This file documents KRSNAke v1.17

Copyright © 1995, 1996 Psilocybe Software

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 also that the sections entitled ``Copying'' and ``GNU General Public License'' are included exactly as in the original, and 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.

KRSNAke
*******

This is the manual for the game KRSNAke.

This document applies to version 1.17 of KRSNAke.

                         GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
                            Version 2, June 1991

      Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
                               675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
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Introduction
************

     snake /sneik/ n 1 any of various types of long, legless crawling reptile, some of which are poisonous.

     - Oxford Dictionary of Current English

Arjuna was surprised.

KRSNAke - the definition
========================

KRSNAke can be considered one of a number of things.  If you strip away the philosophical considerations and the fancy evasions of the thruth about the matter, I suppose you could call it a game. However, for the sake of argument, let us say that KRSNAke is not justified by the simple definition game and the negative associations this word generates in intellectual circles.  Indeed, given enough ingenuity, one could quite possibly argue that KRSNAke can be anything whatsoever, including a cabbage.

This is, however, not the point I desired to make.  While the question of KRSNAke's vegetable status may well give rise to terrible philosophic strife, factionism, and eventual Hegelian compromise, I would rather prefer to focus on the therapeutic abilities of said ophidian.  This would seem a revolutionary and, indeed, outrageously pointless approach to the military men and CIA directors of our age, but, knowing full well that I face ostracism and possibly even persecution, I wish to direct the world's attention to the virtues of this wonderful legless vertebrate.

Or perhaps, on second thought, I won't.  Suffice to say that playing KRSNAke is a worthwhile pursuit given the fact that more pointless things, like existence, have been known to happen.

There are religious issues as well concerning this scaly animal.  For the judeo-christian tradition, in particular, the snake possesses a special meaning.  If you are a devout Jew or Christian and worry about playing a game where a snake plays the leading role, don't worry.  You don't have to play a snake.  You can play anything your mind could conceive, from an earthworm (which is included in the distribution) to a field of static (which you will have to design yourself) or a giant penis (in which case it might be wise for you to see your psychiatrist).  For further debate on the subject of snakes and religion, refer to the KRSNAke Web page, of which you will find more information below.

The KRSNAke Web page
====================

If you really want to read in-depth about advanced ophiolatry, you can check the KRSNAke home page (where you can also get the latest beta version of the legless reptile).  (I do not, however, guarantee that at any time the most recent beta version will be available at this site, or indeed that there will be a new beta version. I do, in fact, have better things to waste my pointless life on than a snake with a fruit fixation. You are hereby warned.)

     http://login.eunet.no/~morsteen/krsnake/

EMACS!

Hegel
=====

Suppose you claim that the snake must be an animal, because if it needs to eat, it demonstrates a lack of photosynthetic ability. Consider this the original thesis.

Then suppose I claim that the snake must, on the contrary, be a vegetable, because some species of snake are demonstrably green of hue, indicating the presence of chlorophyl, and that the consumption of edibles is meant only to throw us off the track.  Consider this the antithesis.

There is immense debate around this issue, especially given that both arguments seem entirely valid (Yes, from the paranoiac's point of view, the second argument is very valid. Trust me on this.).  Two warring schools of thought develop, and people are generally very upset about the question.  (Do you believe that?)

Well, according to this fine fellow Hegel, eventually there will be a synthesis of these two ideas, meaning that the snake is believed to be both an animal and a vegetable at the same time.  Now isn't that awfully nice?  A perversion of philosophy, perhaps, but it certainly makes people get along better.  And after all, that's what philosophy really is all about.  (Do you believe that?)

Requirements
************

You'll need the following thingies to play KRSNAke:

  * Amiga with KS3.0+

  * a screen with 16 colours or more if you want a colourful game

  * lowlevel.library v40+, if you want to play with your joystick (but you don't, trust me) or your CD32 game controller

  * playsid.library, if you want to listen to REAL music while playing

  * medplayer.library, if you want to listen to some of that modern trash while playing

  * initiation as at least 30th degree Scottish Rite mason (Knight Kadosh), or membership in the Knights Templar or the Priory of Sion; alternatively, you can be the Pope

Playing instructions
********************

Keyboard controls follow.

  * SPACE starts the game

  * ARROW KEYS or a joystick or game controller in port 2 control the snake

  * P pauses the game

  * Clicking the left mousebutton 23 times on the snake's head starts an MPEG animation of an 18th degree Masonic initiation, with comments read by Prof. Adam Weishaupt  (Do you believe that?)

