Nibbles Manual
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Nibbles Objective
- 3. Using Nibbles
- 4. Customization
- 5. Authors
- 6. License
1. Introduction
Nibbles is a game where the user controls a worm. The worm moves around the board, eating diamonds while avoiding the walls placed around it.
To run Nibbles, select from the menu, or type gnibbles on the command line.
Nibbles is included in the gnome-games package, which is part of the GNOME desktop environment. This document describes version 2.20 of Nibbles.
2. Nibbles Objective
The objective of Nibbles is quite simple. You control the worm and if the worm runs into a wall or runs into itself, you die. You get ten lives before your game is over. You win by either beating your own high score (or a friend's) or by completing all the levels. It is also possible to play against worms with artificial intelligence.
Nibbles also features multiplayer support with up to six competing human players in hotseat mode.
3. Using Nibbles
Nibbles is a simple game to play. The only keys that are needed are the arrow keys.
- 3.1. Basic usage
- 3.2. Menus
- 3.3. Diamonds
3.1. Basic usage
Starting Nibbles opens the main window shown below.
To start the game, select .
When the game starts, the worm will come out of the left side of the screen. You use the up arrow to make the direction of the worm go up. Use the right arrow to turn the worm right, left arrow to turn the worm left, and down arrow to turn the worm down.
3.2. Menus
The menu bar, located at the top of the Main Window, contains the following menus:
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This menu contains:
- This starts a new game of Nibbles.
- This shows the high scores.
- This will pause your game. Click on the “Pause Game ” menu option to resume game.
- End the current game and return to the title screen.
- This quits the application.
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This menu contains:
- This toggles your game window to be fullscreen.
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This menu contains:
- This opens your window to edit preferences.
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This menu contains:
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Display this manual.
This opens the About dialog which shows basic information about Nibbles, such as the author's name, the version number of the game.
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3.3. Diamonds
Nibbles has numerous different diamonds to eat. They are each a different color and serve a different function. Only the pale purple diamond is guaranteed to be around long enough for you to eat it (in fact, you have to eat them to finish the level). The other diamonds are all bonuses, but they only stick around for a short time. We'll leave it up to you to discover just what the bonus each colour gives, but they all affect either the score, the length of the worm, or both. Be careful when going for these bonus diamonds, don't cut yourself off from the ordinary diamonds that you need to finish the level.
4. Customization
To change the application settings, select . This opens the Preferences dialog. All preferences are automatically saved and applied as you change them.
The properties in the Game tab are:
- Speed
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This controls the speed of the worm.
- Play levels in random order
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Selecting this causes the level advancement to happen in random order.
- Enable fake bonuses
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When enabled, this allows for two blue diamonds on the screen at a time. One diamond makes you shrink instead of grow when eaten.
- Enable sounds
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Controls the use of sound in the game.
- Starting level
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Which level to start with. Use this if you want to jump immediately to a challenging level.
- Number of human players
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There is room for up to six players.
- Number of AI players
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There is room for up to six AI players. Note that the total number of human and AI players must be less than or equal to six.
The properties in the Worm 1 through Worm 6 tabs let you set individual preferences for the different worms.
- Keyboard controls
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This list let you change the keyboard controls for the given worm. To change a control, double click on the appropriate entry and then press the key you want to use for that control.
- Use relative motion
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Rather than left sending your worm toward the left of the screen, right toward the right and so on, the left and right keys make the worm perform a left or right turn. For example, if the worm is moving to the left and you press the left control it turns to head toward the bottom of the screen.
- Worm color
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Customize the color of your worm so you can tell it from your opponent's worm in multi-player mode.
5. Authors
Nibbles was written by Sean MacIsaac <sjm@acm.org> and Ian Peters <itp@gnu.org>. This manual was written by Kevin Breit <battery841@mypad.com>. Nibbles was updated with network support by Andreas Røsdal <andreasr@gnome.org>. To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding this application or this manual, follow the directions in this document.
6. License
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the gnome-help:gpl 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