MAZEWAR(6) MAZEWAR(6)
NAME
MazeWar - distributed rats in a maze
SYNTAX
/usr/games/mw [ window system options ]
DESCRIPTION
This program implements the age-old game of MazeWar. MazeWar first
appeared at MIT in the early 1970s, using IMLAC displays and the
ArpaNet network. Legend has it that, at one point during that period,
MazeWar was banned by DARPA from the ArpaNet because half of all the
packets in a given month were MazeWar packets flying between Stanford
and MIT.
MazeWar appeared again at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the
late 1970's on the Alto, the first personal computer. This version
has subsequently been ported to many personal machines, and forms the
basis for this Unix version.
Mw attempts to be as faithful to the original Alto version as
possible. The shape and pictures of the maze are as in the original,
and there are no embellishments such as teleport traps or robot
amanuenses.
PLAY
You, the player, are a rat in a maze, and the objective is to find
your opponents and shoot them before they shoot you.
Each of the (up to eight) players in a game may be on a different
host. Upon startup, you are asked for the name by which you wish to be
known for the duration of the game, and the name of the ``Duke host''.
If you type a bare carriage return to this query, mw will find a game
by broadcasting on the local network, and join any game it finds. If
you wish to join a specific game, or a game on another network, or
your network doesn't support broadcasting, type in the name of one of
the hosts involved in that game. The program mazefind will aid you in
finding out what games are currently being played.
Once in a game, you are presented with the game window. This window
is made up of three sections. The upper section is a perspective view
of your view forward. By pressing the left or right mouse buttons, you
may peek to the left or right around corners.
The middle section of the window is a top view of the maze, showing
your current position and heading in the maze. You move around the
maze by using the following keys:
A About face; flip end-for-end
S Turn 90 degrees left
D Move forward one cell
F Turn 90 degrees right
- 1 - Formatted: November 14, 2024
MAZEWAR(6) MAZEWAR(6)
<space>Move backward one cell
Q Quit
For left-handers, there are equivalents on the numeric keypad. On the
DEC LK201 keyboard, the `4', `5', `6', `,', and right cursor arrow
keys perform the equivalent operations.
The lower section of the window shows the names and scores of the
other players in the game. When you sight another rat, that rat's
score line is highlighted. Shoot by pressing the middle mouse button.
When you are shot at, the mouse cursor changes from a rat to a dead
rat, and you have one second to move out of the way of the shot or
shoot back or both. A shot costs one point; getting hit costs five
points; hitting someone adds ten points. When you are hit, the screen
flashes and you are transported to another section of the maze.
If your window system supports it, when you iconify the game window,
it will let you know when someone joins the game or shoots at you (by
flashing, in most cases). This way, you can be notified whenever
someone else is interested in wasting some time, by always leaving a
game around.
SEE ALSO
mazefind(6)
AUTHOR
Christopher A. Kent
- 2 - Formatted: November 14, 2024
