Terminator Bot for Quake

Version 0.9 (bug fix)

What is this Bot thing?

This Terminator bot is an automatic player for the game Quake, by id software. If you don't know what Quake is, return to your home galaxy.

This bot is named Terminator because it tries to mimick the internal display of a Terminator (as popularised in the movies by James Cameron). Alright, it's not a very good immitation, but the Quake client wasn't really designed for that kind of hacks, so please be a bit tolerant.

Changes since version 0.8

Not much, mostly bug fixes. The bug that plagged the Unix/Linux/WindozeNT version seems dead. 
You can now customise the name and color of the bot, andin automatic mode, the bot will try to reconnect every minute (in case the server goes down).

What the heck does it do?

Simply put, it's a C program that can run on almost any PC or workstation, and that implements a fake Quake client. Note: this is not yet another Quake-C bot that sucks valuable CPU time from a Quake server. It is a totally independant program.

There are basically two modes of operation:

Automatic mode

In this mode, the bot behaves like any normal Quake player would: it runs around and tries to kills everyone that attacks him. Well, okay, this is not Nexus 6... it's pretty dumb, but can do marvels with an axe.

Proxy mode

This is the really funny part. I have made this little drawing to confuse you a bit more.

In proxy mode, you will use an ordinary Quake client, but instead of connecting to the Quake server, you will connect to the bot itself. And the bot will forwards your request to an actual Quake server.

Once connected, you are just like any other Quake player... except that the bot controls some of your reflexes:

• If a rocket, a grenade, or a nail comes in your way, you will try to avoid it.
• If a player comes too close, you will aim him and fire at him.
• If a player aims at you, you will try to move out of his line of sight.
• If someone drops a backpak when he dies, you will rush toward the backpak like a rat.

Don't trust the low level reflexes too much. Even an automatic move, calculated a few hundred milliseconds before you even realise what happens, can harldy make you jump out of the way of a rocket fired at point blank. The Quake guy doesn't always run fast enough.

Supported configurations

This program is meant to be run on a local network or on the Internet. You will always need some kind of TCP/IP configuration, even if both the Quake server and the bot are on the same machine.
That means you can play the bot with either:

• An Ethernet or Token Ring local network, with TCP/IP installed.
• An Internet access via modem (PPP or SLIP).
• Anything that supports TCP/IP, including ATM AAL5.

Do not try to use this bot over IPX networks, or over a direct modem link connection, it will not work. That's because I've no idea how IPX works, and my own LAN runs under TCP/IP.
Do not try this program under DOS, because... I've no idea how one can use TCP/IP under DOS.

Normally, you will first start a Quake server with either Q95.BAT (with the Mpath TCP/IP emulation) or WINDED.EXE. This server should be situated on a machine different from the one that will be used for the bot program itself. The server should be at least a Pentium-class machine, but the bot's machine can be a mere 486DX -- it's probably the only way to play Quake on a 486 ;-)

It is possible to run the Quake server and this program on a single machine. But this is not recommended, because Quake accepts only one player per machine. I'm sorry my bot doesn't run on a DOS-only single machine, but remember we are talking deathmatch here. No one plays alone anymore these days.

Okay, I wanna get my fix

Portability

The recommended operating system for this bot is of course Linux, or maybe FreeBSD. I used to develop this program for Windows95 or NT, but since Linux now support the Millenium, I can say bye bye Windoze!

The source code compiles under Linux, Windows 95, SUN O/S, Solaris, AIX 3.2, and probably FreeBSD. It should also compile and run fine under Windows NT. It cannot run under DOS.

Thanks

• Lots of thanks to Regis Cridlig, and Edwin Razafi for providing a WWW-enabled home to my bot.
• Highest marks of worship toward John Carmack (grovel, grovel)
• Respect and devotion toward Uwe Girlish and his disassembly maniac friend, who wrote the DEM specs.
• Of course, let's not forget the peoples from the Quake Documentation Project lead by Bernd Kreimeier.

Best wishes to all other Bot makers out there. Enjoy the bugs in the above mentionned network protocol!

Useful Links

Legalese

The name Terminator is (probably) registered by some guy in a white limo, and this is not a cheap attempt to deny him any copyright. Poor dude really needs all this money , be it only to feed the limo. This is just a parody.