  * Numeric keys (1 - 9) adjusts the game speed

  * TAB provides incontrovertible evidence that Christ founded the Merovingian dynasty  (Do not employ this function if you are a devout Christian and wish to remain so, as the foundation of the Christian faith is Christ's death and resurrection, and evidence to the contrary would be unhealthy for your present dogma. You have been warned. Fnord.)

  * Ctrl-C restores the Stuarts to the throne of England (please use sparingly)

  * ESC shuts down the game

  * If the window is deactivated, the game will (should...) pause.

Clients
*******

Clients are programs that work in cooperation with KRSNAke to provide the user with extended functionality or additional information.  KRSNAke is the server in this connection, and the clients basically receive various types of information from KRSNAke, which they may choose either to ignore or to act upon in a given way, usually defining the function of the given client.

When KRSNAke starts, it looks for a subdirectory called Clients in its home directory.  All files found in this directory will be launched.  If they are KRSNAke clients, they should attach themselves to KRSNAke and function as they're expected to.  If they're other programs, they'll be started too - but generally you shouldn't put anything besides KRSNAke clients in the "Clients" directory.

At present, there are two KRSNAke clients available; the Hall of Fame and the Action Replay.  The former records high scores, the latter records games for subsequent replay.  See their individual descriptions for more details.

The Hall of Fame
================

This client keeps track of high scores.  Each player has only one entry - this is contrary to most high score tables, but as the Hall of Fame can handle an unlimited number of entries, this helps cut back a little on the table size.

The default name offered the player the first time the Hall of Fame registers a high score is taken from the system variable USER. MultiUserFileSystem and similar applications usually maintain this variable.  If it is not present, the Hall of Fame reverts to Crassus.  The default name is stored in the snapshot file whenever the Hall of Fame exits, and the name stored here is used if it exists.

If you're intimidated by the default entries, being such conspiratorial characters as Templars, Masons and Rosicrucians, you can replace the file ENVARC:KRSNAke/HallOfFame.data with an empty file, and you'll have a blank Hall of Fame.  But really, that's being rather paranoid.

The Action Replay
=================

This client records your games and lets you replay them at any speed. Use the keyboard to control it; when the Action Replay window is active, press the R key to begin the replay (even if you're still playing; though it's a good idea to pause the game before doing this ...).  Press a numeric key to adjust the speed - as you'd do with KRSNAke itself.  When replaying, you can press SPACE to abort.

Eventually you can load and save replays.  At present, I haven't even begun programming this.  Don't hold your breath for it unless you can survive for indefinite periods without air.

Sounds
******

KRSNAke can be set to play given sounds with given events.  At present, these events are at the start of each game, each time the snake eats a fruit, and when it crashes or bites itself.

I think I ought to mention what kinds of sounds can be played by KRSNAke.  At present, it supports any sounds you've installed datatypes for, ProTracker modules (through protracker.library), MED/OctaMED modules (only 4-channel, through medplayer.library), Player 6.1 modules (with "P61A" headers only, through player61.library), and PlaySID modules (only one-file, through playsid.library).  With the exception of protracker.library and player61.library, these libraries are not included in the KRSNAke distribution, mostly for the purpose of evading any legal action resulting from possible copyright infringements, but also because it's really fun to turn the AmiNet upside down trying to locate them.  (You don't think so?)

Graphics
********

Does a snake have to be a snake?

System pens
===========

In KRSNAke, you can define several ways of rendering the snake and its surroundings.  The default method is by using the appropriate system pens.  This produces an exceedingly dull but completely compatible set of blocks meant to symbolise a snake.

RGB colours
===========

Number two, moving up on the complexity ladder, is where you pick an RGB colour from the 16.8 million colours available on the Amiga.  The result is, essentially, more colourful dull blocks.

Datatypes
=========

Then there is the datatypes option.  Here you select a graphic image, which can be in any format you possess datatypes for, which will be rendered inside the dull blocks or as the background.  For the background, this will probably be the most interesting option - and besides, this is as high as it goes for the background.

KRSNAke graphics
================

Finally there is the big one.  For the snake itself, and for the fruits (or whatever you want them to represent), you can choose special graphic images that will be scaled and remapped to fit your playing area, and that will, more importantly, not be dull blocks.  These graphics must conform to certain specifications (see Designing Graphics), but are really very flexible, and above all, very attractive.

Designing Graphics
==================

Generally, you'd be well advised to sit down and create your own set of graphics for the KRSNAke game.  Given my own skills as an artist, the graphics accompanying the distribution are somewhat lacking.

