@database Netris.guide @author Jeremy Friesner @node Main "Contents" @{"Netris" link Introduction} @{"V1.00B" link History} by @{"Jeremy Friesner" link Me} @{"Disclaimer" link Disclaimer} Don't blame me! @{"Distribution" link Distribution} Netris is FreeWare! @{"Requirements" link Requirements} What do I need to run this program? @{"Introduction" link Introduction} What does Netris do? @{"Installation" link Installation} How do I set up Netris? @{"ToolTypes" link ToolTypes} How can I customize Netris? @{"Using Netris" link Using} How to use Netris @{"Credits" link Credits} Brought to you by... @{"History" link History} Bug fixes and enhancements @{"Future" link Future} What next? @{"Known Problems" link KnownProblems} Bugs! Aack! @{"Other programs" link OtherProgs} Plug, plug! @endnode @node Distribution Netris is FreeWare. Distribute it wherever you wish, but keep all files from the archive together. Money, candy, flowers, and girls will all be gratefully accepted, but are not required or requested. If you want the source code, email me and I will send it to you. You are required, however, to report any bugs so that I can squash them post haste. :) @endnode @node KnownProblems - Less than fully tested! @endnode @node History 1.00B : (Beta Release 5/25/97) - First release. @endnode @node Requirements To use Netris, you will need the following: - An Amiga with some free memory - Workbench 2.04 or greater - An Internet connection - AmiTCP (or a compatible TCP stack) set up and running. - @{"amarquee.library" link amarquee.library} v43+ in your LIBS: directory. @endnode @node Credits Netris was written by me, Jeremy Friesner (jfriesne@ucsd.edu) Compiled with DICE C by Matt Dillon Most of the included sound effects were blatantly stolen from several archives on Aminet, notably the Term sound effects archives. (The exception is startgame.8svx, which I sampled from a They Might Be Giants CD) @endnode @node Introduction Netris is a four player, Internet version of the old classic, Tetris. It uses the AMarquee system to allow you to play against up to three people (each on their own Amiga) at once. In addition to this, any number of "viewers" may watch the games currently in progress (limited only by the server's bandwidth and CPU). Note that Netris requires @{"amarquee.library" link amarquee.library} v43+ to be installed in your LIBS: directory. If you don't have this library, download the archive /comm/net/AMarquee1.43.lha from Aminet and install it. To play Netris by yourself, you can just run it and then choose which board to play on, by pressing a key between 1 and 4. But playing by yourself is boring; there are dozens of Tetris games on Aminet that let you do that! What you want to do is play against other people. To do this, you need an AMarquee server-- that is, an Amiga with the AMarqueed daemon installed and available. The AMarquee server can be one of the Tetris-players' computers, or another computer, it doesn't matter. But it is preferable that the AMarquee server have plenty of RAM, CPU, and network bandwidth to the client computers, as all game data will pass through it during play. The AMarqueed daemon is also available in the AMarquee1.43.lha archive, as described above. Once the AMarquee server is setup and available, each player should edit the ToolTypes of their Netris icon and set the SERVER ToolType to the name of the server computer. After that, it's just a matter of running Netris--it should connect to the server, and be ready to play against other people. The following files should be in the Netris archive: Listing of archive 'ram:Netris1.00B.lha': Original Packed Ratio Date Time Name -------- ------- ----- --------- -------- ------------- 628 271 56.8% 29-May-97 22:34:20 Netris.info 14392 9224 35.9% 29-May-97 22:34:22 +endgame.8svx 52088 48452 6.9% 29-May-97 22:34:22 +fourrowdrop.8svx 27368 15211 44.4% 29-May-97 22:34:18 +Netris 12650 5107 59.6% 29-May-97 22:34:20 +Netris.guide 1542 1100 28.6% 29-May-97 22:34:20 +Netris.guide.info 2039 1485 27.1% 29-May-97 22:34:20 +netris.info 12388 8319 32.8% 29-May-97 22:34:20 +onerowdrop.8svx 31860 20467 35.7% 29-May-97 22:34:20 +startgame.8svx 14000 11196 20.0% 29-May-97 22:34:20 +threerowdrop.8svx 2352 1335 43.2% 29-May-97 22:34:20 +tileplace.8svx 5678 4824 15.0% 29-May-97 22:34:20 +tworowdrop.8svx -------- ------- ----- --------- -------- 176985 126991 28.2% 29-May-97 22:34:34 12 files @endnode @node Installation Just copy the executable file and icon to wherever you want to keep them. Also, make sure the included .8svx sound files are kept in the same directory as the Netris executable, so that Netris can find them. Make sure that @{"amarquee.library" link amarquee.library} v43+ is installed in your LIBS: directory! If you wish to use your computer as an AMarquee server to host Netris games, you will need to install AMarqueed onto your system as well. The AMarqueed program is also available in the AMarquee1.43.lha archive on Aminet. @endnode @node ToolTypes Netris understands the following parameters. These parameters may be set either as ToolTypes in Netris's icon, or specified on the command line (in the same exact format as the tooltypes, although you may have to use "quote marks" if the parameter contains spaces): SERVER/K: Specifies the IP name of the server Amiga that Netris should connect to. If this isn't specified, Netris will report an error, and only single-player play will be available. PORT/K/N: Specifies the port number that Netris should try to connect to when initiating a connection to the server Amiga. The default (and usual) value for this parameter is 2957. NODOWNLOAD/S: If specified, Netris will not download any sound effects from the other Netris clients. NOUPLOAD/S: If specified, Netris will not upload any sound effects to the other Netris