Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!bbn!gateway!dsys.icst.nbs.GOV!rbj From: rbj@dsys.icst.nbs.GOV (Root Boy Jim) Newsgroups: comp.emacs Subject: Blackbox Message-ID: <8904271757.AA06164@dsys.icst.nbs.gov> Date: 27 Apr 89 17:57:04 GMT Sender: news@bbn.COM Organization: National Institute of Standards and Technology formerly National Bureau of Standards Lines: 60 ? From: Eliot Handelman ? Can somebody tell me how to play blackbox.el ? It's included in the ? GNU distribution without rules, should I just throw it away or is it ? worth playing, or is the idea to figure out how to play it without ? rules? This is a great little game! I read about it in a book called something like "Playboy's Guide to Games", which describes and reviews just about any and every game you can think of. Anyway, an example is best, so refer to the following diagram which is a sample game I played. The object of the game is to find four hidden balls by shooting rays into the black box. There are four possibilitys: 1) the ray will pass thru the box undisturbed, 2) it will hit a ball and be absorbed, 3) it will be deflected and exit the box, or 4) be deflected immediately, not even being allowed entry into the box. The strange part is the method of deflection. It seems that rays will not pass next to a ball, and change direction at right angles to avoid it. R 3 1 - - - - - - - - 1 - - - - - - - - - O - - - - - - 3 2 - - - - O - O - 4 - - - - - - - - 5 - - - - - - - - 5 - - - - - - - - R H - - - - - - - O 2 H 4 H Rays which enter and exit are numbered. You can see that rays 1 & 5 pass thru the box undisturbed. Ray 2 is deflected by the northwesternmost ball. Likewise rays 3 and 4. Rays which hit balls and are absorbed are marked with H. The bottom of the left and the right of the bottom hit the southeastern ball directly. Rays may also hit balls after being reflected. Consider the H on the bottom next to the 4. It bounces off the NW-ern most ball and hits the central ball. A ray shot from above the right side 5 would hit the SE-ern most ball. The R beneath the 5 is because the ball is returned instantly. It is not allowed into the box if it would reflect immediately. The R on the top is a more leisurely return. Both central balls would tend to deflect it east or west, but it cannot go either way, so it just retreats. Those are the rules. The mechanics of playing are well described by describe-mode. Here is a brief recap. Movement is by your friends C-a, C-e, C-b, C-f, C-n, C-p. When outside the box, a SPC shoots a ray into the box, to be diagnosed. You can also move into the box and type SPC, which toggles whether a ball is marked there or not. This is only for your convenience, and does not affect where the balls really are. When you are satisfied you have figured things out, type RET to get your score. This is presumably some inverse function of the number of rays shot into the box. I hereby nominate this description for inclusion into the distribution, and waive all copyright, patent, or trade secret protection. Root Boy Jim is what I am Are you what you are or what?