Tunnel Manual

Table of Contents


Introduction

Tunnel is a game in which you control a capsule going down a tunnel. In the process you should pick up power-ups and avoid collisions with enemy balls coming your way.

Tunnel is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. You are welcome to redistribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. A copy of this licence is included in gpl.txt.

During the game, you can fire at other balls. They break into fragments which can damage your capsule, so beware.

If the game is too slow on your computer, try using a lower resolution, either using command line options or by modifying the options files.

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Keys

On starting the game, a splash screen appears. Here, the following keys can be used.

Enter Start a new game.
Escape Quit.
Up Increase gamma.
Down Decrease gamma.
Left Windowed mode (if supported).
Right Full screen mode (if supported).

It is also possible to use the mouse.

Left-click Start a new game.
Scroll up Increase gamma.
Scroll down Decrease gamma.

Once a game is started, the following keys can be used. Note that some actions are provided by more than one key to support easy handling using various keyboards. For acceleration, deceleration, changing weapon and firing, you should use your left hand and the keys at the lower left hand corner of the keyboard.

Up Move ball up.
Down Move ball down.
Left Move ball left.
Right Move ball right.
S or O Accelerate downwards.
X or Q Decelerate downwards.
Z or ; or W or Y Change weapon.
C or J Fire.
Enter or Escape or Tab or Space Pause.

It is also possible to use the mouse.

Mouse motion Move ball.
Left-click Fire.
Right-click Change weapon.
Middle-click Pause.
Scroll up Accelerate downwards.
Scroll down Decelerate downwards.

The mouse and keyboard can be used simultaneously, so it is possible, for example, to move the ball with the mouse and fire with the keyboard.

When paused, the following keys can be used.

Enter Resume game.
Escape Quit game.

The mouse can be used as well.

Left-click Resume game.
Right-click Quit game.

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Balls

The capsule

Magenta ball
This is the ball you control.

Power-ups

Normal weapon

Green ball
This gives you a normal weapon and some ammo, although this weapon itself needs no ammo. Fires regular bullets.

Strong weapon

Bluish green ball
Gives you a strong weapon and some ammo. Fires stronger bullets than the normal weapon and needs ammo.

Fast weapon

Green ball with three mini-balls
Gives you a fast weapon and ammo. Fires regular bullets at a fast rate and needs ammo.

Strong fast weapon

Bluish green ball with three mini-balls
Gives you a strong fast weapon and ammo. Fires strong bullets at a fast rate and needs ammo.

Strength

Red ball with cross
This increases your strength.

Shield

Blue ball with shield
This increases your shield.

Enemy balls

Tickler

Brown ball
This is the easiest to crush.

Punch

Cyan ball
Stronger than the tickler.

Speedy

Yellow ball
Strong as the punch, but faster.

Crazy

Red ball
Changes direction haphazardly.

Crawler

Blue ball
Goes around the tunnel side.

Enemy throwers

Tickler thrower

Brown ball with stripe
Throws out ticklers.

Punch thrower

Cyan ball with stripe
Throws out punches.

Speedy thrower

Yellow ball with stripe
Throws out speedies.

Crazy thrower

Red ball with stripe
Throws out crazies.

Crawler thrower

Blue ball with stripe
Throws out crawlers and speedies.

Multics

Multi colored ball
Throws out ticklers, punches, speedies, crazies and crawlers.

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Command line options

The following command line options can be given to Tunnel.

--width, -w WIDTH width of screen or window
--height, -h HEIGHT height of screen or window
--depth, -d DEPTH depth in bits per pixel
--gamma, -g GAMMA gamma
--fullscreen COND use full screen if COND is true
--frequency FREQ audio frequency in Hz
--file, -f FILE load extra options from FILE
--help, -? print help message and exit
--version, -v print the version of Tunnel and exit

You can specify long option names with a single -; for example, -help as well as --help.

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The options files

If the command line options are not enough for you, or you want to tweak the game's feel, you can modify the options files. These files are in the subdirectory data of your installation directory.

The file named options contains general options like resolution, gamma, full screen, audio frequency and key bindings. The ball_info file contains information, such as strength and maximum speed, for all balls. The level file contains information on different levels.

These files should be easy to edit once you get to them.

If you do not want to change these default files, you can create a file anywhere and use the --file FILE command line option. To start, you should copy the file options and modify that. You can remove any fields you like, as the file options is still read before your file.

To change the ball_info file, copy it and then modify it. This time, do NOT remove fields you do not change, as only one ball_info file is used. After your changes, modify your options file so that the ball_data field in the game record points to your new file. The level file can be modified in a similar manner.

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Mailing list

If you require further help, or wish to comment on the game, send mail to the tunnel mailing list at:
tunnel-list@nongnu.org

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Copyright © 2004, Trevor Spiteri. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation Licence, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of this licence is included in fdl.txt.

Send comments on this page to tunnel-list@nongnu.org.