WORDWARVI
Section: Games (6)
Updated: Jul 2008
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NAME
wordwarvi - Old school '80's style side scrolling space shoot'em up game.
SYNOPSIS
wordwarvi [ --bw ] [ --blueprint ] [ --brightsparks ]
[ --difficulty easy|medium|hard|insane|batshit-insane ]
[ --explosionfactor n ]
[ --fullscreen ] [ --joystick device ] [ --nomusic ]
[ --nomissilealarm ] [ --norumble ] [ --nostarfield ]
[ --nstars n ] [ --randomize ] [ --randomseed n ] [ --squareexplosions ]
[ --rumbledevice device ] [ --sounddevice n ] [ --thicklines ]
[ --width w ] [ --height h ] [ --framerate f ]
[ --retrogreen ] [ --version ] [ --xmas ]
DESCRIPTION
wordwarvi, or "Word War vi", is an old school '80's style side
scrolling space shoot'em up video game.
You pilot your "vi-per" craft through core memory, trying to
avoid OS defenses and wipe out the memory hogging emacs processes
and rescue lost vi-per pilots (.swp files) stranded from crashed
vi sessions before heading through the socket to the next node
in the cluster to do it all over again.
Options:
- --bw
-
Render the game in black and white, as if on graph paper.
- --blueprint
-
Render the game to look like a blueprint.
- --brightsparks
-
Enables a visual effect for sparks to be rendered bigger
and brighter than usual, at the cost of some performance.
It is a matter of personal preference whether it looks better
or worse.
- --difficulty easy|medium|hard|insane|batshit-insane
-
Sets the difficulty level to one of easy, medium, hard, insane,
or batshit-insane.
- --explosionfactor n
-
Produce explosions with the number of sparks
multiplied by n. Default is 1, integers up
to 5 are permitted. Performance may suffer
with large values of n. This option only has
an effect when the squareexplosions option is
not in effect.
- --framerate f
-
Sets the target frame rate to f frames per second.
The default is 30 frames per second. If your computer is
too slow to achieve the specified (or default) frame rate at
the specified (or default) resolution, decreasing the frame
rate may make the game respond better. Likewise, at lower
resolutions, higher framerates may be possible, or lower resolutions
may make the game perform better at a given frame rate.
It should be noted that The game is designed (and tested)
to be played at 30 frames per second.
- --fullscreen
-
Expand the window to fill the screen. This option overrides the
--width and --height options, if either of those are also specified,
and scales the graphics to the size of the screen. You can also
use the F11 key to toggle between fullscreen and windowed mode
after the program is started. If the --fullscreen option is
used, then the F11 key has no effect.
- --height h
-
Sets the window size to h pixels high, scaling all
graphics as necessary. The default is 600 pixels.
- --joystick joystick-device
-
Use the specified device node joystick-device to access
the joystick. The default device if this option is not used
is /dev/input/js0. If you have more than one joystick, or if
your OS presents joysticks at device nodes other than
/dev/input/js0, that's what this option is for.
- --nomusic
-
Don't play music, or even decode the music files into memory.
Cuts down considerably on memory usage.
- --nomissilealarm
-
Don't sound an alarm when a missile locks on to your ship.
Some people find the sound of the alarm incredibly annoying.
(Alarms are supposed to be annoying.) The audio alarm can
also be toggled on and off with the '1' key.
- --norumble
-
Don't use joystick rumble effects.
- --nostarfield
-
Don't draw a starfield in the background.
- --nstars n
-
Controls how many stars are rendered. Valid
values for n must be greater than or equal to
zero, and less than or equal to 600.
- --randomize
-
Uses the microseconds value of the clock as the random seed
for generating terrain, enemy placement etc. If you get tired
of the regular levels, and knowing where everything is, this
will get you levels that you haven't seen before.
- --randomseed n
-
Uses the specified value, n, as the random seed
for generating terrain, enemy placement etc. This
allows access to new levels which you may play again by
specifying the same random seed value. The default
random seed value the game uses if none is specified
is 31415927.
