Copyright (c) 1986, 1991 Stanley T. Shebs. This program may be used, copied, modified, and redistributed freely for noncommercial purposes, so long as this notice remains intact. WELCOME TO XCONQ! XC5.5 3/19/92 EWZ If you're reading this file, you've found the best multiplayer strategy game that's come around in a while (ok, maybe of all time). Xconq 5.5 is the version you have right now and seems fairly stable. It's basically four years worth of incremental improvements on my July 1988 5.0 release. Xconq 6.0 is either a) an "unofficial" version that has been hacked on is available, or b) what Stan was calling hew new version up until a few days ago. Copies of another "6.0" have been reportedly floating around Europe. Xconq 7.0 is Stan Shebs' "new" version. Like Intel's i786 chip, it's not even close to an alpha product yet. It will draw upon the past experience with 5.x, but will be a complete rewrite full of improvements that hope- fully make it *the* programmable game system of the 90s. Eric Ziegast uunet!ziegast -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- INSTALLATION NOTES This is the source directory for XCONQ, a multi-player strategy game. The code herein includes interfaces for curses and X11R4&5. 1. Look at the Imakefile and configure it to suit any of your sys- tem's quirks. Imake should be able to figure out most everything, but there may be a few defines which may have to be set to catch special cases in the source. 2. Look at config.h and edit as desired. It contains mainly game controls. 3. Do "xmkmf" or the appropriate imake command to create a working Makefile. 4. Do "make depend" to iron out the dependencies between the files. 5. Do: "make all" to build xconq and cconq. "make install" to install the binaries, library, etc... "make install.man" to install the man pages. "make docs" to convert the ms documents to readable ASCII. Read the part of the Imakefile regarding "FONTS". It gives you important info regarding the loading of fonts which you need to address. 6. If you installed everything in default places, you're ready to just do "xconq" or "cconq". Unless you want to use a hard-to-read text font in "xconq" you must first set your font path correctly. See the Imakefile for more info. 7. The man pages just tell how to start up the programs; xconq.ms has complete details on every aspect of play. A lot of behavior can be figured out by experimentation and by using the extensive online help ('?' should always provide something). 8. If installed in a public place, announce availability. The library file "xconq.news" provides a convenient place to put in any notes about changes, new maps/scenarios, and so forth. 9. If you get bored with the standard game, look at "custom.doc", which tells how to build your own historical periods, maps, and scenarios. Many have already been defined; all are in the library directory. The program has been tested on lots of different kinds of systems. Porting to other graphics environments should not be too difficult, since all the user interface goes through about 50 abstract functions. (Suntools, Macintosh, and Atari ST would be good candidates.) Non-Un*x should be straightforward also, since there are only a handful of Un*x system calls, and none of those are absolutely required. Please contact me about any portability problems. OpenWindows: People seem to have a lot of trouble with OpenWindows. We expect this is because they are not gods. If you encounter any problem with OpenWindows that you solve by changing our code or installation procedure, TELL US! HPUX: (pronounced "HPOX" or "HPsucks") These guys have something screwy with random and you may have to link with the MIT X library instead of their installed one. Earlier versions also didn't have the strcasecmp function, so uncomment bsd.o from the OBJS line in the Makefile if you have a problem. We will have to improve our support in the future, since HPs look like they're going to stomp Sun into the ground. AIX 3.0: Miraculously, the game compiled without modification. It seems that IBM's successes are as surprising as it's screw-ups. Finally, to repeat what is all over the files, you may copy, redistribute, modify, or even mangle the code, as long as the copyright notices are retained, and you don't try to sell it. Common decency dictates that you identify your changes before passing the sources on, and it would help future hackers if you try to maintain the style and standards of the existing code. Also I would enjoy seeing any improvements/fixes/suggestions, and will try to incorporate them in future versions of XCONQ. Stan Shebs shebs@apple.com Thanks to the many XCONQ players around the net who have sent in literally hundreds of suggestions, fixes, and improvements. The manual includes more detailed acknowledgments. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- XCONQ MAILING LIST Xconq has a mailing list for xconq players and developers. The list includes discussion on anything related to xconq (design, bugs, strat- egies, etc...). In addition, patches and new releases will be announced through the mailing list. To subscribe to the list, send mail to "xconq-request": Internet: xconq-request@uunet.uu.net UUCP: ...!uunet!xconq-request To post to the list, send mail to "xconq": Internet: xconq@uunet.uu.net UUCP: ...!uunet!xconq-request Mail to the list is archived on ftp.uu.net in the xconq directory. Look for the file "mail.Z". If you have anything that you would like to add to xconq archive on ftp.uu.net, mail it to xconq-request. Any binary files should be uuencoded before sending. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- HOW TO GET XCONQ Listed below are sites where you can get the most current release of xconq. If this info is outdated, send mail to xconq-request. By FTP: UUNET is the official xconq archive of the 1992 Summer Olympics. Any sources or other xconq errata can be usually be found here. $ ftp ftp.uu.net Name: ftp Password: anything (your mail address is preferred) ftp> bin ftp> cd games/xconq ftp> ls A copy of the most recent source can also be found at ufl.edu: $ ftp ftp.cis.ufl.edu Name: ftp Password: anything (your mail address is preferred) ftp> bin ftp> cd pub/empire ftp> ls By UUCP: Xconq is accessable from the uunet archives. Those who are not UUNET subscribers can access the archives via UUNET's 900 number. (No, it's not a sex line, at least not unless you're a modem. ;^) For more information on using the 900 number, mail xconq-request. Once you are able to access UUNET via UUCP, you can use the fol- lowing shell scripts to access files in the archive. #!/bin/sh # How to get the index of files you can transfer. DESTDIR=/usr/spool/uucppublic/xconq uucp -d -r -m uunet!~/games/xconq/Index $DESTDIR/Index #!/bin/sh # How to get a bunch of files at once. # # For the "FILES" variable below, # add any files you want to # retrieve. They should appear below the same as they do in # the Index. # DESTDIR=/usr/spool/uucppublic/xconq FILES=' README ' for file in $FILES do uucp -d -r uunet!~/games/xconq/$file $DESTDIR/$file done After executing these shell scripts you can wait for UUCP to poll uunet, or you can poll uunet manually: uucico -r1 -x1 -suunet See the uucp(1) and uucico(8) man pages or a local system administrator for further info. (For further info on how to retrieve files, mail xconq-request) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ROGUES GALLERY Stan Shebs - founding father + and mother invention (ala 7.0) Greg Fisher - master hacker Eric Zeigast - postmaster + archiver Robert Forsman - resuscitator + hacker