clients. MAXDOWNLOADSIZE/K/N: Specifies the maximum length of sound sample that Netris will download. Samples greater than this length will be truncated to this length. The default value for this is 64 (meaning samples greater than 64 Kilobytes in length will be truncated). NOSOUND/S: If specified, Netris will not allocate the sound hardware, download, or play any sounds. Sounds can still be uploaded, however. SOUND0/K SOUND1/K ... SOUND6/K These ToolTypes allow you to specify your own custom sounds to use with Netris. The neat part here is that not only will you hear your custom sound files, but anyone you play against will hear your sound effects as well! Since every client will need to download and store your sound effects in memory, and the server Amiga will keep a copy in memory as well, it is best to keep your sound effects files as small as possible. The maximum sample size you can use is 64K (larger samples will be truncated). All sounds should be in standard IFF-8SVX format. The SOUND ToolTypes correspond to the following game occurences: SOUND0 = Played when your game starts. SOUND1 = Played when your game ends. SOUND2 = Played when you place a tile. SOUND3 = Played when you clear one rows of tiles. SOUND4 = Played when you clear two rows of tiles. SOUND5 = Played when you clear three rows of tiles. SOUND6 = Played when you clear four rows of tiles. Note that you could also customize the sound effects in the game by copying over the included .8svx default sound files; but unless you actually specify the SOUND* ToolTypes, the sounds will not be uploaded to the other players (as Netris will think they are default sounds, and figure that the other players already have them) @endnode @node Using Using Netris is fairly simple. Once you are connected (see @{"Introduction" link Introduction} for information on how to connect Netris to a server), you simply choose one of the four Netris play areas to play in, by pressing a number key between '1' and '4'. A blue square should appear around the appropriate play area, and your game should begin. Note that you cannot start a game in play areas that already have a game active in them--so if all four game areas are active, you will have to wait for one of the games to end, or find another Netris server! Once the game is started, use the arrow keys to maneuver your tile. Left and right move the tile left and right, Up rotates it ninety degrees, and down moves it to the bottom of the play area. If you don't know the rules of Tetris... then you should be ashamed of yourself. It's 1997! Where have you been? ;) Well, you'll probably figure them out soon enough. One note, however--if you clear more than one row of tiles at once, your opponents will get (# of rows cleared - 1) rows of garbage tiles added to their boards. That should piss 'em off. ;) Also, you may use the other keys on the keyboard while you are playing to type messages to the other players. Messages will scroll across the bottom of your play area. Scoring is simple: For every tile you place, 3^(# of rows cleared) points is added to your score. Finally, you may press Escape at any time to end your game, or to quit Netris. @endnode @node Disclaimer This software comes with no warranty, either expressed or implied. The @{"author" link me} is in no way responsible for any damage or loss that may occur due to direct or indirect usage of this software. Use this software entirely at your own risk. @endnode @node Me This program was written by Jeremy Friesner, using DICE C. My email address is jfriesne@ucsd.edu. (Try jaf@chem.ucsd.edu if that one doesn't work, though) @endnode @node Future @endnode @node amarquee.library Netris is based on the AMarquee data broadcasting system, and thus requires v43 or greater of amarquee.library to be installed in your LIBS: directory. This library is available as part of the AMarquee archive available on Aminet, in /comm/net. @endnode @node OtherProgs Some other programs I wrote: GadMget - Loads in an Aminet RECENT or INDEX file and lets you choose files to download via a pair of ListViews. Features keyword searching and sorting by name, size, age, directory, and description. When you're done, it outputs the ftp commands that are needed to download the selected files. The output formatting is extremely flexible, allowing generation of many formats: ftp, ncftp, ftp-by-mail, shell scripts, etc. Comes with an ARexx script to completely automate downloading with ncFTP. (util/misc/GadMget2.05.lha,93K) AmiSlate - A paint program that works with AmiTCP to allow two people to cooperatively paint on the same drawing from different computers. Features an extensive ARexx port which allows the construction of new features and games. Comes with ARexx scripts for chess, tic-tac-toe, backgammon, and others. (comm/tcp/AmiSlate1.4.lha,115K) AmiPhone - An Internet voice-chat program, similar to IPhone and VoiceChat and Nevot and all that, only Amiga-specific. Features aflexible buffering mechanism for slow connections, an ARexx port, IFF 8SVX transmission and playback, internal multitasking, and support for a variety of digitizers. (comm/net/AmiPhone1.92.lha,142K) AMarquee - The TCP front-end library and server daemon that Netris uses to send data over the net. Allows an arbitrary number of Amigas to broadcast messages and state information to each other without "polling". Fully multithreaded, with an easy-to-use C API that requires no knowledge of sockets programming. (comm/net/AMarquee1.43.lha) QAmiTrack - An AMarquee program that lets you register your Amiga as "on-line" and find out what other Amigas are currently available on the Internet. (comm/net/QAmiTrack1.80.lha) ARemote - A program that allows you to use the mouse and keyboard of one Amiga to control another Amiga, over the Internet. (comm/net/ARemote1.01.lha) @endnode