- --squareexplosions
-
Makes explosions square rather than round. By default
spark velocities are chosen by simply assigning independent
uniformly distributed random angle and velocity (polar
coordinates). This results in an explosion which is round
in shape. If there aren't too many sparks, you don't really
notice. With larger numbers of sparks, this round shape
can become apparent. The squareexplosions options causes
a uniformly distributed random x and y and velocity to be
chosen for each spark. This saves the computation of
converting polar coordinates to cartesian. The default
used to be square explosions, with round explosions available
only through the old --roundexplosions option. Now round
explosions are the default, and the --roundexplosions option
was inverted and renamed --squareexplosions.
- --rumbledevice d
-
Use the specified device for rumble effects (XBox 360 wired
controller only, and linux 2.6.26 or better required.)
The default is /dev/input/event5. Your controller may show up
elsewhere, like /dev/input/event6, for example.
Also, you will have to (as root) chown this device node
to the user you're running the game as, and do this again after
each boot, and each time you hotplug the controller. There
is probably a way to get udev to do this for you automatically
every time, but I don't know what it is offhand, and it may
differ from distro to distro.
- --retrogreen
-
Does exactly what it sounds like.
- --sounddevice n
-
Use alternate sound device n, where n is an integer.
By default, wordwarvi uses the "default" sound device as
estimated by the PortAudio library, which is 0.
You can specify other numbers if you have other sound cards, or
a multichannel sound card.
- --starmotion x
-
Controls how the starfield moves. Possible values of x
are 'astronomically-correct', 'wrong', 'wronger', and 'wrongest'.
- --thicklines
-
Render everything with extra thick lines.
- --version
-
Print the program's version number and exit.
- --width w
-
Sets the window size to w pixels wide, scaling all graphics
as necessary. The default is 800 pixels.
- --xmas
-
Runs the program in xmas mode, if it is not near Christmas.
If it is near Christmas, runs the program in non-xmas mode.
Controls:
Arrow keys control movement (or vi's hjkl keys will work too,
of course.)
Q puts in a quarter, and starts the game.
Z fires a laser
C drops chaff (to confuse heat seeking missiles).
B drops bombs.
G drops a gravity bomb, of which you start with 3.
Additionally, a game pad or joystick may be used. I have only tried
two controllers, the Microsoft XBox 360 wired controller, and
a Logitech Dual Action Rumble USB gamepad. On these, the first
(left) joystick controls your ship. For other controls,
just press all the buttons to see what they do, as it's not
the same from one controller to the next. The rumble effect
only works with the XBox 360 wired controller, and then only
if you have linux kernel 2.6.26 or better. See also
the "--rumbledevice" option.
m toggles music on/off.
s toggles sound effects on/off.
1 toggles the audio missile lock-on alarm on/off.
ENEMIES AND OTHER THINGS YOU MAY ENCOUNTER
Rockets. Avoid hitting them.
Jets, which fire heat seeking missiles. Avoid the missiles.
Heat seeking SAMs. Avoid.
Octo-viruses and tentacles. Shoot lightning. Avoid.
Blimps (representing emacs). Will shoot heat seeking missiles.
Will leak LISP code.
GDB processes. Will attempt to ptrace you with heat seeking probes. Avoid and/or kill.
Cron Jobs. Will shoot projectiles at you. Will attempt to collect the vi .swp files
and carry them to caldera of the volcano, Mount /dev/null.
Fuel tanks. Refuel by hovering over the fuel tanks momentarily.
Laser cannons. They will shoot laser bolts at you (obviously).
WINE bottles. Bill Gates's finest warship is outfitted with a
giant WINE bottle to enable it to travel through the linux CORE.
Beware of viruses which may be living inside.
FILES
/dev/input/js0, the joystick device node.
/dev/input/event5, the rumble effect device.
/usr/share/wordwarvi/sounds/*.ogg contain the audio data used by the game.
~/.wordwarvi/.highscores
Contains high score data.
~/.wordwarvi/.exrc
This file can be used to customize default settings for the game.
Each line of the file controls one aspect of the game. The following
commands are understood.
- set bw
-
Render in black and white.
- set blueprint
-
Render in the style of a blueprint.
- set brightsparks
-
Render sparks brighter than usual.
- set difficulty=x
-
Sets the difficulty level. Valid values are
easy, medium, hard, insane, and batshit-insane.
