.TH xasteroids "" "" "X Application"
.PC "Make big rocks into little ones"
.B xasteroids
.PP
.B xasteroids
is an X Windows implementation of the arcade game ``Asteroids''.
In this game, you control a space ship that is lost in an asteroid belt.
You gain points by shooting the asteroids with your laser gun.
Every time you shoot an asteroid, it fissions into two smaller asteroids:
the smaller the asteroid, the harder it is to hit, but the more points you
gain by hitting it.
.PP
An asteroid will destroy your ship if it strikes it; therefore, you must
dodge the asteroids as you try to shoot them.
By pressing keyboard keys, you can change the direction in which your
ship is pointing and fire a rocket to accelerate it in that direction.
.PP
.B xasteroids
records the high scores within file
.BR /usr/X11/lib/xast.hs .
Note that you can use this feature only if you have write permission on
that file.
.PP
.B xasteroids 
recognizes the following keyboard commands:
.IP \fBe\fR 0.3i
Slowly rotate the ship counterclockwise.
.IP \fBr\fR
Slowly rotate the ship clockwise.
.IP \fBw\fR
Rotate 45\(de counterclockwise.
.IP \fBt\fR
Rotate 45\(de clockwise.
.IP \fBd\fR
Increase the counterclockwise rotational velocity.
.IP \fBf\fR
Increase the clockwise rotational velocity.
.IP \fBo\fR
Thrust:
this fires your rocket and moves the ship in direction in which it is
pointed.
.IP \fBp\fR
Fire your laser gun.
.IP \fB`\fR
Set up shields.
Note that shields will not always protect you from an asteroid.
.IP "\fB<space bar>\fR
Jump into hyperspace.
Use this only as a last resort, because your ship will reappear in a randomly
chosen spot on the screen, which may lie directly in the path of an asteroid.
.IP \fBs\fR
Start a new ship in center of playing field.
Use this command to continue playing after a ship has been destroyed.
.IP \fB<esc>\fR
Pause.
.IP \fBQ\fR
Quit.
Note that this must be a capital `Q'.
.PP
The following commands affect the speed with which
.B xasteroids
runs:
.IP \fB.\fR 0.3i
Decrease delay.
This speeds up the game.
.IP \fB,\fR
Increase delay.
This slows down the game.
.IP \fBm\fR
Minimize:
decrease the size of the asteroids.
.IP \fBn\fR
Increase the size of the asteroids.
.IP \fBb\fR
Increase the number of moves per frame.
The appears to run more jerkily.
.IP \fBv\fR
Decrease the number of moves per frame.
The game will appear to run more smoothly, but may run
more slowly as a result.
.IP \fB2\fR
Increase the scale of movement.
.IP \fB1\fR
Decrease the scale of movement.
.PP
The following gives the scale of points:
.IP "\fBBig Asteroid\fR"
Twenty-five points, or 2000\(mulevel
if it is the last asteroid on the screen.
.IP "\fBMedium Asteroid\fR"
Fifty points, or  500\(mulevel
if it is the last asteroid on the screen.
.IP "\fBLittle Asteroid\fR"
One hundred points.
.IP "\fBEnemy Spaceship\fR"
Five hundred points.
.IP "\fBEnemy Bullet\fR"
Five hundred points.
.SH "Command-line Options"
.B xasteroids
recognizes only one command-line option:
.BR \-s ,
which tells it to display the high scores without running the game.
.SH Files
\fB/usr/X11/bin/xasteroids\fR \(em Script that runs the game
.br
\fB/usr/X11/bin/xast.exe\fR \(em The executable for the game itself
.br
\fB/usr/X11/lib/xast.hs\fR \(em The file that holds high scores
.SH "See Also"
.B
X applications
.R
.SH Notes
.B xasteroids
does not use the
.B Xt
toolkit.
This means that
.B xasteroids
ignores the standard X command-line options and resource settings.
.PP
.II "Goetz, Phil"
.B xasteroids
was written by
Phil Goetz (goetz@cs.Buffalo.edu).
For a full list of the contributors, see the file
.BR xast.man .
