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## 3. Playing the Game

Tux Typing can be started by typing "tuxtype" on the command line. The game consists of three basic areas: Key Cascade, Word Cascade, and the Practice/Tutorals. The Practice/Tutorial section of the game will be covered in section 4.

## 3.1 Command Line Options

As with most Unix applications, Tux Typing can take a number of command line options. These options range from switching between full-screen and windowed mode to accessing debugging information.

In keeping with the GNU standard, passing the "--help", "-help", or "-h" options will display a help message with a list of presently available command lines*.

> `

>     $ ./tuxtype --help

>     Usage:
>      tuxtype [OPTION]...

>     Options:

>             -h, --help, -help
>                     Prints this help message

>             -f, --fullscreen
>                     Selects fullscreen display (default)

>             -w, --window
>                     Selects windowed display (not fullscreen)

>             -s, --sound
>                     Allow in-game sounds (default)

>             -ns, --nosound
>                     Disables in-game sounds

>             -t {THEME}, --theme {THEME}
>                     Use theme named {THEME}, if it exists

>             -sp, --speed
>                     Speed up gameplay (for use on slower
>                     machines)

>             -a, --alpha
>                     Use transparencies to emphasize faster falling
>                     words (will decrease performance)

>             -st, --static
>                     Static (non-scrolling) setting (helps on systems
>                     where mouse disappears)

>             -v, --version
>                     Display version number and exit

>             -vb, --verbose
>                     Select verbose output (for debugging)
>                     (Warning! Verbose is /very/ verbose!)

> `

Let's run through these options quickly to give an overview of what a few of them do.

> `

>             -f, --fullscreen
>                     Selects fullscreen display (default)

>             -w, --window
>                     Selects windowed display (not fullscreen)

> `

These first two options deal with the display settings of the game. SDL has the ability to run its applications in a window within your desktop, or fullscreen (over your desktop). The fullscreen mode is the default for Tux Typing.

Running the game in fullscreen may require that your X server be set to allow for multiple resolution modes for best results (even if your X server is not set up correctly for this, you will still get fullscreen- but it may be a smaller window within a screen of black). To properly tune your X server, please consult Eric S. Raymond's excellent XFree86 Video Timings HOWTO (at the LDP). You may also wish to use xvidtune.

> `

>             -s, --sound
>                     Allow in-game sounds (default)

>             -ns, --nosound
>                     Disables in-game sounds

> `

Next we find options for enabling and disabling sound in the game. By default, the game sound is enabled. There is really not much more to say about these options.

> `

>             -sp, --speed
>                     Speed up gameplay (for use on slower
>                     machines)

> `

This option removes the frame delay from between each frame in the game. The result is faster gameplay (or it should be;)

The frame delay is intended to reduce flicker and tear of the graphics by waiting to redraw the screen between vertical refreshes of your monitor. However, on machines with less resources (smaller RAM, slower CPUs, etc.) the act of drawing each frame may actually take as long or longer than the delay between refreshes. On such systems, the extra delay in frame redrawing can really slow the game down.

By giving the option of removing this frame delay, players with less beefy machines can still enjoy the game at a speed closer to that intended.

This option additionally gives the experienced player on a more powerful machine the ability to ramp up the difficulty beyond that pre-set in the game by speeding things up.

> `

>             -st, --static
>                     Static (non-scrolling) setting (helps on systems
>                     where mouse disappears)

> `

When I play the game on my laptop, for some very strange reason my mouse cursor occassionally disappears in the titlescreen. I found that when I stopped scrolling the background, my mouse would reappear.

This option allows the user to stop the scrolling background on the titlescreen. It helps on systems where the mouse cursor disappears, or where other graphic oddities occur on the title screen.

It can also help increase the speed of execution on the title screen. This can be useful on systems with less power (and can be used in conjunction with the "-sp"/"--speed" option.)

> `

>             -t {THEME}, --theme {THEME}
>                     Use theme named {THEME}, if it exists

> `

This command will allow you to pick an alternative theme for the game. This theme must have already been installed (see section 2.4 for more information). Note that if the theme is not installed, Tux Typing will use the default theme.

