NAME

mazewar − distributed rats in a maze

SYNTAX

mazewar [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. 

Mazewar 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, mazewar 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(1) 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:

AAbout face; flip end−for−end
STurn 90 degrees left
DMove forward one cell
FTurn 90 degrees right
<space> Move backward one cell
QQuit

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. 

SEE ALSO

mazefind(1)

AUTHOR

Christopher A. Kent

X Version 11  —  Release 4