tdegames/doc/klickety/index.docbook

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//KDE//DTD DocBook XML V4.2-Based Variant V1.1//EN" "dtd/kdex.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % imageobjectco.module "INCLUDE">
  <!ENTITY klickety "<application>Klickety</application>">
  <!ENTITY kappname "&klickety;">
  <!ENTITY package "kdegames">
  <!ENTITY % addindex "IGNORE">
  <!ENTITY % English "INCLUDE">
]>

<book lang="&language;">

<bookinfo>
<title>The &klickety; Handbook</title>

<authorgroup>
<author>
<personname>
<firstname>Thomas</firstname>
<surname>Davey</surname>
</personname>
<email>thomas.davey@gmail.com</email>
</author>
<othercredit role="reviewer">
&Philip.Rodrigues;
&Philip.Rodrigues.mail;
</othercredit>
</authorgroup>

<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->

<copyright>
<year>2005</year>
<holder>Thomas Davey</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>&FDLNotice;</legalnotice>

<date>2006-01-21</date>
<releaseinfo>3.5</releaseinfo>

<abstract>
<para>
&klickety; is a strategy game for &kde;, an adaption of the <application>Clickomania</application> game.
</para>
</abstract>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>kdegames</keyword>
</keywordset>

</bookinfo>


<chapter id="introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>

<para>The objective of &klickety; is to clear the game board of all
the colored blocks in the least possible time (although having a short time is
only a secondary objective). The overall aim is to get the lowest score
possible. It will provide entertainment for all abilities, but a
challenge in logical thought if you want to get a really low score.</para>

</chapter>

<chapter id="the-game-screen">
<title>The Game Screen</title>

<screenshot>
<mediaobjectco>
<imageobjectco>
<areaspec units="calspair">
<area id="play-game" coords="1 1"/>
<area id="game-board" coords="1 1"/>
<area id="game-timer" coords="1 1"/>
<area id="block-counter" coords="1 1"/>
</areaspec>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="screenshot.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
</imageobjectco>
</mediaobjectco>
</screenshot>

<calloutlist>
<callout arearefs="play-game">
<para>This is a colored block, you click on these to play the game.</para>
</callout>

<callout arearefs="game-board">
<para>This is what was referred to in the introduction as the <quote>game
board</quote>, this is where the game actually takes place.</para>
</callout>

<callout arearefs="game-timer">

<para>This is the game timer, it starts the first time that you click on a
removable block.</para>
</callout>

<callout arearefs="block-counter">

<para>This the remaining block counter, which also doubles up the score
counter. It is usually black at the start of a game, it changes to
blue if the score is good enough to get onto your local highscore
table, and red if it would make the top spot.
</para>
</callout>
</calloutlist>
</chapter>

<chapter id="playing-the-game">
<title>Playing the game</title>

<para>When you start the program you will get a screen that looks
something like the screenshot in the previous section. The idea of the
game is to remove blocks, which you do by clicking on them.</para>

<para>However, you can only remove a block if it is adjacent to one or
more other blocks of the same color on one or more of its
sides. Diagonal connections do not count. You get a random board every
time you start a new game.</para>

<para>If you click on a block which is connected as described, it will
disappear. Any adjacent blocks of the same color will also disappear,
along with all of the same color adjacent to <emphasis>them</emphasis>, and so
on. Any blocks above them drop down to fill the gaps left by the
disappeared pieces. If you clear an entire column, all the columns to
the right move across to fill the gap.</para>


<para>The game ends when there are no blocks adjacent to other blocks
of the same colour</para>
</chapter>

<chapter id="scoring">
<title>Scoring</title>

<para>Scoring is very simple. Your score is the number of remaining
blocks when the game ends. In the case of having two high scores of
the same score, the one completed in the shortest time is listed in
the higher position.</para>
</chapter>


<chapter id="menu-reference">
<title>Menu Reference</title>

<sect1 id="the-game-menu">
<title>The <guimenu>Game</guimenu> Menu</title>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><guimenu>Game</guimenu><guimenuitem>New Game</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice> (<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>N</keycap>
</keycombo>)</term>
<listitem><para>Starts a new game before the previous one has finished
(once you end a game, a button appears on the game board labeled
'start' which does the same thing).</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>


<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><guimenu>Game</guimenu><guimenuitem>Pause</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice> (<keycombo><keycap>P</keycap>
</keycombo>)</term>
<listitem><para>Not yet implemented.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><guimenu>Game</guimenu><guimenuitem>Show
Highscores</guimenuitem> </menuchoice> (<keycombo
action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>H</keycap> </keycombo>)</term>

<listitem><para>Shows the Highscore Table for checking a target or for
bragging purposes. (This is the same highscore table as is displayed
if you get a new highscore at the end of a game.) There are also tabs
for seeing all the players who have turned in scores and for looking
at some statistical analysis of the performance of individual
players. There are also links to the worldwide highscore and player
lists on the web.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><guimenu>Game</guimenu><guimenuitem>Quit</guimenuitem> </menuchoice> (<keycombo
action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>Q</keycap> </keycombo>)</term>

<listitem><para>Ends the program.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

</variablelist>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="the-view-menu">
<title>The <guimenu>View</guimenu> Menu</title>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu><guimenuitem>Zoom In</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice> (<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>+</keycap>
</keycombo>)</term>

