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 You must be using a 50-line text display to run this version of Tetrinet;
25 Xwindows is not yet supported. One option is to open an xterm window in
26 Xwindows and resize it to be 50 lines high. The other option (recommended)
27 is to use a 50-line text console.
29 To get a 50-line text console, if you use LILO to boot, add the following
30 line to the top of your /etc/lilo.conf file:
34 run /sbin/lilo, and reboot. If you use a boot disk without LILO, insert it
35 into your floppy drive, give the following command:
41 Another option is to use the SVGATextMode program, available on Sunsite
42 ({http,ftp}://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/) and other places, to switch your
43 console to 50-line mode without rebooting. You may also use that program
44 to set up a larger display (for example, I use 100x60); Tetrinet will
45 detect this and rearrange the display to make the best use of the available
48 NOTE: Xwindows graphics display really isn't supported, despite the
49 presence of the "xwin.c" file! Don't be fooled! (The file is there to
50 remind me to implement Xwindows support someday. Note how well it's
56 Type "make". This will generate two programs: "tetrinet" and
57 "tetrinet-server". The former is the main program; the latter is a
63 Tetrinet requires two command-line arguments: your nickname and the server
64 to connect to, in that order. For example:
66 tetrinet MyNick tetrinet.somerandom.net
68 Tetrinet will function only as long as it remains connected to the server;
69 there is no "Client Settings" option as in the Windows version. This may
70 be remedied in a future version.
72 You can also give Tetrinet any of the following options:
74 -fancy Use "fancy" TTY graphics. (Note that this will slow
75 down redraws somewhat.)
77 -fast Use the "tetrifast" mode to connect to the server.
78 This mode eliminates the delay before a new cube
79 appears, thus speeding the game up noticeably. This
80 mode is incompatible with the classic mode and the
81 server has to support it. If in doubt, ask the other
84 -log <file> Log network traffic to the given file. All lines
85 start with an absolute time (seconds) in brackets.
86 Lines sent from the client to the server are prefixed
87 with ">>>", and lines from the server to the client
88 are prefixed with "<<<". This could be used with a
89 utility program to replay a game later on (though such
90 a program is not currently included in the Tetrinet
93 -noslide Do not allow pieces to "slide" after being dropped
94 with the spacebar. (Normally, there is a short time
95 after pressing the spacebar during which a piece can
96 "slide" left or right before it solidifies.)
98 -server Start the server instead of the client. (See
99 "Starting the server".)
101 -slide Opposite of -noslide; allows pieces to "slide" after
102 being dropped. If both -slide and -noslide are given,
103 -slide takes precedence. If both -windows and -slide
104 are given, this overrides the "no sliding" part of
105 -windows without affecting the other changes in
108 -windows Behave as much like the Windows version of Tetrinet as
109 possible. (See "Differences from Windows Tetrinet".)
115 There are two ways to start the Tetrinet server. One way is to give the
116 "-server" option to the Tetrinet program:
120 The other is to run the "tetrinet-server" program. Both of these are
121 exactly equivalent. The server can be stopped with ^C or a "kill" command.
123 If you want the server to run in the background, use an "&" after the
124 command, for example:
129 Configuring the server
130 ----------------------
131 The server is configured via the ".tetrinet" file in your home directory.
132 This contains all the settings for the server in a simple format. The
133 following is a sample .tetrinet file:
135 winlist Alcan;0;3;1 AndrewK;0;2;1
144 pieces 14 14 15 14 14 14 15
145 specials 18 18 3 12 0 16 3 12 18
149 Note that this file is automatically re-written at the end of a game or
150 when the server is terminated. If you want to modify parameters for a
151 running server, send the server a HUP signal, using the command:
153 kill -HUP <pid-of-server>
155 where <pid-of-server> is the process ID of the server. A simpler
158 killall -HUP tetrinet-server
160 Three of the configuration lines require special explanation. The winlist
161 line is, as its name suggests, the winlist for the server; each parameter
162 contains four semicolon-separated fields:
163 name ; team ; points ; games
164 "team" is a flag which is either 1 if the entry is for a team or 0 if the
165 entry is for a player. "points" is just the number of points for the
166 player (see the main Tetrinet documentation); "games" is the number of
167 games in which that player has participated since getting on the winlist.
