                               adv550c.tgz
                     Game version September 18, 1984

 This package contains ANSI C sources (programmatically derived from the
 A-code master source) of Dave Platt's 550 points version of Adventure.
 The game (generally known as Adv550) is made available under the Modified
 BSD Licence (see the supplied LICENCE file) and may be freely distributed
 and archived.

 All you need to build a game executable out of the sources provided in
 this package is an ANSI C compiler (e.g. gcc). Please see
 http://mipmip.org/c-build.html for details. For more A-code information,
 please visit my web-site:

                            http://mipmip.org/

 Hope you enjoy the game!

                                                             Mike Arnautov
                                                            mla@mipmip/org
                                                          20 December 2015

 ________________________________________________________________________

 Package contents:

 
   acode           Container A-code directory
      adv550          Adv550 directory
         src             Adv550 C sources directory
            advbuild        Linux script for building an executable
            *.c             C sources
            *.h             Header files
 
 The advbuild script is of direct use only on Linux, where it will search
 for readline and ncurses libraries, and will build a game executable
 according to their presence or absence. On other platforms it is only
 useful for hints on building a game executable. If you cannot use the
 script, more explicit instuctions can be found in
 http://mipmip.org/c-build.html.

 ________________________________________________________________________

                     A-code game command line options
                          (A-code version 12.65)

 This document describes command line options available when running any
 A-code game built using A-code 12 engine. The behaviour of the game is
 generally regulated by the self-documented file acode.conf, which can be
 found in the acode directory, automatically created in player's home
 directory. Where command line options refer to particular aspects covered
 by the configuration file, they override the configuration file settings.

 Conventions:

 * Angle brackets <string> denote a symbolic string to be replaced
   by something appropriate. E.g. would be replaced by the name of a file
   (with no surrounding angel brackets).

 * Square brackets [ ] denote something optional. So e.g.
   -l[<log_file>] means that the name of the log file may be
   omitted.

 * Braces { } denote a list of permissible values, separated by vertical
   bars |. E.g. -b[{0|1|2}] means the -b may be optionally (square
   brackets!) followed by one of the three digits zero,one or two.

 * Where a value can be specified with a command line option, the syntax
   shown is that of the value abutting directly to the option
   specification letter. However, an equality sign = can be placed between
   the two, so that -b0 is equivalent to -b=0.

 * Some options can have either word or numerical values; the two styles
   are shown on two separate lines and are exactly equivalent.

 The following command line options are valid for both the browser and the
 console display modes:

 -n
   Force a new game. By default, if a previous game session got somehow
   forcibly interrupted (e.g. by the game process being killed for
   whatever reason), the interrupted session is automatically resumed when
   the game is restarted. The -n option overrides this behaviour and
   forces the interrupted session to be forgotten.

 -b[{no|yes|all}]
 -b[{0|1|2}]
   Set or invert the blank line setting. If set to zero blank lines are
   inserted before and after each prompt. If the value is 1, blank lines
   around '?' prompts are suppressed, resulting in a more compact display.
   If the value is 2, then ALL blank lines are suppressed, for
   super-compact, but less readable output. If no value is specified, the
   new setting is 0 or 1, inverting the A-code default for this game. In
   old-style A-code (Adv550), which does not distinguish between replies
   to queries and general commands, this only affects presence/absence of
   a blank line after the prompt line, and never before it.

 -d<dbsdir>
   If using a data file, specify its directory. Ignored if the game is
   built as a simple executable with no associated data file. By default,
   the game data file is assumed to live in the same directory as the
   executable. The -d option allows a separate location to be specified.
   The program will attempt to work out the separator which should follow
   the directory name, but if in doubt as to the appropriate one for the
   given platform, the dbs name will be simply concatenated with the
   supplied pathname -- hence if it doesn't work, try adding the trailing
   separator to the pathname.

 [-r]<dumpfile>
   Restore game from dump. Ignored if the game does not support game dump
   files being specified on the command line. The -r optional in that any
   command line argument which does not begin with a dash will be
   interpreted as the name of the dumpfile to restore on invocation.

