************************************************************************
* README: Rog-O-Matic XIV (CMU) Tue Jan 29 15:02:02 1985 - mlm
* Copyright (C) 1985 by A. Appel, G. Jacobson, L. Hamey, and M. Mauldin
************************************************************************
* Here is Rog-O-Matic XIV, the automatic Rogue player for the eighties! *
1.0 UNPACKING:
Rog-O-Matic is shipped as a collection of shell archives. Run the
distribution files through the shell (e.g. "sh rgm14.01"), and the
individual source files will be created. Rog-O-Matic is stored on the
General Purpose Vax at Carnegie-Mellon University, and may be retrieved via
FTP using the following file name:
mlm/rgm/rgm14.xx @ CMU-CS-G (xx = 01,02,...)
The file
mlm/rgm/Instructions @ CMU-CS-G
contains instructions and pointers to files for this public directory.
For FTP access, the username is 'ftpguest' and the password is 'cmunix'.
2.0 INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE:
Tear along the dotted line and put all files into a directory. You should
have the following files:
Bugreport findscore.c main.c rogomatic.6 survival.c
README gene.c makefile rooms.c tactics.c
arms.c globals.h mess.c rplot termtokens.h
command.c histplot.c monsters.c scorefile.c things.c
database.c install.h pack.c search.c titlepage.c
datesub.l io.c rand.c setup.c types.h
debug.c learn.c replay.c stats.c utility.c
explore.c ltm.c rgmplot.c strategy.c worth.c
Bugreport contains descriptions of any known bugs and patches to fix them.
Main.c is the main file of Rog-O-Matic, and contains descriptions of all
other files. Install.h contains the installation dependent preprocessor
variables.
Edit "install.h" to set up various log files and directories, and then
create the RGMDIR directory, making certain that it is publicly readable
and writable. After that, the 'make' command will build your own
personalized automatic Rogue playing system!
The preprocessor variables defined are:
BEST: The compile time copy of the best current score.
Now 43,402 (against 3.6) and 7935 (against 5.2),
and 11,316, total winner (against Rogue 5.3).
BOGUS: The highest score to be considered "reasonable" by
Rog-O-Matic. Rog-O-Matic will only try to beat non-bogus
scores. Currently set at 50,000.
ERRORLOG: A fully qualified filename to which snapshots of game
positions are appended when severe or fatal bugs/
inconsistencies are found.
LOCKFILE: A file name in in the /tmp directory used to serialize
accesses to the score file.
MAXLOCK: A number of seconds after which to ignore the lock file.
Usually 3 minutes (120 seconds).
NEWROGUE: On systems where the default Rogue is 3.6, this is the
name of the Rogue 5.2 or Rogue 5.3 file.
PLAYER: This is the file name of the player program, which is
execl'ed by the rogomatic program. It should be fully
qualified.
RGMDIR: The name of the directory where the Rog-O-Matic gene pool,
long term memory, and score files are kept. It must be
publicly readable and writeable. This directory must
be created by hand.
ROGUE: This is the file name of the Rogue game. Usually this is
/usr/games/rogue.
ROGUELOG: When the game logging (or "echoing") is enabled, a
complete transcript of the game is written to this
file. If the program finishes normally, this file
will be renamed to <killer>.<level>.<score>, and can
either be examined by "cat"ing it or replayed using the
"-p" option of rogomatic. This should be an unqualified
file name.
SNAPSHOT: An unqualified file name where game snapshots are put.
The 'snapshot' command appends game photos to this file
in the user's directory.
After "make"ing, you should have the following programs:
rogomatic player datesub rgmplot histplot gene
and the shell script:
rplot
These should be put into the games directory, in such a way that the player
program has the same name as that specified by the PLAYER variable in
install. Otherwise, you will have to "cd" to the directory containing
Rogomatic to play.
