XEvil(6)
NAME
XEvil - a fast-action explicitly violent game for X
SYNOPSIS
xevil [-display display_name | -d display_name ] [-dis-
play<x> display_name | -d<x> display_name ] [-duel]
[-extended] [-h | -help] [-humans number ] [-info] [-kill]
[-keys alpha | decmips | iris | mac | ncd | rsaix | sun3 |
sun4 | sun4_sparc | tektronix] [-levels] [-machines number
] [-map] [-pc] [-regenerate_machines] [-rooms ACROSSxDOWN
] [-speed time-in-ms ] [-training]
DESCRIPTION
Death, kill, maim. XEvil is a side-view, fast-action,
kill everything type of game. Play is against other human
or computer players. XEvil may be played on one or multi-
ple X displays. Controls are keyboard or mouse. However,
if you play with the mouse you'll get your ass kicked.
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
XEvil accepts the following options:
-display display_name | -d display_name
Set all X displays to be display_name. See X(1) for
details on X displays.
-display<<x>> display_name | -d<<x>> display_name
Sets the display for player x to be display_name. 0
<= x < 6. This option may be used multiple times to
specify the displays for all players. E.g. "xevil -d0
joe.mit.edu:0 -d1 bob.mit.edu:0 -d2 fred.mit.edu:0"
Any unspecified displays default to the display of the
local machine.
-duel
Set the game style to a human vs. human duel.
-extended
Set the game style to a human vs. human extended duel.
-h | -help
Print usage summary.
-humans number
Set the number of human players. Default is 1.
-info
Print information about the absence of warranty for
XEvil.
-kill
Set the game style to "Kill,Kill,Kill".
-keys keyset
Specify the mapping between the keyboard and the con-
trols for players. Default is decmips. The possible
values for keyset are: alpha, decmips, iris, mac, ncd,
rsaix, sun3, sun4, sun4_sparc, tektronix. NOTE: You
can also use X Resources and the "Set Controls" button
to specify the keyboard controls.
-levels
Set the game style to "Levels".
-machines number
Set the number of machines players. Default is 3.
-map
Give a rough map of the world at the beginning of each
game.
-pc
Run XEvil in politically correct mode. Disables some
of the more "offensive" aspects of XEvil. Useful for
showing XEvil to lame-ass wussies who are easily
offended.
-regenerate_machines
New machine players are created while the game is run-
ning.
-rooms ACROSSxDOWN
Specify the size of the XEvil world in number of
rooms. Default is 4x2.
-speed time-in-ms
The number of milliseconds between each turn of the
game. Default is 40.
-scenarios
Set the game style to "Scenarios".
-training
Play XEvil with the game style set to "Training".
KEYBOARD CONTROLS
Each player has 15 control keys. There is a separate set
of controls for the left and right sides of the keyboard.
THE POINTER MUST BE IN ONE OF THE PLAYING FIELDS FOR THE
KEYBOARD CONTROLS TO WORK.
9 keys for movement:
right (move right), left (move left), up (jump
up/climb up), down (duck/climb down), up_right (jump
right), up_left (jump left), down_right (crawl right),
down_left (crawl left), center (stop).
Tap the key to move in the specified direction. Hold-
ing down a key is not as effective as tapping it
rapidly.
3 keys for weapons:
weapon_use (fire/hand-to-hand attack), weapon_change,
weapon_drop. Hold down weapon_use and press a move-
ment key to fire a weapon in a direction or to perform
a hand-to-hand attack if weapon is "none".
3 keys for items:
item_use, item_change, item_drop.
The actual mapping of these functions to the keyboard
can be specified with the -keys command line option,
with X resources, or with the "Set Controls" button.
If the -keys option is used to specify a specific
machine, the default controls for that machine's key-
board are used. The -keys option overrides any keys
set through X resources. Keys set through the "Set
Controls" button override both the X resources and the
-keys command line option. (See X RESOURCES below.)
GAME STYLES
There are six different styles of play in XEvil, "Levels",
"Scenarios", "Kill,Kill,Kill", "Duel", "Extended Duel",
and "Training". In "Levels", one or more human players
work cooperatively to fight through increasing levels of
difficulty. After killing all the machine players on one
level, you advance to the next. In "Scenarios" you play
through a number of different scenarios, each with a dif-
ferent goal to be achieved. Look in the lower right cor-
ner of the screen to see what your current goal is. In
"Kill,Kill,Kill", it is every man/woman/machine for
him/her/itself. Whatever survives is the victor. Use
"Duel" or "Extended Duel" for battles among human players.
