debian_bsdgames

README for bsd-games
====================

This is the bsd-games package for Linux (and GNU Hurd), containing
ports of all the games from NetBSD-current that are free in the usual
(DFSG/OSD) sense (i.e. modified and unmodified versions can be freely
distributed, including for profit). NetBSD-current contains two other
games, rogue and larn. Rogue has a standard BSD licence, but with an
additional contradictory licence that does not allow for-profit
distribution; larn has no licence at all, only a notice that "Copying
for Profit is Prohibited". If you want rogue, get the
bsd-games-non-free package (which should be on sunsite, but not
tsx-11), and read the README.non-free that it contains: rogue is being
distributed separately, and larn not distributed at all in this Linux
port, in the absence of definite confirmation of what licences really
apply to rogue and larn. A game not from NetBSD, paranoia, was in
earlier versions of bsd-games-non-free (and bsd-games 1.2 and 1.3) but
has been removed because of the lack of a clear licence.

The games are mostly not enhanced from the NetBSD versions, but many
bugs are fixed.

For installation instructions and details of prerequisites, see the
file "INSTALL".

The statement of year 2000 issues associated with bsd-games and
bsd-games-non-free is in the file "YEAR2000".

The copyrights and licence terms for the games, as best as I can
determine them, are in "COPYING".

This package contains cryptographic software (caesar and rot13). In
some jurisdictions, use or distribution of these utilities may be
restricted, whether under export control regulations or because these
cryptosystems have been used as technical protection measures to
restrict access to and copying of copyright works.

This package contains the following games:

adventure: the original adventure by Crowther and Woods
arithmetic: arithmetic quiz/speed test
atc: air traffic control
backgammon: backgammon
banner: display a message in big letters
battlestar: adventure game on a battlestar
bcd: outputs text in an antique form
boggle: boggle
caesar: reads fortunes from the game fortune, also some internet posts
canfield: curses-based solitaire
countmail: tell you how much new mail you have
cribbage: cribbage
dab: dots and boxes
dm: dungeon master, regulates games playing
factor: factor a number
fish: go fish
fortune: displays a random silly message
gomoku: gomoku
hack: exploring the Dungeons of Doom
hangman: guess the word before it is too late
hunt: hunt each other in a maze (multiplayer -- great)
mille: mille borne against the computer
monop: monopoly
morse: output morse code
number: output the English text for a number
phantasia: interterminal fantasy game
pig: output text in Pig Latin
pom: display the phase of the moon
ppt: outputs text in another antique form
primes: generate primes
quiz: random knowledge tests
rain: attempts to create a rain drop effect (best at 9600 baud)
random: random lines from a file or random numbers
robots: well... avoid the robots
sail: sail your ship into battle
snake: grab the cash and avoid the snake and exit
tetris: tetris
trek: We come in peace, shoot to kill. It's worse than that, he's
dead Jim. Ye cannot change the laws of physics. It's life
Jim, but not as we know it. There's Klingons on the starboard
bow ...
wargames: would you like to play a game?
worm: eat the numbers without running into anything
worms: random worms scurrying across your screen
wtf: translate acronyms, e.g. "wtf is WTF"
wump: hunt the wumpus

If you have questions about bsd-games or bsd-games-non-free you can
contact me at . Bug reports should state the
versions of ncurses and libc used, unless clearly not relevant (e.g.,
bugs in data files, or where you have an analysis and patch). If you
want to be informed by email of new releases when they come out,
please let me know.

Known bugs are listed in the file BUGS; please do not send bug reports
for bugs listed there, but patches that fix them are welcome.

For patches, I prefer unidiffs (use "diff -u OLD NEW", or "diff -ruN
OLD-DIRECTORY NEW-DIRECTORY"), but if your diff cannot produce them
then context diffs are OK. Please remember to include details of the
bug and your analysis of the problem if you are sending a patch; I
have ported the code from NetBSD to Linux, but may not be familiar
with the workings of any particular program, whereas you will be if
you have been tracing and fixing a bug. The GCC info manual contains
a discussion of how to produce good bug reports.

Notes on specific games:

boggle: by default this game compiles with certain Linux improvements;
if you want the original BSD behaviour, remove -DNEW_STYLE from the
boggle_boggle_DEFS in boggle/boggle/Makefrag. Defining NEW_STYLE will
provide a more intuitive way of quitting or playing a new game after
time has run out.

dm: the "dungeon master", a program that allows you to control when
users can play games. (Note that this does not control any private
copies of games they may have.) I do not claim that this program is
actually useful, but it is included in bsd-games since it is in
NetBSD. Add -DLOG to the DEFS in dm/Makefrag if you want logging of
games playing (not regularly tested).

fortune: Another enhanced version is available from
.
unstr is not installed by default. If you want to install it,
uncomment the relevant lines (installation command and definition of
fortune_unstr_DIRS) in fortune/unstr/Makefrag before doing the top
level "make install".

hunt: may well be unreliable or broken in various ways. There is some
local configuration possible in hunt/Makeconfig but changing this may
well break things.

Joseph S. Myers
jsm@polyomino.org.uk



Local Variables:
mode: text
End: