moon-buggy.info

This is moon-buggy.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.0 from
moon-buggy.texi.

INFO-DIR-SECTION Games
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* moon-buggy: (moon-buggy).     Drive some car across the moon
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

   This file documents moon-buggy, a simple character graphics game

   Copyright 1999, 2000 Jochen Voss

   Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
permission notice identical to this one.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a
translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.


File: moon-buggy.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Introduction,  Prev: (dir),  Up: (dir)

   Moon-buggy is a simple character graphics game, where you drive some
kind of car across the moon's surface.  Unfortunately there are
dangerous craters there.  Fortunately your car can jump over them!

   This edition (last updated 1 November 2000) of the manual applies to
version 0.5.52 of the program.

* Menu:

* Introduction::                Introduction
* Moon-buggy Invocation::       Moon-buggy Invocation
* Playing the Game::            Keyboard commands
* Shared Score Files::          Competition via the highscore table
* Installation::                Installation and setup
* References::                  References


File: moon-buggy.info,  Node: Introduction,  Next: Moon-buggy Invocation,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

Introduction
************

   Moon-buggy is a simple character graphics game, where you drive some
kind of car across the moon's surface.  Unfortunately there are
dangerous craters there.  Fortunately your car can jump over them!

   Moon-Buggy comes with no warranty, to the extent permitted by law.
You may redistribute copies of Moon-Buggy under the terms of the GNU
General Public License.  For more information about these matters, read
the file `COPYING' of the source code distribution or press <c> at
moon-buggy's title screen.

   Please mail any suggestions and bug reports to
<voss@mathematik.uni-kl.de>.  Your message should include the
moon-buggy version number, as obtained by the command `moon-buggy -V'.

   New versions of Moon-buggy may be found on the sunsite ftp server or
on the moon-buggy download page (*note References::).


File: moon-buggy.info,  Node: Moon-buggy Invocation,  Next: Playing the Game,  Prev: Introduction,  Up: Top

Moon-buggy Invocation
*********************

   Normal usage is to start `moon-buggy' without any options.
Nevertheless there are some.  The long options (starting with `--') are
only supported on some system types.

`-h'
`--help'
     shows a short usage message.

`-m'
`--mesg'
     disable write access to your terminal by other users, so your chef
     can't disturb your game play with the help of "write" or "finger".

`-n'
`--no-title'
     skips the title screen.

`-s'
`--show-scores'
     shows the current highscore list and exits.

`-V'
`--version'
     prints the program's version to standard output and exits.


File: moon-buggy.info,  Node: Playing the Game,  Next: Shared Score Files,  Prev: Moon-buggy Invocation,  Up: Top

Playing the Game
****************

   The game is controlled by a couple of keys, which are described near
the bottom of the screen.  Most important are the following keys.

<SPC>
<j>
     makes your car jump.  The length of a jump is fixed and you can
     only start a new jump while the wheels have contact to the ground.

<a>
<l>
     fires the mining laser.  The laser is used to remove stones, which
     may block your way.

<q>
     quits the game prematurely.  But you still keep your score and may
     enter the highscore list.

   Moon-buggy can handle a wide range of screen sizes.  But it runs best
if the screen has at least 80 columns.  If you run it on a screen with
significantly less columns it may look strange and could be hard to
play.


File: moon-buggy.info,  Node: Shared Score Files,  Next: Installation,  Prev: Playing the Game,  Up: Top

Shared Score Files
******************

   Moon-buggy has two concepts of score files: the "global score file"
is located somewhere in the installation directories and is shared
between all players.  The exact place in the file system can be
controlled via `configure''s `--sharedstatedir' option.  This highscore
file is used whenever Moon-buggy has the permissions to access it.
Otherwise the "local score file" is used.  This file is located in the
user's home directory, the file name is `.mbscore'.  Thus, the local
score file is not shared between different accounts.

   As the game is much more fun, when players can compete for the
highest scores, the global score file should be writable for the
moon-buggy program (but not for the user's text editor).  Here is a
list of possible policies:

  1. The preferred solution is to make moon-buggy a setgid program.
     This means the following: you choose a group ID, which cannot be
     used by ordinary users, and allow only members of this group to
     write the score file.  Many systems have a group `games' for this
     purpose (Check your `/etc/group' file).  You make this group own
     the `moon-buggy' executable and set the file's setgid bit.  This
     bit gives moon-buggy its file groups's access permissions and so
     the program is able to access the score file.

