Copyright © 1999, 2000 Matthias Kiefer
Copyright © 2001 Fabian Dal Santo
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
KTron is a simple “Tron” clone for KDE, which you can play alone or against a friend.
Table of Contents
Introduction
KTron is a simple Tron-Clone for the K Desktop Environment. You can play KTron against the computer or a friend.
The aim of the game is to live longer than your opponent. To do that, avoid running into a wall, your own tail and that of your opponent.
Playing KTron
Once a round is started, the players do not stop moving forward (unless the game is paused). All you have to do is avoid crashing by changing your players direction. Additionally you can try to hinder your opponent. For this it is possible to increase the velocity by pressing your accelerator key.
Warning
Pushing a direction key in the opposite direction to which you are travelling, will make you crash.
A round starts when all human players press a direction key. The initial moving direction is then in this direction.
If you want to interrupt playing, select Pause/Continue from the Game menu or hit the keyboard shortcut (see section Default Key Bindings). Additionally the game is paused when the game loses the keyboard focus, e.g. when switching to an other window.
To continue the game, select the menu item Pause/Continue again, or the keyboard shortcut. The game will also continue if the human players press one of their direction keys. But be careful, your player switches to this direction immediately.
A game consists of several rounds, and ends if a player has at least nine points, and additionally two more points than the opponent. The current score is always displayed in the status bar.
The Computer Player
You can let the computer be Player One, Player Two or both players. There are three difficulty levels: Beginner, Average and Expert.
If you choose Beginner, the computer doesn't care about the opponent and just moves around. This is the same algorithm as used by xtron-1.1.
At skill levels Average and Expert, the computer tries to hinder the opponent when he comes near.
Note
See the Settings Menu section for information on how to configure the computer player.
Using the keyboard
Each player has five keys. Four keys for changing the direction and one to accelerate.
The direction keys do not have to be held down. Simply press them once to change the direction of your player.
Acceleration only occurs while the acceleration key remains depressed. When you release the acceleration key, velocity returns to normal.
Note
See section Settings Menu for information how to change the default keys.
Command Reference
The following sections briefly describe each menu bar option.
- Game->New Game (Ctrl+N)
Starts a new game.
- Game->Pause/Continue (P)
Pauses the game.
- Game->Exit (Ctrl+Q)
Quits.
The Settings Menu
- Settings->Show Statusbar
Shows or hides the Statusbar.
- Settings->Configure Shortcuts...
Displays a standard KDE key bindings configurator.
- Settings->Computerplayer
Selects the number of computer players, and their skill level, Beginner, Average or Expert
The computer can be Player 1, Player 2 or both players.
Beginner ignores the opponent, and just moves randomly. Average or Expert causes the computer to actively hinder the opponent.
- Settings->Velocity
Selects the speed of the game, from slow 1 to fast 10. The default velocity is 5.
- Settings->Appearance->Drawing Style
Selects the drawing style of the KTron players. The options are: 3D Line, 3D Rects, Line and Circles.
- Settings->Appearance->Color Player 1
Changes the color of Player 1, using a color selector
- Settings->Appearance->Color Player 2
Changes the color of Player 2, using a color selector.
- Settings->Appearance->Backgroundcolor
Changes the color of the background, using a color selector.
- Settings->Appearance->Background image
Allows selection of a background image, using a dialog box.
- Settings->Size
Selects how large the KTron players are drawn, from Very Small to Very Large.
- Settings->Other...
Brings up a tabbed window,with the following options:
The player can be given more descriptive names, other than Player 1 and Player 2.
Acceleration can be disabled, leaving both players travelling at a constant velocity.
The players colors can be changed on winning.
The Help Menu
- Help->Contents... (F1)
Invokes the KDE Help system starting at the KTron help pages. (this document).
- Help->What's This? (Shift+F1)
Changes the mouse cursor to a combination arrow and question mark. Clicking on items within KTron will open a help window (if one exists for the particular item) explaining the item's function.
- Help->Report Bug...
Opens the Bug report dialog where you can report a bug or request a ‘wishlist’ feature.
- Help->About KTron
This will display version and author information.
- Help->About KDE
This displays the KDE version and other basic information.
Default Key Bindings
The following tables show you the default key bindings.
Table 3.1. Player 1 Key bindings
| Key Combo | Action |
|---|---|
| R | Up |
| F | Down |
| G | Right |
| D | Left |
| A | Accelerate |
Table 3.2. Player 2 Key bindings
| Key Combo | Action |
|---|---|
| Up Arrow | Up |
| Down Arrow | Down |
| Right Arrow | Right |
| Left Arrow | Left |
| + | Accelerate |
Table 3.3. General Key Bindings
| Key Combo | Action |
|---|---|
| P | Pause Game |
| CtrlN | New Game |
| Ctrl+Q | Quit KTron |
| F1 | Help Contents |
| Shift+F1 | What's This Help |
These key bindings can be changed by selecting Settings->Configure Key Bindings from the menubar.
Credits and License
KTron
Program Copyright 1999 Matthias Kiefer <matthias.kiefer@gmx.de>
Parts of the code are from xtron-1.1 by Rhett D. Jacobs <rhett@hotel.canberra.edu.au>>
Documentation Copyright 1999 Matthias Kiefer <matthias.kiefer@gmx.de>
Documentation updated for KDE 2.0 by Fabian Dal Santo <linuxgnu@yahoo.com.au>
This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
This program is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Installation
KTron is part of the KDE project http://www.kde.org/.
KTron can be found in the kdegames package on ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/, the main FTP site of the KDE project.
Requirements
In order to successfully compile KTron, you need KDE 3.0 All required libraries as well as KTron itself can be found on ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/.
Compilation and Installation
In order to compile and install KTron on your system, type the following in the base directory of the KTron distribution:
% ./configure % make % make install
Since KTron uses autoconf and automake you should have no trouble compiling it. Should you run into problems please report them to the KDE mailing lists.
Should you run into problems, please report them to the the author at Matthias Kiefer