MUGINS Multi-User Game Incorporating Network System MUGINS is a multi-user game playable over the Econet network, and with limited access through the Server's keyboard and serial interface. Installing: The supplied disk contains MUGINS Level 2 and some sample characters. The sample characters have no passwords. MUGINS can be run from disk, but ideally, you would want to put the programs onto the network to be available to all machines simutaneously. You should create a user directory, such as MUGINS, that you can log onto with, for example, *I AM MUGINS to run the GameMaster. This directory should contain the files ADV2, Hello2, GAME2, CharGen and !Boot. The character files should be put in a subdirectory Characters. Users need to be able to read the program files and read/write the characters files. The files !MUGINS and MUGINS should be put in the system library. !MUGINS should be edited so the first line has the full path to the MUGINS directory and the second line the full path to the Characters directory. MUGINS allows the Adventurer program to be started by any user with a *MUGINS command. Running: You need to choose a station to run the GameMaster server on. All the other stations running the Adventurer client communicate with this station. From the MUGINS menu, select 'Run the GameMaster'. Select the maximum number of players. The maximum is 16, but if you press RETURN a default of 8 will be used. Now, leave the GameMaster on its own. To enter the game as an adventurer, you need to have created a character. Select 'Create a character' from the MUGINS menu. Enter the name and details, and when finished, press 'S' to save to disk, then 'Q' to quit back to the menu. Select 'Enter the Game', and the Adventurer program will be started. The program will scan the network looking for the Game Master. If one cannot be found, then you are asked 'Who is the GameMaster?'. Enter the station number of the machine running the GameMaster set up previously. You will then be asked 'What is your character?'. Select the character from the list displayed. You will then be asked for your password or owner name. Enter this, and you will enter the game. Various commands are available, many of which can be abbreviated to a single letter. HELP will list them all. The GameMaster supports two 'virtual' stations, the GameMaster keyboard and the serial port. Using these allows limited access to the game. No character loading or checking is performed, fighting is ineffectual, and your details are not saved when you exit. MUGINS History ============== MUGINS was originally written by Greg Heslington in 1985/6 with network communication routines written by J.G.Harston. It was eventually decided to enter it as an 'O' level Computing project. (It scored 30 out of 30.) After this, it was then passed to J.G.Harston to continue it on the Acorn platforms. The next version, Level 2, was essentially a very rigorous combing to straighten out lots of the spaghetti, speed up loops, rationalise the use of the memory buffers and use standard transmit and receive buffers. The virtual stations 'Console' and 'Serial' were added. Station numbers were expanded to two bytes to allow for communication over bridges. Recent testing has shown it to work perfectly on RISC OS. Level 3 was an experiment which eliminated the GameMaster, and allowing a free-format dungeon map data file. The removal of the GM was a bad idea, as each adventurer has to communicate every bit of information with every other adventurer. With three ADVs, each movement sent 6 packets onto the network. Four ADVs generate 12 packets, five ADVs generate 20 packets, and so on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The terms MUGINS and Multi-User Game Incorporating Network System are copyright (C) Greg Heslington and J.G.Harston, and (R) and TM pending.