     You can use `configure''s `--with-setgid' option (*note
     Installation::) to properly set up access permissions for this
     model.

  2. You could make moon-buggy a setuid program but for security
     reasons this is not recommended.  The file `SECURITY' from the
     bsd-games distribution (*note References::) has some informations
     about this topic.

  3. Another solution is to make the score file world writable.  But
     then you have to trust your players: every player may open the
     score file with his favourite text editor and change it freely.
     So this is not recommended, too.

  4. Finally you could do nothing.  Then every account uses its local
     score file.


File: moon-buggy.info,  Node: Installation,  Next: References,  Prev: Shared Score Files,  Up: Top

Installation
************

   Moon-buggy requires the curses library as a prerequisite.  If curses
is not installed on your system, you may use the free ncurses package
(*note References::).  The game does not work with BSD curses, thus on
BSD systems you will need the ncurses package.

   When you unpack the moon-buggy distribution, you get one directory,
which holds all the source files and the documentation.  Generic
installation instructions are in the file `INSTALL'.  There are some
points of interest:

   * By default, the program will be installed as
     `/usr/local/bin/moon-buggy'.  You can specify an installation
     prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving `configure' the
     `--prefix=PATH' option.

   * You can choose the score file's location via `configure''s
     `--sharedstatedir=DIR' option.  The score file then will be
     `DIR/moonbuggy/mbscore'.  On GNU/Linux systems you should use

          --sharedstatedir=/var/games

     to comply with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (*note
     References::).

   * Moon-buggy supports shared score files.  For details, see *Note
     Shared Score Files::.  As explained there, you may want to make
     moon-buggy a setgid program.  This can be done with the
     `--with-setgid' option.  If you use

          --with-setgid=games

     then the installation process arranges everything for setgid usage.

     *Caution*: this introduces potential security risks.  I tried to
     minimise these, but nevertheless be careful with this.  And
     remember: moon-buggy comes with no warranty.

   * If your version of the curses library is not autodetected, you
     have to use some of the `--with-curses-includedir',
     `--with-curses-header', and `--with-curses-libs' options.  For
     example you should use

          --with-curses-includedir=/usr/pkg/include

     if your curses header files are in `/usr/pkg/include/'.  You may
     use

          --with-curses-header="<mycurses.h>"

     if your curses header is called `mycurses.h'.  And you may use

          --with-curses-libs="-L/usr/pkg/lib -lncurses"

     if your curses library is called `ncurses.a' and is located in
     `/usr/pkg/lib/'.

   Example: On GNU/Linux systems you probably can use the following
commands.  For the last one you need root user permissions.

     ./configure --sharedstatedir=/var/games --with-setgid=games
     make
     make install


File: moon-buggy.info,  Node: References,  Prev: Installation,  Up: Top

References
**********

   This chapter gives some references to resources mentioned in the
manual.  As the internet changes incessantly, the addresses below may be
outdated.  If you find this to happen, please report it as a bug.

   The latest version of *Moon-buggy* may be found on the sunsite
archive in the directory
<ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/linux/games/arcade/>.

   I provide a *moon-buggy download page*, which is located at
<http://www.mathematik.uni-kl.de/~wwwstoch/voss/moon-buggy.html>.

   Version 2.0 of the *Filesystem Hierarchy Standard* (FHS 2.0) may be
found on the internet at
<ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/linux/docs/fhs/fhs-2.0.tar.gz>.

   The *ncurses* package can be found on the GNU project's ftp server
and its mirrors.  The original site is
<ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/ncurses/ncurses-4.2.tar.gz>.

   Hints about *security concerns* may be found in the file `SECURITY'
from the bsd-games package.  One location where to find it is
<ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/linux/games/bsd-games-2.7.tar.gz>.  



Tag Table:
Node: Top988
Node: Introduction1705
Node: Moon-buggy Invocation2651
Node: Playing the Game3388
Node: Shared Score Files4264
Node: Installation6416
Node: References8933

End Tag Table