path: root/README.txt

Taipan for Atari 800

This is a work in progress. It's a port of the C version for Linux and
curses, modified to look and play more like the original Apple II version.

Currently the game is playable and complete, but has a few known bugs
(see "Bugs" section below) and probably a few unknown ones too.

The latest version of the source can be found here:
https://slackware.uk/~urchlay/repos/taipan

A binary of the game can be found here:

https://slackware.uk/~urchlay/src/taipan.xex

...though it might be outdated.

Linux/curses port can be found here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/games/textrpg/

Original Apple II BASIC source, plus a browser version of the game,
can be found here: http://www.taipangame.com/

What's missing:

- Large integer (or floating point) support for Debt and Cash (the
  Bank is floating point though). As a side effect of this, the "negative
  interest" bug/feature is missing.

Build Requirements:

- make. I use GNU make 3.82, and occasionally test with an old
  version of BSD make (which works).

- cc65. Originally I used version 2.13.3, and part way through I
  upgraded to a git snapshot dated December 29, 2015. Building with
  cc65-2.3.13 is probably broken right now, but it will be supported
  again.

- gcc. I use version 4.8.2. Probably any version will do. It's only
  needed for convfont.c (and there's nothing gcc-specific about it,
  so really you just need any C compiler, see HOSTCC in the Makefile).

- perl. I use version 5.18.1, probably any 5.x version will work.

- perl's Image::Magick module (which in turn requires the C ImageMagick
  library). I use version 6.8.6, probably any recent version will do.

- git. You don't exactly *need* this to build the code, but if you
  have it, the git hash will be built into the binary and appear on
  the title screen.

- A UNIX/POSIX environment. At least, you need a 'cat' command and
  a shell that does I/O redirection. Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X should
  be fine. If you're on Windows, try Cygwin.

If you plan to edit the port status screen, you'll need the Atari800
emulator. It's also handy for actually playing the game, whether you
build it or use the provided binary.


Building:

Hopefully you can just type "make" to create the taipan.xex binary. If
it doesn't work, you're likely missing one or more of the requirements
listed above.

If you'd prefer a cartridge image, "make cart" will build both a raw image
(taipan.rom) and an image with an Atari800 CART header (taipan.cart).


Running:

The game binary is called "taipan.xex". It's a standard Atari DOS
'binary load' file, which expects to be run with BASIC disabled and no
cartridges inserted.

You can run it on a real Atari computer: any 400/800/XL/XE model should
be fine, so long as it has at least 48K of RAM. Use a SIO2PC cable and
software like Atariserver (Linux) or APE (Windows) to serve the game to
the Atari. If you can come up with a way to actually copy it to a real
floppy disk, you probably want a bootable DOS disk with Taipan renamed
to AUTORUN.SYS.

It's also possible to run Taipan in an emulator, such as Atari800,
Atari++, or Altirra. For Atari800, you should be able to do this:

atari800 -nobasic taipan.xex

The cartridge image is a 64KB XEGS bankswitched cartridge (what Atari800
calls "type 13"). It can be run in the emulator thus:

atari800 taipan.cart

For burning to an EPROM, you'll need to build or scavenge a cartridge
with the correct banking logic, and burn taipan.rom to a 64KB chip.

Unlike the .xex version, the cartridge will work on a 32KB Atari.

Coming soon: You will also be able to purchase a Taipan cartridge from
the AtariAge store.


License:

The legal status of this is quite murky. The original game is still
copyrighted, though quite a few clones of it have been made for various
platforms over the years with no complaints from the copyright holder.

This Atari port includes font and graphics data ripped straight from
the original Apple game, plus more font data ripped from the Atari 800's
OS ROM.

The Linux port of taipan, according to its .lsm file, is GPL (version
uspecified). My C code is definitely a derivative work, so it's GPL
also. The assembly code and host tools (convfont, mkcart) are my own work,
and I release them under the GPL (version 2).

