XNibbles(6)

NAME
xnibbles - a simple X11 snake game

SYNOPSIS
xnibbles [ -s speed ] [ -n1 name ] [ -n2 name ] [ -c1 color ] [ -c2 color ] [ -classic ] [ -level <level> ] [ -random ] [ -2 ] [ -i ] [ -q ] [ -ns ] [ -j1 ] [ -j2 ] [ -display display ]

DESCRIPTION
XNibbles is a game for X11R6. It is conceptually based on nibbles, which was a program that came with qbasic for MS-DOS. XNibbles is actually written in C++, and shares no code with qbasic nibbles. For those of you who have played the game before, you can attest to the fact that it is extremely fun and addictive.

GOAL
The goal of the game is to work your way through the levels, which become harder and harder. You do this by running your snake over the blue diamonds. For every 10 diamonds you acquire, you move up one level. A question mark is a warp; this may be random or directed. Along the way, a number of other diamonds will be encountered. Some of these bonuses, including the blue ones, will be fakes; you will bounce off of these. Diamonds Types

Red This bonus shrinks your worm to half of its previous length, and gives you points for each worm segment removed.

Gold
    This bonus grows your worm to double its length, and gives you points for each worm segment added.

Green
    This bonus gives you an extra life.

Cyan (2 Player Only)
    This bonus is the most complicated. Each time you encounter one, you gain the ability to cut your worm in half, leaving the remains of your worm behind as a permanent obstacle for the remainder of the level. When you have one available, an icon of the bonus appears next to your name on the scoreboard.

Purple (2 Player Only)
    This bonus reverses the direction of your opponent.

GAME PLAY
Each player has five keys. Worm controls for the first player are the arrow keys, sometimes the numeric keypad :), and for the second player control is
   'w' up,
   's' down,
   'a' left, and
   'd' right. Each player also has an action key, which activates the cyan bonus described in section [4]. For the first player, the action key is Right Control, and for the second, the action key is Left Control. Other keys which control the game are:
   'g' to start the game.
   'p' pauses the game.
   't' toggles sound effects.
   'q' quits the game. Lots of this is, of course, invalidated if you are using the joystick support. In that case, you wave the stick around, and your action key is the first button.

OPTIONS

-s speed
    Sets the speed of the game in millisecond per frame. Values range from 20 to 100, the default being 35. Small values are faster.

-n1 name
    Sets the scoreboard name of the first player. All non-alphabetic characters are ignored, case is irrelevant, and all characters after the tenth are truncated.

-n2 name
    Sets the scoreboard name of the second player. All non-alphabetic characters are ignored, case is irrelevant, and all characters after the tenth are truncated.

-c1 color
    Sets the color of the first player. This parameter affects the worm segment and scoreboard color. Valid colors are red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, purple, and gray.

-c2 color
    Sets the color of the second player. This parameter affects the worm segment and scoreboard color. Valid colors are red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, purple, and gray.

-classic
    Starts the game in classic mode, disabling all bonuses other than the normal blue bonuses.

-level <level>
    Starts the game on <level>, and does not allow the players to leave this level. The level does not reset after 10 blue bonuses have been collected, but instead continues until a player dies.

-random
    Plays the levels in random order. Can not be used with the -level flag.

-2  Starts the game in two player mode. This option is extraneous if either the -n2 or -c2 options are present.

-i  Installs a private colormap.

-q  Disables all console output except for errors.

-ns Disables sound support, if present. If sound support was disabled in the Makefile, this option will not be present.

-j1 Enables joystick control for player 1. Leaves keyboard controls active for players 1 and 2. If you want to use the joystick and the arrow keys, use -j2 instead. If joystick support was disabled in the Makefile, this option will not be present.

-j2 Enables joystick control for player 2. If -j1 is not present, the first joystick will be used, otherwise the second joystick is used. All keyboard controls are still active. If joystick support was disabled in the Makefile, this option will not be present.

-display display
    Specifies the X11 display to show the game on.

BUGS
Network play does not yet work. We think this might be related to the fact that we haven't written the code yet. The problem is being looked at.

DISTRIBUTION
The XNibbles distribution site is http://www.tjhsst.edu/xnibbles/. Versions may also be found on sunsite and assorted other ftp sites.

AUTHORS
Sean MacIsaac (sjm@acm.org)
Ian Peters (ipeters@acm.org)