169 The pieces line contains percentage frequencies for each type of piece.
170 The order is: bar, square, reverse-L (green), L (purple), Z (red),
173 The specials line, likewise, contains percentage frequencies for each type
174 of special. The order is: A, C, N, R, S, B, G, Q, O.
176 The "linuxmode" setting selects whether the client should try to remain
177 compatible with Windows clients. This only affects the winlist display; if
178 linuxmode is set to 1, the server will send the number of games played by
179 each player as well as points won. This is set to zero by default.
181 If the "ipv6_only" setting is set to a nonzero value, the server will only
182 listen for IPv6 connections; if zero (default), the server will listen on
183 both IPv4 and IPv6 if possible.
188 The display mode can be selected by one of the following keys:
194 F10 can be used to quit at any time.
196 In Partyline mode, the following commands are available. To use a command,
197 simply type the command and arguments into the Partyline input buffer and
198 press Return (just like IRC).
200 /team [name] Set your team name. If a name is not given, play
202 /start Start a game (if you are the first player on the
204 /stop, /end Stop the game currently in progress (either command
206 /pause Pause the game.
207 /unpause Unpause the game.
208 / Quote a following slash, for example:
209 "/ /start starts a game."
211 The following keys are used for controls on the "Show Fields" screen:
213 Up, X Rotate piece clockwise
214 Z Rotate piece counterclockwise
216 Right Move piece right
217 Down Accelerate piece downward
218 Space Drop piece (note that by default, pieces can still
219 "slide" after dropping!)
220 D Discard the current (leftmost) special item
221 1..6 Use the current special item on the given player
222 T Open a window for sending a message to other players
223 Ctrl-G Close the text input window (text there is saved for
224 the next time you press T)
226 The following keys are used for editing text, both in the Partyline screen
227 and in the text buffer on the Show Fields screen:
229 Left Move cursor left one space
230 Right Move cursor right one space
231 Ctrl-A Move cursor to beginning of line
232 Ctrl-E Move cursor to end of line
233 Backspace, Delete character to left of cursor
235 Ctrl-D Delete character under cursor
236 Ctrl-U Delete entire line
237 Enter Send text (closes input window in Show Fields mode)
240 Differences from Windows Tetrinet
241 ---------------------------------
242 Although Linux Tetrinet is designed to play more or less the same as the
243 original Windows version, there are a few differences; some of these are
244 simply "missing" features in the Linux version, and some are features I
245 have introduced into the Linux version because I believe they make the game
246 more interesting or fun. Features marked with (*) below can all be
247 disabled with the -windows command-line option to make playing against
248 Windows opponents fairer.
250 - Messages about specials (i.e. in the Attack/Defense window) are not
253 - If a Block Bomb is done on someone who has two "o" (bomb) specials
254 right next to each other, one of them will be sent flying rather than
255 exploding. (This is a bug.)
257 - Blocks scattered by a Block Bomb will only go to empty spaces on the
258 board, rather than appearing on top of already-existing blocks.
259 "Holes" will not be scattered. (*)
261 - Pieces may go over the top of the board. In the Windows version, a
262 player loses if at any time any square goes off the top of the board.
263 In this version, a player only loses if there is no room for the next
264 piece to enter the board.
266 - Pieces dropped (with the spacebar) can still slide left and right after
267 dropping. Idea from Mark H. Weaver's Netris. (*) This feature alone
268 can be disabled with the -noslide command-line option. It can also be
269 enabled with -slide even if other Linux-specific features are disabled
270 with the -windows option.
272 - Blockquakes will cause blocks to wrap around the edge of the screen
273 rather than disappearing off the edge. (*)
275 - Blockquakes will never move rows more than one block to the left or
276 right. (Can anyone determine how quakes work in the Windows version?)
278 - Specials collected will always appear at the end of the specials bar
279 (in the Windows version, they randomly appear at the beginning or the
285 Tetrinet was originally written by St0rmCat, who has asked not to be
286 contacted with respect to Tetrinet.