Provided by: domino-chain_1.1-3build3_amd64 
NAME
Domino-Chain - Rearrange dominoes on different platforms to start a chain reaction.
SYNOPSIS
domino-chain
DESCRIPTION
Domino-Chain is a puzzle game where you have to rearrange dominoes on different platforms
to start a chain reaction that makes all dominoes topple over. There are many strange
types of dominoes, such as the Ascender which will rise to the ceiling when pushed, or the
Exploder which will blast a hole into the platform it stands on.
Domino-Chain is a faithful reincarnation of the game Pushover originally published by
Ocean in 1992. Compared to Pushover, Domino-Chain has some new levels, some additional
domino types, better graphics in higher resolution and high-quality music. On top of that,
you can load and play the original levels from Pushover if you have a copy of it.
This game is free software and created by volunteers. Even though it is in a pretty good
state, there is a lot to improve. If you like Domino-Chain, please consider to join the
team and to help with translations, levels, graphics and more.
USAGE
Rules
You control a figure that can walk along platforms which are connected with ladders. On
those platforms there are dominoes that will fall according to certain rules. Your task is
to rearrange the dominoes so you can start a chain reaction that makes all dominoes topple
over. The rules are:
Domino types:
There are many different dominoes that behave differently when pushed. Some fall,
some not, some wait a bit before they fall, some raise, some topple until they meet
an obstacle.
All fall, no crash:
All dominoes (except for the blocker) must fall and none must crash into another.
They are allowed to fall off the screen, though.
Trigger and exit door:
The trigger domino must fall as last domino. Only then it triggers the exit door to
open. When you enter the exit door the level has been completed.
Disallowed moves:
You may rearrange as many dominoes as you want, except for the trigger. You must
not place dominoes in front of the doors, except for the vanishing domino.
One push:
You may push only once to start a chain reaction with the dominoes leading to the
fall of all of them.
Time limit:
All this has to be done within a time limit. This limit is usually generous, but
not always.
There is an in-game help as well as and introductory levels that show how all the dominoes
work.
Dominoes
The following types of dominoes exist:
Standard, completely yellow:
There is nothing special with this stone, it behaves like a regular domino and
falls when pushed.
Blocker, completely red:
This domino can't fall over, so it is the only kind of stone that may still be
standing when the level is solved. Dominoes falling against this stone will bounce
back, if possible.
Tumbler, big red stripe:
This domino will stand up again after falling and will continue to tumble until it
hits an obstacle or rests against another stone.
Delay stone, diagonally divided:
This domino will take some time until it falls, when it is pushed. Dominoes falling
against this stone will bounce back and later this stone will fall.
Splitter, horizontally divided:
This stone will split into two stones, one falling to the left and the other
falling to the right. The splitter can't be pushed. It must be split by a stone
falling onto it from above. A pile of rubbish falling into it also activates this
domino.
Exploder, vertically divided:
This stone will blast a gap into the platform it is standing on, when it is pushed.
Neither the figure nor the pushing domino are harmed by that, the pushing domino
will fall into the gap.
Bridger, 1 horizontal strip:
The bridger will try to connect the edge it is standing on with the next edge, if
it is close enough, if not it will simply fall into the gap.
Vanisher, 2 horizontal strips:
The Vanisher will disappear as soon as it lies flat on the ground. This is the only
stone you may place in front of doors.
Trigger, 3 horizontal strips:
This stone will open the exit door, as soon as it lies completely flat and all
other conditions are met (see above). This is the only stone that you are not
allowed to move around.
Ascender, vertical strip:
This stone will start to rise as soon as it is pushed. It will rise until is hits
the ceiling, then it will start to flip into the direction it was initially pushed.
When you fall into a gap while holding this stone it will also rise and stay at the
ceiling until pushed.
Quantum, diagonally divided:
All dominoes of this type will fall together as if they were quantum entangled.
There are two types of quantum dominoes with inverted color markings. Those of the
same type will fall into the same direction, the others will fall into the opposite
direction. This is a new type of dominoes not present in the original Pushover
game.
Controls
The figure is controlled using the cursor keys and space. Use the space key to pick up the
domino behind the figure or to place it down where you are currently standing. To push
press first up to let the figure enter the row of dominoes. Then simultaneously press
space and either left or right cursor key depending on whether you want to push the domino
to your left or your right.
