ioccc/1992/kivinen/README.md

Best X Program

Tero Kivinen
Helsinki University of Technology
Klovinrinne 6b
02180 Espoo
Finland

To build:

If your machine support the X Window System, Version 11:

make all

NOTE: this entry requires X11/Xlib.h header file and the X11 library to compile. macOS users running Mountain Lion and later will need to download and install XQuartz in order to compile and run this entry.

Try:

./kivinen

./kivinen a

./kivinen a b

See also the author's remarks for other variations.

INABIAF - it's not a bug it's a feature! :-)

In modern systems a known issue is that when you start the game everything starts to move to the right of the game window but if you click on the window it moves back to where it should be.

Judges' remarks:

The type of entertainment depends on number of arguments you have with the program. :-)

NOTE: Some systems do not need (or have) -lsocket -lresolv -lnsl. Such systems should compile using -lX11.

NOTE: The original winning source kivinen.orig.c, found in the archive directory, assumed that exit returned a value which cause problems for some systems where exit returns void. The file kivinen.c avoids this problem.

Author's remarks:

X Entertainment Kit

This kit includes three games from the early of video games for The X Window System Version 11 Release 5. It should work with earlier releases, though.

Space Invaders

The classic game of shooting aliens from outer space, trying to exterminate all life on earth. The game ends when the first line of aliens touches the ground, or destroy you. To win the game you must destroy all the aliens. If you evade out from the screen you lose.

Controls

• Button 1 = Move left
• Button 2 = Fire missile
• Button 3 = Move right

Breakout

Break all the bricks with the ball, using your paddle. If you miss the ball the game ends.

Controls

• Button 1 = Move left
• Button 3 = Move right

Dropout

Catch all the falling pieces, before they reach the ground. If you miss it, game ends. To win you must catch all 30 pieces.

Controls

• Button 1 = Move left
• Button 3 = Move right

Starting a game

The type of the game is determined by the number of arguments given to the program.

• no arguments = Space Invaders
• 1 argument = Breakout
• 2 arguments = Dropout
• 3 arguments = double sized Breakout
• 4 arguments = triple sized Space Invaders
• 5 arguments = triple sized Breakout
• 6 arguments = double sized Dropout
• 7 arguments = quadruple sized Breakout

...and so on...

Scores

The exit value of the game is your score. The smaller the score the better it is. The exit value of zero means you have won.

Features

The game has a cheat system, which can be found after examining the event loop at the end of program. It is not a bug, it's a feature!

Copyright and CC BY-SA 4.0 License:

This file is Copyright (c) 2023 by Landon Curt Noll. All Rights Reserved. You are free to share and adapt this file under the terms of this license:

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

For more information, see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/