	GENERIC HEXTRIS
	===============	Yet Another Tetris Game on X, V1.3.2

Primary site: ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/tux/bagleyd/altris
Secondary site: ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/games/altris
Web page: http://www.tux.org/~bagleyd/altris.html
Maintainer: David A. Bagley <bagleyd@tux.org>

WHY ANOTHER?

    Because "different is good"...

    Because this one is simple, easy to build, portable, and hexagonal.
    It only uses Xlib -- no "toolkit" kind of thing.

    Polyhexes are used instead of polyominoes of Q. Alex Zhao's tetris,
    which this program is patterned after.  That original tetris can be
    found ftp.x.org under /contrib/games .


HOW TO BUILD?

    Edit the Imakefile (or Makefile.std, see below) for appropriate
    settings of variables SCOREFILE, UP, and DOWN, then do:
	xmkmf
	make
	./hextris

    Note: if you don't have 'xmkmf' or the "Makefile" it generates
    doesn't work well, edit Makefile.std for appropriate settings for
    XINCLUDEPATH and XLIBPATH, then try:
	make -f Makefile.std

    "Hextris" is the game. It only lists the top 15 players at the
    end, each player may have at most three scores.  With the option
    "-s", "hextris" will list all the scores.


ANYTHING SPECIAL IN PLAYING?

    This is another hexagonal version of tetris, and was derived
    independently of David Marley's version "xhextris",
    dm3e@+andrew.cmu.edu, dam@cs.cmu.edu .
    In that version there is no clear meaning of a row.  This is
    overcome with this version by changing the orientation of the
    hexagons and instead of having them come straight down, the pieces
    come down diagonally and slide off the walls and off each other
    and also change direction.  On the other hand, the pieces are not
    as pretty as "xhextris".  When an odd number of rows are filled
    (usually 1) the grid will change, pieces will shift left and
    right.  This proves to be necessary because if this were not
    allowed then it would be impossible to fill a row if certain
    mistakes were made previously.

    Changing the mode to corners, by pressing 'c' makes it harder for
    the pieces slide more easily past each other.  Essentially, if
    a piece has to slide between two others, it will not fit because
    of the corners.

    Use 'j' to move left; 'l' to move right; 'k' to rotate; 'i' to 
    reflect.  Left-handed people may want to use 's', 'f', 'd', 'e'
    respectively.  Use the space bar to drop a block quickly.  Do you
    want to try the arrow keys or keypad?

    Use CTRL-L key combination to redraw -- in case the program messes
    something up.

    As usual, '+' speeds up the game.  To avoid cheating "-" is
    disabled from slowing down the game.  Note: that you do not need to
    press the SHIFT key -- '=' also works.  The 'b' key can be used to
    toggle "beep" and 'n' toggles "show next".  '>' will increase and
    '<' will decrease the number of hexagons in a polyhex.  Again, you
    do not need to press the SHIFT key -- '.' and ',' also work.
    If available for the current number of hexagons, the 'c' key
    toggles the "corners" mode, the 'm' key toggles the "mixed" mode, and
    the 'r' toggles the grid.  Note: to keep the level of play similar,
    the ability to reflect polyhexes, and later the ability to rotate
    polyhexes, may get turned off when the number of hexagons in a
    polyhex is decreased.

    If you press 'p', the game will be paused, and the window will be
    iconified -- just in case your boss suddenly appears at your door.
    ;o) When the hextris window loses its focus, it also goes to
    "paused" mode except it doesn't iconify itself.

    Refer to the man page for detailed command line options.


FOUND A BUG?

    Send bug reports (or fixes) to David Bagley <bagleyd@tux.org>
    (well, a lot was taken from Q. Alex Zhao's tetris but many of the
    algorithms were taken from xvhextris written by me).
