README
1VITETRIS - Virtual terminal *tris clone
2
3 Homepage: http://victornils.net/tetris
4
5 Rotation, scoring, levels and speed should resemble the early Tetris games
6 by Nintendo, with the addition of a short lock delay which makes it
7 possible to play at higher levels. (It does not make it possible to
8 prevent the piece from ever locking by abusing lock delay resets.)
9
10 vitetris comes with more features and options than might be expected from
11 a simple text mode game. Full input control, customizable appearance,
12 netplay where both players can choose difficulty (level and height) --
13 unless you must have sound (or just don't like Tetris), you won't be
14 dissappointed. Everything is not described here, but you should be able
15 to figure it out.
16
17 This program is free software. It is distributed under the terms of a
18 simple BSD-style licence (OSI-approved). See licence.txt for details.
19
20
21How to Play
22-----------
23
24 Run "./tetris" inside a terminal window if you have just extracted a
25 tarball somewhere (cd into the directory first). The command could be
26 "vitetris" or "tetris" if you have used a package manager to install it.
27 (If you're on Windows, just double-click tetris.exe.)
28
29 To navigate in the menus, use the cursor keys, ENTER to proceed (or leave
30 a menu), and BACKSPACE or ESC to go back. Exit at once with Q.
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32 Default Game Controls
33
34 Move left: LEFT
35 Move right: RIGHT
36 Rotate: UP
37 Softdrop: DOWN
38 Harddrop: SPACE
39
40 To pause in a single-player game, press P or ENTER.
41
42 A-type means a normal "marathon" game.
43 In a B-type game, the object is to clear 25 lines.
44
45
46Options
47-------
48
49 The first thing you want to do if you're in a terminal window with a white
50 background is to enter "Options" and set "Term BG" to "white" (press
51 right). Otherwise you'll get a white/grey piece which is hard to see.
52 You can also change the colours of individual pieces in the "Tetromino
53 Colours" menu.
54
55 To change key bindings, go to "Input Setup". To the left are keys used in
56 menus, to the right in-game keys. Just press the key you want to use.
57
58 If not explicitly set, the following in-game keys depend on some other key
59 binding (e.g. if UP is used for "Up", it is also used for "Rotate"):
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61 Rotate - Up
62 Rot cw - A
63 Rot acw - B
64 Softdrop - Dwn
65
66 "Rot cw" means "Rotate clockwise" and "acw" anticlockwise.
67
68 There are three separate configurations, single player, player1 and
69 player2, which include keys, starting level and height, and rotation
70 preference. In netplay, the single player configuration is used.
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72
73Command Line
74------------
75
76 Run "tetris -help" (or whatever the command name is) to get a help message
77 with a list of command-line options. If you're on Windows, you need to
78 run this from a cmd window, or a "DOS window".
79
80 This help message tells you where configuration and highscores are saved.
81
82
83Network Play
84------------
85
86 To play against someone on the internet, one needs to listen with
87
88 tetris listen PORT
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90 (where PORT is a number, e.g. 34034); the other connects with
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92 tetris connect HOSTNAME:PORT
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94 HOSTNAME may be an IP address or a hostname. If it is omitted, localhost
95 is used.
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97 If the server (the one who listens) has mode set to B-type, such a game
98 will be set up.
99
100 It is also possible to play using Unix domain sockets, which means that
101 filenames on the local system are used as addresses. The most convenient
102 way to set up such a connection is as follows. Start tetris on two
103 different terminals. Then one player enters "2-Player Game", which will
104 bring up a list of ttys. When the tty of the other player is selected, an
105 invitation will appear on his screen.
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107
108Gamepad Start Button
109--------------------
110
111 The START button on a gamepad can be mapped to act like the ENTER key.
112 Add the following line below [js0] or [js1] in .vitetris (or vitetris.cfg):
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114 start=NUM
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116 where NUM is the button number.
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118
119Credits
120-------
121
122 The original Tetris game was designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in
123 1985.
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125 The wiki at tetrisconcept.com has been a valuable resource.
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127 tt "Tetris for Terminals" was written by Mike Taylor in 1989.
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129 Hugo Fernbom and Andreas Carlsson have helped me with testing, ideas and
130 feedback.
131