# The &kbounce; Handbook

&Aaron.J.Seigo; &Aaron.J.Seigo.mail;
&Lauri.Watts; &Lauri.Watts.mail;
&FDLNotice;
2003-09-19
0.5

&kbounce; is a ball game for &kde;.

KDE kdegames jezzball

## How To Play

&kbounce; is played on a field, surrounded by a wall, with two or more balls that move about in the field bouncing off of the walls.

Walls are a darker color while the active areas of the field are a lighter color.

The size of the active area of the field is decreased by making new walls that enclose areas without balls in them. To complete a level, the player must decrease the size of the active field by at least 75% within the time allowed.

With each new level, another ball is added to the field, and the player is given one more life than in the level before. The time allotted to complete the level is also increased.

Scoring is based on how much of the field is cleared.

New walls are built by clicking the left mouse button in an active area of the field, at which point two walls will begin to grow in opposite directions from the square the mouse was clicked in. Only two walls may be growing on the screen at any given time.

A new wall growing
A new wall growing

When the mouse is on the field, the cursor is shown as a pair of arrows pointing in opposite directions, either horizontally or vertically. The arrows point in the direction the walls will grow when the left is clicked. This direction can be changed by clicking the right mouse button.

A new wall has a head which moves away from the point where the mouse was clicked. A wall is not permanent until this head runs into another wall. If a ball collides with any part of the wall except the head, before the head has run into another wall, the new wall will disappear completely and one life will be lost. If a ball collides with the head in the direction of the wall's growth, the wall will stop growing there, and become permanent, with no loss of life. If a ball collides with the head from any other side, the ball will bounce off and the wall will continue to grow normally.

## Strategy

Many players find the game becomes quite difficult by only the third or fourth level, given the number of balls on the field at once.

The trick to playing &kbounce; successfully is to build corridors. To build a corridor, start a pair of walls growing close to another wall, and time it such that one of the walls will be hit by a ball and one of the walls will not, and thus become permanent.

Building a corridor
Building a corridor

This will leave a narrow corridor only a few squares high on the field, surrounded on three sides by walls. Wait for the balls to bounce into the open end of the corridor, and close the corridor behind the ball with a new wall. Although you will most likely lose a life for each corridor created, you can trap several balls in a single corridor.

Capturing balls in a corridor
Capturing balls in a corridor

A final tip — take your time! There is plenty of time, as shown in the Time display on the right hand side of the screen. Rushing will just get you in trouble!

## Menu Reference

### The Game Menu

&Ctrl;N Game New

  Start a new game.

&Ctrl;End Game End Game

  End the current game.

P Game Pause

  Pause the game.

&Ctrl;H Game Show Highscores

  Show the high score table.

&Ctrl;Q Game Quit

  Quit and close &kbounce;.

### The Background Menu

Background Select Images...

  Choose an image for the background.

Background Show Images

  Enable the background image.

### The Settings Menu

Settings Show Toolbar

  Shows/hides the &kbounce; toolbar.

Settings Show Statusbar

  Shows/hides the &kbounce; statusbar.

Settings Configure Shortcuts...

  Opens a standard &kde; shortcut configuration dialog, in which you can change the keyboard shortcuts used by &kbounce;.

Settings Play Sounds

  If checked, &kbounce; game sounds are played.

### The Help Menu

&help.menu.documentation;

## Credits and Licenses

&kbounce;

Copyright 2000, Stefan Schimanski

Developers

- Stefan Schimanski schimmi@kde.org

- Sandro Sigala ssigala@globalnet.it - Highscore

Documentation copyright 2002, Aaron J. Seigo aseigo@olympusproject.org

This handbook is dedicated to Dennis E. Powell.

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

&install.intro.documentation; &install.compile.documentation;
&documentation.index;