xoids — X Window Asteroids style game

Synopsis

xoids

Description

Xoids is an Asteroids style game which uses full color pixmaps instead of vector-style graphics.

The main features of the game are:

Full color

One or two players

Two player game is either against each other or cooperative

You can bounce off of asteroids if you are moving slow enough

Shots impart inertia on your ship

Shots have relative speed

Asteroids have appropriate masses (realistic physics)

The alien (called the Slurb) tracks players instead of wandering randomly

Thrusting and using hyperspace can overheat your engines

General non-ship control

Q
This can be pressed by either player and it causes Xoids to quit.
P
Pause the game.
ESC
Exit to the Main Menu.
+
Increase clock speed.
-
Decrease clock speed.

Ship control

The following keyboard keys are used to control the ship(s).
UP ARROW
Activate player ONE's thrust.
LEFT ARROW
Turn player ONE's ship to the left.
RIGHT ARROW
Turn player ONE's ship to the right.
RIGHT SHIFT
Fire player ONE's weapon.
RETURN
Cause Player ONE to go into hyperspace (disappear and then appear in a different location).
F
Activate player TWO's thrust.
C
Turn player TWO's ship to the left.
B
Turn player TWO's ship to the right.
LEFT SHIFT
Fire player TWO's weapon.
SPACE
Cause Player TWO to go into hyperspace (disappear and then appear in a different location).

One player

Five ships are allotted at the beginning of the game. Blast away asteroids and Slurbs until you are dead.

Two player duel

Points are decremented for dying, but there are unlimited lives. The first player to reach 20,000 points wins.

Two player cooperative

The players' ships are linked via an elastic cable and there are unlimited lives. Still, like Two Player Duel mode, the first player to 20,000 points wins, which means the game may turn out more competitive than cooperative, but hey...

The second player uses 'C' for 'turn left', 'B' for 'turn right', 'F' for thrust, left SHIFT for 'Fire', and SPACE for hyperspace.

Options

Xoids currently takes no command line options, however, there is an Options menu available within the game.

Bugs

There is a problem with window refresh after deiconification. Running xoids currently causes X Windows autorepeat to die. Use 'xset r on' to turn autorepeat back on.

Authors

Tim Ebling, tebling@oce.orst.edu