STDIN(1)

💖 STDIN(1) 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to STDIN(1) — the manual page, the whole vibe, the moment. sit down, grab a snack, we're about to learn how to steal an energy pod from a whole empire 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

inertiablast — steal energy pods to defeat the empire. yes that's the whole job description. iconic. 👑

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🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

inertiablast [--help] [--version] [--nodemo] [--nosoundeffects]
[--gamma=Value] [--step] [--windowed]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the goal?? lift the Energy Pod up from the bottom of a cave and get it back to space safely. sounds cute. it is NOT cute. that Pod is very heavy compared to your little ship, and that makes the whole thing way harder than it looks. no cap. 😭

you gotta be careful, bestie:

• do not run out of fuel 💀
• do not crash into the cave walls 💀
• do not let the enemy artillary outposts shoot you down 💀

and the lore drop: this is a clone of Thrust, the classic Commodore 64 game. periodt.

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👑 BACKGOUND STORY 👑

(the heading really is spelled that way, don't come for me 💅)

so the rebellion was struggling against the might of the empire, right? but then — a stroke of luck — they captured several warships in a recent battle. slay. except the energy pods powering those ships were destroyed. 🙈 securing new energy pods could literally turn the tide against the empire.

you are part of a risky expedition to steal energy pods. every pod construction site comes with defense systems, and you need to avoid or destroy them. also the power plant that builds the pods and powers the defenses? unstable. you can temporarily disable it with a laser blast, but too many blasts and it goes critical and destroys the entire planet. you will have limited time to escape. 😳

the rebellion is counting on your success. good luck. 🍓

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -h, --help — print a usage message and exit with a non-zero status. (note: non-zero, so it's a "bye bestie, that's not a success" kind of exit.)
• -v, --version — print version information on standard output, then exit.
• -d, --nodemo — do not run the demo. the demo is otherwise displayed if you leave the game untouched, so this is the "I do not want the game to entertain itself" button.
• -e, --nosoundeffects — if sound is compiled in, be silent anyway. 🤫
• -c, --gamma=Value — change the brightness of the colors. 1.0 is the default. higher values give brighter colors. the value must be positive.
• -j, --jump — only draw every third frame. this makes the game a lot faster. 🏃♀️
• -w, --windowed — run in windowed mode.

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🎀 CONTROLS 🎀

heads up bestie: the keys below are the default configuration. the user can change them by creating a file named .thrustrc in the user's home directory. iykyk.

• A — Turn counterclockwise
• S — Turn clockwise
• Enter — Fire

shoots a bullet. different targets have different effect:

• the Fuel Tank explodes for 150 points. 💥
• the Defense Systems explode for 750 points. 💥
• the Nuclear Power Plant can take a number of hits. when they are destroyed you're given a short period of time to clear out before the whole neighbourhood is nuked. ☢️ if a Power Plant is hit — but not destroyed — it will recover after a period of time. during this recovery period, the Defense Systems are not able to fire. 2000 extra points are scored if the Power Plant is destroyed when the level is finished. there is exactly one Power Plant in every level.
• in the more advanced levels you will find other things to shoot at. 👀

• Right-Ctrl — Thrust

gives the ship a forward push at the cost of some fuel.

• Spacebar — Pick up and shield.

if the ship is above a Fuel Tank the ship is refueled, i.e the fuel is picked up. two vertical bars are drawn to indicate that fuel is picked up. when there is no more fuel left in the tank, it disappears and 300 points are scored.

if the ship is close to the Energy Pod a tractor beam is initiated. the Pod is picked up when the tractor beam is of the right length. if spacebar is released before the correct distance is reached, the Pod is not picked up. 😤

when the shield is activated, a circle is drawn around the ship. if the ship is carrying the Pod, the Pod and the wire are also protected by the shield. the shield costs fuel to power.

• ESC/Q — Quit the game
• P — Pause
• C — Continue a paused game

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🌸 CONFIGURATION 🌸

💜 The .thrustrc file 💜

each key command can be customized. key names are defined by SDL.

valid commands:

• SDL-counterclockwise
• SDL-clockwise
• SDL-thrust
• SDL-fire
• SDL-pickup

examples:

SDL-counterclockwise    A
SDL-fire                Space

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⭐ FILES ⭐

• thrust.highscore in the configured shared state dir.
• ${HOME}/.thrustrc

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🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

• current programming by Dennis Payne dulsi@identicalsoftware.com
• original programming by Peter Ekberg peda@lysator.liu.se.
• original man page by Joey Hess joey@kitenet.net.
• thanks go out to the authors of the Thrust for the C64. 💖

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🧚 DISTRIBUTION 🧚

Inertia Blast may be copied under the term of the Gnu General Public Licence.

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and that's the whole page, bestie. go forth, steal those pods, don't nuke the planet. ✨

this lil masterpiece is perl v5.32.1, dated 2021-08-24. slay. 💅