3 by Andrew Church <achurch@achurch.org>
5 branch of Petr Baudis <pasky@ucw.cz>
10 For general information on Tetrinet, consult the file tetrinet.txt (the
11 text file distributed with the original Windows version).
13 The following notes apply to the Linux version of Tetrinet:
16 Distribution/license information
17 --------------------------------
18 This program is public domain, and may be modified and distributed without
24 This client does not support "channels".
29 You must be using a 50-line text display to run this version of Tetrinet;
30 Xwindows is not yet supported. One option is to open an xterm window in
31 Xwindows and resize it to be 50 lines high. The other option (recommended)
32 is to use a 50-line text console.
34 To get a 50-line text console, if you use LILO to boot, add the following
35 line to the top of your /etc/lilo.conf file:
39 run /sbin/lilo, and reboot. If you use a boot disk without LILO, insert it
40 into your floppy drive, give the following command:
46 Another option is to use the SVGATextMode program, available on Sunsite
47 ({http,ftp}://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/) and other places, to switch your
48 console to 50-line mode without rebooting. You may also use that program
49 to set up a larger display (for example, I use 100x60); Tetrinet will
50 detect this and rearrange the display to make the best use of the available
53 NOTE: Xwindows graphics display really isn't supported, despite the
54 presence of the "xwin.c" file! Don't be fooled! (The file is there to
55 remind me to implement Xwindows support someday. Note how well it's
61 Type "make". This will generate two programs: "tetrinet" and
62 "tetrinet-server". The former is the main program; the latter is a
68 Tetrinet requires two command-line arguments: your nickname and the server
69 to connect to, in that order. For example:
71 tetrinet MyNick tetrinet.somerandom.net
73 Tetrinet will function only as long as it remains connected to the server;
74 there is no "Client Settings" option as in the Windows version. This may
75 be remedied in a future version.
77 You can also give Tetrinet any of the following options:
79 -fancy Use "fancy" TTY graphics. (Note that this will slow
80 down redraws somewhat.)
82 -log <file> Log network traffic to the given file. All lines
83 start with an absolute time (seconds) in brackets.
84 Lines sent from the client to the server are prefixed
85 with ">>>", and lines from the server to the client
86 are prefixed with "<<<". This could be used with a
87 utility program to replay a game later on (though such
88 a program is not currently included in the Tetrinet
91 -noslide Do not allow pieces to "slide" after being dropped
92 with the spacebar. (Normally, there is a short time
93 after pressing the spacebar during which a piece can
94 "slide" left or right before it solidifies.)
96 -server Start the server instead of the client. (See
97 "Starting the server".)
99 -slide Opposite of -noslide; allows pieces to "slide" after
100 being dropped. If both -slide and -noslide are given,
101 -slide takes precedence. If both -windows and -slide
102 are given, this overrides the "no sliding" part of
103 -windows without affecting the other changes in
106 -windows Behave as much like the Windows version of Tetrinet as
107 possible. (See "Differences from Windows Tetrinet".)
113 There are two ways to start the Tetrinet server. One way is to give the
114 "-server" option to the Tetrinet program:
118 The other is to run the "tetrinet-server" program. Both of these are
119 exactly equivalent. The server can be stopped with ^C or a "kill" command.
121 If you want the server to run in the background, use an "&" after the
122 command, for example:
127 Configuring the server
128 ----------------------
129 The server is configured via the ".tetrinet" file in your home directory.
130 This contains all the settings for the server in a simple format. The
131 following is a sample .tetrinet file:
133 winlist Alcan;0;3;1 AndrewK;0;2;1
142 pieces 14 14 15 14 14 14 15
143 specials 18 18 3 12 0 16 3 12 18
147 Note that this file is automatically re-written at the end of a game or
148 when the server is terminated. If you want to modify parameters for a
149 running server, send the server a HUP signal, using the command:
151 kill -HUP <pid-of-server>
153 where <pid-of-server> is the process ID of the server. A simpler
156 killall -HUP tetrinet-server
158 Three of the configuration lines require special explanation. The winlist
159 line is, as its name suggests, the winlist for the server; each parameter
160 contains four semicolon-separated fields:
161 name ; team ; points ; games
162 "team" is a flag which is either 1 if the entry is for a team or 0 if the
163 entry is for a player. "points" is just the number of points for the
164 player (see the main Tetrinet documentation); "games" is the number of
165 games in which that player has participated since getting on the winlist.
