NAME

gtkballs - A simple logic game

SYNOPSIS

gtkballs [options]

DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents GtkBalls. GtkBalls is a simple logic game. The goal of this game is to make the highest score by matching a number of balls of the same color in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line. For further information on how to play this game refer to the rules section in this manual page.

OPTIONS

--display [hostname:dpy]: Specify what display GtkBalls should use. See X (1x) for more information on the syntax of hostname and display.

RULES

The standard play area of GtkBalls is a 9x9 grid (it can be changed through "Rules" option in ingame menu). When GtkBalls is first started a number of balls are placed in a random manner on the grid. Balls are in different colors (and/or shape). You may move balls on the grid by selecting them and selecting an empty square on the grid as destination for the ball you selected. Balls will only move if they are not blocked by other balls. Each time you move a ball, unless you score some points, new balls appear in a random manner on the grid. If the grid is full then the game is lost. However this is bound to happen, your goal is to make the highest score. In order to do this you must make lines in a vertical, horizontal or diagonal way with balls of the same color. By default a line must have at least five balls of the same color (it can also be changed through "Rules" option in ingame menu). Making a line of minimum amount of the balls, specifed in rules, will earn you twice the points for your score. If you make lines over minimum amount of the balls it will earn you even more points. In order to help you decide which ball you are going to move, there is an indicator on top of the grid that shows what colors the next balls that will appear on the grid will be.

USING THE INTERFACE

GtkBalls is a graphical program using the Gtk+ windowing toolkit. This section describes it's user interface.

THE GAME MENU

New: Selecting this menu entry will abandon the current game and start a new one or start another game if you just finished one. You may use the keyboard shortcut CTRL-N to do this also.
Rules: Selecting this menu entry will open "Rules" dialog box, where you can set board width and height, number of different objects to appear on the board, number of objects that will appear on the board after each turn and number of objects that must form the line to eliminate it. You may use the keyboard shortcut CTRL-R to do this also.
Save: Selecting this menu entry will open "Save game" dialog box, where you can save current game to play it later. You may use the keyboard shortcut CTRL-S to do this also.
Load: Selecting this menu entry will open "Load game" dialog box, where you can load previously saved game. You may use the keyboard shortcut CTRL-L to do this also.
Hall Of Fame: Selecting this menu entry will open a dialog box showing the high scores. Only the ten best scores are shown. This dialog also displays the name of the person who achieved a high score and it's date. You may use the keyboard shortcut CTRL-H to do this also.
Quit: Selecting this menu entry will quit GtkBalls. You may use the keyboard shortcut CTRL-Q to do the same thing.

THE EDIT MENU

Undo: Selecting this menu entry will undo your last move. You may use the keyboard shortcut CTRL-U to do this also.

THE SETTINGS MENU

Preferences: Selecting this menu entry will open the "Preferences" dialog box. You may use the keyboard shortcut CTRL-P to open it also. This dialog box allows you to set some options. Click on a check box to activate or deactivate them. Click on the theme name to select it. Then click on the Apply button to save your settings or click on Ok button to save your settings and close this dialog box. You can disable the showing of footprints, path of the ball, color of the next balls indicator, animation of disappearing of the ball and set time limit per move from this dialog box.

THE HELP MENU

Rules: Selecting this menu entry will display a dialog box describing rules of the game. You may use the keyboard shortcut F1 to open it also.
About: Selecting this menu entry will display a dialog with the logo and the copyright information of GtkBalls. You may use the keyboard shortcut CTRL-A to open it also. For more details on the license, click on the Show license button. This will open another dialog box where you can read the GNU General Public License.

AUTHORS

GtkBalls was created by Eugene Morozov <jmv@online.ru>. This manual page was created by Christoph Thompson <obituary@freshmeat.net>. Current maintainer of GtkBalls and this manual page is drF_ckoff <dfo@antex.ru>.

COPYRIGHT

GtkBalls is copyright 1998, 1999 Eugene V. Morozov under the terms of the GNU General Public License. GtkBalls is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the license, or (at your option) any later version.