In "Duel", each human gets 3 lives and the game is over
when only one remains. An "Extended Duel" game never
ends, you just keep track who has the most kills. The
"Training" game style exists to give novice players a
chance to learn the controls.
MULTIPLE DISPLAYS
XEvil can be played across the net by opening multiple X
displays. One player runs XEvil on his machine and
remotely opens windows on the machines of the other play-
ers. Up to two players can share a single display. One
player uses the right side of the keyboard, while the
other uses the left. The assignment of players to dis-
plays is specified at startup time with command line argu-
ments. Use the -display<x> option to specifiy the display
for player x. Remember to use xhost(1X) on all remote
machines to allow access to the machine running XEvil.
And, remember to add ":0" (or whatever screen number is
appropriate) to the machine name for the -display<x>
option.
Example: Running a game of XEvil for users on the
machines bob.mit.edu, joe.mit.edu, and dave.mit.edu.
On joe.mit.edu: xhost + bob.mit.edu On dave.mit.edu:
xhost + bob.mit.edu On bob.mit.edu: xevil -display1
joe.mit.edu:0 -display2 dave.mit.edu:0
SCREEN LAYOUT
The XEvil window is divided into four parts. At the top
of the window is a menu with buttons for a variety of
options. Under this is the playing field where all the
action takes place. To the right are a number of status
fields which give information about your character and the
game in general while the game is running. At the bottom
is a message bar which gives miscellaneous information.
MENU BAR BUTTONS
Most of the following options will not take effect until
you start a new game.
New Game
Start a new game. Abort the current game if one is in
progress.
Humans
Set the number of humans playing in the next game.
There will be a separate window for each human player.
If you set the number of humans to 0 you can scroll
around with player 0's movement keys and watch the
machine players kill each other. If the game style is
"Training", this value is ignored.
Machines
Set the number of machines players for the next game.
Only meaninful if the game style is "Kill,Kill,Kill",
"Duel", or "Extended Duel".
Regenerate Machines
New machine players are created while the game is run-
ning. You generally cannot win if this option is set.
Try to see how many kills you can make before you die.
The total number of machine players will never exceed
that specified by the Machines option. Only meaning-
ful if the game style is "Kill,Kill,Kill", "Duel", or
"Extended Duel".
Set Controls
While XEvil is running, you can specify the keyboard
controls by clicking "Set Controls". A window will
appear and you will be prompted for the key for each
action. You must press the desired key with the cur-
sor in the "Set Controls" window. Note that these
changes take place immediately. So, if you just want
to set the controls for player 0, you can do so with-
out bothering to set the controls for player 1. Con-
trols set here are not saved. If you want to set con-
trols to work over multiple sessions of XEvil, set
them with X resources. (See KEYBOARD CONTROLS and X
RESOURCES.)
Show Controls
Toggle to display a window showing all the current
keyboard controls. (See KEYBOARD CONTROLS and X
RESOURCES.)
Game style
Set the style of play for the next game. See GAME
STYLES above.
Speed
The number of milliseconds between each turn of the
game. I.e. smaller values make the game go faster. 0
will make XEvil run as fast as possible on the under-
lying hardware.
STATUS FIELDS
Name
The name of your character's intelligence. This stays
constant over the course of a game even when you are
soul-swapped or brought back from the dead.
Class
The class of your character's physical body. E.g.
ninja, hero, enforcer. This may change if your intel-
ligence is put in a different body.
Health
When your health goes negative, you are dead.
Mass
Lighter objects get pushed around more.
Weapon
Displays your current weapon. Hit weapon_use or
weapon_drop to use or drop it, respectively. You can
hold more than one weapon, but only the current one
will be shown. Use weapon_change to cycle through all
your weapons. The lettering will be green if the
weapon is ready to be used or red if the weapon is
recharging. If your character is able to perform
hand-to-hand combat, set Weapon to "none" to fight
hand-to-hand.
Item
Displays your current item. Press item_use or
item_drop to use or drop it, respectively. Press
item_change to cycle through all your items.
Extra lives / Humans killed
Extra lives: If you have a positive number of extra
lives, when you die you will come back from the dead
in a new body. Humans killed: For the "Extended Duel"
game style, the number of humans you have killed
(minus the number of times you have killed yourself).
Kills / Machines killed
Kills: The number of your enemies that you have sent
to the grave since the beginning of the game. I.e.
your score. Machines killed: For the "Extended Duel"
game style, the number of machine players killed.
Humans remaining
The number of human players currently alive.
