Angband Borg

The Borg is an automatic Angband player. It plays Angband by "virtually" looking the display and pressing keys just as if it were a real person sitting in front of the computer. It can analyze the current situation of the game and tries to make intelligent decisions. There are various implementations of the Borg for different Angband versions and with slightly different capabilities.

Installation and Use

written by Ben Harrison

There are several available "Borg commands", which are entered after the initial "^Z" keypress. A brief description of each command is given below for reference purposes, use the "?" borg-command when in doubt.

• The '?' borg-command displays a list of the borg-commands which were active when the Borg was compiled.
• The '$' borg-command initializes the Borg and does nothing else, this command is included mainly for historical purposes.
• The 'z' borg-command activates the Borg. This command can also be used to re-activate the Borg after it has been aborted or cancelled, though it may or may not be able to deal with certain changes in the world induced by the user.
• The 'u' borg-command updates the Borg. This is equivalent to activating the Borg and then pressing space immediately.
• The 'x' borg-command steps the Borg. This is equivalent to activating the Borg and then pressing space after one action has been performed. You can use the repeat count to step for multiple turns.
• The 'd' borg-command activates demo mode. This tells the Borg to set his "social class" and "age" to zero, and to turn on the "cheat death" option. When the Borg dies, and the "cheat death" option is active, he will cheat death via the normal "Die?" query, and normally, he will then abort. But in demo mode (as indicated by a "zero" social class), he will increase his age by one, and, if his age is less than "100", he will continue to play.
• The 'f' borg-command allows you to toggle all of the "normal flags", see the source for a complete list.
• The 'c' borg-command allows you to toggle all of the "cheat flags", see the source for a complete list.
• The 'w' borg-command allows the user to specify the number of rows in the mirror window to use for status messages (the default is 24). This is only meaningful when the "use mirror window for debug messages" option is set (it is set automatically by the 'd' borg-command).
• The 'l' borg-command allows the user to open a "log file" for the Borg, or to close one which was previously opened. When a log file is open, a whole bunch of messages are written to the log file, so do not do this unless you have a lot of disk space.
• The 's' borg-command allows the user to specify a "match string", and if that string is ever contained in a message given to "borg_note()" then the Borg will cancel cleanly.
• The 'i' borg-command allows the user to examine various internal flags associated with the cave grids on the current panel. The legal flags to query include "d" for known dark grids, "g" for glowing grids, "f" for grids with known features, "o" for grids on the current panel, "l" for torch-lit grids, and "v" for viewable grids. You can also use a number from 0 to 7 to specify an actual flag value. Grids with the given flag are displayed as red stars (walls) or yellow stars (floors).
• The 'a' borg-command displays grids which are "dangerous" (yellow stars) and "very dangerous" (red stars), and mentions the current "avoidance" level (normally equal to the current hit-points).
• The 'k' borg-command displays grids which are thought to contain monsters, and mentions the total number of known monsters.
• The 't' borg-command displays grids which are thought to contain objects, and mentions the total number of known objects.

BenBorg for Angband 2.8.3

Homepage: The Angband Borg Home Page

Download:

System / Comments	Compiled by	Size	Date
Source code (Mirror)	Ben Harrison	145 KByte	12th February 1998
Requires the Angband 2.8.3 source code.
Mac (68020+) (Mirror)	Ben Harrison	687 KByte	12th February 1998
68020+ and Sys. 7 or newer required.
Mac (PPC) (Mirror)	Ben Harrison	747 KByte	12th February 1998
PPC required.
Amiga (Mirror)		593 KByte	27th February 1998
2.0 Mb RAM, KS 1.3, reqtools.library for palette requester

KeldonBorg for Angband 2.8.3

Download:

