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BS(6)				      Games				   BS(6)

NAME
     bs - battleships game

SYNOPSIS
     bs [-b | -s] [-c]

DESCRIPTION
     This  program  allows you to play the familiar Battleships game against the
     computer on a 10x10 board. The interface is  visual  and  largely	self-ex-
     planatory;  you  place  your ships and pick your shots by moving the cursor
     around the `sea' with the rogue/hack motion keys hjklyubn. If your UNIX has
     a modern (non-BSD) curses, your arrow keys will also work.

     Note that when selecting a ship to place, you must type the capital  letter
     (these  are, after all, capital ships). During ship placement, the `r' com-
     mand may be used to ignore the current position  and  randomly  place  your
     currently	selected  ship.  The  `R' command will place all remaining ships
     randomly. The ^L command (form feed, ASCII 12) will force a screen redraw).

     The command-line arguments control game modes.

	      -b selects a `blitz' variant
	      -s selects a `salvo' variant
	      -c permits ships to be placed adjacently

     The `blitz' variant allows a side to shoot for as long as it  continues  to
     score hits.

     The  `salvo'  game  allows  a  player one shot per turn for each of his/her
     ships still afloat. This puts a premium scoring hits early and knocking out
     some ships and also makes much harder the situation where you face a  supe-
     rior force with only your PT-boat.

     Normally, ships must be separated by at least one square of open water. The
     -c option disables this check and allows them to close-pack.

     The  algorithm  the computer uses once it has found a ship to sink is prov-
     ably optimal. The dispersion criterion for the  random-fire  algorithm  may
     not be.

AUTHORS
     Originally written by one Bruce Holloway in 1986. Salvo mode added by Chuck
     A.  DeGaul  (cbosgd!cad).	Visual	user interface, `closepack' option, code
     rewrite and manual page by Eric S. Raymond  <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>  August
     1989.   Keypad  support  and  ANSI/POSIX  conformance,  November  '93.  See
     http://www.catb.org/~esr/ for updates, also other software and resources by
     ESR.

bs				   08/29/2026				   BS(6)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=bs&sektion=6&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

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