xshisen(6)

✨ xshisen(6) ✨

okay bestie, this is the xshisen man page — it lives in the Games Manual section of the X11 docs, so like, it's the official lore for a puzzle game. sit down, grab a snack 🍓, we're doing this.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

xshisen — a Shisen-sho puzzle game for X11, no cap 💖

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

xshisen [ options ]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so xshisen is a puzzle game for X11, and it's giving extremely "Shang-hai" (the famous one, iykyk). your whole goal, your entire main character arc, is to remove every single piece from the board 👑

two pieces can be yeeted when they're the same picture and they can be connected by at most three vertical or horizontal line segments that don't cross any other tile. that's the whole vibe check.

heads up bestie: xshisen needs a pointing device, like a mouse. it literally cannot be controlled with only a keyboard. not even a little. 💀

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👑 RULES 👑

the game is over when you remove all the pieces on the board. the pieces can be removed only when both of these are true:

1. the 2 pieces have the same picture
2. the 2 pieces can be connected with up to 3 lines which do not go over other pieces

ngl that sounds hard, but it's way easier than the words make it sound. the "Auto-demo" mode is highkey the move if you wanna actually get the rule 🫶

💅 Score 💅

your best scores get recorded in the xshisen-scores file, inside the directory specified by the XSHISENLIB environment variable. if that env var isn't set, the X resource libDirectory is what counts instead.

not me being the bearer of bad news but 😭 the score will not be recorded if you use even one of "Back", "Search", or "Restart". one. single. one. that's the rule, periodt.

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

here's everything you can pass in. the following command line options are available:

• standard Xt options — xshisen accepts standard toolkit options, like -display or -iconic. the classics 💖
• -demo — Auto-demo mode. you can't actually play in this mode, but the game will proceed by computer automated algorithm. it's so useful for understanding the rules, fr fr.
• -score — just displays the best score dialog and exits. that's it, that's the whole thing.
• -mag number — magnifies the main window by number times. the standard window is 640x400. number may be a decimal, but the range is limited from 0.5 to the display size.
• -fn fontlist — use fontlist for menubar and times.
• -large — play the double sized game. game size can be changed with the menubar after you started xshisen. each game size has its own independent best time records 👑
• -huge — play the quadruple sized game. game size can be changed with the menubar after you started xshisen. each game size has its own independent best time records 👑
• -trial — play as "Click Trial" mode. you can measure your mouse operation speed with this feature. gamer reflexes check 😤
• -gravity — enable gravity effect. all the pieces above the removed pieces will fall down. it's giving physics, it's giving chaos 🦋

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🌈 RESOURCE 🌈

the following resources are available:

• XShisen*fitPixmap — if this value is True, the initial window size will be automatically calculated with the pixmap data size. when this value is False, the initial window size is determined by the width and height resources — and in that case the pixmap data will be resized. default value is True.
• XShisen*width — width of the initial window. this resource is ignored when the fitPixmap resource is set to True. default value is 640.
• XShisen*height — height of the initial window. this resource is ignored when the fitPixmap resource is set to True. default value is 400.
• XShisen*scoreFile — this resource specifies the score file name. this file name must not contain the directory name. default value is "xshisen-scores".
• XShisen*connectLineTime — the delay time in mili-seconds between when you clicked the pair and the pair is actually removed from screen. this value should be big enough for beginners, but experts may want this value smaller in order to play quickly. default value is 1000 mili-seconds.
• XShisen*connectLineColor — this specifies the connection line color which appears when pieces are being removed. default value is "blue".
• XShisen*connectLineWidth — this specifies the connection line width in pixel. default value is 6.
• XShisen*background — background color. default value is #004000.
• XShisen*libraryDirectory — the directory where the pixmap data and the best score file is located. this resource is ignored when you specify the XSHISENLIB environment variable.
• XShisen*drawing.translations — button binding setting for your mouse. default is:

<Btn1Down>: #replace PickupPiece() \n <Btn3Down>: CancelPiece()

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💜 MENU BAR AND KEYBOARD 💜

• Start (Control + D) — starts a new game. the pieces are located at random position. fresh board, fresh vibes ✨
• Restart (Control + R) — restarts the current game. the time of the restarted game will not be recorded as the best score.
• Pause (Control + P) — pauses the game. the time count will be stopped, but also the pieces picture will be hidden. you can resume your game to do "Pause" again.
• Exit — exits the Shisen-sho. bye bestie 🫶
• Search (F1) — teaches the pair you can remove now. you can use "Search" anytime, but the time will not be recorded as the best score if you use "Search" even once. so like, pick your moment 😭
• Back (F5) — backs one step. the time will not be recorded if you use "Back".

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🐭 MOUSE CONTROL 🐭

the following mouse control is available. you can change mouse button bindings with the XShisen*drawing.translations resource.

• Button 1 — specifies the piece to remove. you can cancel the selection when you click the selected piece again.
• Button 3 — cancels the selected piece. you can use button 3 after "Search", which cancels the search result.

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🌟 AUTHORS 🌟

• Shisen-sho for X11: Masaoki Kobayashi
• Picture: Takayuki Akiyama

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📜 COPYRIGHT 📜

XShisen Copyright 1995,1996,1999,2002 by Masaoki Kobayashi <masaoki@techfirm.co.jp>. Picture#1 Copyright by Takayuki Akiyama <taco3@ybb.ne.jp>. Picture#2 Copyright by Mario Weilguni <mweilguni@sime.com>. See LICENSE file for detail.

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and that's the whole page, babe 💖 this one's from X Version 11, dated Oct 6, 1995 — yes, before most of us were even a thought, and it's still iconic. go play, and remember: no "Back", no "Search", if you want that score to count 👑✨