> `

>             -a, --alpha
>                     Use transparencies to emphasize faster falling
>                     words (will decrease performance)

> `

When we fixed the clipping bug around 1.0pre1, we found that words could become jumbled and difficult to determine for some players in the Word Cascade. To appease these players, we added this option which blits slow moving words with a 50% transparency. This helps emphasize those words which are moving faster (since those are usually more important). The problem is that playing the game this way seemed to confuse many other players. So, the option was left in via a command line toggle for the end-user to decide which mode they prefer.

Note that on some hardware this option can greatly decrease performance!

> `

>             -vb, --verbose
>                     Select verbose output (for debugging)
>                     (Warning! Verbose is /very/ verbose!)

> `

This option causes debugging information to be displayed. It is useful when tracking down problems and submitting bug reports (see section 5 for more information).

One bit of warning, this prints out a great deal of debugging information and can greatly slow the gameplay down.

Most of these options can be combined with as many other options as you want. For example, if you wanted to play the game in windowed mode with no sound, no frame delay, and running in full verbose mode, you could type:

> `

>     % tuxtype -w -ns -sp -vb

> `

Also note that there is no defined order or sequence these options must be in on the command line. You are free to mix and match, order and limit as you choose.

*: NOTE: By passing the command line option "-h"/"-help"/"--help" you will not actually get all possible command line options. There may or may not exist an extra option which is not mentionned by "help". I will leave it up to you to discover what that option is. (Recall, this is "open-source" software ;)

## 3.2 Game Play Types

There are two basic game play types: Key Cascade and Word Cascade. These types exersize key location skills and word typing skills respectively. Both types are played in very similar ways but with subtle (yet significant) differences.

The object of both game types is to guide Tux to eat a certain number of fish without letting too many fish get past him.

There are three different difficulties for each game play type: Easy, Medium, and Hard. Depending upon which difficulty level you choose to play the game at, the fish fall at different speeds and have different spacing between them. At the highest difficulty settings some fish fall faster than others, forcing you to anticipate those that will hit first.

Every difficulty level also has four sub-levels of increasing difficulty which you have to negotiate through in order to win the game.

### 3.2.1 Key Cascade

In Key Cascade, fish fall from the top of the screen with letters on them. To make Tux move underneath them to eat the fish, you must press the key that corresponds to the letter on the fish before the fish falls too far.

Each time a fish hits the ground, Tux loses a life. When he has lost all of his lives, the game is over. In every sub-level, Tux has a certain number of fish that he must eat in order to proceed to the next sub-level. When he has eaten enough fish, he is congratulated and allowed to move on.

When Tux prepares to eat a fish, he first moves underneath that fish. He then waits for the fish to drop low enough for him to eat it. If the fish is far enough above the ground, then Tux will leisurely walk to where he will intercept the fish. However, if the fish is very close to the ground, or Tux is far enough away, Tux may have to run to get to the fish. If Tux cannot get to the fish before it hits the ground, he will not be able to eat it, and the fish will splat on the ground.

Once you have pressed a key and made Tux move underneath a fish to eat, you must wait with Tux until he eats that fish before pressing another key. If you press another key, Tux will move to the fish with that key. This is useful if you discover that there is another fish falling faster than the one you selected, but can cause you problems if you are too impatient.

If Tux is in the way of a fish he is not going to eat, we will step out of the way, excusing himself. Unless Tux is told to eat that fish, it will splat on the ground and Tux will lose a life.

### 3.2.2 Word Cascade

In Word Cascade, fish fall from the top of the screen with words on them. To make Tux move underneath them to eat the fish, you must type the word that is written on the fish before the fish falls too far.

Each time a fish hits the ground, Tux loses a life. When he has lost all of his lives, the game is over. In every sub-level, Tux has a certain number of fish that he must eat in order to proceed to the next sub-level. When he has eaten enough fish, he is congratulated and allowed to move on.

When Tux prepares to eat a fish, he first moves underneath that fish. He then waits for the fish to drop low enough for him to eat it. If the fish is far enough above the ground, then Tux will leisurely walk to where he will intercept the fish. However, if the fish is very close to the ground, or Tux is far enough away, Tux may have to run to get to the fish. If Tux cannot get to the fish before it hits the ground, he will not be able to eat it, and the fish will splat on the ground.

Once you have typed the apropriate word and made Tux move underneath a fish to eat, you must wait with Tux until he eats that fish before typing another word. If you type a new word, Tux will move to the fish with that word. This is useful if you discover that there is another fish falling faster than the one you selected, but can cause you problems if you are too impatient.

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