3.0 DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PROGRAMS AND COMMANDS.
3.1 ROGOMATIC
The files "rogomatic" and "player" contain the basic Rog-O-Matic.
Rogomatic parses the arguments and forks and execs Rogue and Player.
For more information about the "rogomatic" command, see rogomatic.6.
3.2 RPLOT
"rplot" prints a scatter plot of the rogomatic score file. Options
allow for inclusion of scores obtained by cheating and addition of
a rolling average to the plot. "rplot" uses the rgmplot program.
3.3 HISTPLOT
"histplot" reads the scorefile and produces a histogram of either
final score or level reached, depending on the option set. The
histogram plots the killing monster for each game.
3.4 GENE
"gene" summarizes the current gene pool.
4.0 MORE ABOUT FILES
For those perusing the source, the following files are in the
source. The notes indicate how important an understanding of that file
is to understanding the strategy Rogomatic uses, and whether that file
contains system code, strategy code, or utility code.
Importance: 0..9 (9 must read, 0 never look at it)
Classes: (strat) = strategy,
(tact) = tactics,
(mech) = mechanics,
(util) = utility
Importance File
Class: Name: Description:
9 (mech) install.h: Must edit to run Rogomatic
9 (mech) main.c: Main file, references everything else
9 (strat) strategy.c: Top level strategy
8 (strat,tact) tactics.c: More insteresting production rules
7 (mech) globals.h: Description of globals
7 (mech) types.h: More description of globals
7 (mech) setup.c: Main program, forks & execs Rogue, Rgm
7 (tact) arms.c: Rules: worth of armor, weapons, rings
7 (tact) worth.c: Rules about worth of objects
6 (mech) mess.c: Handles message from Rogue
6 (strat,mech) explore.c: Defines exploration strategy
5 (mech) rooms.c: Builds terrain map
4 (mech) io.c: Handles communications from Rogue
4 (mech) search.c: Does path planning
4 (mech) things.c: Handles objects in pack
3 (mech) command.c: Sends commands to Rogue
3 (tact,mech) survival.c: Code for running away from monsters
2 (mech) scorefile.c: Handles Rogomatic scoreboard
2 (util) database.c: Remembers objects and their names
2 (util) findscore.c: Reads Rogue scoreboard
1 (mech) monsters.c: Keeps track of monsters on level
1 (util) debug.c: Debugging handler (error logger)
0 (mech) replay.c: Finds levels in log files
0 (mech) termtokens.h: Contains definitions for terminal
0 (mech) titlepage.c: Prints animated copyright notice
0 (util) histplot.c: Plots histograms of Rgm performance
0 (mech) rgmplot.c: Plots Rgm performance over time
0 (util) utility.c: Contains CMU specific system functions
5.0 NET ADDRESS
Questions, comments, gripes, and ephemera to
Michael.Mauldin@CMU-CS-A.ARPA
Michael Mauldin (Fuzzy) (412) 578-3065
Department of Computer Science
Carnegie-Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
6.0 MORE INFORMATION
Copies of CMU Technical Report CMU-CS-83-144, "ROG-O-MATIC:
A Belligerent Expert System" may be obtained by sending mail
to Michael Mauldin at the above addresses. Since these will
be sent by US Post, you must include your US Mail address.
ROG-O-MATIC: A Belligerent Expert System (CMU-CS-83-144) ABSTRACT
"Rog-O-Matic is an unusual combination of algorithmic and production
systems programming techniques which cooperate to explore a hostile
environment. This environment is the computer game Rogue, which offers
several advantages for studying exploration tasks. This paper
presents the major features of the Rog-O-Matic system, the types of
knowledge sources and rules used to control the exploration, and
compares the performance of the system with human Rogue players."
An abbreviated but more recent version of this paper appeared in the
conference proceedings of CSCSI in May of 1984.
A short reference to Rog-O-Matic also appeared in the February 1985
Computer Recreations column of Scientific American, page 18-21.
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