Notes:

The Atari executable file format allows for concatenating executables.
The result is still a valid executable. I use this to load the splash
screen and custom font directly into memory before the main program loads.
The Makefile documents how all this works, but it might seem pretty
hairy if you're new to the Atari, Makefiles, and/or Perl.

The Apple version of the game was expected to be run on a monochrome
monitor. Like many other ports from the Apple to the Atari, there will
be color artifacts when using a composite monitor. For best results,
use a monochrome monitor. If you can't, at least try using a color
monitor with S-Video (separate chroma/luma) inputs. If all else fails,
try turning the color knob all the way down (and the contrast as high
as you can stand it). In emulators, you can just disable artifacting.

On PAL systems, the ship explosions and sinking animations will be 20%
slower, and the prompt timeouts will be 20% longer (1 sec => 1.2 sec). I
don't think this is a real issue (it's not like Taipan is a fast-paced
arcade game).

BUGS! At least these:

- The "negative interest" bug is currently missing, due to using
  unsigned values for debt. Plus, it's cheating. I'm undecided
  whether or not to use a bignum for debt; if I do, it will be
  possible to have negative debt.

- Not really a bug, but, the interest calculation for debt is slightly
  different, due to using integer math. Very small debt amounts will grow
  much faster than they should, then stabilize and converge towards the
  correct values over time. This only happens when you have less than
  10 in debt, which (at least for me) is a pretty rare situation.

- A few things in the screen layout are slightly off comapred to
  the Apple version. Would really like to get it exact.

- The 'Please limit your firm name to 22 characters' prompt is missing.
  The Apple version actually allows you to type all you want until you
  press Enter. This port works like the Linux version: as soon as you type
  the 22nd character, it acts like you pressed Enter after it.  A good
  compromise might be to allow up to 22 characters, then any keypress
  other than backspace or enter will show the "please limit" prompt.

- Damaged ship graphics need work. I don't have enough unused font
  characters to duplicate the Apple bitmapped graphics exactly, plus
  each damage location must fit entirely within a character cell... but a
  couple of my damaged sections are pretty hokey-looking. Also, now that
  I'm using the graphical title screen, I have a few more characters I
  can redefine as damaged ship sections.

Deliberate differences between the Apple II and Atari ports:

1. "Press ESC for help" rather than ESC to start. Starting the game is
   done with the space bar or return key.

2. I made it possible to disable the sound, since it's kinda repetitive
   and annoying, plus the game "freezes" while sounds are playing (no
   threading on Atari!) which slows down gameplay.

3. Added a way to change the background color and text brightness. Only
   4 brightness levels, but all 16 Atari hues are available.

4. Prompts that only accept one character no longer require pressing Enter.
   Gameplay is more streamlined this way. Apple and Linux are inconsistent:
   some prompts need Enter, some don't. In the Atari port, the only prompts
   that require Enter are:
   - naming your firm
   - entering an amount of cash or items (but not if you hit A for "all")

5. "We have 5 guns" is in an inverse video box. I think it looks nicer, and
   it matches the "You can afford 5" inverse video box on the trading
   screen.

6. The + that indicates more ships offscreen is inverse video. I find
   that I don't notice it's there, if it's normal video.

7. "You're ship is overloaded" => "Your ship is overloaded". Sorry,
   grammar nazi.

8. Updating the port status screen, and text printing in general, happens
   faster and cleaner-looking, due to using C and asm rather than BASIC,
   and also because the static parts of the screen aren't redrawn unless
   they need to be. (Grammar nazi? That's a run-on sentence...)

10. Apple uses floating point, no practical limit on cash/bank/debt.
    Atari currently uses 32-bit unsigned longs for cash and debt,
    though the bank is now floating point. This leads to these gameplay
    changes:

    - If you try to make a sale, take out a loan, or withdraw from the bank
      an amount that would put you over 4.3 billion cash, you get a
      message "you cannot carry so much cash", and the transaction is
      aborted.