And before I say anything else, I have to mention the number one restriction.  This is that all KRSNAke graphic files must be IFF ILBM files with a CMAP chunk.  Fair enough?  Anything else will fail to load.  You should also be aware that KRSNAke sometimes needs to write to these files, so they should not exist on a read-only medium, like a CD.

There are two types of graphics, the snake and the fruit. The fruit is the easiest to create - this is simply a picture of whatever fruit you're implementing.  It will be scaled and remapped to fit into a block in the playing field.  The block size is displayed in KRSNAke's status bar immediately after loading. The fruit file name must end in .f1, to identify it as a fruit file.

Then there is the snake.  This is a lot more complex.  The snake graphic consists of twenty consecutive images, each of the same size, one beneath the other.  They will be remapped and scaled just as the fruit graphics. The snake file name must end in .s1, and the order of the images is as follows, with * representing the part of the image moving in the forward direction, and - representing any other part of the snake.  I hope you get the picture - if you don't, try looking at the included snake graphics.

Here goes:

     --*    - snake body

      |
      |     - snake body
      *

     *--    - snake body

      *
      |     - snake body
      |

     --*    - snake head

      |
      |     - snake head
      *

     *--    - snake head

      *
      |     - snake head
      |

      -*    - snake tail

      |     - snake tail
      *

     *-     - snake tail

      *
      |     - snake tail

      +*    - snake body
      |

      |
      +*    - snake body

     -+     - snake body
      *

      *
     -+     - snake body

      +-    - snake body
      *

      *
      +-    - snake body

     *+     - snake body
      |

      |
     *+     - snake body

ARexx commands
**************

I'll be brief about this, as you can really only write rather silly scripts for KRSNAke anyway.

UP
     tells the snake to move upwards

DOWN
     what you'd expect

LEFT
     ditto

RIGHT
     ditto

QUIT
     exits KRSNAke

NEWGAME
     starts a new game if no game is playing

VERSION
     returns the version string

HIDE
     hides KRSNAke

SHOW
     shows KRSNAke

WAIT FOR n
     waits n snake moves

WAIT UNTIL X n
     wait until snake reaches x position n

WAIT UNTIL Y n
     wait until snake reaches y position n

SET SPEED n
     sets the speed to n

GET LENGTH
     returns the snake's length

GET PLAYING
     returns 1 if a game is playing, 0 otherwise

PAUSE
     pauses the game (a move resumes)

GET HEAD X
     returns the x pos of the head

GET HEAD Y
     same with y pos

GET FRUIT X
     returns the x pos of the current fruit

GET FRUIT Y
     you guessed it

CHECK X Y
     returns 1 if (x,y) is occupied by the snake, 0 otherwise

That's all. Check out the example script for an example.

The Plot
********

You are a snake. You are hungry. Eat the fruits.

OK, so that's not a very deep plot.  But at least even a six-year-old can understand it.  And everyone besides a six-year-old has played a game like this before.  This may sound pathetically nostalgic, but I'm of the opinion that KRSNAke is a damn sight deeper than Super Mario.  Any six-year-olds out there are welcome to disagree. Fnord.

Sorry there's no Windows version.  We all know full well if there's no Windows version the game isn't worth anything.  Even Doom, an operating system in its own right, has a Windows version these days. What a shame.

Fnord
*****

This chapter does not exist.  (No, this is not sarcasm at the expense of Grudge/Blue Book report 13. Fnord.)

Why KRSNAke?
************

Well, I originally intended to call the game EMACS (which means Elvis Masterminds All Computer Snakes), but I found out someone has already made a program by that name.  It's just a text editor.  What a shame.

Anyway, the name KRSNAke came about as a tribute to Krsna and Srila Prabhupada. Hare Krsna!

Thanks
******

To the following people in particular for beta testing:

  - Eirik Risholm

  - Kurt Røsand

  - Morten Steen

  - Arild Sæther

  - Frode Wærnes

To everyone who mailed me bug reports.

And in particular:

  - Tim Leary, the Prophet, for His Prophecy

  - Christian Rosenkreutz for his chemical wedding

  - Wouter van Oortmerssen for False

  - Hugues de Payens for the Knights Templar

  - Olaf Barthel for gtlayout.library

  - Poussin for the Shepherds of Arcadia

  - Christ for the Habsburgs

  - SASG for nothing (except for being quacks)

  - and Elvis for everything.

Varied illuminated greetings to:

Adam Weishaupt, Charles XIII, Jacques de Molay, Isaac Newton, Claude Debussy, George Washington, C. Iulius Caesar Octavianus Augustus, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Tore Våg, Aleister Crowley, Leonardo da Vinci and Captain Merrill Stubing, Primus Illuminatus.

