XMBALL(6)

📦
version 8.9.4 · 2 versions
, in debian trixie, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 NAME 💖

ok so bestie, gather round 🫶 this is xmball — the Masterball X widget — and it lives in section 6 of the games manual (6 = games, iykyk 🎮). That's the vibe. That's the whole assignment. periodt.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

/usr/games/xmball [-geometry
[{width}][x{height}][{+-}{xoff}[{+-}{yoff}]]] [-display [{host}]:[{vs}]]
[-[no]mono] [-[no]{reverse|rv}] [-{foreground|fg} {color}]
[-{background|bg} {color}] [-{border|bd} {color}]
[-wedge{0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11} {color}] [-frame {color}] [-delay
msecs] [-[no]sound] [-moveSound {filename}] [-{font|fn} {fontname}]
[-view {int}] [-[no]perspective] [-wedges {int}] [-bands {int}]
[-[no]orient] [-[no]practice] [-base {int}] [-userName {string}]
[-scoreFile {filename}] [-scores] [-version]

🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

So the original puzzle has 8 wedges on a sphere (longitudinal cuts, like slicing a beachball), and every wedge is divided into 4 bands (latitudinal cuts). There are basically 3 varieties, bestie:

  • Geomaster — 8 colors (the beachball; these are the default colors in this puzzle 🏖️)
  • Duomaster — 2 colors (black and white beachball 🖤🤍)
  • a whole variety of picture Masterballs 🖼️

For some reason, they say the Geomaster is easier than the Duomaster. Make it make sense. 😭 And the picture Masterballs are the hardest, because literally every single piece has a set solved position — no wiggle room. On the Duo and Geo Masterballs, pieces could be swapped or in a different order and it'd still count as solved. Not so for the pictures. 💀

Zurick University's Mathematics faculty did the math (not me, I would never) and calculated that Masterball's 32 segments can be arranged in 355,682,548,566,633,480,192,000,000 different possible combinations. That's a lot of combinations. That's giving "I will never finish this." 🙈

Masterball was invented by Dr. Geza Gyovai, Hungarian Engineer, and manufactured by Whole Systems Design, Inc.

Related puzzles, for the girlies who want more: the Saturn Puzzle, which is an oriented Masterball with one band; and the harder Hockey Puck Puzzle, like the Saturn Puzzle but with 12 wedges instead of 8. 🏒

🎀 FEATURES 🎀

  • Press "mouse-left" button to move a piece. Release "mouse-left" button on another piece and the pieces will turn towards where the mouse button is released. Usually, a click and release on the same wedge is ambiguous and the puzzle will not turn. If there's some ambiguity between a turn or a flip, a flip is assumed — except if the shift key is used. 💅
  • Click "mouse-center", or press "P" or "p" keys, to toggle the practice mode (in practice mode the record should say "practice"). This is lowkey the best for learning moves and experimenting. ✨
  • Click "mouse-right", or press "Z" or "z" keys, to randomize the puzzle. > You must do this first to set a new record. No randomize, no record. Rules are rules.
  • Press "G" or "g" keys to read (get) a saved puzzle. 📖
  • Press "W" or "w" keys to save (write) a puzzle. 💾
  • Press "U" or "u" keys to undo a move. ⏪
  • Press "R" or "r" keys to redo a move. ⏩
  • Press "C" or "c" keys to clear the puzzle. 🧹
  • Press "S" or "s" keys to start auto-solver. Only works for wedges <= 8 or 1 band. 🤖
  • Press "O" or "o" keys to toggle the orient mode. One has to orient the wedges in orient mode, besides getting all the wedges to be the same color. To do this one has to get the numbers to be on the same side of the ball in clockwise order. 🧭
  • Press "I" or "i" keys to increase the number of bands. ⬆️
  • Press "D" or "d" keys to decrease the number of bands. ⬇️
  • Press "2", "4", "6", "8", "0", or "=" keys (not the keypad 2, 4, 6, 8, 0) to change to 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 wedges, respectively. > Note: if there were an odd number of wedges, there would be no 180 degree turn and therefore the puzzle would be inoperable. So, like, don't. 🚫
  • Press "V" or "v" keys to change the view of the puzzle. 👀
  • Press "T" or "t" keys to toggle the perspective look. 🌀
  • Press ">" or "." keys to speed up the movement of pieces. 🏃‍♀️
  • Press "<" or "," keys to slow down the movement of pieces. 🐢
  • Press "@" key to toggle the sound. 🔊
  • Press "Esc" key to hide program. 🙈
  • Press "Q", "q", or "CTRL-C" keys to kill program. 💀

Use the key pad or arrow keys to move without the mouse. Key pad is defined for Masterball as:

N / *   Upper Upper Left, Counterclockwise, Upper Upper Right

7 8 9   Upper Left, Up, Upper Right
  ^
4<5>6   Left, Clockwise, Right
  v
1 2 3   Lower Left, Down, Lower Right

 0  .   Lower Lower Left, Lower Lower Right

Use the control key and the left mouse button, keypad, or arrow keys to move the whole Masterball. > This is not recorded as a turn. 🙅‍♀️

The title is in the following format (non-motif version):

xmball.{2|4|6|8|10|12<wedges>}: <number of bands> @ (<Number of
moves>/{<Record number of moves> <user name>|"NEVER
noaccess"|"practice"}) - <Comment>

