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35 .\" @(#)atc.6 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93
36 .\" $FreeBSD: src/games/atc/atc.6,v 1.6.2.1 2001/07/22 11:32:34 dd Exp $
37 .\" $DragonFly: src/games/atc/atc.6,v 1.4 2008/04/16 23:22:48 swildner Exp $
39 .\" Copyright (c) 1986 Ed James. All rights reserved.
46 .Nd air traffic controller game
54 lets you try your hand at the nerve wracking duties of the air traffic
55 controller without endangering the lives of millions of travelers each year.
56 Your responsibilities require you to direct the flight of jets
57 and prop planes into and out of the flight arena and airports.
58 The speed (update time) and frequency of the planes depend on the
59 difficulty of the chosen arena.
61 .Bl -tag -width ".Fl u"
63 Print the usage line and exit.
68 Print a list of available games and exit.
69 The first game name printed is the default game.
71 Print the score list (formerly the Top Ten list).
76 Print the path to the special directory where
78 expects to find its private files.
79 This is used during the installation of the program.
82 If the game listed is not one of the ones printed from the
84 option, the default game is played.
90 The purpose of this flag is questionable.
95 is to keep the game going as long as possible.
96 There is no winning state, except to beat the times of other players.
97 You will need to: launch planes at airports (by instructing them to
98 increase their altitude); land planes at airports (by instructing them to
99 go to altitude zero when exactly over the airport); and maneuver planes
102 Several things will cause the end of the game.
103 Each plane has a destination (see information area), and
104 sending a plane to the wrong destination is an error.
105 Planes can run out of fuel, or can collide.
106 Collision is defined as adjacency in all three dimensions.
107 A plane leaving the arena
108 in any other way than through its destination exit is an error as well.
110 Scores are sorted in order of the number of planes safe.
111 The other statistics are provided merely for fun.
112 There is no penalty for
113 taking longer than another player (except in the case of ties).
115 Suspending a game is not permitted.
116 If you get a talk message, tough.
117 When was the last time an Air Traffic Controller got called away to the phone?
119 Depending on the terminal you run
121 on, the screen will be divided into 4 areas.
122 It should be stressed that the terminal driver portion of the
123 game was designed to be reconfigurable, so the display format can vary
124 depending on the version you are playing.
125 The descriptions here are based on the ASCII version of the game.
126 The game rules and input format, however, should remain consistent.
127 Control-L redraws the screen, should it become muddled.
129 The first screen area is the radar display, showing the relative locations
130 of the planes, airports, standard entry/exit points, radar
131 beacons, and ``lines'' which simply serve to aid you in guiding
134 Planes are shown as a single letter with an altitude.
135 If the numerical altitude is a single digit, then it represents
137 Some distinction is made between the prop planes and the jets.
138 On ASCII terminals, prop planes are
139 represented by an upper case letter, jets by a lower case letter.
141 Airports are shown as a number and some indication of the direction
142 planes must be going to land at the airport.
143 On ASCII terminals, this is one of '^', '\*[Gt]', '\*[Lt]', and 'v', to indicate
144 north (0 degrees), east (90), west (270) and south (180), respectively.
145 The planes will also take off in this direction.
147 Beacons are represented as circles or asterisks and a number.
148 Their purpose is to offer a place of easy reference to the plane pilots.
150 .Sx THE DELAY COMMAND
153 Entry/exit points are displayed as numbers along the border of the
155 Planes will enter the arena from these points without warning.
156 These points have a direction associated with them, and
157 planes will always enter the arena from this direction.
158 On the ASCII version of
160 this direction is not displayed.
161 It will become apparent what this direction is as the game progresses.
163 Incoming planes will always enter at the same altitude: 7000 feet.
164 For a plane to successfully depart through an entry/exit point,
165 it must be flying at 9000 feet.
166 It is not necessary for the planes to be flying in any particular
167 direction when they leave the arena (yet).
169 The second area of the display is the information area, which lists
170 the time (number of updates since start), and the number of planes you
171 have directed safely out of the arena.
172 Below this is a list of planes currently in the air, followed by a
173 blank line, and then a list of planes on the ground (at airports).
174 Each line lists the plane name and its current altitude,
175 an optional asterisk indicating low fuel, the plane's destination,
176 and the plane's current command.
177 Changing altitude is not considered
178 to be a command and is therefore not displayed.
