# &app; Manual V&manrevision;

## Introduction

Gnometris is a variation on the classic falling blocks game: Tetris. The goal is to make full rows of blocks out of falling pieces. It is like a active, and somewhat random, jig-saw puzzle.

Each piece consists of four blocks arranged in various configurations. A random piece appears at the top of the screen and begins to fall. You can rotate it and move it from side to side. By stacking successive blocks you start filling up the screen. Once a full line is created it disappears and points are scored. If you fail to make full lines the blocks stack higher and higher until the reach the top of the screen. When they reach the top the game is over.

## Playing Gnometris

When play starts you are presented with a blank window. Pieces appear at the top, in the center. The left and right arrow keys shift the piece sideways. You use the up arrow key to rotate the block. You can also hurry the piece towards the bottom by either using the down arrow key, or by using the space bar. The down key speeds up the piece, while the space bar sends it directly to the bottom.

If you need to pause the game then you can either select pause off the game menu or use the pause key itself. An option to end the game immediately is also available from the game menu.

You score by one of two methods. Clearing rows is the main method, but you also score points by dropping pieces quickly (i.e. the space bar or the down arrow). This later method is a good way to score points quickly, but you run a high risk of making mistakes.

When enough points have been scored the level goes up and the speed of the game increases. The highest level is 10, where you have just over a second to move each piece into position.

To help with planning you placement of pieces, the box in the top right corner shows the next piece that will appear.

If you need more of a challenge then you can elect to start at a high level or partially fill the playing area with random blocks to give yourself something to work on.

## Preferences

The preferences dialog gives you three groups of options.

### Setup

These options are for making game-play more challenging. You can choose the number of rows to pre-fill, and the density you pre-fill them to. The starting level can also be changed here.

### Operation

These check-boxes change the behaviour of the game. The preview next block option determines whether the preview box operates or not. Turning this off makes the game harder. Use random block colors can also make the game harder if you have learnt to associate the colours and the shapes. Whether you rotate the blocks counter-clockwise or clockwise is purely a matter of choice and will depend largely on any similar games you have become used to.

### Theme

These options change the appearance of the game. Note that some of the blocks have a different size than the others. If you find the game too small (or too large) on your monitor try changing to a larger (or smaller) style of block.

Note that the preferences cannot be changed during the game.

## Known Bugs and Limitations

This game has plenty of bugs. What program doesn't ? Please report any bugs you find in GNOME Bugzilla. This is also the appropriate place for suggestions and feature requests.

## Authors

Gnometris was written by J. Marcin Gorycki (janusz.gorycki@intel.com). Please send all comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNOME bug tracking database. (Instructions for submitting bug reports can be found on-line.) You can also use Bug Report Tool (`bug-buddy`), available in the Utilities submenu of Main Menu, for submitting bug reports.

This manual was written by Callum McKenzie (callum@physics.otago.ac.nz). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to docs@gnome.org. You can also add your comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table.

## License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to

        Free Software Foundation, Inc.
        59 Temple Place - Suite 330
        Boston, MA 02111-1307
        USA