If there is no record of the current puzzle, it displays "NEVER noaccess". 💔

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -geometry {+|-}X{+|-}Y — sets the initial position of the masterball window (resource name "geometry"). 📍
  • -display host:dpy — specifies the X server to contact. 📡
  • -[no]mono — lets you display the masterball window on a color screen as if it were monochrome (resource name "mono"). 🖤🤍
  • -[no]{reverse|rv} — lets you see the masterball window in reverse video (resource name "reverseVideo"). 🔄
  • -{foreground|fg} color — specifies the foreground of the masterball window (resource name "foreground"). 🎨
  • -{background|bg} color — specifies the background of the masterball window (resource name "background"). 🖌️
  • -{border|bd} color — specifies the border color of the wedges in the masterball window (resource name "borderColor"). 🖍️
  • -wedge{0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11} <color> — lets you change the color of a wedge (resource name "wedgeColorN"). In mono-mode, color is represented as the first letter of the color name. The wedges are ordered clockwise. If you have two colors that begin with the same letter you should have one in uppercase and one in lowercase to distinguish them in mono-mode. You can change the colors of the wedges to make a stupid Masterball (i.e. all White or in mono-mode all "W"). > Unfortunately, it will not normally say its solved when its randomized. Similarly, with the Duomasterball (black and white), it may be solved color-wise but not by its internal representation. This would be cheating. 😱
  • -frame color — specifies the color of the frame (resource name "frameColor"). 🖼️
  • -delay msecs — specifies the number of milliseconds it takes to move pieces (1-50) (resource name "delay"). ⏱️
  • -[no]sound — specifies if sliding pieces should make a sound or not (resource name "sound"). 🔊
  • -moveSound filename — specifies the file for the move sound for the twisting of the puzzle (resource name "moveSound"). 🎵
  • -{font|fn} ontname — specifies the font that will be used (resource name "font"). 🔤 (and yes bestie, it literally says ontname in there — I am not the one who did that, I'm just the messenger 🫠)
  • -wedges <int> — lets you change the number of wedges (resource name "wedges"). 🍕
  • -bands <int> — lets you change the number of bands (resource name "bands"). 🎗️
  • -[no]orient — lets you access the oriented mode (resource name "orient"). 🧭
  • -[no]practice — lets you access the practice mode (resource name "practice"). 📚
  • -base int — specifies the base used (default is base 16) (resource name "base"). > When there are 12 wedges there is not much room, so base 10 was not used as the default. 🔢
  • -userName string — specifies the user name for any records made, or else it will get your login name (resource name "userName"). 🪪
  • -scoreFile filename — specify an alternative score file (resource name "scoreFile"). 📁
  • -scores — lists all the recorded scores and then exits. 🏆
  • -version — tells you what version of xmball you have. ⭐

📝 RECORDS 📝

You must randomize the puzzle before a record is set, otherwise an assumption of cheating is made if it is solved after a get. 😤 no shortcuts, bestie.

🦋 SAVE FORMAT 🦋

Here's the format for the xmball configuration, starting position, and the movement of its pieces.

Masterball numbered clockwise, with default colors, not randomized:

    0            Y       Yellow
10     2      O     G    Orange, Green

9       3    R       D   Red, Dark Green

 8     4      M     B    Magenta, Blue
    6            C       Cyan

Extra colors: Pink, Saddle Brown, Light Steel Blue, Indian Red 🌸🤎🩵❤️

wedges: 2-12 <number of wedges around ball (even only)>
bands: 1-MAXINT <number of slices around ball>
orient: 0-1 <0 false, 1 true; if true then numbers on puzzle to
be oriented and ordered>
practice: 0-1 <0 false, 1 true>
moves: 0-MAXINT <total number of moves>

startingPosition: <2 dimensional array of segment position, if
orient mode then orientation number follows each wedge number>

This is then followed by the moves, starting from 1.

move #: <direction> <control> <sector>

Each turn is with respect to a segment defined by wedge and band.

Direction is represented as:

  • 0 up
  • 1 upper upper right
  • 2 upper right
  • 3 right
  • 4 lower right
  • 5 lower lower right
  • 6 down
  • 7 lower lower left
  • 8 lower left
  • 9 left
  • 10 upper left
  • 11 upper upper left
  • 13 clockwise
  • 23 counterclockwise

Control is represented as 0 or 1 — 1 if the whole ball is moved at once, 0 if not. > The xmball record keeper does not count a control move as a move, but here we do. 🤷‍♀️

🔗 REFERENCES 🔗

http://wsd.com/masterball

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

X(1), xcubes(6), xtriangles(6), xhexagons(6), xmlink(6), xbarrel(6), xpanex(6), xpyraminx(6), xoct(6), xrubik(6), xskewb(6), xdino(6), xbevel(6), xabacus(6)

(the whole puzzle-girlie cinematic universe, fr fr 🌌)

©️ COPYRIGHTS ©️

® Copyright 1994-2024, David A. Bagley

🐛 BUG REPORTS AND PROGRAM UPDATES 🐛

Send bugs (or their reports, or fixes) to the author:

David A. Bagley, <bagleyd AT verizon.net>

The latest version is currently at:

https://www.sillycycle.com/puzzles.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/games/strategy/

and that's the whole page bestie!! 🫶 this gorgeous thing is version V8.8.4, dated 15 Aug 2024, and it's the XMBALL(6) manual — go forth and solve that beachball, you absolute icon 💅✨👑

📦 where this page comes from