167 The pieces line contains percentage frequencies for each type of piece.
168 The order is: bar, square, reverse-L (green), L (purple), Z (red),
171 The specials line, likewise, contains percentage frequencies for each type
172 of special. The order is: A, C, N, R, S, B, G, Q, O.
174 The "linuxmode" setting selects whether the client should try to remain
175 compatible with Windows clients. This only affects the winlist display; if
176 linuxmode is set to 1, the server will send the number of games played by
177 each player as well as points won. This is set to zero by default.
179 If the "ipv6_only" setting is set to a nonzero value, the server will only
180 listen for IPv6 connections; if zero (default), the server will listen on
181 both IPv4 and IPv6 if possible.
186 The display mode can be selected by one of the following keys:
192 F10 can be used to quit at any time.
194 In Partyline mode, the following commands are available. To use a command,
195 simply type the command and arguments into the Partyline input buffer and
196 press Return (just like IRC).
198 /team [name] Set your team name. If a name is not given, play
200 /start Start a game (if you are the first player on the
202 /stop, /end Stop the game currently in progress (either command
204 /pause Pause the game.
205 /unpause Unpause the game.
206 / Quote a following slash, for example:
207 "/ /start starts a game."
209 The following keys are used for controls on the "Show Fields" screen:
211 Up, X Rotate piece clockwise
212 Z Rotate piece counterclockwise
214 Right Move piece right
215 Down Accelerate piece downward
216 Space Drop piece (note that by default, pieces can still
217 "slide" after dropping!)
218 D Discard the current (leftmost) special item
219 1..6 Use the current special item on the given player
220 T Open a window for sending a message to other players
221 Ctrl-G Close the text input window (text there is saved for
222 the next time you press T)
224 The following keys are used for editing text, both in the Partyline screen
225 and in the text buffer on the Show Fields screen:
227 Left Move cursor left one space
228 Right Move cursor right one space
229 Ctrl-A Move cursor to beginning of line
230 Ctrl-E Move cursor to end of line
231 Backspace, Delete character to left of cursor
233 Ctrl-D Delete character under cursor
234 Ctrl-U Delete entire line
235 Enter Send text (closes input window in Show Fields mode)
238 Differences from Windows Tetrinet
239 ---------------------------------
240 Although Linux Tetrinet is designed to play more or less the same as the
241 original Windows version, there are a few differences; some of these are
242 simply "missing" features in the Linux version, and some are features I
243 have introduced into the Linux version because I believe they make the game
244 more interesting or fun. Features marked with (*) below can all be
245 disabled with the -windows command-line option to make playing against
246 Windows opponents fairer.
248 - Messages about specials (i.e. in the Attack/Defense window) are not
251 - If a Block Bomb is done on someone who has two "o" (bomb) specials
252 right next to each other, one of them will be sent flying rather than
253 exploding. (This is a bug.)
255 - Blocks scattered by a Block Bomb will only go to empty spaces on the
256 board, rather than appearing on top of already-existing blocks.
257 "Holes" will not be scattered. (*)
259 - Pieces may go over the top of the board. In the Windows version, a
260 player loses if at any time any square goes off the top of the board.
261 In this version, a player only loses if there is no room for the next
262 piece to enter the board.
264 - Pieces dropped (with the spacebar) can still slide left and right after
265 dropping. Idea from Mark H. Weaver's Netris. (*) This feature alone
266 can be disabled with the -noslide command-line option. It can also be
267 enabled with -slide even if other Linux-specific features are disabled
268 with the -windows option.
270 - Blockquakes will cause blocks to wrap around the edge of the screen
271 rather than disappearing off the edge. (*)
273 - Blockquakes will never move rows more than one block to the left or
274 right. (Can anyone determine how quakes work in the Windows version?)
276 - Specials collected will always appear at the end of the specials bar
277 (in the Windows version, they randomly appear at the beginning or the
283 Tetrinet was originally written by St0rmCat, who has asked not to be
284 contacted with respect to Tetrinet.