| 1 | .TH BATTLESHIPS 6 "Aug 23, 1989"
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| 2 | .SH NAME
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| 3 | bs \- battleships game
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| 4 | .SH SYNOPSIS
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| 5 | battle [ -b | -s ] [ -c ]
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| 6 | .SH DESCRIPTION
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| 7 | This program allows you to play the familiar Battleships game against the
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| 8 | computer on a 10x10 board. The interface is visual and largely
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| 9 | self-explanatory; you place your ships and pick your shots by moving the
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| 10 | cursor around the `sea' with the rogue/hack motion keys hjklyubn.
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| 11 | .PP
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| 12 | Note that when selecting a ship to place, you must type the capital letter
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| 13 | (these are, after all, capital ships). During ship placement, the `r' command
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| 14 | may be used to ignore the current position and randomly place your currently
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| 15 | selected ship. The `R' command will place all remaining ships randomly. The ^L
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| 16 | command (form feed, ASCII 12) will force a screen redraw).
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| 17 | .PP
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| 18 | The command-line arguments control game modes.
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| 19 |
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| 20 | .nf
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| 21 | -b selects a `blitz' variant
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| 22 | -s selects a `salvo' variant
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| 23 | -c permits ships to be placed adjacently
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| 24 | .fi
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| 25 |
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| 26 | The `blitz' variant allows a side to shoot for as long as it continues to
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| 27 | score hits.
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| 28 | .PP
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| 29 | The `salvo' game allows a player one shot per turn for each of his/her ships
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| 30 | still afloat. This puts a premium scoring hits early and knocking out some
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| 31 | ships and also makes much harder the situation where you face a superior force
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| 32 | with only your PT-boat.
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| 33 | .PP
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| 34 | Normally, ships must be separated by at least one square of open water. The
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| 35 | -c option disables this check and allows them to close-pack.
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| 36 | .PP
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| 37 | The algorithm the computer uses once it has found a ship to sink is provably
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| 38 | optimal. The dispersion criterion for the random-fire algorithm may not be.
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| 39 | .SH AUTHORS
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| 40 | Originally written by one Bruce Holloway in 1986. Salvo mode added by Chuck A.
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| 41 | DeGaul (cbosgd!cad). Visual user interface, `closepack' option, code rewrite
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| 42 | and manual page by Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com> August 1989.
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