179 The following are some possible information lines:
181 .Bd -literal -offset indent
186 The first example shows a prop plane named `B' that is flying at 4000 feet.
187 It is low on fuel (note the `*').
188 Its destination is Airport #0.
189 The next command it expects to do is circle when it reaches Beacon #1.
190 The second example shows a jet named `g' at 7000 feet, destined for
192 It is just now executing a turn to 225 degrees (South-West).
194 The third area of the display is the input area.
195 It is here that your input is reflected.
198 heading of this manual for more details.
200 This area is used simply to give credit where credit is due. :-)
202 A command completion interface is built into the game.
203 At any time, typing `?' will list possible input characters.
204 Typing a backspace (your erase character) backs up, erasing the last part
206 When a command is complete, a return enters it, and
207 any semantic checking is done at that time.
208 If no errors are detected, the command is sent to the appropriate plane.
209 If an error is discovered
210 during the check, the offending statement will be underscored and a
211 (hopefully) descriptive message will be printed under it.
213 The command syntax is broken into two parts:
219 commands happen on the next update.
221 commands also happen on the next update unless they
222 are followed by an optional predicate called the
226 In the following tables, the syntax
228 means any single digit, and
230 refers to a direction, given by the keys around the `s' key: ``wedcxzaq''.
231 In absolute references, `q' refers to North-West or 315 degrees, and `w'
232 refers to North, or 0 degrees.
233 In relative references, `q' refers to \-45 degrees or 45 degrees left, and `w'
234 refers to 0 degrees, or no change in direction.
236 All commands start with a plane letter.
237 This indicates the recipient of the command.
239 .Ss IMMEDIATE ONLY COMMANDS
240 .Bl -tag -width "aaaa"
241 .It "a [ cd+- ]" Em number
242 Altitude: Change a plane's altitude, possibly requesting takeoff.
243 `+' and `-' are the same as `c' and `d'.
244 .Bl -tag -width "aaaaaaaaaa" -compact
246 Climb or descend to the given altitude (in thousands of feet).
248 Climb: relative altitude change.
250 Descend: relative altitude change.
253 Mark: Display in highlighted mode.
254 Plane and command information is displayed normally.
256 Ignore: Do not display highlighted.
257 Command is displayed as a line of dashes if there is no command.
259 Unmark: Same as ignore, but if a delayed command is processed,
260 the plane will become marked.
261 This is useful if you want to forget about a plane during part,
262 but not all, of its journey.
264 .Ss DELAYABLE COMMANDS
265 .Bl -tag -width "aaaa"
267 Circle: Have the plane circle.
268 .Bl -tag -width "aaaaaaaaaa" -compact
270 Left: Circle counterclockwise.
272 Right: Circle clockwise (default).
274 .It "t [ l-r+LR ] [ dir ] or tt [ abe* ]" Em number
275 Turn: Change direction.
276 .Bl -tag -width "aaaaaaaaaa" -compact
277 .It "t\*[Lt]dir\*[Gt]"
278 Turn to direction: Turn to the absolute compass heading given.
279 The shortest turn will be taken.
281 Left: Turn counterclockwise: 45 degrees by default, or the amount
287 `w' (0 degrees) is no turn.
288 `e' is 45 degrees; `q' gives \-45 degrees counterclockwise, that is,
289 45 degrees clockwise.
293 Right: Turn clockwise, 45 degrees by default, or the amount specified in
298 Hard left: Turn counterclockwise 90 degrees.
300 Hard right: Turn clockwise 90 degrees.
302 Towards: Turn towards a beacon, airport or exit.
303 The turn is just an estimate.
305 Turn towards the given airport.
307 Turn towards the specified beacon.
309 Turn towards an exit.
314 .Ss THE DELAY COMMAND
317 (a/@) command may be appended to any
320 It allows the controller to instruct a plane to do an action when the
321 plane reaches a particular beacon (or other objects in future versions).
322 .Bl -tag -width "aaaa"
324 Do the delayable command when the plane reaches the specified beacon.
325 The `b' for ``beacon'' is redundant to allow for expansion.
326 `@' can be used instead of `a'.
328 .Ss MARKING, UNMARKING AND IGNORING
331 by default when they enter the arena.
332 This means they are displayed in highlighted mode on the radar display.
333 A plane may also be either
339 plane is drawn in unhighlighted mode, and a line of dashes is displayed in
340 the command field of the information area.
341 The plane will remain this way until a mark command has been issued.
342 Any other command will be issued, but the command line will return to a
343 line of dashes when the command is completed.
