XNibbles(6)

NAME
xnibbles - a simple X11 snake game

SYNOPSIS
xnibbles [ -s speed ] [ -n1 name ] [ -n2 name ] [ -c1 color ] [ -c2 color ] [ -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. Along the way, a number of other diamonds will be encountered. Gold doubles your length, and red halves your length, both giving you points. Green gives you an extra life. You die if you run into yourself or a wall. Question marks serve as warps.

GAME PLAY
Each player has four keys. For player one these are usually the arrow keys, although some systems may map them to the numeric keypad. For player two, the keys are: 'w' up, 's' down, 'a' left, and 'd' right. Other keys which control the game are:
   'g' to start the game.
   'p' pauses the game.
   't' toggles sound effects.
   'q' quits the game.

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.

-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 and sundry other ftp sites.

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