System / Comments	Compiled by	Size	Date
Source code (Mirror)	Keldon Jones	1144 kByte
Included in the Extended Angband version 2.8.3h.
Windows 95/98/NT (Mirror)	Robert Rühlmann	887 kByte	8th April 1999
Extended version 2.8.3h: Supports ASCII mode, 8x8 tiles, Adam Bolt's 16x16 tiles, info windows, and sound.
MS-DOS (Mirror)	Robert Rühlmann	1064 kByte	8th April 1999
Extended version 2.8.3h: Requires 386 or better processor, supports ASCII mode, 8x8 tiles, Adam Bolt's 16x16 tiles, info windows, sound, and music.
Mac (68020+) (Mirror)	Prfnoff		25th August 1999
Extended version 2.8.3h: 68020+ required, supports 8x8 and 16x16 tiles, requires Stuffit Expander 5.x to decompress
Mac (PPC) (Mirror)	Prfnoff		25th August 1999
Extended version 2.8.3h: PPC required, supports 8x8 and 16x16 tiles, requires Stuffit Expander 5.x to decompress
Amiga (Mirror)	Bablos	579 kByte	21st April 1999
Extended version 2.8.3h

RMLBorg for Angband 2.8.3

Download:

System / Comments	Compiled by	Size	Date
Source code (Mirror)	Ross Morgan-Linial		17th September 1999
Requires the Angband 2.8.3 source code. Some of the larger improvements are the ability to consider items in the home when trying to find the best equipment, and not knowing the abilities of random artifacts until they're *identified*.
Mac (68020+) (Mirror)	Prfnoff		18th October 1999
Based on the extended version Angband 2.8.3h. Includes Ross Morgan-Linial's RML Borg, and Jonathan Ellis' improved *_info.txt files. 68020+ required. Support for both 8x8 tiles and Adam Bolt's 16x16 tiles is included (check or uncheck "arg_bolt"). Requires Stuffit Expander 5.x to decompress.
Mac (PPC) (Mirror)	Prfnoff		18th October 1999
Based on the extended version Angband 2.8.3h. Includes Ross Morgan-Linial's RML Borg, and Jonathan Ellis' improved *_info.txt files. PPC required. Support for both 8x8 tiles and Adam Bolt's 16x16 tiles is included (check or uncheck "arg_bolt"). Requires Stuffit Expander 5.x to decompress.
Amiga (Mirror)	Bablos	533 kByte	19th October 1999

BorgBand

Download:

System / Comments	Compiled by	Size	Date
Source code (Mirror)	Dennis van Es		2nd April 2001
Windows (Mirror)	Dennis van Es		2nd April 2001
Mac (PPC) (Mirror)	"Gileba"	708 kByte	8th April 2001
Mac (68020+) (Mirror)	"Gileba"	704 kByte	8th April 2001

Andrew P. White's APWBorg for Angband 3.0.3

Homepage: APW-Borg home page

Downloads:

System / Comments	Compiled by	Size	Date
Source code	Dr. Andrew White		updated almost daily
Windows executable	Dr. Andrew White		updated almost daily
Replaces the executable of the Angband 3.0.3 Windows version.
Windows screensaver	Dr. Andrew White		updated almost daily
Requires the Angband 3.0.3 Windows version.
Mac OS X version (Mirror)	"pelpel"	1039 kByte	6th September 2001
For PPC Macs running OS X, or OS 8/9 with CarbonLib system extension (1.1 or better?). It may not work on OS 8 prior to 8.6.
PPC Mac version (Mirror)	"Gileba"		6th April 2001
Based on Angband 2.9.2.
RISC OS	Musus Umbra	468 KByte	25th October 2001
Patch for RISC OS Angband 2.9.3 (590 kByte). Requires RISC OS 3 and 4 MB RAM. Supports sound with the optional AngSound archive (526Kb). For more information look at Musus Umbra's home page.
BeOS version (Mirror)	Reko Turja	719 kByte	17th September 2001
For BeOS r5 x86. Might work in BeOS 4 too.

Notes: The APW-Borg is a very good player and has already won the game several times. A lot of work is going into the development and it's updated almost daily.

• The Angband Borg home page
• APW-Borg home page
• APW-Borg scores table

© 2000 by Robert Rühlmann, rr9@thangorodrim.net