STARBUSTERS By Steve Boerner Version 1.00 July 1, 1990 INTRODUCTION STARBUSTERS is simple strategy game. The object is to launch fleets of starships to conquer and occupy all of the star systems displayed on the screen. There may be one to six players, any number of which may be either human or computer. DISCLAIMER This has become a requirement of sorts recently; so here goes: The author makes no warranty as to the fitness of this program and related materials for any particular purpose. In no event shall the author be liable for any damages arising out of use of said program. Use it at your own risk. REGISTRATION There is NO registration required for this program! It's absolutely FREE! Use it, copy it and pass it along to all your friends and relatives. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS STARBUSTERS should run on any IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible with at least 256K of memory. A color monitor -- CGA, EGA or VGA -- is required. GAME SETUP To start the game simply type STARBUST. If you are restarting a previously saved game then you can skip the startup prompts by typing STARBUST followed by the filename of the saved game. The title screen will then be displayed; press any key to continue. If you are not restarting a saved game, you will be required to respond to a series of prompts. They are: Do you want to use hidden player movement ("fog of war")? Type "Y" for yes, "N" for no, then press . Answering "yes" means that the movement of each player's fleets will be hidden from all of the other players. In addition, specific information about neutral or enemy star systems will have to be gathered through reconnaissance flights. A "no" answer will make all of this information available to all players at all times. Number of star systems [2-32]: Type a number between 2 and 32, press . This determines the number of star systems displayed on the screen. The actual disposition of the systems is randomly determined. Number of black holes [0-8]: Type a number between 0 and 8. This determines the number of black holes that will be scattered at random on the star map. Black holes are never displayed. Large fleets of ships that come into contact with black holes are destroyed. Reconnaissance ships and small fleets are not affected. Speed of starships [1-4]: Type a number between 1 and 4. This sets the speed of movement for all starships in the game. Number of human players [0-6]: This sets the number of players of human extraction. Type a number between 0 and 6. Number of computer players [0-?]: This sets the number of computer players. Any number may be chosen as long as the total number of players (human and computer) is no more than six. In fact, all of the players may be computer players. Computer players, which operate independently from one another, differ from their human counterparts only in speed (and possibly intelligence). They play by precisely the same set of rules, and limitations, as you. Name for Player ? [Maximum 8 characters]: Finally, human players are given the chance to type in a name to use for the duration of the game. A default response will be displayed for each prompt. If you wish to use the default, simply press . QUITTING There are three ways to quit STARBUSTERS: Go to the "System" menu item, press . Select "Quit" from the popup menu. Type "Y" then at the prompt. Type in response to any prompt or whenever the program is waiting for a keypress (after combat, for example). Type "Y" then at the prompt. The panic button: Press at any point. THE DISPLAY The screen display consists of three windows and a space along the bottom for the main menu and various prompt windows. The Star Map window is located in the left half of the screen. All star systems and starship fleets will be displayed in this window. Systems and fleets are color-coded to indicate the owning player. If the game is being played without hidden player movement, the colors of all systems will be constantly updated to reflect the current owner, and all players' fleets will be displayed en route from system to system. If hidden player movement is used, then the colors of neutral or enemy systems will be shown only when the owner is known (after a reconnaissance flight to the system). Also, you will see only your own fleets, never those of any other player. The Turn Record window, which indicates the current game turn, the current player, his total production and score, is located in the upper right corner. Below the Turn Record window is a larger one used to display various types of information, for example, star system production rates and garrison strengths. If there is too much information to fit in this window (which happens often when large numbers of fleets are being inspected), you may use the cursor keys to scroll the information. THE GAME STARBUSTERS is composed of game turns which are themselves composed of individual player turns. Play continues until all players but one -- the winner -- are eliminated. The program will prompt each human player at the beginning of his or her turn. The player then may press a key to display the main menu (see below) to conduct all the actions necessary to complete his turn. Computer players' turns are handled automatically by the program. If there are no human players the game progresses automatically, pausing only to report the loss of ships through combat and black holes, and then only if you have selected "NO" for hidden player movement. If you select "YES" for hidden player movement, the game proceeds nonstop. You will have to press if you wish to quit before the game is finished. (There won't be much to see at any rate, since all movement, etc., is hidden from view.) THE MAIN MENU For human players a human interface (main menu) is provided. The Star Cursor Several menu items will require you to select star systems on the screen by using the "star cursor." This is a small box that appears over the current player's home star system. The following keys may be used to move the cursor: Cursor Up, Down, Left, Right: Moves the cursor one space in the indicated direction. The cursor "wraps" from the right edge of the star map to the left edge, from the top to the bottom, and vice versa. Page Up, Page Down: Moves the cursor to the top and bottom edges of the star map. Home, End: Moves the cursor to the left and right edges of the star map. Using the Main Menu You may select items on this menu by using the cursor left and cursor right keys. Press to activate the