 -c<cominfile>
   Replay game from log. This is a debugging tool, which allows a game to
   be replayed from a log file (see below). If the logfile contains more
   than one session log, only the first session will be replayed. The log
   contains the value of the random seed used in the session, thereby
   ensuring that the game is replayed exactly, despite any randomisation.
   [NB, replaying games only works if the log was created by exactly the
   same version of the game.]

 -l[<logfile>]
   Log the game. Specifies the file into which a session log is to be
   written. The log is human-readable, but has some additional features
   allowing it to be used subsequently for replaying the session. If the
   nominated logfile already exists, it gets appended to. If no logfile is
   specified the name of the game is used, suffixed with .log.

 -u{off|on|none}
 -u{0|1|none}
   Set the initial state of undo-history collection. Ignored if the game
   does not support undo. If the value is zero, the default undo status is
   OFF. If the value is one, the default undo status is ON. The "none"
   state implies OFF and disallows undo functionality being subsequently
   switched on from within the game. The default state is ON for games
   which define the verb UNDO, and "none" otherwise.

 -B[<browser>]
   Force browser-based display, optionally nominating a particular
   browser. Browsers can be specified by their pathname, or by their name.

 -C
   Force console display, i.e. do not use the browser interface.

 -v
   Show the game, kernel and acdc version numbers and exit.

 -h
   Print command line usage summary.

 The following options are only meaningful in the console display mode,
 and therefore force the console mode even if the -B option is used.

 -o<baudrate>
   Set the output speed as specified by the argument. This option forces
   "dumb" mode console display (i.e. with no command editing) even if the
   browser display is explicitly requested via the -B option. Baud rate is
   specified in bits per second, and taking into the account control and
   parity bits, the output speed in characters per second is simply the
   baud rate divided by 10. The game coerces the specified baud rate to
   the nearest lower standard value (one of 110, 300, 600, 1200, 2400,
   4800 and 9600), except that anything below 110 (the speed of a
   teletype) is also treated as 110. The default value is 300 -- the speed
   of a DECwriter. Note, however, that under DOS and Windows any baud rate
   above 600 results in no slowdown at all.

 -j[{off|on}]
 -j[{0|1}]
   Set text mode to wrap (0) or justify (1). If no value is specified,
   invert the default A-code setting for this game. In wrap mode, text is
   simply broken into lines according to the screen width (see the -s
   option below). With justification turned on, each line is
   right-justified. All of this presupposes a fixed font being in use. For
   variable font devices, which tend to do their own wrapping, the default
   screen width should be set to zero, meaning "infinite", and the margin
   should be specified as zero too. If no value is supplied, the effect is
   to invert the game's default setting. This option is ignored by games
   written in the "old style" A-code (i.e. by adv550).

 -s<W>.<H>[.<M>]
   Set screen size (width in fixed font characters, height in lines, and
   margin in fixed font blanks). The default screen dimension is 80x24-1,
   the margin being set to 1 character. The -s option allows a different
   screen size (and optionally margin) to be specified. Screen width of
   zero means "infinite" width. Note that the line length cannot be set to
   less than 16 characters and the minimal number of lines per screen is
   5.

 -p[{off|on}]
 -p[{0|1}]
   Pause on exit. Requests that after printing the final exit message the
   game should prompt the player for a <CR>, before exiting. This feature
   is intended for players who wish to play console version of the game,
   in a window which closes as soon as the game exits.

 The functionality of the -s, -u and -j options is also provided via
 kernel hooks (see procedure special() in the kernel source file adv00.c),
 so that the game may -- at author's discretion -- offer the player
 commands for toggling the justification switch, switching on and off the
 change history, and altering screen size and margin.

 Any unknown or suppressed keywords are quietly ignored.

                                                             Mike Arnautov
                                                            mla@mipmip/org
                                                          20 December 2015

 ________________________________________________________________________