Machines remaining
The number of machine players currently alive. When
the game style is "Levels", this tells you how many
more machines you must kill before you advance to the
next level.
OBJECTS IN XEVIL
This is not an exhaustive list of the objects in
XEvil. Figure the rest out yourself.
Character Classes
hero
Generic pumped-up hero type character. Walks,
jumps, and climbs ladders. Can fight effectively
with his fists. Uses weapons and items. Has lots
of health and healing powers.
ninja
An oriental assasin of the night. Can climb on
walls and ceilings. Expert martial artist. Not
completely a traditional Japanese warrior as
he/she believes it's is ok to use modern weapons
and items such as machine-guns and bombs.
chopper-boy
Some freaked out kid with a helicopter backpack.
Can fly and walk on the ground. Uses weapons and
items, but has no hand-to-hand attack.
Weapons
pistol
Single shot weapon. Wimpy, but better than noth-
ing.
machine-gun
A rapid fire gun. Probably the best all-around
weapon.
lancer
The lancer is a sniper rifle. It fires lances
which travel faster and do more damage than any
other shot in the game. However, it takes a sig-
nificant amount of time to recharge between shots.
flame-thrower
Burn, baby, burn.
soul-swapper
If you nail someone with a soul-swapper, your
souls will swap. You will end up controlling
his/her/its physical body and he/she/it will end
up controlling yours. This will not affect your
number of kills or number of extra lives. Need-
less to say, be careful with this weapon.
Items
med-kit
When you use this item, you will return to full
health. Can only be used once. Note that you
must explicitly use a med-kit, just picking it up
will not heal you.
bomb
A rather dangerous toy. If you shoot it or attack
a bomb, it will explode. If your current item is
bomb and you hit item_use, the bomb will be set
with a fuse of approximately five seconds. It is
strongly suggested that you drop the bomb and run
away before this time has elapsed.
t-shield, n-shield
Personal body shields. I leave it up to you to
figure out the difference between a t-shield and
an n-shield. Hint: Think about their names.
X RESOURCES
Keyboard controls for both the left and right sides of the
keyboard can be specified by adding the appropriate lines
to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources file in your home direc-
tory. See the man pages on X(1) and xrdb(1) for more
information on X resources.
There is a separate set of controls for the right and left
sides of the keyboard. Player 0 uses the right and player
1 uses the left side. For each function, up to two actual
keys can be mapped to it. E.g. for a decmips keyboard,
pressing either 'm' or ',' will give the command to move
down left. The possible keysyms to map to each function
are those listed in /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h with the
XK_ prefix stripped off.
Examples:
XEvil.right_weapon_use
The keysym to use a weapon for the controls on the
right side of the keyboard.
XEvil.right_left
The keysym for the move left command for the controls
on the right side of the keyboard.
XEvil.right_left_2
The second keysym for the move left command for the
controls on the right side of the keyboard.
An example resource file is given below. Further examples
are in the app-defaults directory in the XEvil distribu-
tion.
! Example resources for a sun4 SPARC station 1.
XEvil.right_center: F31
XEvil.right_right: Right
XEvil.right_down_right: F35
XEvil.right_down: Down
XEvil.right_down_left: F33
XEvil.right_left: Left
XEvil.right_up_left: F27
XEvil.right_up: Up
XEvil.right_up_right: F29
XEvil.right_weapon_use: F21
XEvil.right_weapon_change: F22
XEvil.right_weapon_drop: F23
XEvil.right_item_use: F24
XEvil.right_item_change: F25
XEvil.right_item_drop: F26
XEvil.left_center: l
XEvil.left_right: semicolon
XEvil.left_down_right: slash
XEvil.left_down: period
XEvil.left_down_left: m
XEvil.left_down_left_2: comma
XEvil.left_left: k
XEvil.left_up_left: i
XEvil.left_up: o
XEvil.left_up_right: p
XEvil.left_up_right_2: bracketleft
XEvil.left_weapon_use: a
XEvil.left_weapon_change: s
XEvil.left_weapon_drop: d
XEvil.left_item_use: z
XEvil.left_item_change: x
XEvil.left_item_drop: c
VERSION
This man page is valid for XEvil version 1.5.
UNRESTRICTIONS
This program is free software; you can redistribute it
and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
either version 1, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA
02139, USA.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1994,1995,1996 Steve Hardt
AUTHOR
Steve Hardt
hardts@mit.edu (valid until Nov. 1996)
hardts@netscape.com
hardts@alum.mit.edu
http://graphics.lcs.mit.edu/~hardts/xevil.html