Erltrek: Star Trek Game in Erlang

• Requirement: Erlang/OTP 17.0
• Tested on: OS X 10.9.2, FreeBSD 10-STABLE
• License: BSD 3-clause (Note: tinymt-erlang has its own BSD license, compatible with this software)
• Note well: this program is still in the alpha level. Please report bugs to the GitHub issues and contribute through the pull requests.

Goals

• Incorporate true concurrency (= game proceeds in real-time)
• Keep following the traditional Star Trek model
  • Coordinate system: 2D and dual layer (Quadrants + Sectors)
  • Weapons: phaser (torpedo is optional)
  • Not too fast but not too slow
• Start from a simplified model but make it extendable
• Write in pure Erlang/OTP

Non-goals

• Using NIFs (unless absolutely necessary)

Functions implemented at tag baselevel_20140416

(Most of code files are revised and rewritten by Andreas Stenius)

• Game field setup
• Impulse engine for Enterprise
• Enterprise firing phaser to Klingon
• Klingon firing to Enterprise
• Enterprise can dock/undock to/from the starbase
• The Game is now a proper Erlang application
• Game message handled by an gen_event server
• Dedicated command shell
• The galaxy is a process (see erltrek_galaxy)
• The ships (Enterprise and Klingons) are processes
• The game no longer depends on internal time synchronization
• Type spec for functions are now 17.0-compatible

Functions under development

• Torpedoes

How to run (will invoke a dedicated shell)

./game.sh

On random number initialization

The processes using tinymt32 module will begin with the same internal state, for an easy debugging. See erltrek_setup:seed/0 for the details. This feature will surely be removed in later versions. Also, the players should be aware that all ships are concurrently running, so the sequence of execution will not be guaranteed.

Related YouTube Talk at Erlang Factory SF Bay 2014

(Courtesy Erlang Solutions)

• http://youtu.be/1mJUhUDipuo

TODO

• Documentation in the source code (edoc or edown)
• Eunit test cases
• Refactoring with 17.0 maps (maps may replace most of dict functionality)
• Running on Windows

Authors

• Andreas Stenius
• Kenji Rikitake

Acknowledgments

• Cimarron Taylor
• Eric Allman
• Francesco Cesarini
• Fréd Hébert
• Kyoko Rikitake
• Loïc Hoguin
• Robert Virding