commit 2a9fa864fd853a3304490fd266d0acf12c057f69
parent aae94ca5a0bf4fd6dd838294a2dcca26aa6a2b9a
Author: Luxferre <lux@ferre>
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2024 14:01:58 +0200
updated readme
Diffstat:
| M | README | | | 27 | ++++++++++++++++++++++++--- |
1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/README b/README
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ From now on, the following commands are available (case-insensitive):
* rand: toggle between the AWK's native PRNG (default) and a custom one
* quit: quit the game
-The following commands are only available in cheat mode (-v CHEAT=1):
+The following commands are only available in the cheat mode (-v CHEAT=1):
* cash (number): add (number) to your cash balance
* sneak (planetname): fly to planetname without spending fuel
@@ -81,7 +81,24 @@ To be continued. This list is expected to grow in the future.
== FAQ ==
-- Is this a one-to-one port of Bell's Text Elite?
+- What is Text Elite anyway?
+
+Text Elite is a subset of the original Classic Elite for BBC Micro, first
+implemented by Ian Bell in 1999, featuring trading only and text-based
+interface. Quoting Ian Bell himself from his website:
+
+> Text Elite is a C implementation of the classic Elite trading system
+> in a text adventure style shell. I originally coded this to formalise
+> and archive the definition of the Classic Elite Universe, but have released
+> it, with sources, now that Christian Pinder has publicly reverse engineered
+> BBC Disk Elite trading into C.
+> Text Elite is currently trading only. There is no risk of misjump, police,
+> or pirate attack.
+
+As of now, the last published version of the original Text Elite is 1.5.
+Its source code can be found here: http://www.elitehomepage.org/text/
+
+- So, is this a one-to-one port of Bell's Text Elite?
No. Although the original C source code was used as a base, porting was done
by looking at *several* existing ports to understand the logic and basically
@@ -92,7 +109,7 @@ instead of hexadecimal as POSIX AWK does not support hex literals.
- Why do awlite versions start from 1.5.1 then?
-Because awlite is versioned in terms of functionality. The direct one-to-one
+Because awlite is versioned in terms of functionality. A direct one-to-one
port would have the same 1.5 version, and every slight improvement adds a new
subversion, i.e. bumps the version number by 0.0.1. Stable subversions tend to
have even numbers, testing subversions tend to have odd numbers. Also, every
@@ -105,6 +122,10 @@ As of now, the entire game is contained in a single file with a little under
500 SLOC of POSIX AWK code. Future functionality might increase the codebase
size, but one of the goals is to keep it under 1000 SLOC no matter what.
+- Why AWK?
+
+Because the current AWK gaming scene is rather poor (besides a handful of GAWK-specific games), and it is an interesting challenge to port such a title to an environment requiring nothing except a bare kernel and BusyBox to play it.
+
- Why did you keep the cheating commands present in the original?
To preserve backward compatibilty with some trading scripts written for the
