ZNibbles v0.0.7 - A classic multiplayer nibbles game
(c) Vincent Mallet 1997, 1998, 1999 - vmallet@enst.fr

Home page is http://www.stud.enst.fr/~vmallet/ZNibbles.html

ZNibbles is a little server/client multiplayer nibbles game. It's dumb
but it's really cool when a lot of people is playing. It is based on
old games like "nibbles", "snake", "worms"... Each player controls a
worm and tries to eat as many nibbles as possible. When a worm eats a
nibble, it grows. The goal is of course to have the longest worm and
live as long as possible, trapping other players.. Any number of players
can join the game at any time.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to finish it, and still don't 
have that time. So I'm releasing the sources AS-IS because I've
had some demand for that. Remember: it is NOT FINISHED ! 

ZNibbles has been written for Unix platforms (Linux, ...). It
can either use the bare X11 library, the Motif toolkit or the
GTK+ toolkit. The GTK+ client is the one you should try to use
first :)

I wrote that while I was at the University of Nice, France (http://www.unice.fr),
in early 1997.

I'm now at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications  
http://www.stud.enst.fr/~vmallet

Any question or suggestion : vmallet@enst.fr

If you are interested in this little game and modify the sources, please 
SEND ME PATCHES so I can make this codebase evolve too. 
Any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Check out for a new version sometime in the future..

ZNibbles is copyrighted free software, distributed under the
conditions of the GNU General Public Licence. See the file COPYING
for more info.


RULES:
======
 - you control your worm with the cursor keys (UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT) 
   or (LEFT, RIGHT) if you are in "two-key mode". see client option 
   -twokey

 - you cannot reverse your direction, i.e, if you are going right and
   press LEFT, you die.

 - you die whenever you encounter a wall, another worm or even yourself.

 - when a worm is created, it is in "baby-mode" for a few seconds. That 
   is, a non-baby worm won't die when walking on a baby worm.

 - the more nibbles you eat, the more you grow. Yellow nibbles are the
   most effectives.


BUGS:
=====
 - there are a lot of bugs. Please report them at vmallet@enst.fr !
 - I will try to fix at least most annoying bugs


NOTES:
======
 - it is not finished
 - There is an X11 directory in which there should be a X11-only client.
   this is merely a copy and adaptation of the Motif client, and I just
   began to work on it, so don't be surprised by what you may find.


HOW TO BUILD AND INSTALL:
=========================
 - see file INSTALL. Basically just a 
      ./configure 
      make 
   should get you going. An additional
      make install
   will install the files in the right directories.

 - MOTIF: 
    * if you don't want the Motif client, use
        ./configure --disable-motif
        make

    * a nice implementation of the Motif libraries are
      available at http://www.lesstif.org

 - GTK+
    * if you don't want the GTK+ client, use
        ./configure --disable-gtk
        make

    * GTK+ is available at http://www.gtk.org

 - Once compiled, you get the files
     src/nibbles   : the ZNibbles server
     src/znibbles  : the ZNibbles Motif client
     src/gznibbles : the ZNibbles GTK+ client
     src/znibblesX : the ZNibbless X11-only client (poor)


HOW TO RUN:
===========
 - ZNibbles is a client/server game. This means you need to have a znibbles
   server running somewhere, and then you can launch as many clients as you
   want to connect to this server. Each player needs a client.

 - DEFAULT:
    * launch the znibbles server :   "nibbles" 
    * launch the znibbles client:    "gznibbles yourname" 

 - NON-DEFAULT:
    * try "nibbles --help"  and "gznibbles --help"

 - tell your friends to launch the znibbles client. Play 
   with 5 or 10 friends. Have fun.


ANOTHER NOTE:
=============
 - ZNibbles was formerly called "XNibbles". Actually when I wrote this
   game in early 1997 I didn't know of any game of this name. When I
   recently decided to release the as-is version of Xnibbles, I
   discovered that someone unfortunately used the same name for another
   game. So I had to choose another one and picked up "ZNibbles". Now
   you know why.


MORE
====
 - See the file NEWS for more info.


cool.


Vincent.   1998.10.28 (revisited 1998.11.17) (rerevisited 1999.04.03) (rerere 1999.04.14)
           etc...
