Contains a number corresponding to the type of object blocking the movement of a tank, as follows: 0 = NO OBJECT 1 = FIXED OBJECT (Tree, wall, rubble, etc) 2 = ANOTHER TANK CHANNEL Contains the radio channel currently set with the CHANNEL command. Final Notes: The demonstration diskette is NOT a complete working version, the following features are not implemented yet, but they WILL be included in the final version: - The SELECT command will select other weapons, but each weapon has the same abilities (same range, same damage, same re-load speed). - Tank weight is not taken into account yet, a light-weight tank chassis moves the same speed as a heavy one. Also, you can add all the options you wish without penelty. - Moveing over a swamp terrain does not slow down your tank as it should do. - Not all the math commands are in place, ADD does work, while SUB, MULT, DIV do not and are not recognized. - MINES are not working, you cannot use these at all (PS. A radio mine is a mine that transmits it current location on a set channel before it blows up ... useful for tracking). - All tanks die when they have recieved 30 points of damage. In the final version, lighter tanks will destroy easier than heavier ones. - Unlimited shots. In the final version, your would only have a certain number of shots with each weapon. Here is a list of some other ideas I have planned to include in the final version of the game, it is in these features that I can see the programs true flexability coming through: - Better looking graphics ... my graphical talents are a bit lacking. - Support for VGA - Sound! I have not touched the sound aspect of the game yet. - A full program debugger for viewing program source code while in battle (this will slow down combat speed, but it would definitely be required for the novice player). - A new program editor. Now I am using a modified version of MICROSTAR from the Borland TURBO PASCAL editor toolbox. - Split screen display for viewing two tanks at once during combat. - A variety of new battle commands including: LOOP a command to provide FOR/NEXT loop abilities CONTACT will tell if a fired shot hit it's target. and many more. - Marking TEAM A as a "good team" and TEAM B as a "bad team" for use with other features (see next upgrade). - Some simulator controlled features, such as running villagers that the tanks can try to rescue or shoot (depending on their team), or rolling boulders, etc. - A selection of new tank attachments such as cloaking devices, pontoons for swamp travel, a copter-top for air travel, etc. - Expanded program text commands such as "INCLUDE filename", to include text from another file or "CHAIN filename" to execute another pre-compiled tank file. There are many other features that could be added, but for the purposes of this demo I have only mentioned a few. I hope you enjoy the game as must as I have, and hope to hear from you soon. Sandy Walsh