347 plane is treated the same as an
349 plane, except that it will automatically switch to
351 status when a delayed command has been processed.
352 This is useful if you want to forget about a plane for a while, but its
353 flight path has not yet been completely set.
355 As with all of the commands, marking, unmarking and ignoring will take effect
356 at the beginning of the next update.
357 Do not be surprised if the plane does
358 not immediately switch to unhighlighted mode.
360 .Bl -tag -width gtte4ab2 -offset indent
362 Plane A: turn left at beacon #1
366 Plane G: turn towards exit #4 at beacon #2
368 Plane M: altitude: climb 2000 feet
374 .Sh OTHER INFORMATION
377 Jets move every update; prop planes move every other update.
379 All planes turn at most 90 degrees per movement.
381 Planes enter at 7000 feet and leave at 9000 feet.
383 Planes flying at an altitude of 0 crash if they are not over an airport.
385 Planes waiting at airports can only be told to take off (climb in altitude).
387 Pressing return (that is, entering an empty command) will perform the
388 next update immediately.
389 This allows you to ``fast forward''
390 the game clock if nothing interesting is happening.
395 file lists the currently available play fields.
396 New field description file names must be placed in this file to be playable.
397 If a player specifies a game not in this file, his score will not be logged.
399 The game field description files are broken into two parts.
400 The first part is the definition section.
401 Here, the four tunable game parameters must be set.
402 These variables are set with the syntax:
404 .Dl "variable = number;"
406 Variable may be one of:
408 indicating the number of seconds between forced updates;
410 indicating (about) the number of updates between new plane entries;
412 indicating the width of the play field; or
414 indicating the height of the play field.
416 The second part of the field description files describes the locations
417 of the exits, the beacons, the airports and the lines.
418 The syntax is as follows:
420 .Bd -literal -offset indent
421 .Bl -tag -width airport: -compact
425 (x y direction) ... ;
427 (x y direction) ... ;
429 [ (x1 y1) (x2 y2) ] ... ;
433 For beacons, a simple x, y coordinate pair is used (enclosed in parenthesis).
434 Airports and exits require a third value, which is one of the directions
436 For airports, this is the direction that planes must be going to take
437 off and land, and for exits, this is the direction that planes will be
441 This may not seem intuitive, but as there is no restriction on
442 direction of exit, this is appropriate.
443 Lines are slightly different, since they need two coordinate pairs to
444 specify the line endpoints.
445 These endpoints must be enclosed in square brackets.
447 All statements are semi-colon (;) terminated.
448 Multiple item statements accumulate.
449 Each definition must occur exactly once, before any item statements.
450 Comments begin with a hash (#) symbol and terminate with a newline.
451 The coordinates are between zero and width-1 and height-1 inclusive.
452 All of the exit coordinates must lie on the borders, and
453 all of the beacons and airports must lie inside of the borders.
454 Line endpoints may be anywhere within the field, so long as
455 the lines are horizontal, vertical or
458 .Ss FIELD FILE EXAMPLE
460 # This is the default game.
467 exit: ( 12 0 x ) ( 29 0 z ) ( 29 7 a ) ( 29 17 a )
468 ( 9 20 e ) ( 0 13 d ) ( 0 7 d ) ( 0 0 c ) ;
470 beacon: ( 12 7 ) ( 12 17 ) ;
472 airport: ( 20 15 w ) ( 20 18 d ) ;
474 line: [ ( 1 1 ) ( 6 6 ) ]
475 [ ( 12 1 ) ( 12 6 ) ]
476 [ ( 13 7 ) ( 28 7 ) ]
477 [ ( 28 1 ) ( 13 16 ) ]
478 [ ( 1 13 ) ( 11 13 ) ]
479 [ ( 12 8 ) ( 12 16 ) ]
480 [ ( 11 18 ) ( 10 19 ) ]
481 [ ( 13 17 ) ( 28 17 ) ]
482 [ ( 1 7 ) ( 11 7 ) ] ;
486 Files are kept in a special directory.
489 section for a way to print this path out.
491 .Pa /usr/share/games/atc .
493 This directory contains the file
495 which holds the list of playable games, as well as the games themselves.
497 The scores are kept in
498 .Pa /var/games/atc_score .
500 Ed James, UC Berkeley: edjames@ucbvax.berkeley.edu, ucbvax!edjames
502 This game is based on someone's description of the overall flavor
503 of a game written for some unknown PC many years ago, maybe.
505 The screen sometimes refreshes after you have quit.