<listitem><para>Zooms the game board in, increases the window size as
necessary.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><guimenu>View</guimenu><guimenuitem>Zoom Out</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice> (<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>-</keycap>
</keycombo>)</term>
<listitem><para>Zooms the game board out. Window size will decrease around it.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="the-settings-menu">
<title>The <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> Menu</title>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu><guimenuitem>Hide Menu Bar</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice> (<keycombo action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>M</keycap>
</keycombo>)</term>

<listitem><para>Hides the menu bar. It can be brought back with the
right-click menu or by pressing <keycombo
action="simul">&Ctrl;<keycap>M</keycap> </keycombo>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu><guimenuitem>Configure Shortcuts...</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice></term>
<listitem><para>Allows you to change the shortcut keys listed above.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu><guimenuitem>Configure Notifications...</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice></term>

<listitem><para>Allows you to change the notifications for <guilabel>Game
over</guilabel> and the removal of a column (listed as <guilabel>Line
removed</guilabel>), such as playing a sound when you remove a column, or
starting your favorite IRC client when you finish the game so that you
can tell all your friends about your &klickety; skills.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu><guimenuitem>Configure Highscores...</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice></term>
<listitem><para>
Displays the highscores configuration dialog, which has two
tabs:</para>

<para>On the <guilabel>Main</guilabel> tab, you can change the default
nickname that is entered onto the highscore table if you get a
highscore, add a comment to go with your entry on the players tab of
the highscore table.  You can also activate the <guilabel>World-wide highscores
enabled</guilabel> feature so that you can compare scores with players 
from around the globe. If you are connected to the 
Internet, &klickety; will send your score automatically at the end of the 
game to the highscore web server (klickety.sf.net).</para>

<para>The <guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> tab displays your <guilabel>Registration Data</guilabel>
on klickety.sf.net. If worldwide highscores have been activated, 
this tab shows the <guilabel>Nickname:</guilabel> from the <guilabel>Main</guilabel> 
tab with which you are registered and the cryptographic <guilabel>Key:</guilabel> 
used to prevent any attempts at cheating. This key was generated when you 
registered on klickety.sf.net by selecting 
<guilabel>World-wide highscores enabled</guilabel> the first time.
The registration key is used in conjunction with the 
nickname to identify uniquely users, but users cannot have the same nickname.
Click on the <guibutton>Remove</guibutton> button to delete you from the world highscores
list.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu><guimenuitem>Configure &klickety;...</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice></term>

<listitem><para>Brings up the main configuration dialog, this will be
dealt with in the next chapter.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

</variablelist>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="the-help-menu">
<title>The <guimenu>Help</guimenu> Menu</title>

&help.menu.documentation;

</sect1>
</chapter>

<chapter id="configuring-klickety">
<title>Configuring &klickety;</title>

<para>Each page of the &klickety; configuration dialog has buttons
labeled <guibutton>Help</guibutton> and
<guibutton>Defaults</guibutton>.The <guibutton>Help</guibutton> button
brings up this handbook, and the <guibutton>Defaults</guibutton>
button restores all the settings to their default values.</para>

<para>The individual options are as follows:</para>

<sect1 id="the-appearance-tab">
<title>The <guilabel>Appearance</guilabel> tab</title>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Enable Animations</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>If checked, pieces are shown with an
animation (a small rebound effect), when they touch the bottom.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Background</guilabel></term>

<listitem><para>Allows you to change the background color and change
its opacity. Trivia: if it has some transparency it doesn't actually
show what's directly beneath &klickety;, but rather it shows the
desktop wallpaper.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

</variablelist>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="the-colors-tab">
<title>The <guimenu>Colors</guimenu> tab</title>

<para>Colors #1 through #5 Allow you to change the colors of the
colored blocks. For an extra challenge, make them all the same
color. N.B. You must restart &klickety; for these changes to take
effect.</para>

</sect1>
</chapter>

<chapter id="tips">
<title>Tips</title>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Try to remove sets of two blocks to allow single blocks to join
up with other ones of the same color, it's your only way to get rid of
them.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>Spend time thinking about your move: you primarily get higher places on the highscore table by getting rid of more pieces than doing it quickly.</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>
</chapter>


<chapter id="credits">

<title>Credits and License</title>

<para>&klickety; Program Copyright 1995 Eirik Eng and 1996-2004 Nicolas Hadacek</para>

<para>&klickety; is based on clickomania.</para>

<para>The &klickety; website can be found at <ulink
url="http://klickety.sourceforge.net">http://klickety.sourceforge.net</ulink>.</para>

<para>First version of documentation by Thomas Davey, Copyright 2005.</para>

<para>Reviewed by &Philip.Rodrigues; &Philip.Rodrigues.mail;.</para>

<para>Further markup and reviewing by &Francis.Giannaros;
&Francis.Giannaros.mail;.</para>

<!-- TRANS:CREDIT_FOR_TRANSLATORS -->

&underFDL;

&underGPL;

</chapter>

<appendix id="installation">
<title>Installation</title>

<sect1 id="getting-kapp">
<title>How to obtain &klickety;</title>

&install.intro.documentation;

</sect1>

<sect1 id="compilation">
<title>Compilation and Installation</title>

&install.compile.documentation;

</sect1>

</appendix>

&documentation.index;
</book>

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