# &app; Manual V&manrevision;

2000
Michael Koziarski
GNOME Documentation Project

&legal;

Michael
Koziarski

     michael@koziarski.com

&appname; Manual V&manrevision;
&date;

Michael Koziarski michael@koziarski.com

GNOME Documentation Project

This manual describes version &appversion; of &appname;.

## Feedback

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the &app; application or this manual, follow the directions in the GNOME Feedback Page.

## Introduction

GNOME xBill is a port of the original xBill to the GNOME desktop environment.

### The Story of xBill

#### Source:

This section appeared in the original xBill.

Yet again, the fate of the world rests in your hands! An evil computer hacker, known only by his handle Bill, has created the ultimate computer virus. A virus so powerful that it has the power to transmute an ordinary computer into a toaster oven. (oooh!) Bill has cloned himself into a billion-jillion micro-Bills. Their sole purpose is to deliver the nefarious virus, which has been cleverly disguised as a popular operating system.

As System Administrator/Exterminator, your job is to keep Bill from succeeding at his task.

### Overview

GNOME xBill is included in the `GNOME-games` package, which is part of the GNOME desktop environment. This document describes version &version; of GNOME xBill.

Simply stated, your mission in GNOME xBill is to maintain the stability of your computer systems. To do this you must splat the micro-Bills; restore any removed operating systems ; and dowse any sparks being sent from infected computers.

## Entities you will see in GNOME xBill

Playing GNOME xBill requires interacting with a number of different items, in this section you will be introduced to each of them.

The overall goal is to maintain the stability of your computer system, therefore it makes sense that the first entity you are introduced is a computer. shows one of the computers you will start the game with, this computer has RedHat Linux installed on it but the computers you start the game with may have any other unix based operating system installed.

### Computer

Computer.

Some of the computers in your system will be connected by a black cable (see ), these computers are considered networked. Computers on a network are susceptible to a spark attack from an infected computer, this is explained in greater detail in .

### Network Cable

Network Cable.

shows your enemies in GNOME-xBill. The swarming micro-Bills. describes the various tactics they'll use against your network. In the event that a computer is infected and it sends a network spark (see ) you'll need to use the bucket of

### micro-Bill

micro-Bill.

### Bucket

Bucket.

## How to Play

To run GNOME xBill, select Games GNOME xBill from the Main Menu, or type `gnome-xbill` on the command line. When GNOME xBill starts you will be presented with the main window shown in .

### GNOME xBill Main Window

GNOME xBill Main Window.

To start a new game of GNOME xBill select Ctrl n Game New game . If you wish to start from higher level choose Game Warp to level

When the new game begins you'll be presented with a screen like .This screen contains a number of computers each with an operating system installed on it.

The text in the left hand bottom corner of the screen is explained in After a short period of time micro-Bills will begin to attack your network.

### Start of GNOME xBill

Start of GNOME xBill.

### Types of attacks

When a micro-Bill arrives at one of your computers it will begin to uninstall the operating system as shown in After removing your operating system the micro-Bill will install the 'virus' on the pc. An infected computer will have the logo of a certain ubiquitous legacy operating system displayed on its screen. An infected computer is shown in .

#### Micro-Bill removing OS

Micro-Bill removing OS.

#### Infected computer

Infected Computer.

With the virus installed the micro-Bill will carry your previous OS off the screen. A micro-Bill carrying your operating system will look like you should try to splat the micro-Bill before he manages to carry the OS off screen.

#### micro-Bill removing OS

micro-Bill removing OS.

Once a networked computer has become infected it will periodically send sparks along it's network cable, once a spark arrives at it's destination the computer will instantly become infected. You can see a network spark travelling towards the HURD computer in

#### Network Spark

Network Spark.

### Methods of attack prevention

As the game progresses micro-Bills will begin to attack your network. In order to stop their assault you need to splat them. To splat a micro-Bill move the hand over them and click the first mouse button. If you hit the micro-Bill it will explode as in.

#### Splatted micro-Bill

Splatted micro-Bill.

After a micro-Bill has removed your OS he will begin to take it off screen. If you splat it the OS will fall onto the ground.

#### Removed OS on the ground

Removed OS on the ground. You are then able to restore your OS by moving the mouse over the OS, pressing down the first mouse button and then dragging the OS to its computer.

#### NOTE

You can only restore operating systems to their original computer.

As noted earlier an infected computer will periodically send sparks along any network cables attached to it. To dowse these sparks you need to move the hand over the bucket, then press and hold the first mouse button. You can now drag the bucket over the spark and release the first mouse button to dowse it.

### Ending your game

Once all the computers in your system have had the virus installed your game is over. You will be presented with the dialog box shown in

#### NOTE

This is not a real application fault. There's no need to submit it to the bug tracking system.

#### Gameover Dialog

Gameover Dialog.

When your game is over your computers will all have become toasters (). If your score was high enough you'll enter the highscore table.

#### The remains of your system

The remains of your system.

### GNOME xBill Scoring system

Your score in GNOME-xBill is based on total uptime and the number of micro-Bills you kill. shows the scoreboard.

#### The Scoreboard

The Scoreboard.

The scoreboard consists 4 blocks of text. The last two blocks are self explanatory. The first block is your micro-Bill status and is given by a ratio. The numerator of the ratio is the number of micro-Bills currently on screen and the denominator gives the number of micro-Bills off screen.

The second block of text is your network status indicator. The three values (from left to right) are:

- Functioning computers, those computers which are still running their original (UNIX based) operating system

- Uninstalled computers, those computers whose UNIX based operating system has been removed and are currently lacking any operating system.

- Infected computers, those computers who have the virus instead of their original operating system.

Each micro-Bill splatted gives you 5 points. The remainder of your score is a function of total uptime. To maximise your uptime try to stop all the micro-Bills before they attempt to uninstall your operating systems.

If your score is high enough then when the game is over you will be entered in the Highscores (), to check the current high scores chose Game Scores

#### The High Scoreboard

The High Scoreboard.

### Accessing Help

To access help for GNOME xBill select Help Manual

## Authors

GNOME xBill was written by James Henstridge (james@daa.com.au). Please send all comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNOME bug tracking database. (Instructions for submitting bug reports can be found on-line.) You can also use Bug Report Tool (`bug-buddy`), available in the Utilities submenu of Main Menu, for submitting bug reports.

This manual was written by Michael Koziarski (michael@koziarski.com). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to docs@gnome.org. You can also add your comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table.

## License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to

         Free Software Foundation, Inc.
         59 Temple Place - Suite 330
         Boston, MA 02111-1307
         USA