- set explosionfactor=n
-
Produce explosions with the number of sparks
multiplied by n. Default is 1, integers up
to 5 are permitted. Performance may suffer
with large values of n. This option only has
an effect when the squareexplosions option is
not in effect.
- set framerate=n
-
Attempt to render the game at n frames per second.
- set fullscreen
-
Render the game in full screen mode.
- set height y
-
Render the game y pixels high.
- set joystick=dev
-
Use joystick input device dev.
- set levelwarp=n
-
Warp ahead n levels (if compiled in).
- set nomusic
-
Do not play, or even decode music data.
- set nomissilealarm
-
Do not sound alarm for missile lock on.
- set nostarfield
-
Do not render the background starfield.
- set norumble
-
Do not use joystick rumble effects.
- set nstars=n
-
Controls how many stars are rendered. Valid
values for n must be greater than or equal to
zero, and less than or equal to 600.
- set retrogreen
-
Render in the manner of a vector display from the '70's.
- set randomize
-
Use a clock generated random seed to initialize levels.
- set randomseed=n
-
Use the specified random seed to initialize levels.
- set rumbledeviced=d
-
Use the specified device for rumble effects (XBox 360 wired
controller only, and linux 2.6.26 or better required.)
The default is /dev/input/event5. Your controller may show up
elsewhere, like /dev/input/event6, for example.
Also, you will have to (as root) chown this device node
to the user you're running the game as, and do this again after
each boot, and each time you hotplug the controller. There
is probably a way to get udev to do this for you automatically
every time, but I don't know what it is offhand, and it may
differ from distro to distro.
- set squareexplosions
-
Makes explosions rectangular rather than round. See the
description of the --squareexplosions option for some
explanation of why this even exists.
- set sounddevice=n
-
Use the nth sound device for audio output.
- set starmotion=x
-
Controls how the starfield moves. Possible values
are 'astronomically-correct', 'wrong', 'wronger', and 'wrongest'.
- set thicklines
-
Render everything with extra thick lines.
- set width=x
-
Render the game x pixels wide.
- map key action
-
valid actions are:
soundeffect down up left right
missilealarm bomb chaff quarter pause
2x 3x 4x 5x 6x
7x 8x suicide thrust music
fullscreen quit laser none reverse
gift
Valid keys are:
a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and most printable characters. Keypad numerals
0-9 may be specified as kp_0 through kp_9, and function keys f1 through f12
can be specified f1 through f12 (obviously). In addition
the following strings may be used to specify the corresponding keys:
space enter return backspace delete
pause scrolllock escape sysreq left
right up down kp_home kp_down
kp_up kp_left kp_right kp_end kp_delete
kp_insert home down end delete
insert
- map button n action
-
maps joystick button n (where 0 <= n <= 9) to the specified action.
Actions are the same as describe above, with the exception of
left, right, up and down, which are not yet implemented due to
laziness on my part. In any case, if your joystick has a
button pad you want to use to control the motion of the ship
(left/right/up/down), most likely it also has some sort of
switch to make this pad active instead of one of the sets of
x/y joystick axes. (e.g. my Logitech Dual Action Rumble is
like that.) If that's the case, then you don't need this
feature anyway, as the joystick will map those button presses
onto the appropriate axes for you.
- set joystick-[xy]-axis=n. Allows specifying different axes for
-
control of the players ship for multi axis joysticks. By default,
the first x and first y axes are used (n = 0 for x, n=1 for y)
A value of -1 disables control of an axis. See example .exrc
file below to find out why you might want to do that. There are
pictures at http://smcameron.github.com/wordwarvi which show how
the axis numbers and button numbers map to the physical
controls for the Microsoft XBox 360 controller and the
Logitech Dual Action Rumble controller
- Example .exrc file:
-
set fullscreen
set retrogreen
map z chaff
map x bomb
map c laser
#
# to set up "Defender" style joystick
# controls, vertical motion controlled
# by joystick axis, horizontal motion
# controlled only by "reverse", and
# "thrust" buttons, with x axis joystick
# control disabled.
#
set joystick-x-axis=-1
set joystick-y-axis=0
map button 0 thrust
map button 1 reverse
GOOD LUCK
You'll need it.
AUTHOR
Written by Stephen M. Cameron