selected item. Or you may press the menu item's hot key (highlighted in red) to select and activate it. The items on the main menu are: TURN: Use this to end your player turn. INSPECT: This item pops up another menu that allows you to inspect a variety of game variables. Use the up and down cursor keys to select an item on the popup menu, or press the indicated hot key. When using hidden player movement, not all information is available to each player. For example, a neutral or enemy star system's current owner or garrison will not be known unless you send a reconnaissance flight to that system. Unknown information is indicated in all displays by two question marks ("??"). Items that may be inspected are: - System Data: After selecting this item, move the star cursor to the system you want to inspect. A small window will appear next to the selected system with these items: System: The name of selected star system. Distance: The distance of the selected system from the player's home base. Turn: The number of the game turn the information was gathered (always the current game turn when hidden player movement is not in use). Owner: The owner of system. Production: The number of ships produced each turn. Garrison: The number of ships stationed on the system. - Production Rates: Lists the names of each star system in the inspection window, followed by that system's production rate. - Garrison Strengths: Lists each star system in the inspection window and the number of ships present on each. Note that when using hidden player movement, this information may not be up to date. The number indicates the number of ships present during the last reconnaissance flight. - Fleets: Displays disposition of fleets currently en route between star systems. Each line in the inspection window reports the status of one fleet. An example: é 154: Achernor -> Zubenubi: 6 The first symbol indicates the type of fleet (in this case, an attack fleet). It is followed by a number showing the strength of the fleet. The first name is the star system from which the fleet was launched; the second is its destination. The final number indicates the number of turns remaining in the fleet's voyage. - Current Deployment: Displays the status of automatic deployments. Each line in the inspection window reports one deployment. Example: 7 Ships: Achernor -> Zubenubi Translated, this means: "Each turn, 7 ships are automatically launched from Achernor to Zubenubi." Automatic deployment allows a player to consolidate his forces without having to manually launch fleets each turn. - Distance from System: Move the star cursor to any star system and press ; the inspection window then displays the distances from that system to all others on the screen. - All Players' Scores: Displays a list of all players' scores. This list is automatically displayed at the beginning of each player turn. RECON: Reconnaissance is necessary only when the game is being played with hidden player movement. Select this main menu item to launch a reconnaissance fleet from a friendly to an enemy or neutral system. A recon fleet consists of one ship that attacks the target system when it arrives, discovering who owns the system and the size of the garrison (and usually getting vaporized) in the process. Recon fleets are indicated on the Star Map and on the inspection window by a bullet symbol. DEPLOY: Automatic deployment comes in handy when you have several systems and wish to move a certain number of ships each turn in order to consolidate them. Follow the prompts to specify the origin and destination systems for each deployment. From that point -- until you change the deployment or the system is captured by an opposing player -- the number of ships you specify will be sent EACH TURN from the origin to the destination. Deployed fleets are indicated on the Star Map and on the inspection window by a double arrow symbol. ATTACK: This main menu item allows you to launch fleets to attack enemy or neutral star systems. You will be prompted for the origin, size, and destination of the fleet. Attack fleets may also be launched from one friendly system to another if you just want to move large numbers of ships around the Star Map. Attack fleets will never "attack" friendly star systems. Attack fleets are indicated on the Star Map and on the inspection window by a blinking theta symbol. BASE: This allows you to specify a new home base -- the place where the star cursor appears. The new home base must be a friendly star system. SYSTEM: This main menu item, when chosen, displays a popup menu to handle certain "housekeeping" chores. They are: - Load Game: Load a previously saved STARBUSTERS game file. Type the full pathname for the file. If no filename extension is specified, the program will append the .SBG extension. - Save Game: Save the game currently in progress. A default filename will be displayed, press to use it, or type a new path and filename and to specify a new name for the file. If no extension is specified, the program will append the .SBG extension. - OS Shell: Shells out to COMMAND.COM (or alternate DOS shell if one is installed) to allow you to use any DOS commands. Type "exit" at the DOS prompt to return to STARBUSTERS. Quit Game: This one's pretty self-explanatory, don't you think? COMBAT At the end of each player turn, each fleet that arrives at an enemy (or neutral) star system automatically attacks the ships present on that system. The computer calculates the odds of the combat and determines the outcome. All battles are fought until one side or the other is eliminated. The results are then displayed; press a key to continue. If the garrison is eliminated, the attacking fleet (or what remains of it) lands and the attacking player takes possession of the star system. CREDITS STARBUSTERS was inspired by an earlier game by Eric R. Markgraf and Jerry Galloway called GALACTIC CONFLICT. The screen display interface (windows and popup menus) is based on the system devised by Marc J. Rochkind and explained in his book "Advanced C Programming for Displays" (Prentice Hall, 1988). Anyone interested in learning C and how it can be implemented on an IBM PC or compatible is encouraged to read this fine book. This program was written, compiled and tested with these tools: QEdit 2.06 (SemWare) Turbo C 2.0 (Borland International, Inc.) Turbo Assembler 1.0 (Borland) Turbo Debugger 1.0 (Borland) Suggestions, complaints, or just want to drop a line? Please do: Steve Boerner, P.O. Box 364, Brockport, NY 14420.