Et in Arcadia ego
*****************

A Dagobert II roi et a Sion est ce tresor et il est la mort.

Revision History
****************

     22 Feb 1996 : 001.017 :  Notifies user about important dates :)
     26 Jan 1996 : 001.016 :  Optimised and debugged ARexx interface
     24 Oct 1995 : 001.015 :  Uses new server notification system
     24 Oct 1995 : 001.014 :  Resets itself when prefs are changed
     19 Oct 1995 : 001.013 :  Graphic snake is scaled and masked
     14 Oct 1995 : 001.012 :  Snake can be graphic now
     13 Oct 1995 : 001.011 :  Added locale support
     08 Oct 1995 : 001.010 :  Optimised the score updating a little.
     08 Oct 1995 : 001.009 :  Oops.. Rnd() wasn't properly seeded. Fixed now.
     22 Sep 1995 : 001.008 :  Now is a commodity, can appear/disappear.
     19 Sep 1995 : 001.007 :  Added ARexx port and cleaned up imsg handling.
     10 Sep 1995 : 001.006 :  Uses new prefs system and datatype backgrounds.
     12 Jul 1995 : 001.005 :  Uses krsnake.library instead of internal c/s code.
     11 Jul 1995 : 001.004 :  Autostarts clients.
     07 Jul 1995 : 001.003 :  Now sends SNAKE_MOVES event to clients.
     27 Jun 1995 : 001.002 :  Added client/server interface.
     23 Jun 1995 : 001.001 :  Initial revision

Bugs
****

Well, I suppose it happens even in the best of families...

  * KRSNAke is not too thrilled about the Picasso II card, and quite possibly about other graphics boards as well, though it's yet only been tested on the Picasso II. We haven't been able to pin this bug down yet, but it appears that after a while of playing KRSNAke on a Picasso screen, something locks up the machine. I wish I knew what it was - I suspect the ActionReplay, but I don't actually know yet. This is a priority, though - I'll get down to fixing it as soon as possible.

  * Also, the ActionReplay client isn't too stable - or perhaps it's the krsnake.library, who's to say... Anyway, ActionReplay is to be used with caution. Well, it works most of the time, but sometimes it just goes and crashes.

Now that was very helpful, wasn't it? Fnord. Well, if you can find a bug, mail us and we'll put your very own bug on this list! Lucky you... If you're really lucky I might even fix the bug!

Future
******

The future will be KRSNAke 2.0 the BOOPSI gadget. Well, perhaps. That's an idea I had anyway... What will definitely be implemented is a very advanced multiplayer mode - play against a friend on your machine, against a friend over a serial, parallel or network link, or against one of several computer AI routines. And possibly several modes of play, like a snake that shrinks when it grows hungry, or fruits that disappear after a while, or what have you.

And of course I'll probably code it all from scratch again, introducing a whole ecosystem of new bugs and inadequacies. But aside from that, it should prove to be an interesting experience, both for me as the programmer and you as the player. Now if I could only get started...

Contacting the Author
*********************

I myself is a bit hard to reach by email right now, as I'm about to get myself a new account, and I don't currently have one that's usable. So if you want to get in touch with me by email, you should write to one of my friends and ask them to forward the mail to me. The addresses you can try are as follows:

  * morsteen@login.eunet.no (might not be valid for long, but likely the fastest)

  * kurtro@login.eunet.no

  * arildsat@stud.unit.no (will be valid for a long time, but try the other ones first)

If you want to punish yourself, or if you don't have access to the Internet, you can write me a letter and snail-mail it to me, in which case you would write to:

        Petter E. Stokke
        Kaptein Bothners gate 18
        N-6500 KRISTIANSUND
        Norway

Or, if you have money to throw around, or just happens to live somewhere nearby, you could phone me at +47-71672107 (chances are you'll be talking to someone who thinks English is a type of small furry animal, but if you keep asking for me you'll undoubtedly get through).

Finally, there's the KRSNAke support BBS. You can reach this by dialling +47-71671605, and it is called Boss BBS. Join the KRSNAke conference on this board and drop me a line.

And, although by this time it's rather a bit of a cobweb site, there's always the KRSNAke Home Page (I promise I'll update it real soon now):

         http://login.eunet.no/~morsteen/krsnake/

Now if that's not enough information for you to get hold of me, it's certainly not my fault!

Finally, here's a reproduction of my PGP key - remember you need PGP 2.6.2 or higher to read it (I'm of the paranoid sort - 2030 bits):

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