    - If your debt goes above 2 billion, you die and the game is over.

    Making cash a floating point value is possible, but not worth the
    effort as it's a *terrible* idea to carry billions (or even millions)
    of cash around, due to the possibility of getting robbed. By the time
    someone plays the game long enough to earn billions in cash, he'll know
    to leave most of it in the bank, not carry it around.

11. On Apple, price of General Cargo isn't always an integer (e.g. 6.5).

12. On Apple, dead enemy ships sink one scanline at a time, and there are
    at least 2 sinking speeds. On Atari, it's one character (8 scanlines)
    at a time, and the speed is always the same.

13. When entering numeric amounts, the Atari Shift-Delete key works as
    expected.

14. When entering numeric amounts, pressing K or M inserts 3 or 6 zeroes.
    This means you can type e.g. 100,000 as 100K, and 10,000,000 as 10M.

15. When playing on an 800, the standard Atari keyclicks will be heard.
    Disabling these on an 800 is non-trivial. On XL/XE machines, they are
    disabled to mimic the Apple version.


Differences between the Apple II original and Linux port:

1. Linux has an 80-column screen layout, Apple is 40.
2. Apple version uses a custom font (actually, two, but I'm ignoring that).
3. Apple has sound, Linux does not.
4. Apple has graphical title screen, Linux has ASCII art.
5. Apple has graphical ships during battles, Linux has ASCII art.
6. On Apple, price of General Cargo isn't always an integer (e.g. 6.5).
   As a consequence, the cash and bank amounts aren't always ints either.
7. On Apple, some Y/N prompts (like 'Do you have business with Elder Brother
   Wu') you can press Enter for No. Linux port waits until you hit Y or N.
8. On Apple, ships show damage (get holes in them) as they get shot up.
9. On Linux, you can overpay McHenry (though you get no benefit from it).
   On Apple, payment amount gets clamped to the repair price, so you can
   e.g. be asked to pay 50,000 when you have 70,000 and safely enter A
   (you'll end up 100% repaired and still have 20,000 cash).
10. On Apple, dead enemy ships sink one scanline at a time, and there are
    at least 2 sinking speeds. On Linux, it's one character at a time.

The plan for the Atari port is to mimic the Apple version as closely as
possible... except #6 above. It doesn't really add anything to the game,
and it complicates the code more than I want to deal with. Also #10
will probably not happen (to me, the slow ship-sinking of the Apple
version is annoying anyway).

Right now, items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 are implemented Apple-style;
and 6, 10 are Linux-style.

Future Ideas:

I may do a "Taipan Plus" at some point. The regular Taipan game will be
faithful to the original, and the Plus version could have some or all of:

- More ports to dock at, some of which might have their own warehouses,
  repair yards, etc.

- More trade goods, not all of which are available at all ports.

- Actual market trends, rather than a base price + random number. There
  might be news events that cause prices to go up/down (e.g. Arms are
  up at Saigon because there's a gang war in progress, Opium is up at
  some port but the chances of getting busted are higher). This feature
  actually exists in Art Canfil's TRS-80 Taipan "version 10".

- Ability to control a fleet of ships. Each one will either be a cargo
  ship or a warship.

- A "Turbo Combat" feature like one of the phone versions I've seen. You
  set your orders and hit Turbo, and it finishes the fight instantly,
  but you can't change your mind about your orders (fight until you win
  or die, or run until you escape or die).

- Special missions. Someone at some port needs you to transport documents
  or whatever, to some other port... you will almost certainly be attacked
  by whoever's trying to get the documents though.

- Rival trading companies. Their activities can influence prices, and
  you can fight them and possibly salvage actual cargo.

- Variable passage of time. Distant ports take longer to get to. Also,
  winds or ship damage can slow you down.

I dunno how many of the above will fit in the Atari's RAM. Probably have
to rewrite the whole game from scratch in assembly before adding features.