Hints
If you don't know where to start in a level, simply push a stone and observe what happens.
This helps very often to get a general idea how to solve a level and where the problem is.
If you forgot which domino has what kind of special property press F1 to get a short help.
This window also displays a short hint, once the time of the level is out.
The first levels introduce you to the dominoes. Here you can explore how the different
dominoes behave in different situations.
CONTACT
You can file bug reports, discuss ideas for new features and offer contributions on the
Domino-Chain Issue Tracker
https://gitlab.com/domino-chain/domino-chain.gitlab.io/issues
which is the central point to get in contact with the project. There, you'll also find
links to the code repository, and so on. If you need to contact us privately, please
contact Andreas Röver via roever at users dot sourceforge dot net.
AUTHORS
Andreas Röver:
Project founder, main programming and reverse engineering.
Volker Diels-Grabsch:
Text-based level format, build system and code assorted bugfixes and patches.
Roberto Lorenz:
Music composition and arrangement.
Harald Radke:
Theme graphics.
FILES
Domino-Chain places a few files on your hard-disc in everyday running. Those files will be
placed in your home directory.
Location on Unix systems:
~/.local/share/domino-chain
The following files are saved:
solved.txt:
This file contains checksums of all the levels that you have successfully solved.
In the level selection dialogue those levels contain a mark. If you loose this file
those marks are gone.
*.rec: These files contain recordings of activities within a level. They are
automatically created whenever you solve a level but you can also actively make a
recording by pressing 'r' while you play a level. When you observe something
strange while playing, make a recording and send it to us. Also when the game
crashes a recording will be saved. You can delete these files whenever you want.
You can distinguish the recordings by the prefix in their name. "Sol" stands for
solved levels, "Man" for manually created recordings and "Err" for recordings made
when the program crashed.
NOTES
Level Designers
Domino-Chain will eventually get a level editor, but right now it doesn't. However, all
levels are stored in a readable plain text format, so you can create and modify levels
directly with a text editor.
To get your levels officially included in the Domino-Chain project, you need to adhere to
the following rules:
License:
They need to be put under the GPL, or a compatible license. Otherwise inclusion is
legally not possible. Copyright stays with you, of course.
Complete sets:
Please contribute only complete sets and no single levels. They don't need to be
long, 10 levels is enough, but this way you can keep up a constant scheme and theme
logic of the levels.
Solutions:
You absolutely must provide a recording of one possible solution to each level.
That solution is not within the distribution, just within the source code
repository. It is used to ensure that the solution of your level is still possible
after we made changes to the program. This way we limit possible frustration.
Non-compressed:
Do only send non-compressed level sets. We need those for the inclusion in the
source. And we need those for possible future updates.
Index: Use the index file to reorder levels, don't rename the files. This way inserting a
level becomes very easy.
Graphics
We have graphics for most themes, but not for all. Those themes do have some foreground
graphics, but their background tiles are all black. You are very much invited to create
and to improve the graphics. Even more important, though, is the creation of a new main
figure. In either case, please contact us if you are interested.
The backgrounds are made out of 20x13 tiles. Each tile has a size of 40x48 pixel. The
reason for that is the non square pixel of the 320x200 resolution of the original game.
For each theme there is a PNG image file containing all the blocks that may be used by the
levels. To make it possible to place the blocks more freely into the PNG file a LUA file
accompanies the image. This LUA file contains the block positions of all the used blocks.
It is already implemented to use transparency within the blocks. Right now you can stack
up to 8 layers, but if necessary this can be made dynamic.
It is also planned to have something like animated tiles, but they have to be kept at a
low count. Not too many frames and not too many animations. They are not intended to make
the background dynamic, but to rather be a little finishing touch to the graphics.
Possibilities are trees that move from time to time in a breeze, a bird that sails through
the sky from time to time, and so on.
The figure is more complicated. The image figure.png contains all possible animation
images for the figure, one animation below the other. On request we can provide an
additional GIMP image that contains in separate layers possible surroundings of the figure
in different animation frames (like ladders, steps, ground, a carried domino, and so on).
We will happily provide that image to an interested artist.
CREDITS
We want to thank the developers of the original game for making such a nice little game.
DOMINO-CHAIN(6)